Betsy Balloon and the Very Great Terrible Flood

Aimée Sullivan is a writer and performer. Originally from Yorkshire, she worked extensively in the UK before moving to Wellington in 2020. After a breakout year in 2024, earning multiple award nominations, she has gone on to work with leading New Zealand theatre companies.

Jackson Burling is an award-winning actor working across television, film, and theatre. He is best known for his role as Andrew in the TVNZ+ series Hui Hoppers, with memorable featured roles in Not Even (NEON) and the upcoming feature BLACK SHEEPS (2026).

Alongside his screen work, Jackson has an extensive professional theatre background. He is the writer and performer of the acclaimed solo show Over and Out, which earned ten nominations at the 2025 Wellington Theatre Awards, winning Actor of the Year and Most Promising Newcomer. His theatre credits include leading roles in numerous professional theatre productions such as The Glass Menagerie, Ride the Cyclone and Into the Wood. Jackson has also toured WITCH Music Theatre's cabaret show, Monster Songs, around Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nigel Collins is a New Zealand musician, actor and playwright. A long time collaborator of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords, he appears in their live shows as a string section of one, ‘The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’.

His play Wheeler's Luck, was performed in New Zealand, the UK and Australia between 2004 and 2007, and has since become a staple of the New Zealand high school drama and youth theatre curriculum, with 50 schools mounting productions of the piece.

Joel Baxendale is a theatre director, working across devised performance, new writing, and experimental theatre. He is a founding member of Binge Culture, where his work often explores improvised audience participation, and contemporary social themes.

Bill Manhire (CNZM) is an acclaimed poet, short story writer, emeritus professor, and New Zealand's inaugural Poet Laureate (1997–1998).

He founded New Zealand's first creative writing course at Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, founded the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2001, and has been a strong promoter of New Zealand literature and poetry throughout his career. Many of New Zealand's leading writers graduated from his courses.

He has received many notable awards including a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2007 and an Arts Foundation Icon Award in 2018.

Gavin McGibbon is a writer and theatre-maker based in Mexico, working across stage and screen. His practice spans adaptation, development, and original writing, with a focus on shaping dynamic narrative structures for performance. He is currently writing two feature films for Libertine Pictures.

Andrew Laking is a producer and multidisciplinary artist working across theatre, music, and large-scale collaborative performance. He has worked extensively internationally as a performer and creator, including a decade touring with award-winning Irish folk group Gráda.

He is a co-founder of Verb Readers and Writers Festival and Lōemis Festival, and has produced and led the development of numerous cross-disciplinary works. His practice focuses on collaborative projects that bring together artists across disciplines and audiences.

Stephen Templer is an artist and storyteller whose practice includes street art, murals, graphic design, prop and concept design, illustration for children's books and community art and festival projects.

He is best known for his work as a live illustrator with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (children’s series); along with co-creating the hit audio drama The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie's Botanarium with Jemaine Clement.