Australian audiences over the past two decades have been thrilled by the periodic performances directed by dynamic UK theatre visionary, Emma Rice. Productions of Tristan & Yseult, The Red Shoes and Brief Encounter have enthralled attendees at Sydney and Melbourne Festivals.

She returns to our shores in January 2025 with her company Wise Children and an acclaimed production of Wuthering Heights, playing an exclusive and limited Sydney season prior to a South East Asian tour. Anyone who has ever seen an Emma Rice production knows that we are to be treated by another glorious experience of consummate story-telling. 

Emma Rice is the proud Artistic Director of her company, Wise Children, and an internationally respected theatre-maker and director. 

For Wise Children, Emma has adapted and directed the productions The Buddha of Suburbia, Blue Beard, The Little Matchgirl and Happier Tales, Wuthering Heights, Bagdad Cafe, Romantics Anonymous, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Angela Carter’s Wise Children.

As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe: Romantics Anonymous, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales).

As joint Artistic Director of Kneehigh: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan & Yseult, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, The Wooden Frock, The Bacchae, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre); Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions); Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic); Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages); Steptoe and Son and the West End production of Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Emma received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards and in 2022 was named one of Sky Arts’ ‘50 most influential British artists of the last 50 years’.

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).

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Stuart Maunder is Artistic Director of Victorian Opera. Beginning his career in stage management at the then Australian Opera, Maunder has a long history in opera, as a director and arts administrator. 

He served in senior management roles at Opera Australia from 1999 to 2008 before being appointed General Director of New Zealand Opera in 2014. He was appointed Artistic Director of State Opera South Australia in 2018. In his time at State Opera, Maunder proved himself a passionate advocate for finding a distinctive Australian voice, championing Australian repertoire, developing the next generation of Australian artists while still pursuing a balanced repertoire designed to reach the widest possible audience.

His work as a director is highly revered and has ensured Stuart Maunder has remained a consistent presence on Australian stages for over three decades.

A frequent collaborator with Victorian Opera, Maunder has directed several popular productions including four musicals by Stephen Sondheim (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Little Night Music), Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen and a co-production of Richard Meale’s Voss with State Opera South Australia. Maunder’s production of Sweeney Todd was co-produced with New Zealand Opera and toured New Zealand and Australia following its debut in 2015.
Victorian Opera recently announced their exciting season for 2025. Stuart Maunder joins STAGES to elaborate on this exciting season and to share great insight into a celebrated career.
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

Grant Piro began his career in the early 1980’s soap opera Sons and Daughters and has since appeared in more than 100 productions. His work has been recognised with several Green Room Award nominations and two wins (The Merry Widow and The Producers) as well as AACTA and Helpmann nominations.

Best known to young television viewers of the 1990’s as the cult TV host of Couch Potato, just a small sample of Grant’s multiple television credits include; Janus, Correlli, GP, Wildside, Seachange, City Homicide, Blue Healers, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, SeaPatrol, Jack Irish, HalifaxFP, The Librarians, Good Guys Bad Guys, CrashBurn, Newton’s Law, How To Stay Married, Wanted, Ex PM 2, and My Life is Murder. He also featured in the biopics for Olivia Newton John, INXS, Hoges, and Warnie. More recently in ABCTV’s flagship comedy UTOPIA and its flagship drama The Newsreader3.

A few of Grant’s feature film appearances include Rolf deHeer’s horror classic Bad Boy Bubby, Darkness Falls, The Outsider, The Condemned, Crime and Punishment, Mr Accident, The Lighthorsemen, Crocodile Dundee in LA, Mormon Yankees: The Spirit of the Game, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, Predestination, and alongside Daniel Radcliffe in Escape From Pretoria.

As a performer Grant’s one true love has always been the theatre. Highlights have included the world premiere of Realism, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The 39 Steps, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, His Girl Friday, and The Odd Couple all for the Melbourne Theatre Company. As well as Moby Dick, The Merry Widow, Taking Steps, The Producers, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Under Milk Wood, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hand to God, Oklahoma, Death Of A Salesman, A Christmas Carol, and credits his ultimate highlights as being Connor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s Girl From The North Country for GWB, and performing opposite his wife Marina Prior AM in Hello Dolly!

Grant is back on stage in GWB’s annual festive delight - A Christmas Carol, as Mr Nigel Fezziwig. The Old Vic’s big-hearted, smash-hit production of A Christmas Carol returns to the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne for a third triumphant season from 22nd November!

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).

