Australian Nouveau Theatre, also known as the Anthill Theatre, was a Melbourne-based theatre company under the direction of Jean-Pierre Mignon. Operating from 1980 to 1994, it concentred on classic European drama, often in experimental productions.
After early productions at La Mama and the Pram Factory, the Australian Nouveau Theatre took over the Temperance Hall in Napier Street, South Melbourne in 1981, renaming it the Anthill Theatre. [1]
Its notable works include an innovative 1983 production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll , a Molière triptych first performed in 1984, and Julie Forsyth's solo performance of Kid's Stuff by Raymond Cousse. Various Australian Nouveau Theatre productions toured Australia and were performed at major international arts festivals. [2]
Australian Nouveau Theatre moved to the larger and newly developed Gasworks Theatre in 1992, before closing under funding pressure in 1994. [3]
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia.
Sheila Mary Florance was an Australian theatre, television and film actress. She played numerous roles in the Crawford Productions before playing Dossie Rumsay in the rural series Bellbird but became best known internationally for her performance as elderly, alcoholic convict Lizzie Birdsworth in the television series Prisoner.
Alexander McPhee Miller is an Australian novelist. Miller is twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award, in 1993 for The Ancestor Game and in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. He won the overall award for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for The Ancestor Game in 1993. He is twice winner of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Conditions of Faith in 2001 and for Lovesong in 2011. In recognition of his impressive body of work and in particular for his novel Autumn Laing he was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2012.
Catherine McClements is an Australian stage, film and television actress and television presenter. She is known for her TV roles in Water Rats and Tangle, for which she won Logie Awards, and has performed in stage productions for theatre companies such as Belvoir St Theatre, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Marina Prior is an Australian soprano and actress with a career mainly in musical theatre. From 1990 to 1993, she starred as the original Christine Daaé in the Australian premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, opposite Anthony Warlow and later Rob Guest.
The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in Cabaret, Dance, Theatre Companies, Independent Theatre, Musical Theatre, Contemporary and Experimental Performance and Opera in Melbourne.
The Princess Theatre, originally Princess's Theatre, is a 1452-seat theatre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1854 and rebuilt in 1886 to a design by noted Melbourne architect William Pitt, it is the oldest surviving entertainment site on mainland Australia. Built in an elaborate Second Empire style, it reflects the opulence of the "Marvellous Melbourne" boom period, and had a number of innovative features, including state of the art electric stage lighting and the world's first sliding ceiling, which was rolled back on warm nights to give the effect of an open-air theatre.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.
Pamela Rabe is a Canadian–Australian actress and theatre director. A graduate of the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver, Rabe is best known for her appearances in the Australian films Sirens, Cosi and Paradise Road, and for starring as Joan Ferguson in the television drama series Wentworth.
Robyn Anne Nevin is an Australian actress, director, and stage producer, recognised with the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards and the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards for her outstanding contributions to Australian theatre performance art. Former head of both the Queensland Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company, she has directed more than 30 productions and acted in more than 80 plays, collaborating with internationally renowned artists, including Richard Wherrett, Simon Phillips, Geoffrey Rush, Julie Andrews, Aubrey Mellor, Jennifer Flowers, Cate Blanchett and Lee Lewis.
Caroline Ann O'Connor is an Anglo-Australian singer, dancer, and actress. For her theatre work she has won three Helpmann Awards: Best Female Actor in a Play for Edith Piaf in Piaf in 2001; in the same category for Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow in 2006; and Best Female Actor in a Musical for Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes in 2015.
Joanna Murray-Smith is a Melbourne-based Australian playwright, screenwriter, novelist, librettist and newspaper columnist.
Jacek Koman is a Polish actor and singer.
Tania Karen de Jong is an Australian soprano, social entrepreneur, businesswoman, motivational speaker, and event producer. She is the Founder of Creative Innovation Global, Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Dimension5, Music Theatre Australia, Pot-Pourri, and The Song Room, and co-founder of Mind Medicine Australia. De Jong was named as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Psychedelics" globally by Psychedelic Invest in 2021.
Tobias Alexander Edward Manderson-Galvin is an Australian actor, satirist, performance poet, and playwright. He is co founder and CEO/Artistic Director of Melbourne's new writing theatre: MKA: Theatre of New Writing. and UK/Aus company Doppelgangster.
Tilda Cobham-Hervey is an Australian actress. She made her film debut in 52 Tuesdays, a critically-acclaimed independent film directed by Sophie Hyde, and has also appeared on stage. She appeared in the 2018 film Hotel Mumbai, and starred as feminist icon Helen Reddy in the 2019 biopic I Am Woman. In 2023 she starred in the Amazon Prime TV series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.
Tom Wright is an Australian theatre writer, mostly known for his adaptations and translations.
Ned Kelly is a 1942 radio play by Douglas Stewart about the outlaw Ned Kelly.
"The Tower" is a 1964 TV play broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It aired on 2 December 1964 as a stand-alone in Melbourne and on 28 April 1965 as part of Wednesday Theatre in Sydney. It aired on 6 January 1965 in Brisbane. It was based on a play by Hal Porter and directed by Christopher Muir in the ABC's studios in Melbourne.
Julie Forsyth is an Australian actress best known for her stage performances, and probably Lotis, the talking lift from Lift Off.