STAGES with Peter Eyers

Gerry Connolly is an accomplished Australian actor, comic and musician on stage, in cabaret, film and television. For half the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2, he rendered Her Majesty in a celebrated and vivid portrayal across many stages and platforms. This turn began life at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in revue, and along with his rendition of Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen, quickly became the ba...

Nicholas Hammond first appeared on Broadway as the ten-year-old son of Sir Michael Redgrave and Googie Withers in Graham Greene’s  The Complaisant Lover , winning enthusiastic praise from the New York critics. From that first footstep onto the stage of the Barrymore Theatre, Nicholas has had a lifelong love of acting, whether on stage, film or television. He has had the good fortune to work a...

Ash Flanders is a multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter from sunny Melbourne. In 2006 he and Declan Greene formed theatre company  Sisters Grimm  and together they have written a dozen shows including  Summertime in the Garden of Eden  (Theatre Works, Griffin Theatre),  Little Mercy  (STC),  The Sovereign Wife  (MTC),  Calpurnia Descending&nbs...

An element of production that is so crucial to the success of a musical or play is an invisible one. The potency and power of Sound Design serves to support a work through a vibrant aural experience. Our theatrical forms are reliant on quality and clarity with amplification and resonance. Such is the fragile and sensitive nature of sound production in the theatre. With a Musical it is about ensuri...

Originally from Ballarat, Tobias Madden began his training at the Ballarat Ballet Centre. He then studied at Brent Street in Sydney, and completed a Bachelor of Music Theatre at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2009. Shortly after graduating, he sailed around the world as the Singer / Dancer and Dance Captain onboard the Pacific Princess, returning home to perform in the Aus/NZ...

Declan Greene is the Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company and works as a playwright, dramaturg and director. He was previously Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre. As a playwright, his work includes Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography , The Homosexuals, or ‘Faggots’ , Melancholia , Moth , and Pompeii L.A . Declan co-founded queer experimental theatre company Sisters Grimm with Ash Fla...

Vonni Brit Watkins’ first stage experience was in 1975 when she worked in a cabaret style burlesque club as a striptease artist in Adelaide. In 1978 she joined the Melbourne touring show of Les Girls!, touring and performing throughout Australia and New Zealand, including outback Australia. She toured in a bus, working and performing in pubs and casinos, including Lasseters Casino in Alice Springs...

With a celebrated career spanning over 25 years, David is one of Australia’s most acclaimed leading men. Based in New York City, David is currently starring as the Duke of Monroth in the North American production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical and is delighted to return to Do You Hear the People Sing? after appearing in the show since its inception in Shanghai, Manila, and Taipei. David gained criti...

In September 2001, Oz Fudge was one of two town constables in Gander. While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the so-called “Mounties”) handled major criminal investigations, Fudge handled community-oriented enforcement, including traffic tickets, public disorderliness and the like. He was on duty monitoring speedsters in the school zone when he was alerted to the terrorist attack on the Twin Tow...

Michael-John Hurney trained with the legendary Hayes Gordon and commenced his theatrical career with the rock musical Hair . An Australian tour of Oklahoma soon followed. He then appeared as Peter in Jesus Christ Superstar and played Simon several years later in a new production in Hong Kong. Other theatre credits include The Baker’s Wife, The Pirates of Penzance, La Cage Aux Folles, Guys and Doll...

Australian/American soprano, Amy Manford most recently performed the role of ‘Christine Daaé’ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s original production of The Phantom of the Opera on the West End before a short stint in Greece in the same role. Prior to her West End debut, Amy had performed internationally as a soloist with the London Handel, London Cello and the Perth Symphony Orchestra’s. She had also sung a...

Hazel Phillips is an authentic entertainment legend in the Australian landscape. At the age of 92, she has achieved tremendous longevity in a career that is notoriously precarious. She has conquered screens and stages, as an actor and singer. She has hosted and presented; painted, written and composed. All delivered with inspirational resilience and immense personality. She has appeared on televis...

David Sale’s contributions to Australian television are supreme. Satirical comedy and episodic drama received the nation’s attention and obsession under David’s guidance. As executive producer of The Mavis Bramston Show or as creator of Number 96 , David’s work was guaranteed to be controversial, outrageous,  ground-breaking and classic. Both of these series rated highly in their day and stil...

