Ross Mueller joins Geelong's Courthouse ARTS

Geelong’s Courthouse ARTS has announced the appointment of Ross Mueller as its new Artistic Director.

Mueller joins the Courthouse at a time of great change with the newly renovated Courthouse Arts venue due to reopen later in the year after a $6.5 million dollar renovation. The venue promises to become an exciting hub to promote the work of young and emerging artists of the region.

“I am thrilled to have been appointed Artistic Director of Courthouse ARTS,’ Mueller said. ‘ I believe that Courthouse ARTS has the capacity to become a unique laboratory of creation and I look forward to working with this great team and turning the arts in the Courthouse into capital letters.’

A Geelong resident, writer/director Mueller most recent play ZEBRA! starred Byran Brown and Colin Friels and premiered with a sold out season at Sydney Theatre Company. In 2002 Mueller was the Australian playwright at the International Residency of the Royal Court Theatre in London. He is the winner of the Wal Cherry Play of the year 2007 for his play The Glory. His play, The Ghost Writer was premiered at Melbourne Theatre Company in March 2007 while another of his works Construction of The Human Heart was short listed for the 2007 AWGIE Award for Best New Play and was nominated for five green Room Awards.

In 2008 he won the New York, New Dramatists Playwright exchange for his play Concussion , which premiered at Sydney Theatre Company in March 2009. In April 2009 his play Hard Core was shortlisted for the Patrick White Award and the Griffin Award for new writing. In late 2010 he was commissioned to write a new film; Fishbowl with Melissa Bubnic and Kate Mulvany for Resolution Independent.

Mueller has an impressive experience in working with small to medium size companies. St Martins Youth Arts Centre commissioned him to work with their ensemble and write a play for the participants. The result was Colosseum, a play for a cast of eighteen which was published by Currency Press. He was also recently commissioned by Canberra Youth Theatre to adapt the Markus Zusak novel The Messenger.

Mueller worked with Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre on a residency / development project at Nelson Park Primary School called Light Letters. This project saw artists meeting with community members and detailing their experiences of life in Geelong to create an extensive piece of image-based community theatre.

He is a qualified teacher with an extensive teaching background and has worked at Swinburne University, Ballarat University, and Gordon Institute where has taught script and performance modules.

Ross will take over the reins from outgoing Artistic Director Ben Laden on July 1.

To see more of the Courthouse Arts visit www.courthouse.org.au/