STAGES with Peter Eyers

Born in 1936, acclaimed Architect Vivian Fraser passed away in 2021. His name may not be immediately recognisable, but this Master Architect left a legacy that continues to reward the Arts community and their audiences. On his tombstone he jested that he would like the epitaph to read,  “ … he provided simple answers to difficult problems.” It would seem that this mantra would never be better test...

Fabian Aloise’s choreography has been critically acclaimed and has garnered multiple nominations including two Olivier Award Nominations for Best Theatre Choreographer, WhatsOnStage Award for Best Choreography, Stage Debut Award for Best Creative West End Debut and the Off West End Award “OFFIE” (winner). Recently he was also listed as one of The Stage 100 - a definitive list of theatre's most...

Melanie is a writer for stage and screen with a proven track record in Australia and the UK.  Her first play  The Vegemite Tales  won critical and popular acclaim, playing eight years in London, including two years on the West End. Melanie then trained as a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where she worked for twelve years across radio, podcasting and television. Her next p...

Shane Jacobson is one of Australia’s most loved, award-winning actors, presenters and entertainers.  His incredible and varied career spans over 40 years both here at home and internationally. The successful film  Kenny  brought Shane world-wide recognition in 2006 as well as an AFI Award for best lead actor.  Shane’s subsequent credits include  Cactus ,  Charlie & Boots , the animated  Santa’...

To celebrate the 500 milestone we give you a highlights package - just a few of the stand-out moments from 7 years of the STAGES podcast. It is by no means ALL of the wonderful moments, but just a few that stand out for me - joyous moments along the way. The podcast has featured on-stage and off-stage roles from a variety of genres - Musical theatre, Theatre, Dance, Opera, Vaudeville, Drag, Televi...

To celebrate reaching this milestone of  500  … the podcast will be dropping an episode a day for the next week. It’s a stellar line up and I cannot wait to share each episode with you. Episode  502  is a highlights package featuring some of my favourite moments from the seven seasons of the show. Episode  503  features funny man and all round nice guy  Shane Jacobson , currently on stage in Sydne...

After many requests and prompts, I’ve given in. The A-listers were not available for this milestone episode of the STAGES podcast, so you get me in the chair. But who to fire the questions and prod the guest? There was only one person in my mind; longtime listener and champion of all things theatre, Mark Humphries. The talented Mr Humphries is urbane, informed and care personified. What else could...

Warwick Fyfe is an Australian opera singer, considered to be one of Australia’s leading exponents of the Wagnerian repertoire and is the recipient of Helpmann and Green Room awards. Warwick has performed throughout Australasia and internationally. Most recently, he has sung the rôles of  Wotan / Wanderer  (MO, OMM and Alberich, OA). Other Wagner rôles include  Heerrufer  (OA);  Beckmesser  (OA); ...

Edward Dick trained as a theatre director with Cheek by Jowl, and has directed acclaimed theatre and opera productions across the UK and abroad. Edward’s first short film,  An Act of Love , starring Stephen Mangan and Gina McKee, premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2010 and has played at festivals around the world.  His second short  That Woman  was also successful on the festival circuit...

The annual TONY Awards ceremony celebrates the best and brightest of the Broadway season. And I’m delighted that one of our favourite performers, who has graced the great white way, is the STAGES guest for our TONY episode. Caroline O’Connor is one of the foremost interpreters of musical theatre in the world. Projects have taken her from Sydney to Paris to London and the bright lights of Broadway...

Neil Armfield AO is a leading Australian director of theatre, opera and film. Alongside Rachel Healy, Neil was Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival between 2017 and 2022. Prior to that, Neil was the inaugural Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre, which he also co-founded, for 17 years.   As Artistic Director of Belvoir, and for other companies, Neil has directed well over 100 productions, wit...

Genevieve Lemon has appeared in many premiere Australian productions in a 40-plus year career including  Steaming, Steel Magnolias, Seventeen, Miracle City, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert  and  Billy Elliot,  which she also played in London’s West End. Other performances include  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Death of a Salesman, Summer Rain, The Venetian Twins, Summer of the 17th Doll  and  Nor...

