Yirra Yaakin | Our Team

Maitland Schnaars (Nyaki-Nyaki) is one of Western Australia’s premier Indigenous contemporary theatre artists. He completed the Certificate IV in Aboriginal Theatre and Acting for Camera at WAAPA and went on to study a BA in Contemporary Performance at Edith Cowan University.

Maitland co-founded the international theatre company Corazon de Vaca and has performed in and co-created a number of their productions, both in Spain and Australia. He has worked with many independent theatre companies in Perth. He has performed in productions for Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company (HEART IS A WASTELAND, PANAWATHI GIRL, DATING BLACK, HECATE, CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD, KING HIT), Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA, Queensland Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre and Performing Lines Tasmania.

In 2021 he was the Assistant Director and Associate Director for WAYTCO’s production of BESIDE for the Perth Festival. In 2022 he performed in Bell Shakespeare’s production of COMEDY OF ERRORS which toured Nationally.

Maitland continues to work with artists from various backgrounds such as dance, multimedia and music. He was a member of Wadumban Noongar Dance Group for a number of years. In 2016 he won Performing Arts WA Best Actor award. He is currently Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company and for the company has directed WOOLAH as part of the 30^th birthday celebrations, BROTHER’S WRECK and THIRST.