STAGES with Peter Eyers

Lucy Durack is one of Australia’s most well-known leading ladies with major roles to her credit including Glinda in Wicked, Sophie in The Letdown (Netflix/ABC), Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical, Roxy in Sisters (Netflix), Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (for which she won a Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award), Audra in A Perfect Pairing (Netflix), Chantelle “Tugger” Waugh in Doctor Doctor (Nine) and most recently Mrs Lilicroft/Mrs Madrina in the World Premiere of Midnight the Musical.
Further highlights include playing Katie Halloway in Now Add Honey (Gristmill/Netflix), Michelle in Upper Middle Bogan (ABC/Netflix), Rose Walker on Neighbours (Ten Peach), Sarah in Touching the Void (MTC), Glinda in The Wizard of Oz (GFO), Sybil Chase in Private Lives (MTC), as The Cactus on The Masked Singer (Ten), a judge on Australia’s Got Talent (Seven) and as the voice of Daisy Quokka’s Mum in animated feature film Daisy Quokka: World’s Scariest Animal.
Lucy won the Helpmann and Sydney Theatre Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for Legally Blonde; Best Screen Play Asia Web Award for Lift; and the AACTA Award for Best Online Drama or Comedy Series for Love In Lockdown. 
She is currently developing television series with Gristmill and Jungle, and is the proud co-founder and co-director of evidence-based health and wellness tech company and CSIRO tested app Hey Lemonade, for which she is a finalist in this year’s Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards.
Through May and June she will be playing the role of Cecily Pigeon in Neil Simon’s classic comedy - The Odd Couple.
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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Robyn Arthur is one of Australia’s leading theatre performers who soon celebrates 50 years working in the Industry.

Robyn toured with Jonathan Church’s Singin’ in the Rain and Jonathan Biggins’ Australia Day for Hit Productions and Mother & Son with Noeline Brown for McLaren House. In 2013, she toured Australia in Elizabeth Coleman’s play It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To!) with Henri Szeps for Hit Productions and appeared in the Production Company’s Singin’ in the Rain directed by Gary Young at the State Theatre.

In 2011, she starred again alongside Todd McKenney in the hit revival of The Boy From Oz having also appeared in the original cast. Robyn played Mrs Potts in the Aria Award winning Australian premiere season of Beauty and the Beast with Hugh Jackman and will be long remembered for her performance as Madame Thenardier (Victorian Green Room Award) in the original cast of Les Miserables directed in Australia by Trevor Nunn. Robyn clocked up almost 1,300 performances in the role.

In 2007, she was nominated for a Helpmann Award for her performance in the Australian premiere of Sideshow Alley (Keelan/Young) for QPAC.

Robyn’s other theatre highlights include Stuart Maunder’s production of My Fair Lady (Opera Australia); Minefield’s and Miniskirts by Terence O’Connell (Malthouse), Gale Edwards’ production of Sweeney Todd (Opera Queensland); Stephen Sondheim’s Company directed by the late Richard Wherrett and Michael Gow’s classic Away for the Sydney Theatre Company.

Television credits include The Newsreader, Rosehaven, Five Bedrooms, Sisters, Woodley, Twentysomething, Laid 2, The Librarians, City Homicide, Very Small Business, Kath and Kim, Blue Heelers, MDA, Neighbours, and the US production, Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

Robyn also appeared in Charlotte’s Web with Dakota Fanning for Paramount Pictures and the Tropfest short film Hoarder Control directed by Nichola Colla.

Robyn’s been a proud member of Actors Equity since 1975 and serves on the Victorian Actors Benevolent Trust (VABT).
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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Amy Lehpamer is currently starring in the hit pop musical & Juliet as Anne Hathaway.
Amy earned nation-wide critical acclaim playing Maria in The Sound of Music, receiving the 2015 Sydney Theatre Award for best Actress in a Musical, as well as Helpmann and Glug award nominations. She was Helpmann nominated in 2017 for her portrayal of pop and soul icon Dusty Springfield in the Australian hit musical Dusty for The Production Company. Amy played lyricist and hit-maker Cynthia Weil in the Australian premiere cast of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and was awarded the 2018 Helpmann for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the role.
From 2018-2020, Amy toured Australia, NZ and China as Rosalie Mullins, the uptight school Principal with a Rock 'n Roll soul in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of School of Rock.  She played Mrs Webb in Queensland Theatre's revival of the pulitzer prize winning classic, Our Town and Mrs Walker in the Australian Premiere of The Who's Tommy for the Victorian Opera.

