As You Like It program

AS YOU LIKE IT DIRECTED BY DAMIEN RYAN

Queensland Theatre acknowledges the Jagera and Turrbal people who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, and their unique relationship with the lands, seas and waterways. We pay our respects to their Elders both past and present, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

QUEENSLAND THEATRE IS ASSISTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL, ITS ARTS FUNDING AND ADVISORY BODY. QUEENSLAND THEATRE IS SUPPORTED BY THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT THROUGH ARTS QUEENSLAND.

When we were putting together the 2023 season we were looking for stories to lift us up and give us a bit of hope!

Lee Lewis Artistic Director

Four weddings, songs, goats and a whole lot of disguises offered the possibility of laughter and lightness that we could really look forward to. So, As You Like It was an almost obvious choice.

As this year is unfolding, yes, we are enjoying the fun theatre has to offer, but we are all starting to appreciate again the electricity of complex live storytelling. The richness of a theatrical experience and the way the story reaches out in the dark to keep you talking about it for weeks — that is what is thrilling us all again!

As You Like It, in the hands of this company of actors led by Damien Ryan offers not just laughter but a story that is big and challenging and full of questions that we have always and will always wrestle. How do we survive exile from all we know? Is justice even possible? How do we find our better selves? Do we believe in forgiveness?

Shakespeare’s plays are repositories of great humane conversations. The philosophy and art hived inside his sentences have reached across the planet and across time. There are people who wonder why we keep returning to his plays when there are so many new plays to share. But a

state theatre company has a cultural mandate to reach back into the heritage of theatre and preserve culture as much as it must discover and invent.

The breadth of our audience interest is huge; the depth of our artists’ love of our classics will never be plumbed.

While these two things hold true, Shakespeare will always find a way onto the stage. When times are bright and days are easy the darker plays have their appeal. When the challenges of the world are threatening to overwhelm us works like this are flotation devices to help us catch our breath.

Over the last few weeks the threads of Alec Steedman’s songs have been wrapping their notes around the whole company. The passion of director Damien Ryan has infused all of us with a belief that in this 17th century play is a survival guide to anything that can be thrown at us in the 21st century.

And the sounds of goats coming through the rehearsal walls have just been too silly to resist. Beauty, passion, survival, humour and the promise of a rich theatre experience… that is the kind of stuff that is bringing our theatre family back to life.

Enjoy!

— Lee

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15 APR — 13 MAY

BILLE BROWN THEATRE

AS YOU LIKE IT DIRECTED BY DAMIEN RYAN

Disguises, lovelorn youth and wit galore — this fast-paced classic lets us know that all the world’s a stage, and we’re merely players. With more weddings than you can throw a bouquet at, you have to ask yourself, will love conquer all or is it madness?

Rosalind has been banished by the villainous Dutchess.

Disguised as a man, she seeks refuge in the Forest of Arden.

Turns out she’s not the only one with that idea. The Forest is now home to other exiled fugitives, including the chivalrous Orlando. Cue melodic songs, questionable poetry, a wisecracking fool and buckets of laughs.

Brought to us by acclaimed Shakespearean director Damien Ryan (Taming of the Shrew) this beguiling tale twists and turns through love, lust and mistaken identity. Not to mention the shepherds...!

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Or, four weddings and an exile

CREATIVES Director Damien Ryan Composer/Music Director Alec Steedman Set and Costume Designer Emma White Lighting Designer David Murray Stage Manager Grant Gravener Assistant Stage Managers Bridget O’Brien, Tia-Hanee Cleary CAST Jaques/Adam Andrew Buchanan Duchess/Audrey/Forester Helen Cassidy Celia/Phebe/Forester Courtney Cavallaro Jaques de Bois/Forester 1/Silvius Davis Dingle Orlando/Forester Andrew Hearle Oliver de Bois/Forester 2 Philippe Klaus Touchstone/Forester Hannah Raven Charles/Duke/Oliver Martext/William Colin W Smith Le Beau/Amiens/Hymen Alec Steedman Rosalind/Forester Emma Wright CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Fight and Intimacy Director NJ Price Choreography Dan Venz LOCATION Bille Brown Theatre Queensland Theatre 78 Montague Road South Brisbane DURATION 2 hour and 40 minutes including a 20 minute interval.

WARNINGS This production includes the use of e-cigarettes, approved theatrical smoke and haze, Dead Black Outs and strobe lighting.

The use of photographic or recording equipment is not permitted inside the theatre.

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To distil As You Like It’s focus to its purest form is inevitably to talk of love.

Damien Ryan Director

As You Like It opens with three words we might typically expect to preface a tall tale, the sort of thing you’d hear by a campfire or from a grandparent spinning a web of nostalgia… “As I remember…”

human. It’s a giant play about desire, written in poetry, telling us that poetry can’t meet the inexpressible nature of desire — Shakespeare woos us with a poem that says a poem simply can’t woo us. But why?

