Mariette Rups-Donnelly has transferred her extensive experience on stages around Australia to guide the corporate world in effective communication and establishing a firm rapport with their audience. Essentials, she knows only too well; garnered from extensive forays into musical theatre, plays and cabaret.

A graduate in languages from Sydney University, Mariette was intended for a career in the diplomatic corps but fate took a hand when she auditioned and was cast in the musical Godspell. Her career in the theatre was off to a promising start and subsequent work in children’s theatre and pantomime (including the role of the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and with Ashton’s Circus, extended her theatrical experience.

Several other musical productions followed, including The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and Paint Your Wagon, before Mariette landed the role of  Val in the original Australian production of A Chorus Line.

She played another iconic role in the musical theatre cannon when cast as the alternate ‘Evita Peron’ in the original Australian production of Evita. Following Evita she went on to appear in Company, The Sentimental Bloke, Side By Side By Sondheim, Big River, and the national tour of Forbidden Broadway.

Roles in Annie,  The Seagull, Hamlet, Emerald City and Away are further credits with companies that include the Sydney Theatre Company, Hole in the Wall Theatre, (Perth), JC Williamson’s, The Q Theatre (Penrith), the Gordon Frost Organisation and the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Mariette has taught at tertiary level in some of Australia’s leading acting schools including Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, The Actor’s College of Theatre and Television, Sydney; the Actors' Centre, Sydney; The University of Western Sydney; The Sydney Institute of TAFE and in The National Institute of Dramatic Art’s Actor’s Program, Open Program and Corporate Program.

Taking her experience as a leading actor and teacher of actors, she has combined this knowledge with an astute business understanding to create programs that go to the core of business performance. She develops and expands her client’s ability to create personal presence, engage on an emotional as well as an intellectual level, run meetings with authority, pitch persuasively and to deliver dynamic presentations.

Her clients particularly value her understanding of how to use the voice and body to create maximum impact and her ability to specifically target what each person needs, to take their speaking performance to the next level.

Her company, Powerhouse Presentation devises one-on-one programs and customised workshops for business owners, professional speakers, senior executives, and corporations.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Recipient of Best New Podcast at 2019 Australian Podcast Awards. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

www.stagespodcast.com.au