OzMade Musicals is the
premiere national celebration of Australian musical theatre.
Held annually since 2003, OzMade
Musicals shines a spotlight on Australian musical theatre writing
and gives encouragement and exposure to new work while
simultaneously remembering that which has already occurred.
Following its Statement of Purpose, OzMade Musicals:
celebrates and supports
Australian musical theatre
provides a developmental
channel for new work, while promoting existing
work through performance
hosts an annual event
fostering awareness for Australian musical theatre as a cultural
asset.
OzMade
Musicals consists of two phases: a week of work-shopping and
development for selected new Australian musicals (including for each
to create a performance vignette of scene and song), and a staged
public concert before a live audience.
The concert debuts the developed
vignettes of new work (known as 'On The Drawing Board'), which are
supported by highlight performances from existing Australian
musicals (known as 'OzMade Flashbacks').
The 'On The Drawing Board' works
for 2008 will be selected nationally by a panel of leading musical
theatre practitioners and creatives.
Peter
Fitzpatrick is a Professor in the Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies at Monash
University, where he has taught Drama since 1976. He is also the founder and
Artistic Director of Melbourne Music Theatre.
As a theatre director, he has staged full public productions
of the following plays and musicals: INNER VOICES , LEAR, THE FRONT ROOM BOYS,
THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, CLOUD NINE, AWAY, THE PRECIOUS WOMAN, MERRILY WE
ROLL ALONG, MANNING CLARKS 'HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA' - THE MUSICAL, INTO THE WOODS,
THE MAN FROM MUKINUPIN, PACIFIC OVERTURES (Australian Premiere, 1998), JACQUES
BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS, THE HIRED MAN (Melbourne Premiere,
1999), MARTIN AND GINA (Melbourne and Cooma, World Premiere, 2000), CHILDREN OF
EDEN, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE
FORUM, THE WHITE ROSE(World Premiere, Melbourne and Singapore, 2003)
PARIS (World Premiere season, Melbourne and Frankston, 2004), A NEW BRAIN,
PARADE (Melbourne Premiere, 2005), RENT, THE LAST FIVE YEARS, and I SING.
As a cinema screenwriter, he has produced two feature-film
adaptations of stage plays, HOTEL SORRENTO for which he won an AFI award for
Best Adapted Screenplay, and BRILLIANT LIES, and was Script Consultant on the
feature VISITORS.
As a novelist, he is the author of the football crime novel
DEATH IN THE BACK POCKET, written in collaboration with Barbara Wenzel, and
PROMONTORY.
As a biographer, he is the author of the dual biography
PIONEER PLAYERS: THE LIVES OF LOUIS AND HILDA ESSON, which was short-listed for
the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 1996 and for four other national
awards. He is currently writing a another dual biography on THE TWO FRANK
THRINGS.
He has published widely as a critic and scholar in the field
of Australian theatre past and present, including AFTER THE DOLL: AUSTRALIAN
DRAMA SINCE 1955 (published in 1979, but still regarded as the major critical
study in that area), two other books, WILLIAMSON AND STEPHEN SEWELL: THE
PLAYWRIGHT AS REVOLUTIONARY, and more than fifty articles and papers in that
field. His current research interests are primarily in Music Theatre (its
history, formal conventions, and appropriate methods and languages for its
analysis), and Australian Music Theatre in particular.
Stuart Hendricks
Stuart
Hendricks is currently the Manager - Music Licensing and Hire Department for Hal Leonard
Australia. Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard Corporation is today the world leader
in the print music industry. In 2002 the company commenced operations in
their Theatrical Rights Department, and now represents Music Theatre
International of New York, The Josef Weinberger Ltd. of London, and
Dramatists Play Service Inc of New York in this territory. With the most
powerful music theatre catalogue available, they represent such works as RENT,
GUYS AND DOLLS, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, WEST SIDE STORY, and composers such
as Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein and more.