“As I remember…” It’s how stories begin. But Shakespeare’s trick in this play lies in his daring, joyous, subversive recognition that the act of storytelling really is fundamental to the task of being human. All the world’s a stage, he reminds us, and all of us are roleplaying every day, from infancy to decrepitude, hoping to control our own narrative. As You Like It is a hyper-theatrical montage of our most treasured kinds of story. As we seem to like it… Shakespeare gives it to us.

Perhaps because practical things express love, not poetry. Love doesn’t need rhyme; it needs turning up on time when you say you will. Love means commitment.

This play is a comic fever dream from a playwright feasting on stories of all kinds and parodying our thirst for them. It takes theatre and acting seriously, but never too seriously.

The play is more than 50% prose, a real rarity for plays of the period, especially plays about love. Prose is unstructured, informal, unromantic, apparently formless — in other words, 6

Poetry can be a beautiful and dangerous distraction when it comes to relationships. “The truest poetry is the most feigning,” says the wise fool, Touchstone, capturing the defining oxymoronic absurdism of it.

A ‘fool’ is very important to a community. Civilisation corrupts and pollutes itself by nature and despotism is a short journey from democracy as the Greeks understood. Tyranny and distrust breed fear which quickly feeds on individuality. Shakespeare frames such a place in the ‘court’ in this play, a world of “painted pomp” and brutality where blood sport is the pastime of the new ruler.

Philippe Klaus, Damien Ryan

As Arthur Miller wrote, “the sin of public terror is that it divests man of conscience” — fear breeds impersonality, conformity, impositions on freedom of speech, it builds homogeny. And it takes a fool like Touchstone to dare to fight against that conformity. In the forest, Jaques fulfills that same role, invectively cutting against what people too willingly accept as customary and inalterable.

The transformation from the big smoke to this desert-place is so often a therapeutic journey in stories — this Arden is a subconscious state of mind, it is something that happens to us.

Place has the power to alter us, to reframe our perceptions — the treechange, the natural life and its rhythms, slowing down, the time to think, a capacity to regenerate and start again.

Yet, in this sophisticated play, the country/rural idyll is no paradise. It’s a bitter arcadia, a fearful, difficult place, cold and uninviting. Food is scarce and Shakespeare places real dangers in this desert forest. If we are going to change, we’ll have to earn it. In some ways, ‘nature’, the ‘fool’ and the ‘intellectual’ Jaques, serve the same purpose, to remind human beings that we are just human beings, and 7

Damien Ryan

that flaws and failures are our destiny.

Shakespeare assists that process in As You Like It through the shift from bitter winter to the promise of spring — regrowth and renewal — supporting the play’s essential action — healing.

There are people all over the world going through all too real forms of exile right now who can uniquely understand what it is to lose everything that once defined you and to rebuild your identity from within. And in our own way, the rest of us are a little more acutely aware of the feeling of having been exiled into our homes through a global pandemic, before finally returning to community.

“It’s a sign of your own worth sometimes if you are hated by the right people,” wrote Miles Franklin in My Brilliant Career in the late 19th Century, and it is her dazzling heroine we have modelled something of our Rosalind upon. This play says so much about freedom of expression and it is one of the hottest debates in our contemporary world. It’s significant that just as Rosalind can only find the freedom to truly express herself under the pseudonym Ganymede, Stella 8

Maria Sarah Franklin felt she had to do the same under the name Miles.

Shakespeare loves to thread a visceral sensation through his plays, something buried deep in the language that operates on our senses, something that will keep rearing up its head inside words, phrases, scenes, even at the most unexpected moments.

Of course, As You Like It has one central and obvious tenet involving the human heart and we will come to that one… but his visceral sensation in this play is perhaps food!

Food and feasting are a poetic staple of this play, sustained throughout — the ethics of food, the constant references to animalia right from the first speech, the shepherding of food, the hunting and killing of food, the consumption and critiquing of food, the sharing of it, the absence of it, the theft of food — we have excess of it in the court and starvation and need in the forest.

The play invites us to a recurring feast within its language, referencing food, diet, thirst, regurgitation, swallowing, digesting, killing for survival, even when the scene has

nothing to do with eating or drinking.

It is a pervasive referential world that brings our capacity/incapacity to satiate ourselves to every situation.

He seems to be writing a play about a species that cannot fill and satisfy itself no matter how valiantly we try.

As Coco Chanel said, “I only drink champagne on two occasions… when I am in love, and when I am not.” I feel like Shakespeare is saying something similar about the relationship between food, sex and desire in this great play from 1599. Life is spent trying to satisfy a thirst for something that is very hard to get, and once got, not easy to digest or recover from.

And this quote ties us to that other central motif in the play… the ‘L’ word.

To distil As You Like It’s focus to its purest form is inevitably to talk of love. Love’s delightfully irrational force interrupts this play’s central thrust before it even has a valid reason to do so. But Shakespeare’s vision of love is not at all generalised — it is all encompassing, welcoming and very specific. This joyous comedy, at its heart, targets the many different forces and impulses within this thing we call ‘love’, exploring it both as a positive, curative force, and a disease from which we suffer. Each character's story offers a unique prism through which to view the feeling — its vagaries, its agonies and waywardness, its transcendent joys, its “sighs and tears”, its “passion and purity”, its spontaneity, its risk and rewards, and above all, its optimism.

