Katherine Tonkin
Matt Frank
Leanne White
Freya List
Dana Jolly
Jason Geary
Leslie Cartwright
Sally-Anne Upton
Michael Ralph
Sue Ellen Shook
Remy Noonan
Alinta Chidzey
Suzanne Heywood
Dean Bryant
Lisa-Marie Parker
Christine Allison
Sage Douglas
Elise Lucente
Sarah Clarke
Astrid Wootton
Amelia Christo
Zachary Ruane
Michael Lavine (USA)
Christie Whelan-Browne
Esther Hannaford
Gareth Keegan
Angela Harding
Freya List
Ben Osborne
John Lander
Katherine has worked with a number of Australia’s leading mainstage and independent theatre companies, as well as playing to festivals both nationally and overseas. Her theatre credits include: Cosi (Melbourne Theatre Company/Sydney Theatre Company); Abigail’s Party, Three Little Words, The Cherry Orchard, Apocalypse Bear Trilogy, Cloud Nine, and Explorations: A Streetcar Named Desire (Melbourne Theatre Company); You and Me and the Space Between (Malthouse Theatre/MIAF/Terrapin Puppet Theatre); The Histrionic and Baal (Sydney Theatre Company/Malthouse Theatre); The Wild Duck, and Elektra Orestes (Belvoir); Conversation Piece (Lucy Guerin Inc/Belvoir); Tame, OT: Chronicles of the Old Testament (Malthouse Theatre); The Eisteddfod (Stuck Pigs Squealing/Malthouse Theatre/Brisbane Powerhouse/Downstairs Belvoir); Gilgamesh (Uncle Semolina & Friends/MIAF/Sydney Opera House/Barbican UK/Festival of Australian Theatre in China); Smashed (Griffin Independent); I Heart John McEnroe (Uninvited Guests/Theatreworks); Dybbuks (Chamber Made Opera/Theatreworks): Duets for Lovers and Dreamers (Insite Arts/45downstairs) and 3XSisters (Hayloft Project). As a writer she co-devised and performed in Xenides – The Musical, and co-adapted for the stage Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, both for Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA.
Screen credits include Preacher (Series 4), My First Summer, Wentworth (Series 7), The BBQ, Macbeth, Nowhere Boys (Series 4), The Future is Expensive, Winners and Losers (Series 3 and 4), City Homicide (Series 3 and 4), Neighbours, Blue Heelers, Snake Tales and Kick. Katherine is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and proud member of Actors’ Equity.
Mathew Frank has worked throughout Australia and internationally as a Musical Director, Conductor, Composer, Performer and Vocal Coach. Mathew was most recently composer/sound designer for MTC’s An Ideal Husband, Lady in the Van, Born Yesterday and Skylight. Previously he was the Musical Director of Jerry’s Girls, La Cage Aux Folles and The Pirates of Penzance for The Production Company. Other shows include; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Geoffrey Rush at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Private Lives (composer/musical director), Next to Normal and The Drowsy Chaperone for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Mathew was also the Associate Musical Director on the Company’s productions of Poor Boy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (and STC season), Urinetown (and STC season), and the Assistant Musical Director on The Sapphires. He was Musical Director/Arranger of the smash hit Britney Spears: The Cabaret, which has played London & Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne over the last 5 years and recently did the same jobs on Rhonda Burchmore’s Vinyl Viagra and Christie Whelan- Browne’s Show People for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. With writing partner Dean Bryant, he composed the musical Prodigal, first produced at Chapel Off Chapel in 2000 (Green Room Award for Best Original Score) and revived at fortyfivedownstairs. Prodigal became the first Australian musical produced in New York City, with its Off-Broadway debut at the York Theatre Company in 2002. Other shows with Bryant include Once We Lived Here (Green Room Award for Best New Musical) fortyfivedownstairs, My Brilliant Career, Virgins: A Musical Threesome (six Green Room nominations) Malthouse and presented at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and an adaptation of Sonya Hartnett’s The Silver Donkey. With 20 years experience in the musical theatre profession, Mathew has combined his skills to direct and develop one of the most elite musical theatre courses in the country.
