Australian Musical Theatre Academy

Queenie van de Zandt
Biography

Queenie van de Zandt moves through the world entertaining, educating and serenading the people she meets. She has the unique ability in all her work to make people feel deeply, and to awaken laughter, empathy and awareness in equal measure.

She is one of Australia’s leading ladies of musical theatre and cabaret and considered 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: The Newsreader, Five Bedrooms, Very Small Business, Da Kath & Kim Code, Winners & Losers, City Homicide, Let Loose Live; All Saints; Denton; Mornings with Kerri-Anne; Good Morning Australia, The Midday Show, The 7.30 Report and The Mick Molloy Show and in theatre she has worked for companies throughout Australia including Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, 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 Margoin 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: Next to Normal, Thoroughly Modern Millie, We Will Rock You, Funny Girl, Follies, 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, and Hair. 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 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 and she continues to tour each show regionally. In 2014 Queenie released Queenie van de Zandt - Live in Cabaret - a live recording of one of her cabaret performances. Her latest cabaret show, BLUE: The Songs of Joni Mitchell, garnered extraordinary reviews and sold out every performance across the country in her 2017 tour, and has, won 3 awards: 2 Broadway Theatre – Sydney Awards for Best Cabaret and Best Cabaret Performance and the Lee Young Glug Award for the Most Outstanding Cabaret Performance as well as being nominated for the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Cabaret Production and The Helpmann Award for Best Cabaret Performer. In 2018 it toured extensively throughout Australia and Internationally to Stanford, California as part of the Stanford Live series. The show was set to tour the USA again in 2020 until COVID forced Queenie to cancel the tour 4 days before getting on the plane. The show has again begun extensive touring in Australia and a US Tour is planned for 2022.

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 pitching TV shows based on this character, 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.

Over the years Queenie has studied speech and drama, singing, dancing, and acting at some of the best institutions in Australia. She has completed workshops in improvisation, film and television performance, voice over technique, singing and dialects. Over the past 30+ years of her career, she has been fortunate enough to work with some of Broadway and the West End’s greatest directors, musical directors and choreographers, and also some of Australia’s best performers such as Tim Minchin, Eddie Perfect, David Wenham, Cate Blanchett, Kerry Fox, Todd McKenney, Joel Creasey, Dave Hughes, Lucy Durack, Gemma Rix, Sammy J, Kate McLennan, Kate Miller-Heidke, Katie Noonan, Kate Ceberano, David Campbell, Lawrence Mooney, Georgie Parker, Rob Mills, Magda Szubanski, Gina Riley, Jane Turner, Marge Downey, Andrew Denton, John Waters, Peter Carroll, Paul Mecurio, Judi Connelli, Michael Veitch, the late Chrissy Amphlett and Nancye Hayes and she is a well-known and highly regarded artist within the musical theatre industry.

Queenie has been nominated for 19 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, the 2008 AussieTheatre.com Award for Best Female Actor and the 1997 MEAA A.C.T. Green Room Award. The many other awards, besides the ones previously mentioned, that she has been nominated for include: 2020, 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, since 2000, Queenie has worked as a passionate arts educator, presenting her master classes, workshops and courses in cabaret, song performance and audition technique for musical theatre around the country. She is writing a book about audition technique and in 2022 will release a CD, with fellow vocal educator Beth Daly, called Singing & Vocal Warm Up Exercises – From Beginner to Professional. 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, been a guest lecturer in the musical theatre course at Griffith Universities, Queensland Conservatorium and has held teaching positions in the music theatre courses at VCA and Federation University in Ballarat (formerly BAAPA).

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.

Over the years, Queenie has developed a unique methodology to help people audition successfully for musical theatre. She teaches this method to the participants of AMTA’s renowned audition preparation workshops and the very high success rate of children and adults who participate in these workshops and subsequently gain entry to acting schools and professional musicals have led her to be dubbed by the media as a “musical theatre star-maker”. Her former students have played leading roles in nearly every professional musical produced in Australia since 2000 including: Frozen, Mary Poppins, Girl from North Country, Jagged Little Pill, Hamilton, Pippin, A Chorus Line, West Side Story, In the Heights, CATS, Fangirls, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Billy Elliot – the Musical, Come from Away, School of Rock, Kiss Me Kate, Beautiful: Carole King Musical, Aladdin, Pricilla: Queen of the Desert, Wicked, Ladies in Black, Brigadoon, Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Heathers: The Musical, Matilda, Ghost, Legally Blonde, Kinky Boots, Fiddler on the Roof, Into the Woods, The Threepenny Opera, Dr Zhivago, King Kong, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dirty Dancing, Les Misérables, Strictly Ballroom, Once, Hairspray, Rock of Ages, Follies, Chitty Bang Bang, Moonshadow, 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, Jekyll & Hyde and Grease.