John-Michael Howson
John-Michael
Howson is a writer of hit musicals, an author, journalist and entertainment
industry commentator who covered the international and Hollywood film scene for
25 years interviewing scores of top names, including those who rarely consent to
interviews, and building a solid reputation as an incisive and informed
interviewer.
A multiple Logie winner (for his children’s TV shows) Howson was awarded The
Variety Club of Australia’s Heart of Variety Lifetime Achievement Award and a
star on The Australian Walk of Fame. In the United States he was awarded three
“personality of the year” awards by The Hollywood Press Club.
In 2005, after seventeen years in Los Angeles, he returned to Melbourne. In his
years reporting on entertainment he travelled the world covering films and
entertainment events including 25 Oscars, 15 Emmys, 6 Tony awards, The Cannes
Film Festival, international movie premieres, major royal events. However, it
was his witty and informed stories of the events he covered and his meetings
with world famous celebrities and stars that entertained audiences and made him
a popular addition to any TV or radio show. He appeared on The Mike Walsh Show,
Midday and Good Morning Australia as well as Sky News in the U.K. and TV in
Brazil, France and other markets. In the USA he appeared as a regular on The
Joan Rivers Show on CBS syndication in the US, on Gordon Elliott’s national
daytime show, Court TV and a bevy of local shows in the Los Angeles market. He
also wrote newspaper columns and magazine features that revealed an insider’s
knowledge of the entertainment industry and an incisive behind the scenes take
on the corporate side of the business.
John-Michael has starred in cabaret, appeared in films and stage productions and
has been heard on radio in the US, Australia and New Zealand. Now contributing
an entertainment report every Tuesday morning during the breakfast show on MAGIC
1278, being heard on the Grumpy Old Men segment of Mike Brady’s Saturday night
show on 3AW and making waves in the top rating SUNDAY MORNING on 3AW
John-Michael is also heard on radio around Australia.
He is also breaking records in theatre with ground breaking Australian musicals.
His hit musical SHOUT! - the story of Australian rock star Johnny O’Keefe -
(co-written with David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow) was a massive box office hit
in Australia and has become a favourite with theatre groups around the country.
A new “all-star” production at The Victoria Arts Centre State Theatre received
good reviews and enthusiastic audiences. SHOUT! was followed by the mega hit
musical DUSTY – based on the life of pop icon Dusty Springfield – (co-written
with David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow) which was a smash hit in Australia and is
scheduled to open in the UK in late in 2008 followed by a North American
production opening in Toronto, Canada.
Also on his schedule in an American-Australian co-production of DREAM LOVER, -
the story of Bobby Darin – (co-written with Frank Howson) – set to open in
Australia in 2009, HARD KNOCKS –an ensemble musical – (co-written with Frank
Howson) opening in late 2008, WALLY’S CAFÉ – an Australian adaptation of an
American comedy – opening in 2008, HOTEL HAVANA – a comedy musical- and PYJAMAS
IN PARADISE – a fun “Happy Days/ Grease style musical about the early days of
Surfers’ Paradise
Dr. Peter Wyllie Johnston
Dr. Peter Wyllie Johnston is a composer, writer and performer, who studied the piano from
childhood and sang for several years as a boy soprano with the Australian Opera.
At the age of twelve he wrote his first composition and, two years later,
composed the score for the short Australian film GIRL ON THE BOULEVARD starring
Jill Goodall and featuring Norman Kaye. By 1990 he had written numerous songs,
including commissioned works and two short pieces for theatre.
In the 1990s he published more than 200 articles as music writer for The
Melburnian magazine, the Sunday Age, Opera Australasia and Soundscapes. Some
years later he began to write the music and lyrics for his first musical, MOSES
- THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM, which was later workshopped in London and in East
Hampton, New York and produced in a concert of excerpts from the score at
Kaufmann Concert Hall in Manhattan. In 2004 MOSES was produced in a sell-out
production at the Ford Theatre, Geelong Performing Arts Centre.
