When Michelle’s mum took her to see a travelling production of The Importance of Being Earnest at Taree High School hall, she was so smitten that she spent the next couple of weeks pretending to the Lady Bracknell to the cows in the milking shed. When the great god, Gough Whitlam gave her an English/History teaching scholarship for Newcastle University she signed up for the brand new Drama course instead and made it her major and performed in university productions and theatre restaurant shows.
Teaching followed and Michelle was there for the introduction of the School Certificate in Drama in 1985 and HSC Drama in 1993. She wrote and directed countless productions, acted in a few, created site and theme specific theatre for various events and community groups, became Star Struck Drama Director and created Hunter Youth Drama Ensembles, putting on productions of HSC Drama text. She also produced 3 daughters and completed a Master of Theatre Arts Degree, taught HSC Drama 18 times and became an examiner for HSC Drama.
Now retired, Michelle is still involved in Star Struck and is also one of 5 City of Newcastle Drama Awards (CONDA) judges, viewing approximately 60 -70 shows per year produced by the thriving theatrical community in Newcastle. Michelle is proud to be part of this passionate and dynamic community and is grateful to be able to share some of her experiences on this website.
Jacinda Patty’s Cindy is a 30? woman of Greek heritage who has returned from a soul-searching backpacking trip with no money and no boyfriend and the only housing prospect is living with her 80-year-old Yiayia.
She is also trying …
I have always admired the director, Barrie Kosky. My admiration started with his King Lear for Bell Shakespeare and grew after his production of Seneca’s Oedipus in 2000 and by the time he had created the epic based on the …
So, I looked up the etymology of the word “normal”. In classical Latin “made according to a carpenter’s square, from norma – rule, pattern”. “Conforming to common standards or established order.”
Meaning “heterosexual” by 1914.
Next was “prejudice”. …
My husband watches reality TV. He loves Masterchef (he’s a chef and reckons he enjoys watching them stuff up) as well as Survivor and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
I admit to occasionally watching episodes of The …
Sometimes you watch a play and get stuck. It resonates, informs and entertains so profoundly that it’s hard to articulate how the complex interweaving of characters, set, lighting, sound, stage energy, timing and all the other elements of theatre have …
“Oh, the agonising pain of it all!”
There’s two things that disturbed me when I was teaching drama in high school.
One was the parochial attitude towards drama as a subject from some other teaching staff members and from some …
I Hope It’s Not Raining in London by Nicholas Thoroughgood, Bearfoot Theatre.
First up, eighteen year old Nicholas Thoroughgood’s I HOPE IT’S NOT RAINING IN LONDON put me in mind of the plays from the Absurdist group of playwrights – …
Newcastle – it’s just up the road, folks – has a thriving theatre scene and every year new companies spring forth with youthful energy, vigour and exciting new works.
Bearfoot Theatre is a another new theatre company in association with …
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story …
I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but …
Bohemian Rhapsody, the single from Queen’s fourth studio album A Night at the Opera was a groundbreaking work of art in 1975.
Everyone remembers the innovative and stunning video and the weird, operatic, clever, hybrid song that catapulted Queen …