But how can anyone say anything ‘new’ about love? Shakespeare’s solution is to mock what has been said before, and his characters do

this mercilessly in As You Like It. The play may end with ‘perfect’ love, but it is parodied and ridiculed on its way there. So many conventional balloons of love are viciously burst in this almost anti-romantic rom-com.

In the end, the play seems to ask us to believe in the profound truth of love. It gives us romantic ‘true’ love, poetic conventional love, unrequited love, exploitative lust, same sex love, ‘sisterly’ love, the painful journey to brotherly love, and not least, the unconditional love of an old man for his young master. In the process it gives us a series of roles that actors simply love to play and this, along with the absolutely extraordinary original music score from Alec Steedman, has been the greatest joy for us in the rehearsal room. Alec and the cast have done an incredible job to keep all of the music in the show live amidst its already challenging and very musical language.

It has frankly been a joy to be in a rehearsal room with these wonderful generous artists and theatre makers, on stage and behind it. This play is about people coming together in a desert forest to argue about what matters in life, and it has provoked wonderful, transformative and challenging conversations for us every day in our attempts to play it.

Thank you for coming.

We hope… you like it.

— Damien

To read the full version of the Director's note scan here.

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Damien Ryan Director Queensland Theatre: Taming of the Shrew. Other Credits: As Director: Sydney Theatre Company/Melbourne Theatre Company: The Father; Bell Shakespeare: Hamlet, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet; Ensemble Theatre Company: A Christmas Carol; Sport for Jove: Romeo & Juliet, The Crucible, Shakespeare’s History Cycle from Richard 2 to Richard 3, Merchant of Venice, Antigone, Antony and Cleopatra, The River at the End of the Road, Cyrano de Bergerac, No End of Blame, Othello, The Tempest, Away, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Love's Labour’s Lost, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, The Libertine; Old Fitz: Look Back in Anger. As Actor: Belvoir: Life of Galileo, Twelfth Night, Nora; Bell Shakespeare: As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard 3, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet; Sport for Jove: Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Cyrano de Bergerac, Julius Caesar; SAT: Crime and Punishment, Under Milk Wood; Harlos: Mother Courage, Isolde and Tristan, Hamlet, King Lear.

Film: Sport for Jove: Venus & Adonis. Positions: Founder and Artistic Director, Sport for Jove.

Awards: Green Room Award – Best Production Henry V; Sydney Theatre Award – Best Production and Best Director Antigone, Best Production and Best Director Henry V, Best Production and Best Director Cyrano de Bergerac, Best Production All’s Well That Ends Well, Best Production The Libertine, Glugs Award – Best Director The Father, Best Production Look Back in Anger. Damien is a proud MEAA member.

Alec Steedman Composer/Musical Director Le Beau/Amiens/Hymen Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: Melbourne Theatre Company: Twelfth Night; Black Swan State Theatre Company & Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Once; Pop Up Globe: Hamlet, Measure for Measure; Hayes Theatre Company: Young Frankenstein; Sport for Jove: As You Like It; CDP Theatre: The Gruffalo, Room On The Broom; Melbourne Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night; Artefact Theatre

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Company: Much Ado About Nothing. Training: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Musical Theatre), Victorian College of the Arts; AMEB AmusA Diploma (Violin).

Emma White Set and Costume Designer Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: As Set and Costume Designer: Sydney Theatre Company: The Lifespan of a Fact; Griffin Theatre Company: Green Park, A is for Apple; Red Line Productions: Hand to God, Chorus; Belvoir 25A: Kasama Kita; Campbelltown Arts Centre: Bad Machine; Bondi Festival: The Knife; Blue Room Theatre: You’ve Got Mail (with Sotto); Milk Crate Theatre: Natural Order; National Theatre of Parramatta: Boom (with Sydney Festival); NIDA: Stay Happy Keep Smiling; Old 505: Homesick, Safe (with Sotto); Q Theatre: Daisy Moon Was Born This Way. As Set Designer: Australian Theatre for Young People: The Deb. As Costume Designer: Red Line Productions: Seven Deadly Sins & The Mahagonny Songspiel; NIDA: Venus in Fur. As Associate Designer: Hayes Theatre Company: American Psycho; Sport for Jove: A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Tempest.

As Assistant Designer: National Theatre London: Nine Night; Shakespeare’s Globe: Richard II; Sydney Theatre Company: Lord of the Flies, Appropriate. Training: Master of Fine Art Design, NIDA; Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture), UNSW. Awards: APDG Award Nomination – Best Emerging Designer.