Most recently Queenie has started a new business creating Bespoke Cabaret Shows for weddings, significant birthdays, corporate awards nights and end of life celebrations. Queenie interviews the relevant parties and then from her research writes and performs the show (along with willing friends, family or colleagues) to help people profoundly celebrate their special event in a way that is deeply felt and never forgotten.

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

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

David Piper
Biography

David Piper is a graduate of the University of Sydney (Bachelor of Music).

As a musical director, pianist, composer and educator, David has been at the forefront of the industry in Australia for almost 30 years. Classically trained, he achieved early success as a national finalist in the ABC Young Performers’ Award performing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, until he found a home in musical theatre.

David returns to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after an 18 month pause due to Covid. He was most recently Musical Director for the acclaimed national tour of Chess (Storeyboard). He was also Musical Director for The Production Company on Chess (Green Room Award nomination), and The Boyfriend, for the original Australian tour of The Boy From Oz, for the Gold Coast Arts Centre on Jesus Christ Superstar, Miss Saigon and Mary Poppins, and for Playking and National Theatre of China on Cho Cho. He worked for VCA as Music Director for Company and A Chorus Line. He has been Associate Musical Director for Fiddler On The Roof, (Lawson), Once, (MTC/GFO), Legally Blonde The Musical (Ambassador) Mary Poppins (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh), Wicked (GFO) and Annie (GFO). He has been Assistant Musical Director for Hugh Jackman The Boy From Oz Arena, (Gannon/Fox), Mamma Mia, (Dainty) We Will Rock You (Michael Koppel), Miss Saigon (Louise Withers and Assoc), Crazy For You (GFO) and Into The Woods. As a repetiteur/vocal coach and pianist he has worked on Priscilla Queen of the Desert, (Cassell), My Fair Lady, (Opera Australia), Aladdin (Disney), Strictly Ballroom, (Bazmark), Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma!, Call Me Madam (The Production Company), Aspects of Love (Really Useful Group), West Side Story (VSO), Scrooge the Musical, The Pirates of Penzance (EssGee), Carmen Jones, Chicago (IMG), Show Boat and for the ABC with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He worked as vocal coach to The Croc Men (Australia Zoo) – DVD released. He has also worked as Musical Director for Magnormos Productions and for Federation University Performing Arts Faculty on Spring Awakening, and A Bunch Of Ratbags. He has written music for P.E. The Musical (Malthouse) and Alice Through A Looking Glass Darkly (Phoenix Theatre). He has been a faculty member of the Bachelor of Music Theatre Course at AIM and works casually at VCA, APO Arts Academy and Associated Studios Australia.

Tyran Parke
Biography

Tyran Parke worked as a professional actor before firmly established himself as an acclaimed director on the Australian theatre scene. With credits that span Shakespeare, plays, musicals, cabaret, concerts and opera, Tyran has twenty years of performing credits to his name. He has played in shows as diverse as ‘Tick Tick Boom’, ‘The Last Five Years’, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘the Comedy of Errors’, ‘The Tempest’,’‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, ‘Mack and Mabel’ ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Funny Girl’, ‘South Pacific’, ‘Oliver’, ‘Sunset Blvd’, ‘Rosie’, ‘Evita’, ‘Listen to My Heart’, ‘Eurobeat’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Can You Believe It, Q-bag?’, ‘The Hatpin’, ‘Angels in America’, ‘Cabaret’, and ’She Loves Me’.

For the past decade Tyran has turned attention behind the scenes, and is now a much sought-after director, producer and teacher. For Adrian Storey, he directed the all-star production of Follies at the Melbourne Recital Centre, followed by the acclaimed production of Barnum starring Todd McKenny and Rachael Beck and Chess starring Natalie Basingthwaighte.

Professional directing credits include the plays Thom Pain, Pool (no water), The Laramie Project, Great Expectations, and Proof; the musicals Jekyll and Hyde, Lovebites, Metro St, Cheek to Cheek, Rent, The Goodbye Girl, A Chorus Line, Hello Again, and the operas The Coronation of Poppea and The Fairy Queen.

