About Jillian Webster

Jillian Webster, the director of Monsters and Mayhem, has worked in theatre since 1988. She has a degree in theatre from the University of Western Sydney ('Theatre Nepean') and has undertaken many courses to develop her skills in creating, producing and performing theatre.

Jillian's early involvement with children's theatre resulted in her receiving the Michael Morton-Evans award for Children’s Theatre in 1990 from Marian Street Theatre.  She went on to perform and puppeteer with companies such as The Bilbies, Puppetease and Pastance before setting up Monsters and Mayhem in 1999. 

Her storytelling also developed from an interest into a passion at this time, and she has told stories to a diverse range of people in a myriad of settings - from fairy shop to museum, hen's night to fireside…

Jillian is a highly experienced mask and puppet maker - creating a range of puppets for a variety of clients including the Wildflower Gardens, Bilby Theatrical Productions, Sydney Art Theatre, and Wonderland Entertainment as well as for numerous Monsters and Mayhem shows.

Alongside work in Children's theatre, Jillian worked as an actor in many short films, corporate and education videos, docudramas and in live theatre and street theatre.

Much of her work in theatre was with the company Sydney Art Theatre where she performed in plays with an experimental edge alongside an extremely talented, multi-national cast and crew.  This work included performances directed by Polish theatre practitioner Bogdan Koca and Russian-born Rostaslav Orel and texts from writers as diverse as Max Frisch and Witold Gombrowicz.

In 1999 Jillian won the 'Write Now' playwriting competition with her one act play 'Children of the Sun'.  Her playwriting continues both for adult and child audiences and is augmented by the dramaturgy and script assessment skills she picked up working for the Australian National Playwrights Centre.

She has also worked as a director and dramaturg with the 'From Page to Stage' program for young people, helping teenaged playwrights improve their work for theatre and aiming to inspire a new generation working in the performing arts.

"I love good theatre in all its forms and hope to spend my life creating it, learning about it, immersing myself in it, and helping others who are as passionate about it as I am."