A tragic love story and attempted royal assassination
Witness this slice of Australian history with racial, religious and political overtones and a hip hop/jazz musical styling.
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LINDSAY MCGREGOR COMPOSER /LIBRETTIST
Lindsay McGregor studied at Otago University (Dunedin NZ) with Terrence Dennis (specialising in piano solo / accompaniment) and with Honor Mckellar - Voice.
His tenor voice took him to Australia to study at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with Donald Smith.
During this time he joined the Queensland Lyric Opera and sang in the ‘Aida’ Chorus at Expo 1988.
Since he retired he has been composing Musicals and accompanying artists in the Northern Rivers region. Lindsay is also an accomplished artist and a professional Landscape Architect.
Inspired musically by Romantic Opera, his early compositions are Neo-Romantic in style - emphasising melodic content and traditional harmonic structure. In his words, “beauty is everything in art - the natural world is never ugly - however I have heard and seen a lot of ugly ‘man made’ art.”
In 2017 after the loss of his father and after the reading of an Opera Synopsis called ‘Nosferatu’ by Dana Gioa) in a frenzy of musical inspiration he wrote his own Gothic MusicalOpera ‘ANGÉLIQUE’ the MusicalOpera in five weeks. (excerpts of which may be heard on Youtube)
Inspired in 2019 by the reading of the Nature Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier ( a Quaker Poet 1807 - 1892) he composed ‘THE SEASONS’ - a Song Cycle and has had the pleasure of working with Rosel Labone for their first recording and debut performance.
In 2020 inspired by a story about the attempted assassination of Prince Alfred in Sydney in 1868 he composed the Music and Libretto for the Musical ‘THE PRINCE AND THE PROSTITUTE’. The tragic love story, features an idealistic Irish assassin and some larger than life famous characters of early Colonial Australia. This musical is in production for October 22 2022 in Brisbane.
Lindsay McGregor studied at Otago University (Dunedin NZ) with Terrence Dennis (specialising in pian
Performers
Luke Belle as Prince Alfred and Bishop Goold
Luke Belle is a Melbourne based performer. They studied Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice at Monash University. Luke has extensive stage experience around Melbourne. Luke’s most recent credits include, ‘Notary’ in Lyster Opera’s Don Pasquale, ‘Blazes’ in Bloomsday Melbourne’s, Yes I Will Yes. In 2021 Luke was a touring performer with Meerkat Productions and self produced a digital cabaret for Melbourne Fringe Festival titled Things That Get My Goat. Luke is currently Assistant Director and Set Designer for La Cenerentola with Lyster Opera and in 2023 will be making their Adelaide Fringe debut with Trivia The Musical. When Luke isn’t performing they host trivia nights throughout Melbourne.
Amanda Hutton as Sarah the Prostitute
Based on the Gold Coast, Amanda is an elegant, expressive and versatile Lyric Mezzo Soprano and Classical/Crossover Artist. As a singer and performer, her genres include Opera, Classical, Musical Theatre, Contemporary Song, Jazz and Swing. Amanda uses her wealth of repertoire across the genres to provide a variety of concerts, recitals and entertainment at various venues for social groups, aged care communities, corporate functions, weddings and funerals.
Amanda has extensive professional stage and theatre experience and has performed with Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, Queensland Pops Orchestra, to name a few. She has also performed on many stages, including Sydney Opera House, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour stage and Queensland Performing Arts Complex in Brisbane (QPAC).
Her roles include various touring Children’s Opera’s with both Opera Australia and Opera Queensland, as well as Fantine in Les Miserables (Gold Coast Art Centre, now HOTA).
Amanda has a Bachelor of Music in Performance and a Graduate Diploma of Opera Performance from the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University and a Master of Music Studies in Opera Performance from Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.
lindsay mcgregor as Horace/fanny, the deacon, prince edward
Baritone
Lindsay McGregor studied at Otago University (Dunedin NZ) with Terrence Dennis (specialising in piano solo / accompaniment) and with Honor Mckellar - Voice.
His tenor voice took him to Australia to study at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with Donald Smith.
During this time he joined the Queensland Lyric Opera and sang in the ‘Aida’ Chorus at Expo 1988.
Since he retired he has been composing Musicals and accompanying artists in the Northern Rivers region. Lindsay is also an accomplished artist and a professional Landscape Architect
Featuring Sandra Harman as Mother Fraser
Sandra is a theatre and film actor, director, producer, children’s entertainer, vocalist, voice over
artist & events host. She was co-founder and administrator of the Edge Theatre Company with Ron
Kelly, has performed Theatre in Education shows in Child Care Centres, Pre-schools and Primary
Schools throughout Queensland, has appeared in a number of short films, feature films, television
and TVC’s, and toured The Netherlands, England, Wales, and Australia as Sybil Faulty in Faulty
Towers, the Dining Experience.
