STAGES with Peter Eyers

Lucy Durack is one of Australia’s most well-known leading ladies with major roles to her credit including Glinda in  Wicked , Sophie in  The Letdown  (Netflix/ABC), Princess Fiona in  Shrek The Musical , Roxy in  Sisters  (Netflix), Elle Woods in  Legally Blonde  (for which she won a Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award), Audra in  A Perfect Pairing  (Netflix), Chantelle “Tugger” Waugh in  Doctor Doc...

Robyn Arthur is one of Australia’s leading theatre performers who soon celebrates 50 years working in the Industry. Robyn toured with Jonathan Church’s  Singin’ in the Rain  and Jonathan Biggins’  Australia Day  for Hit Productions and  Mother & Son  with Noeline Brown for McLaren House. In 2013, she toured Australia in Elizabeth Coleman’s play  It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To!)  with...

Amy Lehpamer is currently starring in the hit pop musical   & Juliet  as Anne Hathaway. Amy earned nation-wide critical acclaim playing Maria in  The Sound of Music,  receiving the 2015 Sydney Theatre Award for best Actress in a Musical, as well as Helpmann and Glug award nominations. She was Helpmann nominated in 2017 for her portrayal of pop and soul icon Dusty Springfield in the Australian...

Damien Ryan is managing director and artistic director of   Sport for Jove Theatre Company , now in its twelfth year, where he has directed more than 30 productions, written and developed three new works and adapted over a dozen plays.  The company has a comprehensive education program developed by Damien, and works with tens of thousands of Australian students annually at secondary and tertiary l...

One of Australia’s most highly regarded leading actors, Daniel MacPherson has most recently been seen starring as Sam Levine in Russell Crowe’s feature  Poker Face  and as fan favourite Hugo Krast in Apple TV+’s sci-fi behemoth  Foundation  opposite Jared Harris. Daniel will next be seen in the anticipated US action feature  Land of Bad , reuniting with Russell Crowe and alongside Liam Hemsworth....

Jodie Gillies commenced her dynamic career in 1983, following her graduation from the Nepean College in Sydney. In the same year she was cast as one of Major Stanley’s daughters in the iconic Victorian State Opera’s production and consequent tour of  The Pirates of Penzance.  She then appeared in  Camelot  with Richard Harris; followed by the role of Marta in Stephen Sondheim's  Company  and V...

Andrew Sharp began his professional career playing The Artful Dodger in J.C.Williamson’s 1966 revival of  Oliver!  He went on to work steadily in theatre and on television in the 1970s, in shows such as Peter Kenna’s  A Hard God  and Peter Handke’s  Kaspar  at the Nimrod Street Theatre,  The Season at Sarsaparilla  and  Julius Caesar  for The Old Tote Theatre Company,  The Rocky Horror Show  at Th...

Stephen Flaherty is a composer who writes for theatre, film and the concert hall. With longtime collaborator Lynn Ahrens, he won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the Broadway musical  Ragtime  and was nominated for two Academy awards and two Golden Globes for the animated feature film Anastasia, which they also adapted for Broadway. Additional Broadway credits include  Once on...

Australian musical theatre performer Daniel Assetta is currently based in New York City, where he recently made his Broadway debut in the hot-ticket show,  & Juliet.  This follows an   Off-Broadway debut with  The Light in the Piazza  for NY City Center Encores! Most recently, Daniel appeared in the Original Australian company of  Hamilton  as Samuel Seabury and performed Tony in the Opera Aus...

Kim Carpenter AM is an Australian visual artist, theatre director, designer and devisor. For thirty years he was artistic director of his company,  Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image. During the 1970s, Carpenter designed for the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre Company. He was, for a short period, co-Artistic Director of Nimrod in the early 1980s. In 1988, Kim established  T...

Diana McLean has had a long career in TV, Film and Theatre and is best known by the public for her role of  Vivienne Jeffries in the iconic TV Soap,   The Young Doctors. On her return to Australia, after 16 years in UK and France, she appeared in many TV shows including,  Water Rats, Murder Call, All Saints, Backberner, Number 96, Wonderland,  and is still remembered for playing Bess O'Brien i...

The Arts are widely recognised as a unique tool for human expression and offer a valuable contribution to society. They define our humanity. For anyone working in the Arts, it is a wonderful and fulfilling profession. But a creative or performance career will present considerable emotional challenge. Navigating an industry with precarious employment opportunities means that artists (on and off the...