David Murray Lighting Designer Queensland Theatre: The 39 Steps, Tartuffe (with Black Swan Theatre Company), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Clean House, The Female of the Species, Puss in Boots. Other Credits: Black Swan Theatre Company: Much Ado About Nothing, Boundary Street; Brisbane Festival: The Fiveways, Electronique; Sydney Theatre Company: Tap Dogs, Heretic, Moby Dick, Garden of Grandaughters; Melbourne Theatre Company: Man the Balloon, Betrayal, Bombshells, The Chairs, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Honour, Humble Boy, Take Me Out, Life After George; Playbox Theatre: Still Angela, Tear From a Glass Eye, Language of the Gods, Extremities; Victoria

State Opera and Opera Australia: The Magic Flute, Don Carlos, Cosi Fan Tutte, Carmen, The Snow Queen, Love in the Age of Therapy; Chamber Made Opera: Improvement (Don Leaves Linda), The Burrow, Fall of the House of Usher, Greek, Wide Sargasso Sea, Gaugin - A Synthetic Opera, Motherland, Eight Songs for a Mad King, Slow Love; Singapore Dance Theatre: Madama Butterfly, Cinderella, The Red Shoes; Australian Ballet: John Adam’s Book of Alleged Dances, Theme and Variations, The Red Shoes; International Tours: Circus Oz, The Wizard of Oz, Hair, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Into the Woods, The New Rocky Horror Show, Dancing Dynamite, Strange Fruit. Melbourne International Festival, Barbara Cook in Concert and her Better with a Band, Moby Dick, Joel Grey, Betty Buckley, Dudley Moore, Michael Feinstein, The River Spectacular, Follies in Concert; As Site Lighting Designer: Expo ’88. Training: Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Awards: Green Room Award – Love in the Age of Therapy, Motherland, Life After George, Language of the Gods; FEIP Award – Set and Lighting Design Seesaw; Entech’s Award for Technical Brilliance – Lighting Designer of the Year (Stage/Concert) The Puccini Spectacular.

Grant Gravener Stage Manager Queensland Theatre: Family Values, Othello. Other Credits: As Stage Manager: Sun Opera: The Nurses at Vung Tau (World Premiere Brisbane 2022); Opera Australia: As Stage Manager Swing: The Phantom of the Opera (Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour 2022); Gordon Frost Organisation: As Venue Manager: Magic Mike Live (Sydney/Melbourne Tour 2021); Cirque du Soleil: As General Stage Manager: Corteo Arena Version (Montreal Restaging/North American and European Tours 2018–2020), Luzia (Montreal Creation/North American Tour 2016–2017); As General Stage Manager/Artistic Assistant: Corteo (North American/Japanese/European/South American Tours 2007–2015); As Assistant Stage Manager: Quidam (Asia-Pacific Tour 2005– 2006).

Hannah Raven

Helen Cassidy

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Davis Dingle, Helen Cassidy, Damien Ryan, Colin W Smith, Philippe Klaus, Alec Steedman

Bridget O’Brien Assistant Stage Manager

Tia-Hanee Cleary Assistant Stage Manager

Queensland Theatre: Family Values, First Casualty. Other Credits: As Assistant Stage Manager: Opera Australia: La Traviata, Mefistofele (2022). As Stage Manager: Opera Queensland:The Sopranos (2022); Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University: Iolanthe, Mr Burns, The Deepest Deep, Street Scene, Measure for Measure, Val Machin Scenes 2021, The Rover, Dido and Aeneas, Béatrice et Bénédict. Training: Bachelor of Music in Performance (2018); Stage Management Apprenticeship, Berlin Opera Academy (2019); Stage Management Apprenticeship, Komische Oper Berlin (2020).

Queensland Theatre: The Almighty Sometimes. Other Credits: As Lighting Operator: Brisbane Powerhouse: A Girl’s Guide to World War, All Fired Up, Diary of a Madman, Speed: The Movie The Play, Diehard: The Movie The Play, Titanic: The Movie The Play; Room to Play: The Eisteddfod. As Deputy Head of Props: Opera Australia: The Phantom of the Opera (2022/2023). As Props Assistant: GWB Entertainment: An American in Paris (Brisbane).

As Assistant Stage Manager: Opera Queensland: Songs of Love and War, The Marriage of Figaro, Opera Under the Stars, Don Giovanni, A Flowering Tree, Peter Grimes; Troop Production: The Lonesome West. As Venue Technician: Brisbane Festival: Cassie Workman: Giantess, Orpheus, Eurydice. As Visual Graphic and Presentation Designer: Matilda Awards (2018 & 2019). Training: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Production), QUT.

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Andrew Buchanan Jaques/Adam Queensland Theatre: Othello, The Sunshine Club, Boy Swallows Universe, Our Town, L’Appartement, No Man’s Land (with Sydney Theatre Company), Macbeth, Water Falling Down, The Crucible, God of Carnage (with Black Swan State Theatre Company), The Female of the Species, Christmas at Turkey Beach, Antigone, The Marriage of Figaro, Composing Venus, Peter Pan, Romeo & Juliet, The Beaux Stratagem, Essington Lewis: I Am Work, The Cherry Orchard.

Other Credits: Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway New York / Sydney Theatre Company: The Present; La Boite Theatre Company: The Wishing Well (with Matrix Theatre), Secret Bridesmaids Business, Clark in Sarajevo, Sex Diary Of An Infidel, Cosi, Bouncers, Hamlet, The Taming Of The Shrew; Metaluna Theatre Company: Summer of the Aliens; QPAC: Armistice, Over the Top with Jim; Harvest Rain: Love’s Labour Lost, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing; Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe: Hamlet, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline; ACT Industrial Theatre: Cry Wolf, Deepwater. Film: Love and Monsters, Don’t Tell, Australia Day, Fatal Honeymoon, Iron Sky, The Condemned, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, Scooby Doo, Hildegard, Paperback Hero.

