Miriam Pickard is a Canberra based theatre maker and performer. Miriam has a special interest in devising immersive and participatory mythic story events and collaborates closely with leaders in cultural mythology. She graduated Charles Sturt University with a BA in Theatre/Media and completed theatre training in France with Master Clown teacher Philippe Gaulier.
Her arts practice is woven into her long term inter-cultural collaboration and facilitation with the Southern Ngalia Warlpiri Women’s Dance camp project in central desert Australia from 2010-2020. Through this project Miriam gained a deep respect for the healing power of story and witnessed the necessity of intergenerational relationships for cultural health and wellbeing.
Since 2015 Miriam has been playing the role of Persephone in a trilogy of community performance works in Alice Springs, written by Craig San Roque. In 2017 Craig and Miriam toured a two-hander adaptation to Greece. Ongoing variations and presentations of these stories continues in workshops and presentations live and online in Australia and overseas. Her experience in this, and other cultural mythology projects, is elaborated in ‘Persephone and me; a personal account’, Philosophy Activism NatureIssue13.
In 2015 Miriam become a part-time Drama and Media teacher to year 11 and 12 students. Her arts practice and unique expertise in intercultural domains is highly relevant in an educational setting. Storytelling is an essential part to effective teaching and learning. Miriam is committed to engaging young people in meaningful, collaborative and creative processes where they can develop communication skills and self-knowledge to more confidently manage and contribute to positive social change.