Moffatt Oxenbould’s contribution to the development of opera in Australia and Opera Australia (OA) spans a period of more than fifty years. He was Artistic Director of Opera Australia from 1984 – 1999, during which time he also directed a number of milestone productions for the company including  Il trittico, Madama Butterfly, La bohème , Britten’s  The Rape of Lucretia, R...

A theatre polymath, NIDA graduate John Senczuk’s multi-award winning career spans forty years with his work seen nationally and internationally in commissions for opera, dance and drama. He worked concurrently as an academic, with fifteen years at the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong (creating and teaching courses in Scenography, Directing and Dramaturgy) before taking senior pos...

As Artistic Director of the Brandenburg Orchestra, Paul Dyer leads a dedicated team of musicians and support staff who bring passion and excellence to every performance. In 2013 Paul was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his ‘distinguished service to the performing arts, particularly orchestral music as a director, conductor and musician, through the promotion of educational p...

Rebecca Ritchie is Opera Australia's Wigs and Wardrobe Manager. She has been with the company since she was 19, joining as a sewer on their celebrated production of Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme. She leads a devoted team of artists who create the opulent costumes you see on stage in every Opera Australia production. When I spoke with Rebecca, she and her team were preparing productions of Madama Butter...

Leah Howard has worked extensively across the entertainment industry both as an actor and creative artist. She is a unique triple threat performer and a versatile director and choreographer. Theatre performance credits include: Rosie in Mamma Mia,Chief Berry in Nice Work If You Can Get It, Disney's Aladdin, Aretha Thomas in Legends! starring Hayley Mills and Juliet Mills, Mrs Corry in Mary Poppins...

Gloria Dawn Evans was born in Port Melbourne on 26 February, 1929. Her father was William Evans, a ventriloquist, magician and paper-tearer known as Billy Andross, and her mother was Zilla Weatherly, a contortionist and singer who toured for many years with her sisters Zaida and Queenie. Gloria made her stage debut with them when she was only 14 days old. Three years later she was singing and danc...

In the bohemian world that is drag, few artists can lay claim to the exulted and ebullient eccentricity that is Cindy Pastel. The alter ego of performer Ritchie Finger, Cindy has been delighting, thrilling and astonishing audiences for close to 45 years. A unique talent, Finger has inspired generations of drag performers who have followed in his fabulous footsteps - whether they be in stilettos or...

The Art of Costume Design is a key element in the evolution of a production. The work of the Designer helps to establish the 'world of the play', the definition and resonance of character, and a 'skin' in which the performer can execute their best work. Australian Costume Designers, Jennifer Irwin and Julie Lynch have decades of experience helming the aesthetic of attire in a vast repertoire of en...

Philip Quast graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1979 and began his career with State Theatre Company of South Australia debuting as Adam in The Mystery Plays of Wakefield. He went on to appear in numerous productions with the company including On The Wallaby, A Hard God, No End of Blame and The Threepenny Opera. His first musical was in the title role of Nimrod Theatre Compan...

Philip Quast graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1979 and began his career with State Theatre Company of South Australia debuting as Adam in The Mystery Plays of Wakefield. He went on to appear in numerous productions with the company including On The Wallaby, A Hard God, No End of Blame and The Threepenny Opera. His first musical was in the title role of Nimrod Theatre Compan...

Post-post-modern diva Meow Meow has hypnotised, inspired, and terrified audiences globally with unique creations and sell-out seasons from New York's Lincoln Centre and Berlin's Bar Jeder Vernunft to London's West End and the Sydney Opera House. As well as being a prolific original music, theatre and dance-theatre creator for such commissioners as Pina Bausch, David Bowie and Mikhail Baryshnikov,...

Johnny Allen is a seminal figure in alternative arts and culture in Australia, and a recognised pioneer of the event industry, often referred to as the 'Father of Events' in Australia. He published and edited Masque national magazine of the performing arts from 1965 to 1968, and wrote The Entertainment Arts in Australia published by Paul Hamlyn Sydney in 1968. In the early 1970s he ran the indy mu...