During the 1990s he developed a secondary career as a pianist performing in
Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Honolulu, Washington DC, London and New York. In
2000 his cabaret OF THINGS AUSTRALIAN was produced for two seasons at the famous
Firebird cabaret in New York. In 2002 he returned to Australia to take up the
position of Guest Musical Director of the Barossa International Festival of
Music and, in 2005, he performed FEWSTER AND KING, his tribute show to the two
great pioneers of the Australian musical at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. He
has recently written the script for the concert performance of SCENES FROM
COLLIT'S INN to be produced in Melbourne by Jonathan Harvey and the Victorian
Concert Orchestra on 25 March.
Peter studied music at the Victorian College of the Arts and the Canberra School
of Music. He graduated in arts and law (University of Melbourne) and was awarded
first class honours for his Master of Laws thesis at the Australian National
University (1988). He is about to complete his PhD at the University of
Melbourne entitled, Who’s Playing Our Song? The Development of the Australian
Musical 1900-2000, an analysis of more than two hundred original Australian
musicals.
In 19 April 2007 Peter will present Australian musicals 1900-2000 at the
Victorian Arts Centre as part of their Spotlight series and, on 18 June, as part
of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival he will present FROM GAWLER TO THE GAIETY: A
TRIBUTE TO KENNETH DUFFIELD (another pioneer of the Australian musical) at the
Lyrics Piano Bar, Adelaide Festival Centre.
Aaron Joyner
Aaron
Joyneris a director, producer, musical director, performer and writer and one of the
leading advocates for Australian-written music theatre.
His training includes
a Bachelor of Performing Arts at Monash University, A Certificate in Small Business Management
at RMIT, an Associate Diploma of Arts - Small Companies and Community Theatre at
NMIT, and the St. Martins Be Your Best Scholarship Program.
In 2000 he founded the digital hub for the Australian musical - Australian
Musicals.com, and in 2002 he founded Magnormos, which amongst other things,
specialises in producing Australian musicals and rarely seen international
works.
Through Magnormos he has directed and produced many world and Australian
premieres, including the Enright/King masterpiece MARY BRYANT, Kander & Ebb's
FLORA THE RED MENACE, Pratt Prize finalist THE BEAUTY SPOT, Mel Brook's
first Broadway collaboration ARCHY & MEHITABEL, the Pinne/Battye Australian classic
A BUNCH OF RATBAGS, and Stephen Sondheims' first musical: SATURDAY NIGHT.
As the first production for Magnormos he directed/produced/musically directed
and performed in the Broadway hit WORKING, adapting it for an Australian audience in collaboration with the
original director and writer Stephen Schwartz. In 2006 he directed the
world premiere of SILLY SEASONfor Monash University.
As a writer he has had three of his original musicals performed, including
the award-winning NORAA which was staged under the auspices of Monash
University, and his involvement in the ABC Young Composers program at age 16
resulted in one of his works being performed by the Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra.
David King
David King is a graduate of Adelaide’s Elder
Conservatorium. He worked professionally for 30 years as a Music Theatre
Director/Accompanist/Composer.
As a musical director he has worked on some seventy productions including long
running seasons of GUYS AND DOLLS, CATS, FORTY SECOND STREET, and SHOWBOAT.
As an accompanist he has worked with a wide range of Australian performers
including Judi Connelli, Geraldine Turner and Nancye Hayes.
As a composer he has written incidental music for numerous plays including six
productions for Bell Shakespeare Company.
David had a long association with the late Nick Enright with whom he has written
three musical plays all of which have been produced at the institution where he
is now Head of Music Theatre at WAAPA.
David has been in this position for seven years and as Head of the Music Theatre
Department supervises the auditioning of 500 students each year across Australia
and is ultimately responsible for the extensive singing, dance and acting
training that comprises the course.
