STAGES with Peter Eyers

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 Vikki Fowler in King of Country, both for ...

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 The New Art Cinema in Glebe, as well as playi...

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 This Island (Tony Award, Best Revival)...

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 Australia production of West Side Story across...

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 Theatre of Image as Sydney's first...

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 in Neighbours. 
Her miniseries cr...

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 stage), may experience mental h...

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 starred in the TV series The Mavis Bra...

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 and Jon Nicholls, Brigadoon for Pro...

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 Advisor to the San Francisco Opera from...

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 regularly with Heather MacRa...

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 writing his own material. His first work wa...

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, Theatre of the Deaf, New Moon, Hunter ...

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 past 20 years. He was brought here ...

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-winning minds of Australia’s one and...

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 Geraldine Turner - and of cou...

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 afficionados joined the podcast las...

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 swing was top of the charts. Her ta...