Profiles
Written by David Hibbard
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David Hibbard David Hibbard is a retired opera singer. Born in Murwillumbah, NSW. He attended the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
He has performed with The English National Opera, The Glyndebourne Festival, Opera 80, The Australian Opera, Oper der Stadt Koln, Bremer Staatstheater, Teatro Liceu, The State Opera of South Australia, Opera Australia, West Australian Opera, the Lyric Opera of Queensland, Taipei Opera, Singapore Opera and New Zealand Opera.
He has performed many major bass roles including Fiesco, Sparafucile, Padre Guardiano, Prince Gremin and Alvise Badoero.
He is currently a full time carer for his partner of forty years. This thesis was written in 2017 for his BA Hons with the University of South Queensland.
Written by Judy Leech
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Judy Leech AustraliaJudy has had a twenty-two year career at the ABC Television Studios as a graphic designer, with occasional forays into children's book illustrations. This was followed by ten years working with the Rex Reid Dance Company on costume, set and props design. Since the late 1990s Judy has been closely involved, in a design capacity, with many of the annual musicals presented by Melbourne High and Mac.Robertson's Schools.
Written by Roger Neill
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Roger Neill UKRoger Neill is a UK-based arts historian. He curated the exhibition Legends: The Art of Walter Barnett for the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 2000. He helped Sam Wanamaker to re-build Shakespeare’s Globe in London. His most recent book is The Simonsens of St Kilda: A Family of Singers. With Tony Locantro he co-produced the 4CD set From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record for Decca Eloquence.
Written by Nick Murphy
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Nick Murphy AustraliaAs the grandson of Melbourne theatre architect Gordon Murphy, Nick Murphy grew up with a fascination for all things theatrical. A teacher and Assistant Principal for many years, he also worked at Melbourne Museum and in educational settings in China, and tutored pre-service teachers at the University of Melbourne. He has lived most of his life just a few streets from Daphne Pollard's birthplace in Fitzroy. The children of Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company remain an ongoing interest. forgottenaustralianactresses.com
Written by Kevin Coxhead
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Kevin Coxhead AustraliaKevin Coxhead was a former dancer with the J. C. Williamson company and now divides his time between writing articles for Theatre Heritage Australia and restoring historic JCW costumes and other pieces of memorabilia. Following his time as a dancer with Williamson's, he played the piano for various ballet schools in Melbourne and then moved on to the position of Lead Set Dresser on the television soap-opera Neighbours for five years. He then ran his own successful interior design business for thirty years in Melbourne. Kevin has written four books, a biography of choreographer and Australian theatre legend Betty Pounder; Behind the Curtain: Celebrating the backstage heroes of J.C. Williamson Ltd from 1886 to 1976; Djin-Djin, the Japanese Bogie-Man: The production that saved J.C. Williamson Theatres; and has just completed a book celebrating the Sutherland-Williamson International Grand Opera Company tour of 1965.
Written by John Senczuk
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John Senczuk AustraliaBased in the Northern Rivers of NSW, Dr John Senczuk is a theatre polymath. A NIDA graduate, his multi-award winning career as director, designer, playwright and dramaturg spans forty years, with his work seen nationally and internationally in commissions for opera, dance and drama. Concurrently, he lectured on dramaturgy and scenography at the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, Toi Whakaari, NZ Drama School, and WAAPA. John is the inaugural S,B&W Foundation Research Fellow, where his first major publication was the transcription and annotations of JC Williamson’s 1909 Diary (listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register). In 2020, he was a member of the ARC/Ausstage Research Team engaged on an animated 3D Digital Reconstruction of the Stage House of Newcastle’s Victoria Theatre (1891). He now writes on Australian theatre history and biography. Recent publications include Griffin Rising (2019; shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Award), Griffin Redux (2022); Funny Business: A Biography of Carol Raye (2022); and ‘Those Enterprising Impresarios’ The MacMahon Brothers (2024). John is also the founding editor of the boutique publisher Janus Imprint, making available unpublished or inaccessible heritage Australian drama scripts. John’s first releases included Louis Esson’s The Battler, Leon Brodsky’s Rebel Smith, Kate Howarde’s Possum Paddock and Euphemia Coulson Davidson’s Sorell.