Ellie Nielsen
Ellie Nielsen has been involved in the
performing and creative arts since graduating from the Victorian College of the
Arts, drama school, in the early 1980s. She has worked variously as a
performer, dramaturg and writer. Her dramaturgy experience includes; seven
years work at the Playbox Theatre Company in Melbourne (working with the
company’s Literary Editor, Malcolm Robertson), freelance script assessment for
other theatre companies and individuals and twice participating on the judging
panel for the Wal Cherry ‘Play of the Year’ Award. Although Ellie is now
concentrating on her own writing – she is currently completing a Master’s degree
in Creative Media at RMIT – she continues her dramaturgy work as a freelance.
Through this work she hopes to contribute to the development and fostering of
new Australian theatre.
Tony Sheldon
Tony Sheldon
is currently playing Bernadette in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT--THE MUSICAL
at Sydney's Lyric Theatre. He won the 2005 Helpmann Award, the Sydney Critics
Award, the Mo Award and the Glugs Award for his performance as Roger de Bris in
THE PRODUCERS. He was also nominated for a Helpmann and a Green Room Award for
his work in THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK in 2003. He recently wrote, directed and
appeared in THE TIMES OF MY LIFE at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with his
mother, Toni Lamond.
For the Sydney Theatre Company, Tony has starred in PRIVATE LIVES, INTO THE
WOODS, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, COMPANY, THE SISTERS ROSENWEIG, ONCE IN A
LIFETIME, Nick Enright's MONGRELS, THE VENETIAN TWINS, three seasons of THE
WHARF REVUE and FALSETTOS (Green Room Award for Best Supporting Actor in a
Musical). He earned critical raves playing John Barrymore in I HATE HAMLET
opposite Guy Pearce (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Cameron Daddo (Marian St.
Theatre), and as Aunt Augusta in the national tour of TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT for
Gary Penny Productions.
His appearances in NOISES OFF
(Ensemble Theatre) and A POOR STUDENT (Marian Street) won him the Norman Kessell
Memorial Award as Best Actor of 2001. For his portrayal of Arnold Beckoff in the
record breaking run of TORCH SONG TRILOGY, Tony won the Green Room and Variety
Club Heart Awards as Best Actor of 1984. Other musical appearances include FAME
- THE MUSICAL, OLIVER!, DAMES AT SEA, HAMLET ON ICE, THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT
- THE SMELL OF THE CROWD, THE FANTASTICKS, MACK AND MABEL - IN CONCERT, CANDIDE,
I LOVE MY WIFE and A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.
Since beginning his career as a
child performer on Graham Kennedy's "In Melbourne Tonight", Tony has performed
for all of Australia's major theatre companies in productions of MYTH,
PROPAGANDA AND DISASTER IN NAZI GERMANY AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICA (Griffin
Theatre), WILD HONEY (SATC), DEATHTRAP (QTC), THE FLOATING WORLD, EQUUS, THE
GLASS MENAGERIE (HVTC), DAYLIGHT SAVING (MTC), THE CASSIDY ALBUM (Adelaide
Festival), TWELFTH NIGHT, HENRY IV, A COMEDY OF ERRORS, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING,
THE CHOIR, the original production of A HARD GOD and INNER VOICES, for which he
won the National Theatre Award as Best Actor of 1977, all at the Nimrod Theatre
in Sydney.
Tony's extensive writing credits
include DANCIN' MAN and DYNAMITE! for David Atkins, HOLLYWOOD BIZARRE and
MADONNA AND CHILD for Toni Lamond, NANCYE WITH AN E for Nancye Hayes, A LIFE ON
EARTH for Peter Cousens, LEMON TART for Genevieve Lemon, RED HOT AND RHONDA
starring Rhonda Burchmore, THE CAT, THE RAT AND ME for Sheila Bradley, THE THREE
DIVAS with Judi Connelli, Suzanne Johnston and Jennifer McGregor, BROADWAY BABES
with Jane Rutter and Angela Toohey, YOU AND THE NIGHT AND THE HOUSEWINE,
GERALDINE TURNER SINGS, THE WINDOWS PROJECT, WHEREFORE ART THOU, CABARET? with
Maria Mercedes, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT for Derek Metzger, I'M A STRANGER
HERE MYSELF starring Lena Cruz, and several of the much-loved Tilbury pub
revues. He also writes and lectures extensively on Australian musical theatre
history.
