GALE EDWARDS - Director
Gale has worked extensively across Australia, the UK and the USA with world leading producers, festivals, opera and theatre companies. These include the English National Opera, Royal Shakespeare Company, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Macintosh, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B, Belvoir, Opera Australia and the Washington Shakespeare Company. Her work has appeared on both the West End and Broadway to critical acclaim.
Gale’s career spans many nominations and awards including Winner of Sydney Critics Circle Award in 1981, 1991, 1993; Green room Award, 1991 (Les Miserables), 1997 (Manon Lescaut), 1999 (Boy from Oz); Helpmann Award 2001 (The Boy from Oz). Jesus Christ Superstar won a 2001 International Emmy Award for Best Filmed Video Production. She received the 2002 Green Room Award for Best Direction for Sweeney Todd, Winner of Best Direction for the production of Sydney Theatre Company’s Festen in 2005 and was awarded the Centenary Medal at the commencement of a new century for contribution to Australian Society.
Career highlights include: The Original Australian Production of The Boy From Oz; Sweeney Todd (OA); Mary Stuart (English National Opera); Jesus Christ Superstar (West End and Broadway); Aspects of Love (Sydney, Melbourne, UK); The Merchant of Venice (Chichester Festival UK); Whistle Down the Wind (West End); Hamlet, Richard II, Titus Andronicus (Washington Shakespeare Company, USA); The Taming of the Shrew (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Tempest, M.Butterfly Uncle Vanya, (MTC) The Way of the World, (STC) Woman in Mind, and most recently Company (Kookaburra Theatre Company).
JOHN O'CONNELL - Choreographer
John O’Connell is an internationally acclaimed choreographer for film, television and the stage.
Most recently John was the Choreographer for Kookaburra’s Company. He has been the staging Choreographer for Il Divo, and for Company B he choreographed Threepenny Opera and Keating, the Musical. His other stage and theatre credits include Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Ensemble Theatre); Baz Luhrmann’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Australian Opera); Dancing at Lughnasa (Sydney Theatre Company); Venetian Twins (Royal Queensland Theatre Company); Kissing Frogs (Glynn Nicholas Group); Barry Humphries’ one-man stage show, Remember You’re Out and as a writer, dancer, actor and choreographer Borderline Cases (Flying Trapeze Theatre).
John has choreographed a number of film box office hits including Razzle Dazzle, Shall We Dance, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Muriel’s Wedding, Peter Pan, The Quiet American, The Matrix Revolutions, Scooby Doo, Children of the Revolution and Me, Myself & I. John’s latest feature film is Baz Luhrman’s Australia. Future releases include and Enchanted (for Disney). For television he has worked on Come in Spinner, Brides of Christ, The Party Machine and Lucinda Smith and as a dancer and actor on Dancing Daze, Body Business and Videopix.
John has also choreographed commercials and video clips, including John Paul Young’s Love is in the Air. He has won several awards, including Best Choreographer (Moulin Rouge) at the American Choreography Awards and the Australian Dance Award for Contribution to the Art of Dance. John has also devised his own how-to-dance show, Mr Cha Cha Says Dance, which premiered at the Perth International Arts Festival in 2005.
LUKE HUNTER - Musical Director
Luke completed a Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree from Monash University in 1997, and began his career onstage. He appeared as Schlomo Metzenbaum in Fame the Musical, both in Australia and overseas, and in the casts of the original Australian productions of Shout! and Oh! What a Night.
Luke has also musically directed productions of both Shout! regional tent tour and Oh! What a Night. He was musical director for both the Sydney and Melbourne productions of Leader of the Pack, the latter winning him a Green Room Award for best musical direction.
Other Musical Direction credits include Falsettos Blackbird productions, Up written by Eddie Perfect for the Victorian College of the Arts, Todd McKenney Live at the 2006 Adelaide Cabaret Fetival, Floorplay in Atlantic City and Burn the Floor in Las Vegas. In 2003, he performed and co-wrote the cabaret Get Here for the York Theatre Company in New York with fellow Australians Simon Gleeson, Natalie O’Donnell and Deone Zanotto.
Luke is also a composer, his original collection of songs The Book of Luke premiered at The New Capers in Melbourne in March, 2007.
DALE FERGUSON - Scenic Designer
Dale graduated from NIDA in 1989 and became Resident Designer at the Queensland Theatre Company 1990-1994, then Resident Designer at the Melbourne Theatre Company 1995-98.
Opera credits include Ariadne Auf Naxos for the Welsh National Opera, Fresh Ghosts and Motherland for Chamber Made Opera and Eugene Onegin for Opera Australia. In 2001 he designed the Marriage of Figaro for WNO and Opera Australia. Recent engagements include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Dons Party for the STC and MTC, The Glass Soldier, The Female Of The Species and History Boys for the Melbourne Theatre Company, Peribanez, The Chairs and The Sapphires and The Dreamers for Company B, Great Expectations and Summer Rain for Sydney Theatre Company.
Other theatre productions include, The Seagull, The Chairs, Dealers Choice, and the award winning production of A Cheery Soul (MTC and STC) Neil Armfield /Geoffrey Rush adaptations of Beaumarchais’ play The Marriage of Figaro for Company B/QTC.and Ionesco’s Exit the King for company B / Malthouse.. Television work includes TEMPTATION for the Nine Network Australia and Fremantle Television.
