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Australian Musical Theatre Academy

Adult Summer Workshop Tutors

Part of our commitment at AMTA, is that we only work with the best instructors in Australia. Our tutors are the leading industry professionals who create, and/or perform in, Australia’s Arts & Entertainment industry.

The Advanced Audition Technique for Musical Theatre and Create Your Dream Career Workshop are both led by AMTA's Head Honcho, musical theatre and cabaret star, Queenie van de Zandt.

Queenie van de Zandt headshot

Queenie van de Zandt
Biography

Queenie van de Zandt is one of Australia’s leading ladies of musical theatre and cabaret, and Australia's leading teacher of audition technique for musical theatre, song performance and cabaret. Well known for her incredible versatility as a performer she has worked extensively in musical theatre, plays, cabaret, on television and film, and as a recording artist, comedienne and writer.

Queenie’s work on television includes: Very Small Business; Winners & Losers, City Homicide, Da Kath & Kim Code; Let Loose Live; All Saints, and in theatre she has worked for companies throughout Australia including STC, QTC, The Ensemble, La Boite and the Malthouse, in plays such as: Women of Troy; Face to Face; Rabbit Hole; Absent Friends; Abigail’s Party; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Barmaids; Caucasian Chalk Circle; Secret Bridesmaids' Business; The Vagina Monologues; The Road to the She-Devil’s Salon; Furious; and Speaking in Tongues. Queenie has also had roles in the films: Scooby Doo - The Movie, Salem’s Lot, and played the leading role of Margo in the Aussie feature film Girl Clock.

However Queenie is still probably best known for her extensive work in musical theatre and cabaret. Queenie has played leading roles in hit musicals such as: Thoroughly Modern Millie, We Will Rock You, Funny Girl, Into The Woods, King Kong, Smoke & Mirrors, Oliver!, The Full Monty, Anything Goes, Cabaret, The Boy From Oz, Eureka – The Musical, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Hair and Follies. In her early career she also performed in such classic musicals as Les Misérables and The Threepenny Opera.

As a writer, Queenie has co-written two albums of original music: Amazon Woman and Other Stories and her subsequent one-woman cabaret show, Amazon Woman and Other Stories, performed at music and cabaret festivals and music venues all over Australia. Her two other critically acclaimed and award nominated cabaret shows, CABARET - In 12 Easy Steps and The Best (and Worst) of Queenie van de Zandt have toured to every major cabaret festival in Australia. In 2014 Queenie released Queenie van de Zandt - Live in Cabaret - a live recording of one of her cabaret performances and in 2017 Queenie performed her new show, BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell, to sold-out houses in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The show was subsequently nominated for the Sydney Theatre Award, the Helpmann Award and won the Glug Award for Best Cabaret and two Broadway World – Sydney Awards for Best Cabaret and Best Cabaret Performer. The show continues to tour around Australia and Internationally in 2018/19.

Queenie's alter-ego, Jan van de Stool, the madcap International Musical Therapist gathered a national cult following, when she appeared on Australia's Got Talent in early 2016. Her one-woman show I GET THE MUSIC IN YOU an evening with Jan van de Stool which she co-wrote with Tony Taylor, performed to packed houses in Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide and in 2006 played to sold-out houses and great critical acclaim for an extended season at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney. The show was nominated for both the Green Room Awards and the Sydney Theatre Awards and toured twice to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Jan van de Stool has been seen by over 1 million Australians through her shows, her work in corporate theatre and her online presence on YouTube and social media. She is now regularly asked to host high profile charity concerts and award shows, such as the 2016 and 2017 Helpmann Awards, which were televised on Foxtel and ABC TV.

Queenie continues to work with her co-writer Peter J. Casey, on developing the character for television, as well as continuing her live performances with Jan’s new theatre show – PARTING THE RED CURTAINS – which toured to the Brisbane and Sydney Comedy Festivals in 2019.

Queenie has been nominated for 18 major theatre awards for her work in musicals, theatre and cabaret, winning 6 times, including the 2008 Jeffry Joynton-Smith Memorial Glug Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play and the 2008 AussieTheatre.com Award for Best Female Actor and the 1997 MEAA A.C.T. Green Room Award. The many awards she has been nominated for include: 2015, 2014, 2009, 2008 and 2005 Green Room Awards; 2009 - Glug Award for Best Actress; 2007- 2 AussieTheatre.com Awards; a 2006 - Sydney Theatre Award; and a 2004 - Helpmann Award.

Alongside her performance work, for the past 19 years, Queenie has presented her master classes, workshops and courses in cabaret, song performance and audition technique for musical theatre around the country. She is also writing a book about audition technique. She has held teaching positions in numerous performing arts schools, has been invited to conduct master classes and seminars throughout Australia and has written musical theatre courses for several leading institutions. She has taught in the music department at NIDA and has held teaching positions in the music theatre courses at VCA and BAAPA. She teaches both adults and children, professionals and amateurs, and many of the people who have studied with Queenie, have gained entry to acting schools and been cast in leading roles in musicals.

Her audition preparation workshops have a very high success rate with a large percentage of children and adults who participate in her workshops subsequently being cast in the professional musicals she prepares them for. Her former students have played lead roles in shows such as, Billy Elliot – the Musical, Come from Away, School of Rock, Beautiful: Carole King Musical, Pricilla: Queen of the Desert, The Sound of Music, Heathers, Matilda, Ghost, Fiddler on the Roof, Dr Zhivago, King Kong, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dirty Dancing, Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, Strictly Ballroom, Once, Hairspray, Rock of Ages, Follies, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Annie, The Addams Family, Love Never Dies, Songs for a New World, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, Little Shop of Horrors, and Grease.

In 2015 Queenie founded The Australian Musical Theatre Academy (AMTA) with her good friend and producer Tiffany Noack. AMTA offers workshops and courses for students of all skill levels, giving people the tools to live creative, passionate and fulfilling lives, working with the best instructors in Australia.

Queenie brings to all her work, not only this wealth of experience but also her fine communication skills, her passion for the arts, her warm and positive nature and her wonderful sense of humour.

Queenie has been a proud member of the MEAA since 1989.

Last Updated August 2019

“I walked straight into a musical audition just before Christmas and channelled everything I learned…and guess what, I got the part…I auditioned for a part in the Mikado a few days before her class and I bombed so badly, so it’s no fluke, she really did help!”

V. Athanassiou
Advanced Audition Technique for Musical Theatre Workshop Participant, NSW

“WOW what a wonderful inspiring woman!! I found the course SOO helpful and inspiring and just added to that fire I have. It was not once boring or didn't have some relevance. I would do it yearly and want all updates when they are on. Totally worth it!!!!”

P. Andrews
Create Your Dream Career Workshop Participant, VIC

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