Barry Creyton began his career at the age of 17 in theatre and in radio in Australia and by age 20, was playing leads on stage, and in national radio productions.  He also hosted his own weekly radio program devoted to theatre news and interviews. At 21, he made his Australian television debut as Lorenzo in a national television production of The  Merchant of Venice.    For three seasons, he starr...

Luke Joslin is a graduate of The University of Western Sydney and The Actors College of Theatre and Television, Luke has forged a successful career in both musical theatre and straight drama, as well as being highly sort after as a director. Luke worked as an Actor for 15 years. His extensive credits include the national tour of  Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Play That Goes Wrong , both for Lunchbox a...

Francesca Zambello is an internationally recognised director of opera and theatre. She is the Artistic Director of The Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center; a role she has occupied since 2012.  In 2022 she retired from a celebrated role as the General Director of The Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y., having been appointed in 2010. Francesca has also served as the Artistic Advi...

Michael Lavine is a Broadway Performance Coach and Sheet Music Expert. He has also worked as a musical director, pianist, vocal coach and singer all over the world. He is very much; a Music Man! Michael gives master classes on auditioning in New York, Los Angeles, Australia and Martha’s Vineyard. He has worked several times at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.  Accompanying many artists, he has worked...

Eddie Grey was born and raised in Sydney. An accomplished musician and talented performer, he graduated from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and quickly garnered an impressive list of credits in productions of  Spring Awakening  (for the Sydney Theatre Company), and commercial productions of  Legally Blonde, Wicked  (as Boq) and  The Book of Mormon. Whilst at WAAPA he started writin...

Judith Hoddinott has made considerable impact as an educator and a theatre designer across all disciplines.  Training at the University of New England and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, her design work has been seen complementing a myriad of stages with companies as diverse as the Sydney Theatre Company, GFO, CDP, Jacobsen Entertainment, Playbox, Opera Australia, Performing Lines, Theatr...

On January 14th we learned of the passing of Theatre Impresario, Martin McCallum. He was a featured guest on the STAGES podcast in January 2019. The podcast was only a year old, but Martin with his enthusiasm and vigour for supporting new ventures was keen at my first suggestion. I am so honoured that we were able to record some of his story in this episode. Martin resided in Australia for the pas...

Groundhog Day The Musical  made its Australian Premiere at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre on Thursday February 1st - (incidentally February 2nd is the actual Groundhog Day). Direct from its record-breaking return season at London’s Old Vic, the Australian production will play a 13-week season in Melbourne.  Groundhog Day the Musical  is a gloriously joyful and heart-warming production from the award...

The STAGES podcast returns in 2024 for it's 7th Season - conversations with creatives about craft and career! Season 7 launches on March 7th.

We’ve arrived at the end of season 6 of the STAGES podcast and we celebrate with our annual Christmas episode. It’s been a huge year for the podcast - delivering 99 episodes! Every one a super conversation with artists and creatives and support staff across all disciplines. Old friends return to spread the Christmas cheer. STAGES catches up with Trevor Ashley, Rhonda Burchmore, Mark Humphries and...

It’s the time of year where folk are jetting off on holidays - a key destination for many theatre fans is to head to the West End of London or the bright lights of Broadway - theatre precincts which guarantee excitement and awe. Two gentlemen who make their own annual pilgrimage to the Great White Way or the West End -  are ‘Man in Chair’ Simon Parris, and Publicist Ian Phipps. The two theatre aff...

Award winning vocalist Emma Pask, has firmly established herself as one of Australia’s favourite voices in Jazz. Her effortless, honest stage presence combined with her powerful vocal ability, leaves audiences spellbound and inspired whenever she takes to the stage. While Emma’s voice and style are unique, and individually her own, her performances are reminiscent of the classic era of jazz, when...

Mark Kilmurry is a writer, director and actor for theatre, film, television and radio. His writing credits for theatre include  Mercy Thieves, Happy as Larry and Viv, The Light Comes Up, Bruised, The Mime Artist’s Wife  and  Arthur and Amy.  Aside from his own work, he has directed  Retreat from Moscow  (Ensemble Theatre);  The Lover  (Belvoir Street Theatre); and  Hammerklavier  (Stables Theatre)...