Her skill as a violinist and performer were highlighted in her role of Reza in Once for the Gordon Frost Organisation and Melbourne Theatre Company.  This, and her big haired, starry eyed Sherrie in Rock of Ages saw her receive Helpmann nominations. She has twice played Christine Colgate in the musical adaptation of the hit comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in her first ever leading role for Melbourne's The Production Company.
Other notable roles for Amy include Tracy Lord in High Society for the Hayes Theatre, the iconic Janet Weiss in Rocky Horror for GFO/ATG. Amy created the title role of Margaret Fulton in the new Australian musical Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert (Theatreworks) and was part of the original cast of Eddie Perfect's Shane Warne - The Musical, as well as the 2014 production for Adelaide Cabaret Festival and Hamer Hall, featuring on the cast recording.Additional theatre credits include: The Threepenny Opera (Malthouse and Victorian Opera); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Songs for a New World (Doorstep Ensemble); Young Phyllis in Follies (The Production Company).Amy is the co-creator and star of the musical comedy webseries Donnatelegrams, produced by the ABC and Screen Australia, and now viewable on YouTube. On screen, Amy also holds credits in prime time television shows: Get Krack!n', Utopia. The Time of Our Lives, Winners and Losers, House Husbands, and the HBO mini-series The Pacific.  
She has performed disco classics alongside Kate Ceberano and Paulini with the Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. And she's sung The Best of Rodgers and Hammerstein alongside Simon Gleeson with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.  
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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Damien Ryan is managing director and artistic director of Sport for Jove Theatre Company, now in its twelfth year, where he has directed more than 30 productions, written and developed three new works and adapted over a dozen plays. 

The company has a comprehensive education program developed by Damien, and works with tens of thousands of Australian students annually at secondary and tertiary levels.

Damien has worked extensively with Shakespeare, performing in or directing over 70 productions in Australia and overseas, and has worked as actor, director and writer across Australia’s major companies including STC, MTC, Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir, Sydney Festival, Canberra Theatre Centre, Brisbane Festival and Queensland Theatre, and in the independent sector in Sydney. 

Recent directing credits include, Venus & Adonis (a feature film), Romeo & Juliet, The Crucible, The Father, Hamlet, Henry V, Henry IV Parts 1&2, Romeo & Juliet, Rose Riot, 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, Romeo & Juliet, Away, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Loves Labour’s Lost, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Crucible, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, The Libertine, Look Back in Anger.

Acting credits include Venus & Adonis, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Life of Galileo, Twelfth Night, Nora; As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard 3, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet; Crime and Punishment, Under Milk Wood; Mother Courage, Isolde and Tristan, Hamlet and King Lear. 

Damien has two award-winning play adaptations (Antigone and Cyrano de Bergerac) published with Currency Press.

From May 1st to June 1st, Sport for Jove’s production of ISOLDE and TRISTAN plays the Old Fitz theatre in Sydney - and it is directed by today’s featured guest - Damien Ryan.

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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

One of Australia’s most highly regarded leading actors, Daniel MacPherson has most recently been seen starring as Sam Levine in Russell Crowe’s feature Poker Face and as fan favourite Hugo Krast in Apple TV+’s sci-fi behemoth Foundation opposite Jared Harris. Daniel will next be seen in the anticipated US action feature Land of Bad, reuniting with Russell Crowe and alongside Liam Hemsworth. In 2023 he starred in the theatre production 2:22 A Ghost Story, receiving critical acclaim in the role of Ben.
Daniel’s other feature film credits include Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time directed by Ava DuVernay, Shane Abbess’ Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child and INFINI, the lead in the US independent feature Generational Sins and Simon Wincer’s The Cup. Recently starring as Sgt Samuel Wyatt in the latest seasons of the HBO/Cinemax action series Strike Back, Daniel’s other international credits include the Fox hi-tech crime series APB, the MTV fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles and ITV/UKTV’s The Bill. Closer to home Daniel has starred in Wild Boys, Bad Mothers, City Homicide and Neighbours. On stage, Daniel alternated the roles of Jesus and Judas in the musical Godspell directed by Scott Schwartz, which played in London and the UK, and starred opposite Edward Woodward in The Mysteries at London’s Canterbury Cathedral. In 2013, Daniel was part of the all-star Australian cast of 8 The Play.
One of Australia’s most experienced live television presenters, Daniel has hosted seven series of Dancing With The Stars as well as the first season of X-Factor Australia, and in 2017 Daniel hosted the International AACTA Awards in Los Angeles for Foxtel. Recipient of the TV Week Logie Award for Most Popular New Talent in 1999, Daniel has since twice been nominated for the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, as well as Best Newcomer at the British National Television Awards. In 2008, GQ Magazine named Daniel as Australia’s Most Popular Television Personality.
Daniel’s other passions include horses, music and fitness. He is a six-time Ironman Triathlon finisher and has represented Australia at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. He has run multiple endurance events to raise money and awareness for charities such as World Vision, Reclink, Charity: Water, and The Indigenous Marathon Project, for which he is an Ambassador.
Daniel soon embarks, with John Waters, on a National tour of the stage thriller and tale of terror, The Woman in Black. The season kicks off in Toowoomba, opening on April 27th.
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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Jodie Gillies commenced her dynamic career in 1983, following her graduation from the Nepean College in Sydney. In the same year she was cast as one of Major Stanley’s daughters in the iconic Victorian State Opera’s production and consequent tour of The Pirates of Penzance. She then appeared in Camelot with Richard Harris; followed by the role of Marta in Stephen Sondheim's Company and Vikki Fowler in King of Country, both for the Sydney Theatre Company.