Television: Irreverent, Young Rock, The End, Rosehaven, Grace Beside Me, Safe Harbour, The Family Law, Harrow, Hoges, Wanted, Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, The Gods of Wheat Street, Reef Doctors, Sisters of War, SLIDE, Sea Patrol, Monarch Cove, RAN (Remote Area Nurse), Mortified, Farmkids, Answered By Fire, Through My Eyes, Chameleon II, Beastmaster, Murder Call, Flipper, Big Sky, Medivac, Roar, Pacific Drive.

Awards: Matilda Awards – Best Actor The Female of the Species, Christmas at Turkey Beach, Hamlet, Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, Summer of the Aliens, Best Director Love’s Labour Lost, Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Oak Tree, Long Days Journey into Night (with Bell Shakespeare); Scapin (with State Theatre Company South Australia). Other Credits: Woodward Productions: The Mystery of the Valkyrie; La Boite Theatre Company: As You Like It, Rio Saki and Other Falling Debris, The Wishing Well (with Matrix Theatre Co), The Drowning Bride (with Matrix Theatre Co), Post Office Rose (with Dogs in the Roof); Shake and Stir: Fourteen, Fantastic Mr Fox; Debase Productions: Furze Family Variety Hour, Death in a Statesman; Western Standard Productions: Dirty Fame Flash Candles Club; Shock Therapy: Medea; 4MBS Shakespeare Festival: Midsummer Night’s Dream; Sydney Cabaret Festival: Cheeky Cabaret; Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre: The Cult of Dionysus, Unleashed, Steelflesh; Metro Arts: The Waiting Room; Grin and Tonic: Schools Touring, Various Productions; Strut n Fret Production House: Schools Touring, various, Adelaide Fringe; Pretend Productions: Erotic Intelligence for Dummies, Glitter and Dust, Statuesque (European tour); La La Parlour: Tarnished (Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne Comedy Fest); Spiegelworld International (USA): Opium. Film: Thirteen Lives, Australia Day, Sisters of War, The Contents. Television: Wanted, Through My Eyes. Training: Acting, Queensland University of Technology; Ecole Phillipe Gaulier (UK); Keith Johnstone; Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre. Awards: Lord Mayor’s Performing Arts Fellowship (2000); Matilda Award – Best Ensemble Dirty Fame Flash Candles Club, Best Actress The Glass Menagerie, Best Supporting Actress Post Office Rose, The Drowning Bride.

Helen Cassidy Duchess/Audrey/Forester Queensland Theatre: Family Values, Boston Marriage, The Glass Menagerie, A Christmas Carol, The Seagull, Orphans, Man Equals Man, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Backseat Drivers, Absurd Person Singular, An

Andrew Hearle

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Courtney Cavallaro Celia/Phebe/Forester

Andrew Hearle Orlando/Forester

Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: La Boite Theatre Company: ATYP Fresh Ink (Playing Reading); The Blue Room Theatre: Ugly Virgins, The Wolves, BITE ME, Hell On Earth; State Theatre Centre of WA: Do I Look Like I Care?, What Of It?; Subiaco Arts Centre: Someone Stole Dee Perse’s Tree; pvi collective: Disobedience Rules; WAAPA: Wild Cherries, The First Time I Was Very Much Afraid, Solo Stage: Here Now, The Skriker. Television: Irreverent. Training: Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making), WAAPA. Awards: Performing Arts WA Awards - Best Newcomer Nomination BITE ME.

Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: Brisbane Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Sport for Jove: Measure for Measure, Servant of Two Masters; JackRabbit Theatre: Sex Object; Seymour Centre: Beautiful Thing. Film: The Good Hustle, Spirit of the Game, Cherry Season. TV: Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, Australia: The Story of Us, Long Black. Position: Founder of StageMilk.

Training: Acting, WAAPA (2012).

Davis Dingle Silvius/Jaques de Bois/Forester 1

Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: Burrundi Theatre: Warangesda; Endangered Productions: Peer Gynt; Old Fitz Theatre: Babes in the Woods, Bull, Flame Peas; Bar’d Work: Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing; Secret House: Crime and Punishment; Collaborations Theatre Group: Mum, Me and the IED; Adelaide Fringe Festival: Down Down Lucifer; Sydney Fringe Festival: Battlers and Dreamers; Theatre Excentrique: Antigone; Australian Theatre for Young People: The Hiding Place. Film: Knot, Into the Waves, Dance Academy: The Comeback, Crystal Children, Thicker than Water, Wolf Creek 2. Television: Brock: The Peter Brock Story, Dr. Max, Home and Away, Devil’s Dust, Rake.

Training: Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts (Acting), WAAPA.

Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: Underground Theatre: When the Rain Stops Falling; Short+Sweet: Katabasis. Film: 2:32am, The Edge, Schrodinger's, Love Club, Anticlimactic. Awards: Short+Sweet Film Festival – Best Actor 2:32am.

