KARIN MCCRACKEN (Writer, Performer, EBKM Co-Artistic Director)
Karin McCracken is an award-winning writer and performer based in Pōneke, Wellington, and the co-artistic director of EBKM, alongside Eleanor Bishop. Karin wrote and performs in Heartbreak Hotel, which has been presented at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, RISING Festival Melbourne and Soho Theatre London. She co-wrote (with Eleanor Bishop) the large-scale theatre show Gravity & Grace and Yes Yes Yes, a show for young people about healthy relationships. Yes Yes Yes has been presented in Canada, the USA, Germany, Iceland and Australia, and has been translated into Hungarian, Catalan and Welsh. Karin and Eleanor were the recipients of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 2022, the first time in its history that it was awarded to a creative partnership. In 2025 Karin received a MacDowell Fellowship to write a new work for stage.

ELEANOR BISHOP (Director, EBKM Co-Artistic Director)
Eleanor Bishop is a director and writer working across theatre, opera and film. As the co-artistic director of EBKM (with Karin McCracken), their works include Gravity & Grace, Heartbreak Hotel and Yes Yes Yes. Their work has toured to the UK, Canada, the USA and Europe and Yes Yes Yes has been translated into Hungarian, Catalan and Welsh. EBKM are the winners of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 2022, the first time in the awards history it has been given to a partnership. Eleanor is a former Friedlander Foundation Associate Artist for NZ Opera and was a member of Jane Campion’s inaugural pop up film intensive “A Wave in the Ocean” supported by Netflix. Her first short film “GIRL TIME” recently premiered in official selection at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. She holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA where she studied as a John Wells Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar.

SIMON LEARY (Performer) has been working professionally as an actor in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally since graduating from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 2010. Film and TV credits include: The Brokenwood Mysteries, Dirty Laundry, Shortland Street, and Hilary. Simon played the lead in A Very Good Boy, directed by Samuel Te Kani, which recently premiered in official selection at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. Simon has worked in over 30 plays at Circa Theatre in Wellington as an actor including Blithe Spirit, Transmission Beta, Cock, A Servant to two Masters, and most recently as Tom in The Glass Menagerie. He has performed with Auckland Theatre Company, The Court Theatre and Centrepoint Theatre. Simon is a core collaborator with EBKM, appearing in Heartbreak Hotel and the company's large-scale work, Gravity & Grace.

FILAMENT ELEVEN 11 (Production Designer) Brad Gledhill and Rachel Marlow work collaboratively as Filament Eleven 11 to create dynamic production designs and lighting environments for live experiences. They produce work that puts design and technology at the centre of storytelling in inventive and unique ways, working across theatre, event, and live music design. Filament Eleven 11 is drawn to boundary-pushing work led by inspiring creatives.

TE AIHE BUTLER (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) (Sound Designer) is an award-winning sound designer, musician and producer from Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington NZ. He holds a Diploma in Entertainment Technology from Toi Whakaari NZDS, and has worked as a sound designer and composer for live theatre throughout Aotearoa. In 2024 Te Aihe won Sound Designer of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards for his work on Heartbreak Hotel by EBKM. Te Aihe currently works as a multimedia content producer at “The Spinoff”, and occasionally performs as a member of The Modern Māori Quartet.

MELANIE HAMILTON (Creative Producer) is an experienced arts producer who has been working with EBKM since 2021, creative producing Gravity & Grace and Heartbreak Hotel, and contributing to the company’s development and international touring success. She has worked with a number of leadership arts organisations and independent dance and theatre artists from across New Zealand, and was co-founder, producer and dramaturg at Muscle Mouth, whose dance works toured to Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. Until 2026, Melanie was executive director at Verb Wellington (where she is now a Trustee), a literary organisation dedicated to showcasing local and international writers and literary artists through a range of dynamic festivals, residencies and live events.

EBKM is one of New Zealand’s most innovative contemporary theatre companies, led by co-artistic directors Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken who founded the company in 2017. Foregrounding intelligent and emphatic writing, formal innovation, a strong connection between actor and audience, and social utility, EBKM’s shows run the gamut from exploring consent and healthy relationships, to artistic failure, to the physiological impacts of heartbreak. For the past five years the company has consistently toured abroad, appearing at esteemed festivals and presenting houses in the U.K., Canada, North America, Iceland, Australia, Serbia and Germany, while adaptations of their works have taken place in Hungary, Catalonia and Wales. EBKM develops new work through extensive research and in consultation with audiences, social agencies and academics, as well as long-term collaborations with leading designers and performers. In 2024, their large-scale adaptation Gravity & Grace was commissioned by New Zealand’s two largest arts festivals, winning multiple awards including Production of the Year, and Gold Award - Spatial Design from the Designers Institute of New Zealand. This is their New York debut.