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Evelyn Krape has over five decades of diverse acting experience in theatre, film and television, beginning as a stalwart at Carlton’s Pram Factory. A Melbourne-based actor and director, Evelyn is currently the Artistic Director of the Kadimah Yiddish Theatre.

She joined the Australian Performing Group in 1970 when it moved into the Pram Factory, performing in such classic Australian works as Dimboola and Don's Party.

She has performed with Victoria’s major companies, from the Melbourne Theatre Company, Playbox and the Victorian Opera to La Mama and Eleventh Hour.

Notable performances include A Floating World, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, Endgame, A Toast to Melba, Ginger, The Scoundrel That You Need, and recent seasons of Bloom and A Very Jewish Christmas Carol. 

Evelyn has toured extensively with a number of one-woman shows including Emma Celabrazione!, Ironing Out The Wrinkles and Female Parts. 

Evelyn has played several major roles with Glenn Elston’s ‘Shakespeare in the Gardens’ series, including Bottom, Titania and Verges.

Her film appearances include Quigley Down Under, Babe 1 & 2, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and television work includes Australia You’re Standing In It, Flying Doctors, Blue Heelers and Homicide.

Evelyn has received multiple prestigious awards, such as Best Actress for her role as Nellie Melba in A Toast to Melba and the Green Room Award for Best Actress in Ginger at the Playbox. She also shared the Best Actress Award at Tropfest 2019.

Evelyn Krape is presently on stage at the Sydney Opera House until November 17th, in Kadimah Yiddish Theatre’s production of YENTL. She gives a visceral and finely detailed performance as The Figure.

In 2025, Evelyn will be seen in Victoria Opera’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s FOLLIES and the Sydney season of the musical BLOOM at Sydney Theatre Company.

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).

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Musical theatre Leading Lady Ashleigh Rubenach was born and raised on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and is a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Most recently Ashleigh played Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard for Opera Australia and Nancy in the hit musical Groundhog Day at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne for GWB Productions.

Ashleigh starred as Johanna in Sweeney Todd at the Sydney Opera House (Victorian Opera), toured Australia as Milo Davenport in the Broadway-hit musical An American In Paris (GWB/Australian Ballet) and was much-lauded for her performance as Billie Bendix in the classic Gershwin musical Nice Work If You Can Get It (Hayes Theatre Company).

One of her most notable accomplishments came with the role of Allison in Cry Baby (Hayes Theatre Company) with her exceptional performance earning her the Best Female Actor award at the Sydney Theatre Awards. Other theatre credits include Muriel’s Wedding (Global Creatures), Anything Goes and My Fair Lady (GFO/Opera Australia), Funny Girl (Sydney Symphony Orchestra) and The Sound of Music (GFO); in which she not only performed but also understudied the role of Maria.

She made her screen debut as Lisa in Seven Network’s Home and Away.

Ashleigh next appears with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in Showstoppers - a celebration of the legendary Broadway show makers, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. 

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

After 25 years at the Wharf, the Seymour Centre, and many suburban, regional and interstate venues, The Wharf Revue is calling it a day after a final show - The End of the Wharf as we Know it!!!

To acknowledge this milestone and celebrate the team who have gifted its with so much joy and laughter, the STAGES podcast revisits conversations with Jonathan Biggins, Amanda Bishop, Drew Forsyth and Philip Scott.

After twenty-five years in the harsh and unforgiving spotlight of politics, The Wharf Revue has decided to step away from public life.

“It’s an opportunity to spend more time with family,” said a spokesperson. “At the end of the day, this is about the need for renewal. We’ll serve one last term to max out the super and then try to pick up some kind of consultancy work or do a series of “Survivor” - look, it’s too early to say but it has been an honour to serve the Australian people.”

Many public figures who’ve appeared in the show regularly over the years are lining up for a place in the final hurrah: Keating, Howard, Downer, Costello, Gillard, Abbott, Carr and other throwbacks too numerous to mention. Those who bear the torch of democracy today: Lambie, Hanson, Bandt, Dutton and Albo - a veritable “Who’s that?” of Australian politics.

So join the team for a joyous yet bitter-sweet send-off to one of the great national theatrical institutions.

The End of the Wharf as we Know it!!! opens in Sydney at The Seymour Centre and runs from November 11th to December 23rd.

An extensive tour follows, concluding in Nunawading next April. Check out the producers website softtread.com.au for all tour dates and booking information.

