James Brennan

Performing Artist, Musician, Director & Curator (Australia)

Since graduating from VCA School of Drama (Acting) in 2000, James Brennan has worked, trained and researched with Teatro Vertigem (Brasil), Ridiculusmus (UK), Wooster Group (USA), Deborah Hay (USA) and renowned avant-garde Polish theatre company Gardzienice under Włodzimierz Staniewski, where he was company member and instructor between 2010 and 2014. In 2011 he became the first outside director to create a new work for Gardzienice in its 35-year history. The work – Znak Kaina – explored community response to violent crime, and marked Brennan’s directorial debut on the European stage. It was hailed by Poland’s TEATR publication as a “landmark event”. In 2020 Brennan’s latest work, ‘Judith’s Return’, a 3-channel video work created with Białołęka Prison, Poland, was screened for audiences both inside and outside prisons in Australia and Poland. Brennan’s work is created with support from Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Arts Tasmania, Besen Foundation and RE ROSS Foundation.