In October 1985 Jodie won the inaugural Australian Contemporary Singing Competition at the Sydney Opera House. Jodie starred in Australia Day Live, the Network Ten Bicentennial extravaganza. Jodie then went on to begin the first of three musical engagements at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, all of which would include the honour of creating her roles in the Premiere Australian seasons, these being Les Miserables, Chess and Aspects of Love. 

Firstly she played Eponine in the amazing original Australian production of Les Miserables and her performance as the waifish Eponine won her wide acclaim as did her ensuing role as Aldonza in The Man of La Mancha. Jodie has also appeared in cabaret at Kinsela’s in It’s One for the Money and Two for the Show displaying her comedy and mimicry.

Jodie then went on to play the lead role of Florence Vassy in the musical Chess to standing ovations and then toured to Queensland as Jess in Lipstick Dreams. Jodie was also awarded the prestigious Musical Theatre Performer of the Year by the Variety Club in 1991. Jodie has also toured with her own production The Other Woman which marked her debut as a writer and director. This show also took her to New York in 1992, where it was very well received. From there Jodie went on to play the role of Giulietta Trapani in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love in both Sydney and Melbourne. Jodie also joined the cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, taking over the starring role of the Narrator from Tina Arena at Sydney's Her Majesty's Theatre. Jodie also performed in Love Lemmings at the Tilbury Hotel in Sydney. 

In late 1995, Jodie performed her second self written show called A Soldier's Song which tells the story of her Grandfather during the war years. She based the show on some diaries that her Grandfather had left behind from the war plus some of the classic tunes from around that time.

Jodie’s television credits include The Ray Martin Show, A Country Practice, Home and Away, The Money or the Gun, Live n' Sweaty, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, the Steve Vizard Show and Once in a Blue Moon, a celebration of Australian Musicals. Jodie has also released a self titled solo album featuring songs from Les Miserables, Aspects of Love, Chess, Miss Saigon and more.

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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Andrew Sharp began his professional career playing The Artful Dodger in J.C.Williamson’s 1966 revival of Oliver! 
He went on to work steadily in theatre and on television in the 1970s, in shows such as Peter Kenna’s A Hard God and Peter Handke’s Kaspar at the Nimrod Street Theatre, The Season at Sarsaparilla and Julius Caesar for The Old Tote Theatre Company, The Rocky Horror Show at The New Art Cinema in Glebe, as well as playing a regular role in The Young Doctors and guest roles in other Grundy’s productions. 
At the age of 25 he moved to London where he played leading roles in three long-running West End productions: Beyond the Rainbow, Stage Struck and Deathtrap. Returning to Australia in the 1980s he worked mostly in film and television, notably in movies such as Buddies and Undercover, mini-series such as Glass Babies and Sword of Honour and the 13 episode Taurus Rising - amongst other work. 
Throughout his career he dabbled in directing, producing shows with friends in unusual locations such as garages, living rooms and church halls. He graduated from the post-graduate diploma course in film directing at Melbourne’s Swinburne Institute of Technology in 1986. 
In the 1990s he went on to work as an assistant director on several operas at The Australian Opera (as the company was then known), before returning to the UK in the 1990s, where he directed opera students at the Royal College of Music and the Birmingham Conservatoire and - for the Covent Garden Opera Festival - directed Handel’s Saul and his own translation of Mozart’s The Impresario. 
In 2002, searching for “home”, he moved to the small northwestern NSW town of Barraba, where he created The Playhouse Hotel, a 9 bedroom boutique hotel housing an 80 seat theatre. There he has presented dozens of touring theatre performances, bands, musicians and comedians… though he admits he misses his real hometown of Sydney, and plans to return soon. 
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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Stephen Flaherty is a composer who writes for theatre, film and the concert hall. With longtime collaborator Lynn Ahrens, he won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the Broadway musical Ragtime and was nominated for two Academy awards and two Golden Globes for the animated feature film Anastasia, which they also adapted for Broadway.

