Christian is the Artistic Director of Arena Theatre Company. He studied at theVictorian College of the Arts, Monash University and the University ofMissouri-Columbia. Upon graduating he co-founded Uncle Semolina(&friends), creating works focussed upon innovative form and unusual playingspaces. Uncle Semolina’s multi-award winning works including Gilgamesh,Ticky Tacky and OT, toured to Europe, Asia and around Australia, to venuessuch as the London Barbican, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, Chao YungCultural Centre Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne andAdelaide Festival Centre.

For Arena, Leavesley’s directing credits include Starchaser (AWG Award BestPlay for Children), Marlin (AWG Award Best Play for Children, Drama VicAward Best Play for Primary Students, nominated for 3 Helpmanns and aGreen Room), The Sleepover, Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon (OfficialSelection ASSITEJ International Gathering Beijing), Trapper (nominated 2Green Room Awards) and Air Race.During his tenure as Artistic Director, Arena has had an increased focus oninteractive technologies and non-traditional performance forms, working withaugmented reality, virtual reality, drone photography, 3D scanning and realtime digital animation technologies.Leavesley is interested in large scale social theories such as Medium Theoryand Actor Network Theory, and the works of people such as Yuval NoahHarari, Anna Tsing, Hayao Miyazaki, and Harold Innis.