JULIE LYNCH - Costume Designer
Julie has worked extensively as a Costume and Set Designer in Australian Theatre, having worked many times with respected Directors such as Neil Armfield and Gale Edwards.
Her credits include: Chasing the Dragon, Del Del, What is the Matter with Mary Jane, Death and the Maiden, The Herbal Bed, The Byzantine Flowers, The Ham Funeral, (co-designer) The Sydney Theatre Company; Buried Child, Wasp and Trouble in Tahiti, Belvoir Street Theatre; Love Burns, Victoria State Opera; The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Opera Australia.
Julie was Head of Costume at NIDA between 2000 and 2005. In 2003 she won the Robert Helpmann Award for Best Costume Design for her work on The Way of the World with the Sydney Theatre Company and she designed costumes for the critically acclaimed Sydney Theatre Company show Festen, for which she won Best Costume Design, Sydney Theatre Awards 2005.
In 2006 she designed costumes for the STC production of Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, again winning the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Costume Design and earlier this year she was costume design consultant for Kaidan, directed by Meryl Tankard, Sydney Festival/Sydney Opera House. Julie most recently designed costumes for Kookaburra National Music Theatre’s production of Company.
DAMIEN COOPER - Lighting Designer
Damien is a leading Australian lighting designer with extensive experience across Theatre, Opera and Dance. Having worked with Australia’s leading companies, his CV covers many of the pre-eminent works of recent time.
These include The Lost Echo Parts I and II (Sydney Theatre Company); Keating!, Stuff Happens (Company B, Belvoir); The Magic Flute (Opera Australia); Body Of War; Grand (Sydney Dance Company); Tivoli (Australian Ballet/Sydney Dance Company); Swan Lake (Australian Ballet); Birdbrain (Australian Dance Theatre); The Woman in Black, Wild with Style (Newtheatricals); Frank: The Sinatra Story In Song (Tom Burlinson); The Lord Of The Rings Symphony (Sydney Opera House) and Honour Bound (Sydney Opera House/ Malthouse).
Damien graduated in 1996 from NIDA’s Technical Production Course where he now lectures in Lighting Design. He received the 2003 Mike Walsh Fellowship and has won two Sydney Theatre Critics Award for Best Lighting Design for Summer Rain in 2005 and The Lost Echo, Parts One and Two in 2006.
His recent lighting designs include Alcina for Opera Australia, Exit The King (Malthouse and Company B, Belvoir), Self Esteem (Wharf2Loud) and Ying Tong, Art of War, and Love Lies Bleeding (STC).
MICHAEL WATERS - Sound Designer
Recent sound designs include Company, Pippin, Live Earth - Sydney, The King and I, Priscilla - Queen of The Desert, The Boy From Oz with Hugh Jackman, The Woman In Black (Helpmann Award Best Sound Design); Dusty - The Original Pop Diva (Best Sound Design - 2006 Helpmann Awards), David Campbell's Wild With Style, Grease - The Arena Spectacular (2005 and 1998); Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing (Best Technical Design - Green Room Awards 2005) and The Full Monty.
Michael was Associate Sound Designer for Singin' In The Rain and The Boy From Oz with Todd McKenney.
Concert and event credits throughout Australia and internationally include Lesley Garrett and Anthony Warlow with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Genesis, Phil Collins, Keith Richards and Peter Allen, as well as many television and sporting events.
NATHAN WRIGHT - Assistant to the Choreographer / Dance Captain / Phantom
Nathan has worked extensively throughout Australia & Asia in all facets of the entertainment industry. He began his training at The Conroy Dance Centre in Brisbane and made his professional musical theatre debut at the age of twelve, starring as Louis alongside legendary Hayley Mills in the Gordon Frost’s Production of The King And I. He played The Wicked Faced Boy alongside Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. Most recently he performed as a motion capture Penguin in George Miller’s Academy Award winning film Happy Feet.
Nathan was Assistant to the Director of Choreography (Jason Coleman) for The 15th Annual Asian Games in Doha, Qatar for David Atkins Enterprises and has just finished work on the Parade of Athletes for The 2007 World Special Olympics Opening Ceremony in China, coordinating (choreographing) 500 Marshals for the welcome of over 150 countries to Shanghai.
Nathan has just been in South Africa and Korea performing the role of Simon Zealotes in Jesus Christ Superstar. Other musical theatre credits include featured roles in the Australian productions of Pippin (Theo), Eurobeat, Oh! What A Night, Leader of the Pack Sydney and Melbourne Seasons, Get Happy (Carmen Miranda), Hot Shoe Shuffle (Tap Bros), Shout (Young Johnny) Mamma Mia (Pepper) for which he was nominated for the prestigious Green Room Award as a best supporting Actor in a musical. Earlier this year Nathan was the Assistant Choreographer to John O’Connell on Gale Edwards’ production of Company.
Television credits include The Footy Show, Mornings with Kerri-Anne, Good Friday Appeal and Breakers. Commercials include Coca-Cola, Lipton Tea, Wendy’s Ice Cream and Warner Bros Movieworld.
Nathan would like to thank his incredible family and friends for their unbelievable love and support.