Genevieve Lemon has appeared in many premiere Australian productions in a 40-plus year career including  Steaming, Steel Magnolias, Seventeen, Miracle City, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert  and  Billy Elliot,  which she also played in London’s West End. Other performances include  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Death of a Salesman, Summer Rain, The Venetian Twins, Summer of the 17th Doll  and  Nor...

Dillie Keane is one-third of iconic Cabaret trio Fascinating Aida. She is presently in Australia for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, where alongside her partners in song, Liza Pulman and Adèle Anderson, Fascinating Aida will present a 40th anniversary show. Since their first performance together in 1983, the trio have racked-up millions of internet followers, performed in the world’s most prestigio...

Extensive experience throughout Australia in theatre, film, radio and television, over several decades, established Robert van Mackelenberg as one of our leading actors. Studying in New Zealand, Robert’s journey through the theatre was as a stage manager first but he soon found his true place was in assuming the great roles in classical and contemporary theatre. He has worked with many companies t...

The STAGES podcast is now in its Seventh year. Over that time we’ve garnered a vast number of insightful and glorious conversations with a broad range of artists. Some of these have recorded fascinating histories with the elders from various disciplines - theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, television - the list goes on. We’ve also been able to record reflection and story from various younger...

Entertainer Doug Lucas has been delighting audiences around the country for several decades as a comic, a creative and much loved drag performer. Chiefly his performance stage has been found in various Melbourne venues.  Doug is a pioneer of these establishments, commencing Melbourne's first gay disco in 1975 and the legendary show evening,  Pokeys , in 1977. “It was only going to be a little...

Iain Sinclair is one of Australia’s finest, award winning theatre directors specialising in new writing and contemporary international work. Iain established the critically acclaimed theatre company Elbow Theatre in Canberra, where he received four Critics Circle Awards. He received a Sydney Theatre Award for his production of  The Seed  by Kate Mulvaney and is also an AWGIE Award nominated direct...

Tim Draxl is an actor and singer with a career spanning more than two decades. Most recently he was seen in the SBS anthology television series  Erotic Stories , for which he has received an AACTA Nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama series, and the lead role in ABC’s four-part musical drama  In Our Blood , for which he has received both an AACTA Nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Dram...

Happy Anniversary to the original Australian company of The Rocky Horror Show - the production opened at the New Art Cinema, Glebe on April 19th, 1974. This outrageous musical has a book, musical and lyrics by Richard O’Brien, and is a  tribute to the B-grade Science Fiction and Horror films of the 1930s to early 60s. It’s premiere production was produced and directed by the brilliant Australian c...

Vivid Sydney is an annual celebration of creativity, innovation and technology, which transforms Sydney for 23 days and nights.  In 2024, for its 14th year, Vivid Sydney will fuse art, innovation and technology in collaboration with some of the most boundary-pushing artists, musicians, thinkers and culinary experts of our time. Mark the dates 24 May – 15 June 2024 in your calendar and explore the...

In this Vale episode of the STAGES podcast, we remember Arts Historian - Frank van Straten, who passed away in April. Frank was the inaugural archivist at the Performing Arts Museum (now Australian Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne) and later its founding Director. Renowned as a theatre historian of supreme knowledge, Frank was the author of many publications which celebrated the...

John-Michael Howson worked as a journalist, starting in Mildura, Victoria, before moving to print and radio in Melbourne where he began writing comedy sketches and songs for revue clubs, theatres and television. After several years working in the UK and Europe he returned to Australia and created, wrote and performed in two of Australia’s most beloved children’s shows the multi-award winning  The...

Stephanie Beacham is without a doubt one of Britain's most talented, beautiful and well-known actresses. Despite becoming world famous and an icon of the 1980s due to her role as Sable Colby in the American soap operas  Dynasty  and  The Colbys  and going on to have starring roles in shows such as  Sister Kate, Seaquest DSV, Beverly Hills 90210,  and  Bad Girls , Stephanie Beacham had already...

Since graduating from WAAPA in 2006, Lucy Maunder has cemented her reputation as one of Australia’s musical theatre leading ladies performing in a huge range of roles over the last 17 years. Most recently she appeared as Winifred Banks in the critically acclaimed Cameron Mackintosh/Michael Cassel Group/Disney revival of  Mary Poppins . Prior to this Lucy starred in Victorian Opera’s production of...