He directed the acclaimed concert
version of Sondheim's FOLLIES for the Melbourne International Arts Festival as
well as productions of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL... and PAL JOEY (WAAPA),
SHE LOVES ME (Newtown Theatre), THE MOURNING AFTER (Playbox), JINGLE BELROSE
(Glen St. Theatre), THE FLOOR OF HEAVEN (STC), THE WAY WE WERE (Sydney Opera
House), DREAM KITCHEN (Universal Theatre) and AFTER-PLAY (Marian St. Theatre).
Geraldine Turner OAM
Geraldine
Turner is synonymous with Australian show business. During the past three
decades she has firmly established herself as a public favourite and a
consummate performer in almost every aspect of the entertainment industry; an
attribute which helped earn her the ‘Order of Australia’ medal in the 1988
Bicentennial Honours list. When it comes to musicals, movies, television,
cabaret and recording, Geraldine Turner has few peers. She has also put her
skills to work by giving masterclasses at ‘National Institute of Dramatic Art’
and for four years was Federal President of Australian Actors’ Equity.
Geraldine Turner has thrilled theatre going audiences in musicals like A LITTLE
NIGHT MUSIC, SWEENEY TODD, INTO THE WOODS, COMPANY, CHICAGO, ANYTHING GOES,
CABARET, KISMET, OLIVER!, GUYS AND DOLLS, CALL ME MADAM, NOEL & GERTIE, MACK &
MABEL, NED KELLY, GREASE, and THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK; operas and operettas like
LA BELLE HELENE, HMS PINAFORE and THE MIKADO; and plays including INHERITANCE,
PRESENT LAUGHTER, DON'S PARTY, THE FOREST, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, and SUMMER OF
THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL. Her many concert and cabaret performances have taken her
across Australia and to New York, Vancouver, San Francisco, Africa and, most
recently, Berlin.
Moviegoers have delighted to her performances in films like CAREFUL HE MIGHT
HEAR YOU, SUMMERFIELD and THE WOG BOY while Australian TV watchers have seen her
as a panelist on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in ABC-TV’s G.P. and NATURAL CAUSES and
SBS’s SIX PACK, THAT MAN'S FATHER and as ensemble performer in THREE MEN AND A
BABY GRAND as well as the enormously successful tribute to Australian
music-theatre ONCE IN A BLUE MOON. Her recent television credits include SPICKS
& SPECKS, ALL SAINTS and the role of Kitty Vale on HOME AND AWAY.
In the recording world Geraldine Turner is recognised internationally as a
Stephen Sondheim interpreter par excellence - having the distinction of being
the first artist worldwide to record and release an all-Sondheim album “The
Stephen Sondheim Songbook” which was followed in 2002 with Volume Two. Other
albums include “Torch Songs - And Some Not So Tortuous”, “When We Met”, “All the
Colours of the Rainbow”, “Once in a Blue Moon”, “The Tilbury Gala”, “Number One
Musicals”, and cast albums of her stage hits like “Chicago”, “Mikado” and
“Anything Goes”.
Geraldine Turner has won several awards including two prestigious Green Room
Awards (in 1984 for her role as Nancy in “Oliver!” and again in 1989 for her
role as Reno Sweeney in “Anything Goes”) and two Mo Awards (in 1989 again for
“Anything Goes” and in 1988 for her performance as Mrs Lovett in “Sweeney
Todd”).
OzMade Musicals 2008 will be held in November/December in Melbourne.
Further production information will be available shortly.
