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Sally nominated for Best Actress & Best Director at the 2021 UVFF Awards in the UK
Last year was a really challenging year for all of us. And I added to this by deciding to create and direct a new season of Shakespeare Republic, set and filmed entirely in lockdown. It was the most wonderful, crazy, sometimes difficult but absolutely rewarding experience I could have had. The creative family that formed around the new season, made up of existing Republic ensemble joined by a whole new swathe of actors and regular Republic crew, creating a total of 24 episodes, was one of the best things about 2020 for me. It was an absolute privilege to work with these extraordinary actors, based in Melbourne, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh,…
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Sally nominated for “Outstanding Performance in a Principal Role” for the Show that keeps on giving
Last year was, let’s be blunt, awful for the Performing Arts industries worldwide in so many ways. Theatres, film and TV sets, cinemas, anything that required human contact, closed. So many of us were suddenly left without any work and, in many cases, also went into hard lockdowns to try and stem the spread of the virus. But last year also brought about some amazing things. The Arts can often mean Innovation. And artists around the world began to clearly show that correlation in full. One such example (pretty much the first during the pandemic), created something that has now become an institution, and, I believe, holds an important place…
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New season of Shakespeare Republic screening at eleven international film festivals!
It’s been a while since an update, for which I apologise, but this post will go a long way towards explaining my absence from this blog! At the start of the current pandemic, I was toying with the idea of doing a stand-alone season of Shakespeare Republic. All my other projects had to go on hold and I had no idea what I was going to do with all that free time. I could have learned to bake, and there were times this year where I thought maybe I should have, but as I am now heading into the final strait of directing and producing this latest season, I have…
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Live theatre in the age of COVID-19 – The Show Must Go Online
When I got the email about ten days ago that I’d been cast in the new online initiative, The Show Must Go Online, as “Katherina” (or “Kate” as I call her) in The Taming Of The Shrew, I’ll admit to an initial hesitation at saying yes. Not because I didn’t want to play her – I’d submitted to do the show in the first place, and I’ve been fascinated by “Kate” from the first time I saw her (as a Hollywood musical obsessed kid) portrayed by Kathryn Grayson in a late night TV re-run of the movie Kiss Me Kate when I was about 10 years old. Admittedly, that early…
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Shorts Relief is nigh, This Wooden O and Chasing Pegasus is done and Dark Arcadia looms
Its been a VERY busy time since the end of last year, so this update is covering three projects that I’ve been involved in – one of which is happening this weekend in Melbourne and is going to be absolutely huge – Shorts Relief: Flicks For the Fires takes place at The Capitol Theatre, Swanston Street, Melbourne this Sunday March 8 and as Event Producer, I’m deep in the trenches for final prep for that, but more about that in a moment! Let’s do a quick round up of what’s been happening since I last posted here first … Chasing Pegasus (a play in ten chords) On December 11th I…
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“Preacher”, “Playing The Bard” update, festival and panel appearances and more …
As a friend said in an email to me earlier this week – “Where has the year gone!?”. November already! So much to share, so here goes … It’s been a big few months on the work front since August. I taught another round of Playing The Bard: Shakespeare in Performance at the fabulous Howard Fine Acting Studio, as well as spending three wonderful weeks with the Howard Fine Full Time ensemble in Melbourne, again teaching them Shakespeare, with some truly beautiful work being produced by the 30+ actors it has been my privilege to teach this work to over the past nine weeks. On the acting front, I had…
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“Playing The Bard” returns to Howard Fine Acting Studio in August …
We’re now hurtling into the second half of the year and there is a lot going on, but nothing much I can talk about … yet. However, the one thing I can share is that “Playing The Bard: Shakespeare In Performance” is returning to Howard Fine Acting Studios in Melbourne in August AND HFAS Australia is having a Winter Sale, so all courses can be booked at a 20% discount (discount applied at checkout, so no codes to remember). We’re doing scenes this next class, and bookings are starting to fill, so get in now to grab your place and get the discount! All details here: https://www.howardfinestudio.com.au/allcalendar/2018/4/24/playing-the-bard-shakespeare-in-performance-g4ddn Speaking of HFAS…
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New awards for acting and directing, new reel and more – hello June!
It has been a crazy month of May, which has been wonderful and brilliant and I am so grateful to everyone who made all of it possible! Firstly, the team at Shakespeare Republic were delighted and thrilled to win the “Best Ensemble Cast (Series)” Award at the 2019 London International Motion Pictures Awards, held in the UK mid-May. This is our second award for “Best Ensemble” and myself and all my fellow cast are so grateful for this recognition of the work! Huge thanks also to two of my close friends and former BBC colleagues, Erica Banks and Karen Colbron, for attending the Awards on my behalf and accepting the…
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NEW DATES: Playing The Bard returns to Howard Fine Acting Studio in May!
“Playing The Bard” at Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia will now be taking place from Tuesday May 21 until June 25, just before Howard Fine returns to Australia for his mid-year Master Class! I am delighted to be returning to the Studio as HFAS resident Shakespeare teacher and faculty member to once more work with a brand new crop of actors and share with them the techniques I use when working with my fabulous award-winning Shakespeare Republic cast. Actors of all experience levels are welcome to come play with me in this six week course that is designed to help actors truly make Shakespeare’s works and words their own! Using…
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Shakespeare Republic now streaming on Ozflix – and already breaking records!
I am so delighted to share that Shakespeare Republic (the web series that has been taking up nearly all my time for the past four years), is now streaming (both Seasons One & Two) from it’s new official, exclusive home on awesome Aussie content streaming platform, Ozflix – and managed to break all records with the highest viewership of a new launch in Ozflix’s history! Amazing! The series continues to gain more and more viewers as time goes on and I am so delighted to see that it’s finding a whole new audience – three years into it’s existence. I am currently in the process of editing together some new…