Written by Nick Murphy
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Nick Murphy Australia
As the grandson of Melbourne theatre architect Gordon Murphy, Nick Murphy grew up with a fascination for all things theatrical. A teacher and Assistant Principal for many years, he also worked at Melbourne Museum and in educational settings in China, and tutored pre-service teachers at the University of Melbourne. He has lived most of his life just a few streets from Daphne Pollard's birthplace in Fitzroy. The children of Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company remain an ongoing interest. forgottenaustralianactresses.com
Written by Roger Neill
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Roger Neill UK
Roger Neill is a UK-based arts historian. He curated the exhibition Legends: The Art of Walter Barnett for the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 2000. He helped Sam Wanamaker to re-build Shakespeare’s Globe in London. His most recent book is The Simonsens of St Kilda: A Family of Singers. With Tony Locantro he co-produced the 4CD set From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record for Decca Eloquence.
Written by Steve Rattle
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Steve Rattle AustraliaSteve Rattle has had a lifetime interest in Australians in the Performing Arts. His database has well over 1000 names and keeps growing! Of particular interest to Steve is the life and output of Melbourne born pianist and musician Len Luscombe - his biography and piano roll database was published in 2021. An avid collector of player piano rolls, gramophone records and vintage Morris motor-cars, Steve lives in Ballarat, Victoria.
Written by Kurt Gänzl
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Kurt Gänzl New ZealandKurt is one of the most important chroniclers of the world’s history of music and theatre. His numerous works on the subject include The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre (1994, 2001), The British Musical Theatre (1986), The Musical: a concise history (1997), Gänzl’s Book of the Musical Theatre (1988), Victorian Vocalists (2018) and biographies of such artists as Lydia Thompson (2002), Willie Gill (2002), Emily Soldene (In Search of a Singer, 2007), and Gilbert & Sullivan, the Players and the Plays (October 2021). Forthcoming works include an update of the 2007 University textbook, and a translation of the Rapsodies of Petrus Borel with his brother, poet John Gallas.
Written by Winifred Lawson; Endnotes by Rob Morrison
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Winifred Lawson; Endnotes by Rob Morrison AustraliaWith a background in science and biophysics, Rob is equally at home in the Performing Arts having performed in over 70 stage productions since 1975, including plays, revues and musicals for a number of amateur theatre companies based in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
As a broadcaster, Rob has been heard on Melbourne community radio 96.5 Inner FM since 1992 contributing to the Local Theatre programme and as the host of the weekly light-music Kaleidoscope and Musical Theatre Melodies programmes. (A selection of Rob’s past interviews from the latter with noted theatre composers and/or lyricists, Leslie Bricusse, Frank Wildhorn and Sheldon Harnick, plus musical theatre historian and author, Miles Kreuger can be accessed on the THA website under Digital Collections – audio.)
Since early 2023 Musical Theatre Melodies has also been available as a podcast, which may be heard at https://www.innerfm.org.au/shows/musical-theatre-melodies/ and recently earned the distinction of being ranked amongst the Top 10 Australian Theatre Podcasts by Feedspot, as listed at https://podcasts.feedspot.com/australian_theatre_podcasts
Rob has also contributed information and articles to the on-line Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, Gilbert and Sullivan Discography and Edward German Discography websites.
Past articles published in the print editions of On Stage include:-
- ‘Are There Any More at Home Like You?’ (Summer 2009, p.30)
- ‘W.S. Gilbert Makes the Music’ (Autumn 2009, p.7)
- ‘Sir Seymour Remembers Dame Nellie’ (Autumn 2010, p.8)
- ‘Remembering Nichols Remembering Melba’ (Spring 2011, p.9)
In addition Rob collaborated on the research into the background of local Music Hall singer, ‘Syria Lamonte’ (Summer 2010, p.5), as outlined in ‘The Search for Syria’ (Autumn 2010, p. 17); provided the footnotes to ‘Richard Watson: “a molasses of a bass”’ (Spring 2009, p.35 & Summer 2010, p.40.) and researched the discography for ‘Richard Watson’s Recorded Legacy’ (Spring 2011, p.18.)
