Karen Johnson Mortimer is currently the Resident Director for the National tour of the award winning musical Wicked and most recently choreographed Turns starring Australian theatre legends Reg Livermore and Nancye Hayes. Karen's career spans 40 years, beginning at the age of 15 in a professional production of Anything Goes starring Toni Lamond. Karen was Resident Director for Chicago The Musical that toured Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong in 2009/2010.
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She also held this position on Grease-The Arena Spectacular in 2005 and was one of the Artistic Directors for the World Youth Day Festival Performances throughout Sydney in 2008. She currently maintains her position as one of the Artistic Directors for CaSPA (Sydney Catholic Schools Performing Arts).
Throughout the past 25 years she has regularly been engaged as a personal creative consultant to various industry stars in both theatre and television.
As a performer, Karen played Cassie in the original Australian production of A Chorus Line and has appeared in many productions for J.C.Williamson and Sydney Theatre Company including Company, Conquest of Carmen Miranda, Dames at Sea, Kiss me Kate, No No Nanette, Irene as well as GFO productions Cabaret and Footloose.
Karen's choreographic credits include: Grease-The Mega Musical (GFO), Stones in His Pockets(STC), Leader of The Pack- The Ellie Greenwich Musical (Star City), Irish Dance Spectacular Anzac Military Tattoo (Acer Arena), Opening Ceremonies for numerous Bledisloe Cups (Telstra Stadium Sydney & ANZ Stadium Brisbane), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Opening Ceremony (Qld), Opening Ceremony-Fina World Swimming Championships (Melb 2008), 2007 Helpmann Awards, Tin Symphony (Opening Ceremony - 2000 Sydney Olympics), Gold Medallists Gymnastic Gala - 2000 Sydney Olympics (NBC-USA), Kelly's Republic (Sydney Festival), Oscars Turn To Sing, WonderWoman (Reg Livermore), Sacred Cow (Reg Livermore), Norman Gunston Show (ABC TV), Farnham & Byrne (ABC TV)
Peter Casey is one of Australia's most versatile Musical Directors, having established a career spanning the genres of musical theatre, arena presentations, symphonic concerts, orchestration, television and recording. During the past years, Peter has been Musical Director for several major music theatre productions, including Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, The King and I, The Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Cabaret, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller, Topol's Fiddler on the Roof, Stephen Sondheim's Company, Monty Python's Spamalot.
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Peter has also been Musical Director on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Evita, Cats, Aspects of Love, Song and Dance, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Production Company's productions of Sunset Boulevard, The Pajama Game, 42nd Street, Mame, Crazy For You and The King and I. He was recently Musical Director for the Asian tour of Jekyll & Hyde, and the forthcoming productions of Anything Goes and Kismet for The Production Company.
Peter was Musical Director for The New Mel Brooks Musical The Producers, for which he received a 2004 Green Room Award. He has also received Green Room Award nominations for Sunset Boulevard, Mame and Monty Python's Spamalot, and Helpmann Award nominations for The Producers and Company. He was Musical Supervisor for Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the 1998 Australian tour of Grease - The Arena Spectacular, and the Big Top touring productions of Cats - Run Away To The Circus and Grease - The Mega Musical.
In 1998, Peter was Musical Director for the acclaimed arena production The Main Event, starring Olivia Newton-John, Anthony Warlow and John Farnham, and in 1999 was associated with the Grand Opening of Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, as Musical Director for The Rodgers and Hammerstein Tribute, starring Shirley Jones and Hugh Jackman. He was Musical Director for Live Performance Australia's inaugural 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2006 Helpmann Awards, which honour distinguished artistic achievement and excellence within the Australian arts and entertainment industry.
Through his passion for orchestration, Peter has worked extensively in South East Asia, co-composing and orchestrating several musical productions, operas and recordings in Singapore and Korea. He was Co-Composer and Orchestrator for ACOM International's epic Korean musical opera, The Last Empress, which toured to London, Los Angeles and New York, and ACOM's productions of Arang and The Winter Wanderer, and was Orchestrator for the musical drama Winter Sonata which toured Korea and Japan.
In 2005, he was Orchestrator and Conductor for Hyungsuk Kim's score for the Korean film, Typhoon, which received nomination as Best Film at the 2006 43rd Daejong Film Awards Festival. In 2009, Peter was Orchestrator for the Korean musical drama, Hero (Ahn Jung Geun), and was honoured with the Best Orchestration Award at both the 4th Korea Musical Theatre Awards in June 2010, and the 16th Korea Musical Awards in October 2010.
Peter has been Guest Conductor and Orchestrator for the West Australian Symphony, Adelaide Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.
After 35 years of training and performance, during which time she has choreographed, and assisted many Australian and international choreographers, Kelly is delighted that the natural progression of her career is now giving her the opportunity to lecture and pass her knowledge on to others within the dance industry.
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Her choreography credits include: Fox 8 and Fremantle media's new reality show The Ultimate School Musical 2010, So You Think You Can Dance Australia 2008/2009, Sweeny Todd Australian Opera 2007 & 2005 The Wizard of Oz GFO 2002, I Should Be So Lucky Melbourne Festival 2003, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying Production company 2002 Guys and Dolls Production company 2001. 2000-2001 Star Struck 2 x series GTV 9 2000-2001 My Brother Jack Channel 10 2000. Resident choreographer Annie SEL & Macks
Her performance resume boasts credits in some of Australian finest mainstream Musical events: The lead role of Stephanie in Saturday Night Fever, the role of June in Chicago the Musical, the lead role of Helene in Sweet Charity the Musical, the role of silly girl in Beauty and the Beast, the role of Christine in A Chorus Line, the role of Patty Simcox in Grease the Musical, Funny Girl, Alana Scanlans Pictures, David Atkins Dynamite, David Atkins Dancin Man, Seven Little Australians the Musical. Dein Perry's film Bootmen and more recently the role of Lauren Gatley on Neighbours.
For 20 years Kelly has been one of the country's most sought after dance and Musical Theatre teachers, working in Australia's foremost universities and dance institutions. In 2008 Kelly was involved in the set up of Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance.
She is now proud to say that she has her own dance school in partnership with Carrie Green – Studio 1 Performing Arts.