Welcome to Storytelling Night!
We acknowledge the traditional owners of Country where we meet today, the Wiradjuri people, and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Tonight, we invite you to listen with an open heart, discover new perspectives, and connect with the experiences, struggles, hopes and dreams that make us women.
The stories you’ll hear this evening have grown out of a rich creative process of workshops, improvisation and open invitations to writers to share their voices. Each story brings a different perspective, and each reminds us that every woman has a story worth telling, and every voice deserves to be heard.
Tonight is also particularly special because, on AusArt Day, we are launching our exciting new project, The Crossing Place. And what more meaningful place could there be to begin this journey than here, on Wiradjuri Country — a place of deep cultural connection, history and storytelling.
Across Australia today, artists and arts organisations are celebrating AusArt Day, a Creative Australia initiative encouraging all of us to recognise, celebrate and support the vital role of the arts in our communities. The arts bring us together, help us understand one another, challenge assumptions and create space for voices that might otherwise go unheard.
At Voices of Women, this is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that when women are given the opportunity to tell their stories, confidence grows, our true self is heard, connections are made across cultures and generations. And our communities become richer places to live.
If you are able to support our work with a tax-deductible donation, no matter how small, your contribution will go directly towards creating opportunities for women to tell their stories, celebrate their experiences and have their voices heard.
PROGRAM
Directed by Lliane Clarke.
Written by Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Gabrielle Tozer, Haya Arzidin, Marie Clear, Melanie Reeves, Eleanor Waters-Jones and Joy Lubawy.
Devised and Performed by Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Haya Arzidin, Melanie Reeves, and Abbey Rumbachs.
THE STORIES
JEANS devised by Lliane Clarke, Aunty Cheryl Penrith, Haya Arzidin, Abbey Rumbachs and Melanie Reeves.
DARESEENEE written and performed by Haya Arzidin
RIVER REFLECTIONS written and performed by Aunty Cheryl Penrith
RIVER STORY written and performed by Melanie Reeves
ROCKS written by Joy Lubawy and performed by Abbey Rumbachs.
OPEN MIC SESSION
INTERVAL 15 mins
OPEN MIC SESSION
THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN written by Umbarra Penrith and performed by Aunty Cheryl Penrith
EXTRAORDINARY written by Eleanor Waters-Jones and performed by Abbey Rumbachs
THE HOST written by Marie Clear and performed by Haya Arzidin
LOOSE ENDS written by Gabrielle Tozer and performed by Melanie Reeves
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. This project has been assisted by Eastern Riverina Arts and the Carla Zampatti Foundation. Supported by City of Wagga Wagga.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Haya Arzidin is a writer and performer, appearing in TOME, a fully improvised show with four actors which toured to Brisbane in 2021. Working closely with the refugee community in Wagga Wagga, she co-developed Sharing Stories Sharing Place at the Wagga Civic Theatre in 2021. Haya was a writer and performer in Voices of Women’s Embellishment on tour to Wagga Wagga and Dubbo in 2023 and writer and performer in the AWGIE Award Winning Women of the Riverina at KXT Broadway in 2025 and on tour in 2026.
Lliane Clarke is the Artistic Director of Voices of Women which she founded in 2018, a writer, journalist, published author, producer and director. With a passion for diversity in written and spoken stories, she has directed community-based workshops across NSW and internationally and has devised aaward-winning collaborative community-based productions for live performance and film.
Marie Clear is a Wiradjuri woman, a mum, grandmother and foster carer with a passion for writing about the things that matter to her. From children in out-of-home care, domestic and sexual assault to death, war and the afterlife, she writes about life, its struggles and its mysteries. ‘I hope my words touch readers, open minds and hearts, and leave them with something meaningful to take away.’
Joy Lubawy is well known in the Riverina, as a former teacher, published academic author and singer/songwriter. She came to Wagga with her soldier husband during the Vietnam war in 1968 and took the opportunities to further her education at RCAE/RMIHE and ultimately CSU. Now she is trying her hand at writing for the stage, and this is her first (of what she hopes will be many) new works. She says she has become a miner, digging deeply into her own life for materials that might shine brightly in the footlights.
Aunty Cheryl Penrith OAM is a Wiradjuri Elder, mentor and performer with a passion for fashion. Her focus is community development and capacity building, business and strategic planning, cultural empowerment, community health and wellbeing, involvement in decision making and the revival and reinvigoration of cultural practices such as language, possum skin cloak making workshops and women’s cultural business. Cheryl appeared in the Voices of Women feature film Entanglement, was a writer and performer in Amplify in 2022, writer and performer in Embellishment at KXT Broadway in 2023 and writer and performer in the AWGIE Award WinningWomen of the Riverina at KXT Broadway in 2025 and on tour in 2026.
Melanie Reeves is a proud Wiradjuri woman who is a catalyst for positive change in the Murrumbidgee health landscape with over ten years’ experience in strategic planning and management. She is passionate about advancing First Nations in regional and remote communities. She is excited to be exploring her development as a writer, guest speaker, MC and performer.
Abbey Rumbachs is a drama teacher, dancer and creative based in Wagga Wagga who is excited to explore her creative talents.
Gabrielle Tozer is an award-winning author based in regional New South Wales. Her latest works include The Unexpected Mess of It All, which won the 2025 ACT Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, beloved picture books Before We Met and Tiny Good Things (illustrated by Sophie Beer) and Can’t Say it Went to Plan. Over the years, Gabrielle has received honours including the State Library of Victoria’s Gold Inky Award for The Intern, and appeared on the CBCA’s Notable List for Remind Me How This Ends. Her seventh novel and next picture book hit shelves in 2027. Say hello: gabrielletozer.com
Eleanor Waters-Jones is an 20-year-old writer, performer, social activist and tutor from Wagga Wagga. She is studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English and Theatre Studies and minoring in Art History, at the University of Melbourne, and is currently on Exchange at Durham University, England. She is inspired by the idiosyncrasies of humanity and life’s big questions. Notably, she has had multiple works accepted for the University of Melbourne’s Farrago Magazine, and been shortlisted for the John Bell Shakespeare Scholarship. She loves writing anything and everything, from poetry, to essays, to novels. In this monologue, ‘Extraordinary’, Eleanor pays