Philippe Klaus Oliver de Bois/Forester 2

Hannah Raven Touchstone/Forester

Philippe Klaus

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Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: Red Line Productions: The Judas Kiss, Metamorphoses, Burlesque with Hannie Raegan; Kings Cross Theatre Company: Tom at the Farm; The New Theatre: Dinkum Assorted, Glengarry Glen Ross; Viral Ventures: The Great Gatsby; Broad Encounters Productions: A Midnight Visit; Black Pearl Theatre Company: Miss Julie; Sparkle Productions: Strip; Raven Productions Australia: Edgar’s Girls, The Grotesque and Arabesque; Sport for Jove: As You Like It; Actors Centre

Australia: Measure for Measure, Marriage, The Woman; Fixed Foot Productions: Inner Weather; Brave New Word Theatre Company: Asylum. Film: Zoe Misplaced, The Handbook for Keeping Us Safe From Terrorism. Television: Sudden Impact, City Homicide, Forever Young. Training: The Actors Centre Australia. Awards: International Edgar Allan Poe Festival Theatre Award The Grotesque and Arabesque; Miss Burlesque Idol Australia Champion (2017).

Colin W Smith Charles/Duke/Oliver Martext/William Queensland Theatre: The Sunshine Club, Our Town, Nearer the Gods, Twelfth Night, An Octoroon, The Odd Couple, Black Diggers. Other Credits: La Boite Theatre Company: From Darkness, Romeo & Juliet, A Streetcar Named Desire; Queensland Ballet: Vis-à-Vis: Moving Stories; Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, The Tempest, The Bomb-itty of Errors, Mary Stuart, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, As You Like It, Food of Love: A Shakespeare Cabaret, Metamorphoses, Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s Briefs or Let’s Kill All The Lawyers; 4MBS Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet; Belloo Creative: Boy, Lost; THAT Production Company: Così; Ad Astra: Kelly; Room to Play: One Was Nude And One Wore Tails; Redcliffe Independent Theatre: Noises Off; QUT: Jesus Christ Superstar, One For The Road, Sherwoodstock, The Bald Prima Donna, The Drought; Ensemble Theatre: Black Cockatoo; Elbow Room Productions: What I’m Here For. Television: Darby and Joan, Sea

Alec Steedman

Davis Dingle, Colin W Smith

Patrol, Mortified. Training: Bachelor of Creative Industries (Drama), Queensland University of Technology. Positions: Core Ensemble (2007–19), Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble; Equity Diversity Committee member (2016–present), Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance. Awards: Matilda Award – Best Male Actor in a Leading Role An Octoroon, Matilda Award Nomination – Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role The Odd Couple, Matilda Award Nomination – Best Ensemble Boy, Lost.

Emma Wright Rosalind/Forester Queensland Theatre: Debut.

Other Credits: Brisbane Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; New Ghosts Theatre Company, Secret House & Seymour Centre: Albion; Eye Contact Theatre Company & Kings Cross Theatre: Breathing Corpses; Sport For Jove: As You Like It; Monkey Baa Theatre Company: Hitler’s Daughter; New Ghosts Theatre Company & Kings Cross Theatre: Good People; New Theatre: Pygmalion, Consensual, That Eye, The Sky; Australian Theatre for Young People: Intersection: Arrival; Genesian Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing, The Importance of Being Earnest; Secret House: Troilus and Cressida, The Winter’s Tale. Film: Audio Guide. Television: Harrow, Mako Mermaids. Training: Bachelor of Film and Television, Bond University; Diploma in Screen Acting, Actors Studio London; Advanced Youth Ensemble, Queensland Theatre Company.

Awards: SciFi Film Festival – Brigitte Helm Award for Best Actress Audio Guide.

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Thank you to our donors Queensland Theatre wishes to extend a heartfelt thanks to all our donors.

Each gift, large and small, helps us make great theatre.

QUEENSLAND THEATRE VISIONARIES Rainmakers Tim Fairfax AC & Gina Fairfax AC Ian & Cass George

The Jelley Family Foundation Pamela Marx Cathryn Mittelheuser AM

Liz Pidgeon & Graeme Wikman The Rekindle Foundation Trevor St. Baker AO & Judith St. Baker

Artistic Director's Circle 2 Anonymous Barbara Bedwell

Barbara Duhig Elizabeth Jameson AM & Dr Abbe Anderson

The Mather Foundation

Bruce & Sue Shepherd

Karl & Louise Morris Nigel & Liz Prior

Dr Marie Siganto AM Courtney Talbot

Leaders Nic Christodoulou Keith & Jeannette Ince The Frazer Family Foundation Colin & Noela Kratzing John & Gay Hull Benefactors Tracey Barker Christopher & Margot Blue Dr John H Casey Russell & Joan Dart Davie Family Foundation Wesley Enoch AM & David McAllister AC

Alan Galwey Ian & Ruth Gough Dr Anita Green Dr Geoffrey Hirst AM & Dr Sally Wilde

