Seth Crane Scholarship Winners 2026
The TCT is excited to offer the Seth Crane Scholarship to the following university students to support their continued theatre studies. The selection panel was delighted to see the applications from these young Tasmanians, who clearly have a bright future in the professional theatre industry.
Huge congratulations to:
Holly Pennington
Alistair Brett
Jade Heinstman
Applicants needed to be under age 25, and in at least their second year of tertiary study in any theatre-related discipline that could lead to working professionally in the sector, including performance, directing, design, stage management, or any other technical or specialist area.
This scholarship was supported by Arts Tasmania, Blundstone, and David and Michelle Warren.
Get to know our 2026 Seth Crane Scholarship Winners
Holly Pennington
Influenced by their time performing, devising, and choreographing community theatre, Holly’s professional goals in performing arts are structured around facilitating kind, engaging, consensual, and informed theatre. A future professional goal is to study and be able to safely facilitate intimacy and fight coordination within the performing arts. They have a strong interest in furthering their dance technique, theatre experience, and movement knowledge through training and production research.
Holly cares deeply about building theatre spaces that are safe, accessible, and sustainable for emerging artists, particularly young creatives who may not otherwise have access to supportive environments. They are actively engaging in building a theatre sector in Tasmania that focusses not only on performance and creativity, but also consent, physical safety, accessibility, emotional wellbeing, and ethical rehearsal practices.
Holly is a Theatre and Performance student at the University of Tasmania who is deliberately shaping a practice rooted in their own lived experience, and in a connection to place and community engagement. In early 2026 they joined the executive board of Big Job Productions.
Alistair Brett
Alistair is a high-achieving student at one of Australia’s leading arts institutions – the Victorian College of the Arts (Bachelor of Fine Arts – Acting). His industry goals include becoming a professional actor in Australian theatre, and also developing his interest in play writing.
Alistair has a particular interest in Shakespeare. His high commitment to developing his knowledge and skills through ongoing training, participation, and engagement with Shakespearean theatre has supported him in building a keen depth of understanding of the work, language, and historical context.
Alistair also has a keen interest in being able to teach across a range of pedagogical theatre techniques, and bringing these opportunities to young people in Tasmania. Examples include Meisner, Laban and Michael Checkov, as well as Shakespeare; and he would love to engage with new Tasmanian works and write work set and performed in the Tasmanian wilderness.
Jade Heinstman
Jade is a Theatre and Performance student at the University of Tasmania, whose career goals include acting, directing, writing, and one day establishing her own theatre company. She is an engaged, motivated and thoughtful practitioner who demonstrates a strong commitment to her training, approaching her work with rigour, curiosity and a collaborative mindset.
As a wheelchair user, Jade has pursued her studies with resilience and engagement but has nonetheless faced accessibility barriers such as lack of access to live performance and professional development opportunities. The theatre sector, both in Tasmania and nationally, has an ongoing need for artists, makers, and cultural workers who hold lived experience of disability and can bring essential knowledge to programming, production design, audience development, and community engagement.
As she develops as a theatre practitioner, Jade will draw upon tangible real-world experiences in shaping and honing the skills and knowledge she brings to the Tasmanian performance sector.