She has won several Best Actress awards on the Queensland Festival Circuit and was nominated for
a Qld Perform Award for Best Actress in The Norman Conquests, a QSFT Award for Best
Performance in a Lead Role in Five Star and was a Gold Palm Award finalist for Best Actress in a
Leading Role for Ruby Moon
Her most recent stage performances have included The Vagina Monologues (4.Stage Productions),
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Brisbane Arts), Ruby Moon and Spring Awakening (MBTC), Forbidden
Broadway (Casa Mia Productions), Live! with Lynch and Paterson, Steel Magnolias (A Group with No
Name), God of Carnage, Death and the Maiden and Ruby Moon (Ad Astra), Gather Round Hear Our
Voices (RPAC), and Leaves of Glass (XCollective)
Danny Donaldson as Henry Parkes
Danny has trained and worked in Film and Television for eight years.
He has appeared in lead roles a number of short films and in television series such
as Harrow, The End, Young Rock and Joe Versus Carol.
Danny has also worked on a number of ‘Blockbuster’ movies such as Pirates of the
Caribbean and Thor: Ragnarok, where he also had the wonderful learning
experience of being the Stand In for Sir Anthony Hopkins. Danny is still well
remembered (and sniggered at!) for his lively role as the ‘Bad Dancing Teacher’ in
Dora and the City of Gold.
Danny is married with three adult children and lives in Brisbane.
Geof Webb as Henry O'Farrel
Tenor
Geof studied piano at Melbourne University with Trevor Barnard and Margaret Schofield; and singing with David Ashton Smith. He performed on stage and in the pit of many operas and musicals in Melbourne in the 1980s; and with Whitehall Choir in London from 1989-2005.
Geof teaches in Lismore's Community Music program onsite at the Conservatorium and in their Music in Schools program at Bangalow and Mullumbimby Public Schools.
Since 2006 he has performed with the Melbourne Chamber Choir, Coro Innominata (Sydney) and Vox Caldera (Lismore); in NORPA’s Railway Wonderland (2012 & 2015) and The Events (2018). In 2016 he joined the Opera Queensland chorus for The Barber of Seville at HOTA (2016) and as Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi for Opera Gold Coast (2019).
Geof has sung as soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Mozart Requiem for Byron Music Society; Bach’s St Matthew Passion for Amatori; and regularly gives recitals with Nicholas Routley and Gaynor Morgan. He is also the [pipe] organist at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Bexhill.
Jake Elston as Napoleon the third and Lord Newry
Baritone
Jake Elston is a Gold Coast based performer recently moving over from Wellington, New Zealand. He achieved a Bachelor of Performing Arts with a diploma in Singing and a degree in Musical Theatre. His notable credits include ‘Orin Scrivello D.D.S’ in Wellingtons Little Shop of Horrors, ‘Uncle Fester’ in Wellingtons Addams Family Musical and most recently he originated the role of ‘Nick’ in Wet Dreamz, an original rap musical that debuted during the Wellington Fringe festival this year. In 2021 he was part of the travelling pantomime group 'The Pantaloons', and got to travel the New Zealand country performing to both young and old! When Jake wasn’t acting in New Zealand he was teaching the future of 'Kiwi Theatre', being the director and head drama tutor at the junior production company 'Musical Stars'. This will be Jake's first Australian Theatre credit and he is super excited to dive into this next step in his performance journey.
Bailey Sprecak as Captain standish and Dr watson
Baritone
Bailey Sprecak is a Brisbane-based actor who has been involved with theatre for 11 years. His first plays included Fearnot, Alien VS Scientist, and Peggy the Pint Sized Pirate with Mango House of Arts, before having lead roles in the musicals Disneyfied and Annie with Lowood SHS. His most recent credits include various characters in Being Heard (DVAC, 2018), Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (LRPA, 2019), Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables (LRPA, 2021), Wayne Hopkins in Puffs (Brisbane Arts Theatre, 2021), and Professor Bhaer in Little Women the Musical (LRPA, 2022). Earlier this year, Bailey also made an appearance in the NBC television series Young Rock. Outside of theatre, he is currently studying for a Bachelor of Secondary Education, majoring in English and minoring in drama at the University of Southern Queensland.
and Luke Pagel as the auctioneer/executioner/sir william/cam
Baritone
Luke is a confident and talented actor, singer, musician, comedian and film maker. His credits include his role as 'Warner' in 'Legally Blonde' Musical (2016) the lead role as 'Seymour' in Little Shop of Horrors (2017), 'Benedick' in Much Ado About Nothing (2020) and more recently Lord Farquaad in Shrek (2022). He has a YouTube channel where he uploads films in which he presents, acts, sings, directs and produces. He is a keen animator and has produced short animations.
Luke has achieved the following performing arts qualifications; RSL Level 2 Certificate in Musical Theatre Performance Grate 4 (Passed with Merit, May 2017) and LAMDA Level 1 Award in Acting Grade 2 (Passed with Distinction, November 2017).
Flyer and Photos