Amanda Jolly & Peter Knights Nicklin Medical Services David & Katrina King Greg & Wendy O'Meara Stephen & Terry Leach John Reid AO & Lynn Judith Musgrave Family Rainbow-Reid AM Foundation Stack Family Foundation

Sheryl Cornack Rachel Crowley Lisa Domagala Sharon Grimley & David Readett Geoff & Michele James

Susan Learmonth & Bernard Curran David & Erica Lee Andrew & Kate Lister In memory of Jann McCabe Charles & Catherine Miller

Andrea Moor Debra & Patrick Mullins John Richardson & Kirsty Taylor David Williamson AO & Kristin Williamson

Greg Livingstone Barbara Lloyd John & Janice Logan The Lynas Family Marina Marangos Bill McCarthy Sandra McCullagh Kate McLoughlin R & B Murray Kartini Oei Kathryn Panaretto Jill Paterson Dr Joanna Peters Katharine Philp G. Pincus Blayne & Helen Pitts Angela Ramsay Janet & Alec Raymond Tim & Kym Reid William Rivers

Crispin Scott Jodie Siganto Nick & Barbara Tate Richard Whittington OAM Dr Peter & Mary Wilson Richard & Carol Yaxley Ian Yeo & Sylvia Alexander Tony & Linda Young

Collaborators 2 Anonymous Noela Bartlett Sarah Bradley Sue Brown & Lisa Worner Phillip Carruthers & Sharni Cockburn Rodd & Wendy Chignell Patrons 7 Anonymous Dr Genevieve Dingle Anne & Peter Allen Michael Farrington J M Alroe William Glasson AO Roslyn Atkinson AO & Richard & Claire Glasson AM Fotheringham AM Dr Sara Gollschewski Michael & Anne Back Meta & John Goodman Jennifer Batts Helen Gough Dr Glenise Berry Mike Gowan & Dr Damien Thomson Catherine & Nanda Gulhane Virginia Bishop Prof Lawrence Hirst Andrew & Trudi Bofinger & Mrs Jill Osborne Robert Bond Kevin & Joanne Holyoak Suzanne Boulter Patricia Jackson Nicholas & Sharon Bryant Elizabeth Jameson AM Julian Buckley & Dr Abbe Anderson & Bec Langdon Tempe Keune Zoë Connolly Fred Leditschke AM Harvey Cooper-Preston & Margaret Leditschke Kerry & Greg Cowderoy Lee Lewis & Brett Boardman Bruce & Helen Cowley Mrs Maria & Dr Bill Lindsay

Bequestors Realised Bequests Peggy Given Notified Bequests 1 Anonymous

SUPPORTING CAST 2 Anonymous Geoffrey Beames Chris & Patty Beecham Rita Carter-Brown Kay & Sarah Yanni Dubler Robert Ellis & Michelle Skene Merrilyn & Kevin Goos Andrew Harding Fotina & Roger Hardy Jean & Herbert Heimgartner Stephen & Yvonne Henry John White & Judith Hoey Grace Kahlert Michael & Karlie Keating David Kelly Ranjeny & John Loneragan Dr Linda Lorenza Fiona Lowes Mark Menhinnitt Philip & Fran Morrison Patricia Neely Kathy Noble Lynette Parsons Glenda Powell Wendy Price Marianna Serghi & Harvey Whiteford Suzanne Sheridan & Peter Hastie Michael Stewart Annette Stoddart Dr Josephine Sundin Kevin Vedelago & Karen Renton Craig Wilkinson Dr Catherine Yelland

Thank you to the Visionaries who generously support our Landmark Productions Fund, cementing Queensland Theatre as a national leader in the development and staging of productions of significant scale.

Tim Fairfax AC & Gina Fairfax AC Ian & Cass George Elizabeth Jameson AM & Dr Abbe Anderson The Mather Foundation Liz Pidgeon & Graeme Wikman The Rekindle Foundation Bruce & Sue Shepherd Trevor St. Baker AO & Judith St. Baker 2 Anonymous

TRUST AND FOUNDATION PARTNERS Australian Communities Foundation - Davie Family Fund Australian Communities Foundation - Keith & Jeannette Ince Fund The Rekindle Foundation Shepherd Family Foundation Tim Fairfax Family Foundation William Angliss (Queensland) Charitable Fund

Acknowledging Visionaries who individually support special Queensland Theatre funds: Landmark Productions Fund

Together we are making our ambitions a reality For more information about our giving programs, please contact our Executive Director Amanda Jolly on 07 3010 7600 or ajolly@queenslandtheatre.com.au

Information correct as of March 2023.

Emma Wright

Davis Dingle, Colin W Smith, Alec Steedman

18

Damien Ryan

Andrew Buchanan

19

A New Generation of Theatre Makers Queensland Theatre impacts hundreds of young people each year through our nationally recognised drama programs. Our vision for Education and Youth 2023 and beyond is to introduce new initiatives and increase access for young people to the extraordinary world of live theatre.

Include a donation with any ticket purchase in 2023 and you will help us continue our programs, especially those in regional and remote areas, for the next generation of artists.

