2026 Residencies

The Brown's Mart Residency programs provide space, support and time to inspire. There are three seperate Residency programs being supported in 2026.

FIRST NATION’S ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

Supported by the Artistic Director, Honorary Elder and additional development resources this brand new program hopes to inspire and prop up new works being made right here in our backyard. By giving support, time and space for these artists to dream and create.

The first two participants have been announced:

ROB COLLINS

Born and raised in Darwin, Rob Collins graduated from the National Institute for Dramatic Arts in 2013.

Rob’s Film credits include TOP END WEDDING, UNDERTOW, EXTRACTION, ANGEL OF MINE, and Leah Purcell’s THE DROVER’S WIFE.

Rob’s Television credits include THE WRONG GIRL, GLITCH series 2, CLEVERMAN Series 1 & 2, SECRET CITY: UNDER THE EAGLE, BLACK COMEDY, REEF BREAK, UPRIGHT opposite Tim Minchin, TOTAL CONTROL alongside Rachel Griffiths and Deborah Mailman and Series 2 of the critically acclaimed ABC series MYSTERY ROAD.

Rob’s theatre credits include a national tour of THE LION KING in the role of ‘Mufasa’ and as ‘Lysander’ in Sydney Theatre Company’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

URSULA YOVICH

Ursula Yovich is an award-winning actor, singer, playwright, director, and voice artist whose work spans theatre, film, and television. A proud Burarra/Serbian performer, Ursula is recognised as one of Australia’s most powerful and versatile storytellers. In 2025, she appeared in The Black Woman of Gippsland with Melbourne Theatre Company, and in 2024, performed multiple roles in The Lewis Trilogy at Griffin Theatre Company. She is best known for her Helpmann Award-winning performance in Barbara and the Camp Dogs, which toured nationally and earned her Best Female Actor in a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Musical (2019). Her stage credits include major roles in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (STC), Mother Courage (QTC), The Golden Age (STC), and The Sapphires (Belvoir).

Ursula’s film work includes The Royal Hotel (2023), Top End Wedding (2020), and Jindabyne (2006) Her television credits include Top End Bub (2025), Irreverent, Wakefield, Preppers, and Redfern Now. Ursula is the recipient of multiple Helpmann Awards and nominations, the 2020 Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actress (Top End Wedding), and the prestigious Bob Maza Memorial Award (2002). Her body of work continues to break ground in telling stories with heart, strength, and cultural truth.

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WET SEASON RESIDENCY

The Wet Season Residency curated by Sean Guy activates Brown’s Mart through the quietest part of the year with collaborative workshops, writing developments, and structured creative sessions.

If you are interested in developing your storytelling craft and networking with other performers, this is for you!

SEAN GUY

Sean Guy is a Darwin-based author, playwright, and screenwriter with a passion for storytelling in all its forms. As an advocate for small business, independent arts, and youth literacy, his efforts have been recognised with an NT Young Achiever Award (Career Achievement) in 2023, and he was a finalist for the NT Young Achiever Awards (Connecting Communities) in 2024.

Sean started young as a writer. Before graduating high school in 2011 with an International Baccalaureate diploma, he won the NT Young Author Awards for his region in three consecutive years, wrote three plays which were produced by local high school theatre classes, and on work experience, became the first sixteen-year-old to write a front-page story for the NT News.

Skip ahead to 2018: after many years of writing and editing, Sean's first novel Malediction: The Cursed Play was published, followed shortly by the Tower City Chronicles. Books 1 - 3 in this urban fantasy series are out now, with 4 and 5 due by the end of 2025.

As a writer and bookseller, Sean spends his time between projects supporting and working with community organisations such as Corrugated Iron Youth Arts, Darwin Pride, the Children's Book Council, the NT Writers' Centre, libraries, and more. He often mentors emerging writers and does his best to involve other creatives from his community in all his projects.

Alongside his novels, Sean is known for his plays. Including the upcoming performances, these plays have been performed in full seasons 16 times, in almost every state of Australia. Sean's comedic-murder-mystery play Under the Table won a Literary Award in 2022, and the sequel Death of the Human Resource won the Darwin Fringe Theatre Award in 2024. Sean is currently developing new work with Brown's Mart theatre, and undertaking training from the Performing Lines National Producers Platform.

As a co-founder of Darwin-based sketch comedy group Big Dog Salad, Sean has been part of several Fringe Festivals, including Darwin and Adelaide. 2023 saw BDS win the Super Producer Award for their hilarious Showcase of Shorts.

Although new to the art of screenwriting, Sean is also actively developing projects for film and television. His short films Enough (2022) and Hephaestion (2023) debuted at the Darwin International Film Festival. With the support of Screen Territory, Sean has also written a feature length screenplay, and undertaken an AFTRS TV-writing course.

In Sean's spare time, he enjoys trivia, learning Spanish, board games, movies, and reading.

THE OG’S OF BROWN’S MART

One of the oldest building in Darwin and the oldest performance venue in the Northern Territory, Brown’s Mart has an important and big history. So we’ve enlisted the help of co-founders, previous leaders and partners, and some passionate supporters and audience members who will work to collate and archive all of the amazing work that has been created and presented at Brown’s Mart going back over half a century.

This includes digitising scripts, assuring correct recorded archives, so that we can develop an accessible cultural memory accessible to all. This new effort is important to preserve the stories, records, and materials that define who we are.

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