Additional Broadway credits include Once on This Island (Tony Award, Best Revival), Seussical, Rocky, My Favourite Year, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life (original songs), and Neil Simon’s Proposals (incidental music). 

Off-Broadway and Regional credits include The Glorious Ones, Dessa Rose, A Man of No Importance (all three at Lincoln Centre Theatre), Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein (About Face), Little Dancer (Kennedy Centre and Seattle 5th Avenue), In Your Arms (Old Globe) and Lucky Stiff (Playwrights Horizons). Future productions include Little Dancer and Knoxville.

Stephen Flaherty’s work in film includes the animated feature Anastasia, the original score for the documentary After the Storm, Lucky Stiff and Nasrin. His concert commissions include American River Suite and With Voices Raised.

Additional awards include London’s Olivier (Best Musical), Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson (Best Musical) and four Grammy nominations.

He serves on Council for the Dramatists Guild of America and co-founded the DGF Fellows Program for Emerging Writers with Lynn Ahrens. In 2014 Ahrens and Flaherty received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 2015 they were inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

For more information please visit AhrensAndFlaherty.com.

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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Australian musical theatre performer Daniel Assetta is currently based in New York City, where he recently made his Broadway debut in the hot-ticket show, & Juliet. This follows an Off-Broadway debut with The Light in the Piazza for NY City Center Encores!

Most recently, Daniel appeared in the Original Australian company of Hamilton as Samuel Seabury and performed Tony in the Opera Australia production of West Side Story across Australia, New Zealand and Germany. His theatre credits include; Al Deluca in the Darlinghurst Theatre Company's A Chorus Line; Elder Young in the original Australian company of The Book of Mormon; The Rum Tum Tugger in the Australian/New Zealand tour of CATS; the 10th Anniversary Australasian tour of Wicked; The Ziegfeld Tenor in Funny Girl; Luke in the world premiere of The Gathering; Follies in Concert ; and Curtains.

Daniel is also the proud recipient of the prestigious Rob Guest Endowment Award in Australia. Notable stage appearances include ABC News Breakfast, Carols in The Domain, The ARIA Awards and Michael Mott & Friends concerts. 

Over the last couple of years, Daniel produced, co-wrote, choreographed and performed alongside his sister, Chiara, in Siblingship which played to sold-out audiences across Australia and was awarded the winner of 'Best Cabaret' in BroadwayWorld Australia Awards 2020. 

As a Choreographer, Daniel has worked extensively with highlights including Squabbalogic's production of NINE the musical, Twisted Broadway at Melbourne's Regent Theatre, the opening of the Sydney Latin Festival and concept pieces for the leading performing arts companies, Ettingshausens Pro & ED5International.

Visit www.danielassetta.com and follow @dassetta on Instagram.

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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).www.stagespodcast.com.au

Kim Carpenter AM is an Australian visual artist, theatre director, designer and devisor. For thirty years he was artistic director of his company, Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image.

During the 1970s, Carpenter designed for the Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre Company. He was, for a short period, co-Artistic Director of Nimrod in the early 1980s.

In 1988, Kim established Theatre of Image as Sydney's first visual theatre company. Theatre of Image developed into a leading Australian theatre company for children and families, with its productions having a distinctive visual style. In September 2019 he announced the closure of the company.

His work includes The Book of Everything which he created with Neil Armfield for Theatre of Image and Belvoir. The production toured Australia and played a season in New York at the New Victory Theatre.

In 2019 he adapted and designed The Happy Prince as a ballet for The Australian Ballet. It premiered at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

Kim Carpenter was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for significant service to the performing arts. He has devised, directed or designed over 100 productions for theatre, opera, dance, physical theatre, ballet and puppetry.

A prolific visual artist also, Kim Carpenter has been represented in Australian and International exhibitions. His next exhibition is a series inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This show of works will be exhibited at Maunsell Wickes Gallery Paddington, from April 6th to 21st.

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. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

www.stagespodcast.com.au