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

Growing up Bert LaBonté had eyes on an AFL career. A chance meeting with legendary actor Terry Norris gave him the confidence to pursue a life on the stage and he was soon studying the craft at Ballarat University. Several decades later and Bert is an established favourite on screen and stages; dramatic and musical, around Australia.

Bert is presently in rehearsal for August: Osage County at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney. He recently captivated audiences as Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. A long list of  musical theatre credits include: The Book of Mormon, An Officer and a Gentleman,Chess and Grey Gardens. 

His Melbourne Theatre Company credits include: The Truth, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lungs, Rupert, Birdland, The Mountaintop, Elling and others. For Sydney Theatre Company, he has performed in Fences, A Raisin in the Sun, All My Sons, The Grenade and Spelling Bee, and his Malthouse Theatre credits include: Cloudstreet, I am A Miracle, Time Share. 

Screen credits include Colin From Accounts, Erotic Stories, Five Bedrooms, Pieces of Her, Lie With Me, FISK, The Newsreader, Surviving Summer, More Than This, Jack Irish, Wentworth, Playing for Keeps, Upper Middle Bogan, Tomorrow When The War Began, Lowdown, Wilfred, The Let Down, and Squinters. Film credits including Animal Kingdom and The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee.  

Bert has just made is Directorial debut with Melbourne Theatre Company’s Topdog Underdog, and in 2025 plays Maxim in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca with the company.

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).

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Emma Powell’s first performance was at the age of three when she appeared on US television with Ronald McDonald. As a grown-up, she toured Australia in The Pirates of Penzance with Jon English and Simon Gallaher.  She then joined Les Miserables which toured to Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Cape Town. She went on to perform in Mamma Mia as ensemble in the original production then took over the role of ‘Rosie’ for the Australasian tour. She played ‘Hattie’ in Kiss Me Kate and ‘Fruma Sarah” in Fiddler on the Roof.  

Emma took a break from mainstage musicals to create her own work; A self-devised comedy – Busting Out! which ran for five years touring Australia, New Zealand, the UK (including the Edinburgh Festival). Emma also created another female driven stage comedy – Dumped! The Musical We’ve All Been Through. An original Australian musical comedy Dumped! had three seasons in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne.

The last decade has seen a return to major musicals for Emma, touring Australia in Kinky Boots as ‘Trish’ and in Priscilla – Queen of the Desert as ‘Shirley’. Last year Emma completed a four-year Australia-wide run as an original cast member, playing ‘Beulah & Others’ in Come From Away, before joining the regional Australian tour of Menopause The Musical as ‘Housewife’.

Emma is presently on stage in the musical Sister Act playing the role of Sister Mary Theresa. Sister Act commences a run at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on November 3rd.

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).

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STAGES welcomes back passionate theatre historian Stuart Greene in an episode which details the life of some of the Sydney’s iconic  theatre venues.

It’s difficult to contemplate that the Sydney CBD once was home to approximately 28 theatres and movie houses - sacred temples in which audiences experienced an escape of the imagination through entertainments as diverse as vaudeville, musical theatre, burlesque, opera, cinema, circus, silver screen and legitimate plays. 

Disappointingly, many of these cherished venues have been demolished, making way for urban development and consequently losing much of a vibrant arts heritage.

Sydney saw its first theatre in 1796. Only a handful stand today, all housing commercial fare. These theatres include The Capitol Theatre in Haymarket, The Theatre Royal on King street, The Enmore Theatre in Enmore, The State Theatre on Market street and our newest addition, The Lyric Theatre at Star City. Optimistic news arrives occasionally, with the recent acquisition and (hopefully) salvation of the Metro (Minerva) Theatre in Kings Cross, purchased by arts patron Gretel Packer.

It’s a frustrating tale, but also one of fascination. Sacred arts spaces where the memory of them hovers like the theatrical ghosts that no doubt resided in them.

Stuart is a font of knowledge, identify where and when these theatres stood. We must not ignore this history and ensure we retain all of the great theatres that presently stand proud on Sydney streets,

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

Arax Mansourian is one of the superstars of the Armenian Opera and classical music. She started her career in her native Armenia and continued in Australia with Opera Australia. Her beautiful voice and unique timbre, as well as her iconic beauty and regal stage presence, are unforgettable.

Arax was born in Beirut, Lebanon in a family of survivors of the Armenian genocide. Her family moved to Armenia when Arax was still an infant. Growing up in Armenia, music was a very important part of her life and she knew early on that she wanted to sing. 