For more information on supporting our Education and Youth programs, please contact our Development team on 07 3010 7614 or at development@queenslandtheatre.com.au Thank you for your continued support.

Save time and donate online queenslandtheatre.com.au

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− 12 Restaurants − 10 Bars − 5 Dessert Spots − 4 Cafes

Andrew Hearle, Davis Dingle, Alec Steedman, Hannah Raven

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Andrew Hearle, Emma Wright

Helen Cassidy

Emma Wright, Courtney Cavallaro, Hannah Raven

PATRON Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young PSM, Governor of Queensland FOUNDING DIRECTOR AIan Edwards, AM, MBE (1925–2003) MEMBERS OF THE BOARD Tracey Barker Mundanara Bayles Liz Burcham Associate Professor Stephen Carleton Rachel Crowley Simon Gallaher Dean Gibson (Deputy Chair) Elizabeth Jameson AM (Chair) Susan Learmonth INDIGENOUS REFERENCE GROUP Judge Nathan Jarro Mundanara Bayles (Chair) Dr Valerie Cooms Isaac Drandic Dean Gibson Charles Passi Michael Tuahine Roxanne McDonald ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Lee Lewis

FINANCE AND OPERATIONS HEAD OF FINANCE AND OPERATIONS Shane Burke FINANCE OFFICER Sarra Lamb ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT Lien Mai FACILITIES AND OPERATIONS MANAGER Jake Cook VENUE AND BAR MANAGER (MATERNITY LEAVE) Kimberley Mogg VENUE AND BAR MANAGER Peter Carroll MARKETING AND TICKETING DIRECTOR OF MARKETING (MATERNITY LEAVE) Laura Oliver DIRECTOR OF MARKETING David Graham MARKETING MANAGER (MATERNITY LEAVE) Maneka Singh MARKETING MANAGER Cinnamon Smith MARKETING COORDINATOR Hannah Wilson

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Amanda Jolly

MARKETING ASSISTANT (DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT) Thomas Manton–Williams

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Pete Sutherland

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sarah Gannon

HUMAN RESOURCES AND GOVERNANCE MANAGER Donna Maher

PUBLICIST IVY PR

ARTISTIC

TICKETING SUPERVISOR Madison Bell

ARTISTIC ELDER Roxanne McDonald ASSOCIATE ARTIST (CAIRNS) Isaac Drandic ASSOCIATE ARTIST Daniel Evans LITERARY ADVISOR Dr Julian Meyrick WRITING FELLOWSHIP ARTISTS Claire Christian, Wendy Mocke DEVELOPMENT CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER Merryn Csincsi GRANTS AND CONTENT WRITER Yvonne Henry DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Jade Rodrigo

DATABASE SUPERVISOR Jeffrey Guiborat

TICKETING COORDINATOR Dan Sinclair TICKETING OFFICER Myk Brown, Ngaire Lock SEASON TICKETING Milena Barraclough Nesic, Sophie Hodych

HEAD OF WORKSHOP Peter Sands COMPANY CARPENTER/ HEAD MECHANIST John Pierce COSTUME SUPERVISOR Nathalie Ryner WARDROBE COORDINATOR Barbara Kerr PROGRAMMING SENIOR PRODUCER Helen Hillman CASTING MANAGER Samantha French ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATOR Jane Youngs EDUCATION, YOUTH AND REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT SENIOR PRODUCER, EDUCATION, YOUTH AND REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT Eylece Blaikie PRODUCER, EDUCATION, YOUTH AND REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT Laurel Collins ASSOCIATE ARTIST Steve Pirie YOUTH PROGRAM COORDINATOR Alana Dunn ADMINISTRATION COORDINATOR Abigail Taylor QUEENSLAND THEATRE PRODUCTION STAFF SCULPTURE MASTER Rebecca Zavattoni METAL FABRICATOR/MECHANIST Shaun Sommer CARPENTERS Chris Maddison, Tim Pierce SCENIC ARTIST Leo Herreygers ASSISTANT SCENIC ARTIST Jo Herreygers WORKSHOP ASSISTANT Kate Pierce

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR, TECHNICAL AND PRODUCTION Daniel Maddison

CUTTER/COSTUME MAKERS Millie Adams, Leigh Buchanan, Michelle Wiki

TECHNICAL MANAGER Chris Goeldner

COSTUME MAKER/MAINTENANCE Tracey Leino

TECHNICAL COORDINATOR Harry Provins

ART FINISHER Olga Dumova

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Mia McGavin

WARDROBE DRESSER Adrian Teveluwe

SOUND ASSOCIATE Brady Watkins

COSTUME SECONDMENT Chloe Robinson

COSTUME MAKER Cody Newnham

Information correct at time of printing.

WIG & HAIR STYLIST Michael Green DRESSER/MAINTENANCE/WIG DRESSER Corin Cosh, Aislynn Maczyszyn PRODUCTION ELECTRICIAN/ LIGHTING PROGRAMMER Brandon Duncan LIGHTING OPERATOR Nathaniel Knight ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PHOTOGRAPHY Brett Boardman Special thanks to: Behind the Scenes

Courtney Cavallaro

27

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