Filo Fiesta

Victoria Falconer

Victoria Falconer is an award-winning music director, multi-instrumentalist, cabaret artist and theatre-maker of Filipino-English heritage. She currently serves as the co-Artistic Director of Hayes Theatre Co alongside Richard Carroll. Her leadership and artistic contributions to the industry were formally recognised in 2024 when she was named the winner of the Arts & Culture Category in the 40 Under 40 Asian-Australian Leadership Awards.

Music direction highlights include My Brilliant Career (Melbourne Theatre Company), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (GWB/Adelaide Festival/Rising Festival), In The Heights (JRP/Sydney Opera House), M’ap Boulé (Performing Lines), Once (Darlinghurst/Comedy Theatre), Ride The Cyclone, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Lizzie, and Godspell (Hayes Theatre Co), Oklahoma! (Black Swan State Theatre), Sasquatch The Opera (Summerhall Edinburgh), Courtney Act’s Under The Covers (Underbelly London) and Unroyal Variety (Hackney Empire). In 2025, she held roles including Music Supervisor for Bright Star (Sport For Jove), Supervisor and Co-Arranger for the redux of The Pirates of Penzance (Hayes Theatre Co), and Music Rehearsal Associate for Sydney Theatre Company’s The Shiralee.

Commissions as creator/cabaret performer include Smashed: The Nightcap (Sydney Festival & Auckland Arts Festival), The Sight (Dark Mofo), and The Vali Myers Project (Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Frank Ford Award recipient). She is working with Dino Dimitriadis on neo-cabaret work House of Rot, touring nationally in June 2026. Her work as an actor includes the roles of Susan/Adelaide Adams in Calamity Jane at the Sydney Opera House (2025), and touring Australia and Ireland (2021-2024) as “The Muso” in the Slingsby/STCSA production of The Boy Who Talked To Dogs.

Beyond her creative output, Victoria is a fierce advocate for diversity and professional development within the performing arts. She was a founding member of The People Of Cabaret (2020–2025), an initiative designed to resource and platform BIPOC artists in the cabaret sector. Her commitment to mentorship includes work with Midsumma’s Pathways scheme for queer performers, and her role as Industry Mentor on the 2026 ATYP production of Islander.

Aden Abeleda

Aden (he/him) is an emerging theatre director and producer who is returning to Hayes Theatre Co as the Festival Producer for this year’s Festival of New Work, having previously worked as the Associate Producer for the festival last year. Most recently Aden was the Assistant Director for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Redfern Lane Productions, staged at the Hayes and Riverside Theatres.

Last year, Aden Co-Directed Definitely Not a Hungry Game: A Parody Musical (2025) as part of Sydney Fringe Festival. He has also directed excerpts of other new Australian works including Tommy Blue is Afraid of his Sister by Izzy Morrissey as part of Scene Dating (2025) with the Old Fitz Theatre and Red Herring by Julia Faragher as part of Horsing Around (2026) with Slanted Theatre in association with the National Theatre of Parramatta.

Aden is the Company Director and Producer at Ignite Theatre Company where he Directed and Co-Produced Carrie: The Musical (2023) and Monty Python’s Spamalot (2025). Aden is currently Co-Producing and Directing “IMELDA” by Donita Cruz with Sapatos Angels Collective at KXT as well as Associate Directing and Associate Producing Islander with the Australian Theatre for Young People.