Arax studied at the Romanos Meliqyan College of Music and later graduated from the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory, where she was the only performer of modern classical atonal music by young composers. During her studies she participated in festivals throughout Russia and The Soviet Union. After graduation, she started to sing at the Yerevan State Opera and became one of its biggest stars.

Her repertoire encompasses more than 30 roles which include Verdi's- Aida, Leonora in La Forza del Destino, Desdemona in Othello, Elizabeth Valois in Don Carlos, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Amelia in Un Ballo Di Maschera , Liu in Puccini's Turandot, Mimi in La Boheme, Tosca in Tosca , Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Elizabeth in Tannhäuser, Kundri in Parsifal, Katya in Janacek's Katya Kabanova, Kostelnichka in Janacek's Jenufa, Fata Morgana in Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges, Anoush in Tigranian's Anoush and Shoushan in Tigranian's David Bek.

Arax’s recordings of medieval Armenian chants are an important part of the treasure vault of Armenian music. In the1990's, during a liturgical festival, she toured 14 cities in France with an all male Armenian choir.

She has had recitals throughout the world singing the music of European Masters, such as Schubert, Schuman, Mahler, Mozart, Fauré, Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Rachmaninoff while always including Armenian classics by Komitas, Kanachian, Berberian and her brother, composer Tigran Mansurian, in her repertoire. Arax is the first performer to sing many never before performed songs by Komitas, as well as his unfinished opera Anoush. 

After moving to Australia in the mid-nineties, she started her work with Opera Australia. Her first role with OA was of Liu in Turandot, followed by Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana in Melbourne (OA), Sydney Opera House (OA) and Brisbane for Opera Queensland. She also performed Tosca in Tosca (Opera Queensland), Desdemona in Othello (Opera Australia), Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos, Katya in Katya Kabanova (OA Sydney), and Fata Morgana in Love for Three Oranges (OA Sydney).

Arax Mansourian has appeared in concerts with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony" at the Sydney Opera Concert Hall, Verdi "Requiem", Britten's "War Requiem", a series of concerts singing Hildegard von Bingen music, ABC "Swoon Concert" with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, John Haddock's "See My Children Fly" which the author wrote with Arax Mansourian in mind. As well as singing in Australia , Arax Mansourian has performed concerts in the USA, China, Egypt, Lebanon , Armenia and Japan. 

In 2015 she was awarded with the First Degree Medal of Armenia. In 2010 Arax was Awarded with the Medal of Komitas by the Ministry Of the Diaspora.

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

Wendy-Lee Purdy’s performing career has been varied and exciting. After completing a Bachelor of Music Education degree at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, Australia in piano and voice, she then studied acting at the Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is presently based in London.

Wendy's launch into professional theatre commenced with Chess at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, directed by Jim Sharman. She next performed with the Australian Opera encompassing 19 productions including Der Rosenkavalier, Adriana Lecouvreur, Le Nozze Di Figaro, Mer De Glace, Fiddler On The Roof, L’Italiana In Algeri, Peter Grimes, Romeo and Juliet, Maria Stuarda, Fidelio, Verdi’s Requiem Mass, Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg and Turandot.

Further theatre credits include: Sister Mary Theresa and Understudy Mary Lazarus in Sister Act (UK Tour), Mama Morton - Chicago (Japan & International); Mother Abbess/Frau Schmidt - The Sound of Music (UK Tour & Gordon Craig); Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy Theatre, London – Fruma Sarah and Shaindel, understudy Golde, Yente and Grandma, assistant dance captain); Mamma Mia! (international tour – ensemble understudy Rosie, Tanya and Donna); Oliver! (Australia and Singapore – Mrs Sowerberry and understudy Widow Corney, Old Sally and Mrs Bedwin); The Wizard of Oz (GFO), The Phantom of the Opera (Australia and New Zealand – Confidante, understudy Carlotta, Wardrobe Mistress and Mme Firman); Turandot (Sydney Football Stadium) and Cats (Australia and South East Asian tour – understudy Jellylorum/ Griddlebone, Jennyanydots/Gumbie.)

Recent appearances in Australia saw Wendy perform at The Hayes Theatre in productions of Half Time as Fran and Aspects of Love as Elizabeth.

Wendy has recorded six CDs, including cast recordings of The Wizard of Oz, Fiddler on the Roof and nursery rhymes for the Department of Education. She has appeared in various television commercials, films and voiceovers.

Wendy has just completed a season in the West End theatre district of London alongside Imelda Staunton in Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly!

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