The
most recent OzMade Musicals, OzMade Musicals 2007 was held on December 10th 2007 at the
Athenaeum theatre Melbourne. Two new works were debuted 'On
The Drawing Board', and six works were presented as 'OzMade
Flashbacks'.
OzMade
Musicals consists of two phases: a week of work-shopping and
development for selected new Australian musicals (including for each
to create a performance vignette of scene and song), and a staged
public concert before a live audience.
Peter
Fitzpatrick is a Professor in the Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies at Monash
University, where he has taught Drama since 1976. He is also the founder and
Artistic Director of Melbourne Music Theatre. 
John-Michael
Howson is a writer of hit musicals, an author, journalist and entertainment
industry commentator who covered the international and Hollywood film scene for
25 years interviewing scores of top names, including those who rarely consent to
interviews, and building a solid reputation as an incisive and informed
interviewer.
Dr. Peter Wyllie Johnston is a composer, writer and performer, who studied the piano from
childhood and sang for several years as a boy soprano with the Australian Opera.
At the age of twelve he wrote his first composition and, two years later,
composed the score for the short Australian film GIRL ON THE BOULEVARD starring
Jill Goodall and featuring Norman Kaye. By 1990 he had written numerous songs,
including commissioned works and two short pieces for theatre.
Aaron
Joyner
is a director, producer, musical director, performer and writer and one of the
leading advocates for Australian-written music theatre.
David King is a graduate of Adelaide’s Elder
Conservatorium. He worked professionally for 30 years as a Music Theatre
Director/Accompanist/Composer.
As a musical director he has worked on some seventy productions including long
running seasons of GUYS AND DOLLS, CATS, FORTY SECOND STREET, and SHOWBOAT.
As an accompanist he has worked with a wide range of Australian performers
including Judi Connelli, Geraldine Turner and Nancye Hayes.
As a composer he has written incidental music for numerous plays including six
productions for Bell Shakespeare Company.
Ellie Nielsen has been involved in the
performing and creative arts since graduating from the Victorian College of the
Arts, drama school, in the early 1980s. She has worked variously as a
performer, dramaturg and writer. Her dramaturgy experience includes; seven
years work at the Playbox Theatre Company in Melbourne (working with the
company’s Literary Editor, Malcolm Robertson), freelance script assessment for
other theatre companies and individuals and twice participating on the judging
panel for the Wal Cherry ‘Play of the Year’ Award. Although Ellie is now
concentrating on her own writing – she is currently completing a Master’s degree
in Creative Media at RMIT – she continues her dramaturgy work as a freelance.
Through this work she hopes to contribute to the development and fostering of
new Australian theatre.
Tony Sheldon
is currently playing Bernadette in PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT--THE MUSICAL
at Sydney's Lyric Theatre. He won the 2005 Helpmann Award, the Sydney Critics
Award, the Mo Award and the Glugs Award for his performance as Roger de Bris in
THE PRODUCERS. He was also nominated for a Helpmann and a Green Room Award for
his work in THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK in 2003. He recently wrote, directed and
appeared in THE TIMES OF MY LIFE at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with his
mother, Toni Lamond. 
Geraldine
Turner is synonymous with Australian show business. During the past three
decades she has firmly established herself as a public favourite and a
consummate performer in almost every aspect of the entertainment industry; an
attribute which helped earn her the ‘Order of Australia’ medal in the 1988
Bicentennial Honours list. When it comes to musicals, movies, television,
cabaret and recording, Geraldine Turner has few peers. She has also put her
skills to work by giving masterclasses at ‘National Institute of Dramatic Art’
and for four years was Federal President of Australian Actors’ Equity.
The
most recent OzMade Musicals, OzMade Musicals 2007 was held on December 10th 2007 at the
Athenaeum theatre Melbourne. Two new works were debuted 'On
The Drawing Board', and six works were presented as 'OzMade
Flashbacks'.
