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

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