ABOUT
Big Dog Theatre is the globulous blob born of Ivy Crago, Maxine Palmerson and Claudia Harris. We collaborate with many different artist and designers to create work with wonder, whimsy and comedy at its heart. We use a combination of different performance practices to create BIG and BOLD Theatre.
Collaboration, care, and community engagement are at the forefront of our work, and we are deeply invested in integrating access into everything we do.
We ask the VERY big questions of life... all we have left is silliness! Our work is often a “deep-cut analysis” of bureaucracy with the hopes of sharing a little joy with our gorgeous audience.
WHO IS BIG DOG?
Ivy Crago
Co-Artistic Director
Ivy Crago (she/they) is a Theatre-Maker, Writer, Performer and Facilitator based in Melbourne/Naarm. She is a romantic and a practicing clown, with a strong focus on storytelling as a shared experience. Their work often explores the absurdity in the mundane and the whimsy of everyday objects, creatures, and critters that are ordinarily unobserved. Their practice centres joy, imagination, and care, drawing from Immersive Theatre traditions and the Le Coq pedagogy.
Alongside their creative practice, Ivy has worked across Programming, Marketing and Digital Communications, most notably as the lead Social Media and Content Coordinator for Midsumma Festival 2024 and as the Marketing and TiPS Program Coordinator for the Victorian Pride Centre 2024 - 2025. Ivy brings a thoughtful, strategic lens to Arts Marketing, with experience in campaign delivery, content creation, and community engagement.
They are so excited to be working with Big Dog Theatre, bringing the weird and wonderful to the stage in hopes their audience can take a little bit of joy home with them!
Image taken by Irene Lu.
Claudia Harris
Company Producer
Claudia Harris (They/She) is a Naarm based creative producer who specialises in producing in independent, immersive, and interactive theatre. Their practice prioritises the needs of the team, encouraging the artists they works with to priorities and incorporate self care, access, and rest when making art. Recent producing credits includes Knows, No’s, Nose (The Butterfly Club), EQUALS (The Motley Bauhaus), Kitchen Kabaret (Abbotsford Convent), and The Frog (The Victorian Pride Center). Claudia has produced shows for The Melbourne Fringe Festival, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and Midsumma Festival. Claudia most recently undertook a residency at La Mama for the show Breadwinning, created by Sophia Derkenne and Daphne Gerolymou-Papadopoulos.
Claudia can't believe how luck they are to work with the creative and brilliant artists such as Ivy and Max and the many collaborators and friends of Big Dog.
Maxine Palmerson
Co-Artistic Director
Maxine (she/they) is a neurodivergent theatre maker from Narrm/Melbourne and a co-founder of Big Dog Theatre. In her work with Big Dog, Maxine is hell bent on turning every adult back into a child, one audience at a time.
Their multidisciplinary practice spans dance, physical theatre, music, textiles and even video game design. Her solo work primarily focuses on gentle, slow time and mental health.
Recent credits include 'This World of Mine' (designer/developer, Melbourne Fringe 2024), 'The Frog' (Fly/ Devisor, Big Dog Theatre, 2024 and 2025 for MICF), and 'FURNY' (performer, Big Dog Theatre, 2024).