Parke is a huge devotee to the work of Stephen Sondheim. Having played the title role in Sunday in the Park with George, he was thrilled to direct the highly acclaimed 2018 production in Perth. Aside from Follies, Assassins – which toured throughout Victoria after its sell-out Melbourne season, was a highlight – Into the Woods and Everything’s Coming Up Sondheim repeated this artistic success.

Concert work includes the acclaimed Rob Mills is Surprisingly Good, Debra Byrne and Vika Bull in Tapestry, Caroline O’Connor’s From Broadway with Love and three separate national tours of From Broadway to La Scala over a six-year period.

Other productions include the acclaimed, Ordinary Days (Green Room Award- Best Director), Big Fish (Broadway World and Glugg Nominations- Best Director), Falsettos (Green Room nomination- Best Director) and The Coronation of Poppea (Opera Chaser Award- Best Director of an Opera).

As a teacher, Parke has worked for all the major training institutions and is currently the Head of Music Theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). He is also Artistic Director of Clovelly Fox Productions and Executive Producer at The Australian Musical Theatre Festival.

tyranparke.com

Dana Jolly
Biography

Dana’s career began at age of 9, in the musical Gypsy at Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne.

Dana then studied at the Victorian College of Arts, before performing with Victorian State Opera and the Australian Contemporary Dance Company.

Dana then moved to London, performing, and choreographing in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan, for over a decade.

Some of Dana’s credits include, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance London West End and European Tour, The Royal Variety Performance, British Music Awards, National Music Express Awards, Winter Olympics Norway, Shall We Dance UK and European tours, Souls In Motion European tour and West End, Hollywood and Broadway UK Tour, The Michael Ball television series, the Miss World Competition, Stonewall Concert Royal Albert Hall London, Strauss Waltzes Royal Festival Hall, and a wide variety of corporate, trade, fashion, film and television shows.

She has worked with such artists as Ray Charles, Madonna, Prince, East 17, Cliff Richards, The Kinks, Ewan Mc Gregor, Michael Ball, Gloria Estefan, Robert Palmer, Oasis, Ray Charles, and Michael Crawford to name a few.

International choreographers and directors that Dana has assisted include Hal Prince, Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman in New York, and Ben Elton, David Gilmore, Arlene Phillips, and Anthony Van Laast in London.

Dana returned to Australia as Resident Choreographer for the Australian productions of Showboat, receiving a Green Room Nomination, We Will Rock You, and The Producers, before choreographing 2,000 dancers and puppeteers in Citrawarna Colours of Malaysia Festival in Kuala Lumpur. Dana then choreographed 2 productions for The Victorian Opera, and Everybody Loves Rhonda for the opening of The Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Other projects in Australia include choreography for Australian pop artists, Crown Casino, Australia Post, etc, several television commercials, and Melbourne’s Moomba Parade and Water Festival for 3 years.

Dana’s Musical Theatre credits include Respect, staring Rhonda Burchmore, and various productions for The Production Company, including Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Me, Follies, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Grey Gardens, Showboat, and Nice Work If You Can Get It. In 2012 Dana choreographed the Australian premiere of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for TML Enterprises, which toured Australia (2012 & 2013), followed by the Sydney premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Sydney’s Theatre Royal (2013), which received glowing reviews. In 2015 Dana was invited to choreograph the new Australian musical Sexercise, which opened the Alex Theatre in St Kilda, as well as 2 productions for the Melbourne Theatre Company; Jumpy starring Marina Prior and Jane Turner, and the new Australian work Last Man Standing, written by Steve Vizard, and staring Peter Carroll. Dana was then asked in 2015/2016 to recreate Jerome Robbins original choreography for the musical Fiddler on the Roof starring Anthony Warlow. She then went on to choreograph the Australian debut of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.

In 2017 Dana was invited back to her old school, The Victorian College of The Arts, to choreograph the 3rd year Graduates performance of The Drowsy Chaperone and has also been invited as a guest judge for the Rob Guest Endowment on a number of occasions, amongst other projects.

Dana is the founder of the corporate entertainment company Voltage International Productions, and the Music Theatre Mentorship Program, and is in demand throughout Melbourne and Australia as a freelance choreographer for exclusive corporate functions, as well as for her dance teaching and mentoring. Dana has been invited to teach throughout Australia, as well as in the UK, America, Italy, and Germany. Dana was also inducted into the Victorian College of The Arts Hall of Fame in 2015.