Leanne danced professionally for over 23 years in shows such as Evita, Oklahoma, Song and Dance (where she was nominated for an “Adam Award”), Cats (as the original Dance Captain), Possum Magic and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dance Captain and lead dancer). Her extensive TV work includes; The AFI Awards, The Don Lane Show, The Mike Walsh Show and several variety specials. From 1993 to 1995 Leanne was Resident Director of Cats throughout Asia and Australia and Resident Choreographer on Sunset Boulevard at the Regent Theatre. In 1998 she was Associate Choreographer with Anthony Van Laast for The Boy From Oz and continued to maintain the choreography throughout its Australian run. In 1999 she was flown to London by Paul Dainty to meet with Arlene Phillips, the director of Saturday Night Fever, to consult on casting the show in Australia. She was also Associate Choreographer on Happy Days the Arena Mega Musical, original casting consultant on Mamma Mia, Choreographer for the Production Company’s, Mack and Mabel and choreographed Putting It Together at Chapel Off Chapel.
Leanne has dedicated her professional life to resident directing, choreographing, performing and teaching. With more than 40 years experience in the performing arts industry, she brings a broad repertoire of experience.
At Showfit, Leanne has drawn on her extensive knowledge to assemble some of Australia’s finest Musical Theatre teachers.
Freya List is a Melbourne based performer and exciting new choreographer. Freya attended Centrestage before completing her full time training at Spectrum Dance and an Internship at Broadway Dance Center. Freya trained and performed throughout Europe and the US, and has taught/ choreographed around Australia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and India where Freya worked with CERES Global teaching dance in communities. Freya’s choreography can most recently be seen in ‘The Children’ by MTC, the ‘Kabaret Dietrich’ cabaret and the Eden Swan live show at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. Freya’s screen credits include The Doctor Blake Mysteries, The Pacific, Neighbours, Utopia, Good Morning America and TVC’s for Toyota, carsales.com.au and Norwich Insurance. Freya also has her choreography being featured on the Australian Dance feature film ‘UP HERE’, and music videos for Hopium, Sex on Toast and Braille Face. Freya is also the creator of the event series Playing Field that brings together the music and dance industries. Freya has been a performer and choreographer for many corporate and industry events as well as her own show ‘Half Full’ at Theatreworks. Freya performed in Kim Adam’s ‘4 Letters’ and choreographed shows for Paul Malek’s ‘Collaboration The Project’ and ‘Project Y ’. Freya’s approach to dance incorporates many disciplines and encourages everyone to find their own style and unique way of storytelling.
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.
Dana’s Musical Theatre credits include Respect, staring Rhonda Burchmore, and 11 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, Curtains, and Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder. 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 staring 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 to choreograph the 3rd year Graduates performance of The Drowsy Chaperone, and was also invited to be a guest judge for the Rob Guest Endowment Semi Finals, amongst other projects.
Dana is the founder of the corporate entertainment company Voltage International Productions, 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.
Jason has been a professional improviser for over 25 years; in that time he has performed all around the world, from Australia through Asia, the USA to the stages of Europe. Jason has studied Improvisation with teachers like Keith Johnstone, Patti Stiles, Randy Dixon and Dan O’Connor and story with Robert McKee. Jason is a founding member and former Artistic Director of Impro Melbourne and has performed with the company for 15 years where he has created and directed many long and short form improvised formats. His format ‘How ‘bout This?’ has been adopted and played internationally. His original Improv format ‘Zoom’ has been invited to festivals across three continents and is a regular production in NYC. Jason has been teaching Comedy Improvisation for 20 years to both newcomers and experienced improvisers alike, and is renowned for bringing the best out of his students no matter their experience and skill level. Jason has a passion for exploring the craft of improvisation, in all of its forms. Jason is a sought after teacher globally, he has taught in every Australian capital, Amsterdam, Seattle, Portland, Frankfurt, Wurzburg, Berlin, Hong Kong, L.A, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Paris, Rome, Milan, Barcelona and New Zealand just to list a few. Jason has appeared in all three seasons of the critically acclaimed The Micallef Programme. He can also be seen with Shaun Micallef in Welcher and Welcher and Micallef tonight. He wrote and performed in Skithouse. Jason has appeared in Neighbours, City Homicide, Thank God You’re Here, Uptopia, Peter Helliar’s ‘It’s a date’ and ‘How to Stay Married’ Channel 7’s Slide Show, the US show Preacher. His movie credits include ‘Oddball’ with Shane Jacobson and “Scare Campaign” with the Cairns Brothers. Though you probably know him as that guy off the iSelect and Local Agent finder ads. In 2016 he had over 6 millions views on YouTube for his comedy sketch Backyard Cricket.
Leslie is a well known Melbourne based voice teacher. He is very passionate about voice and performance teaching at many prestigious Acting Schools in Melbourne including The National, VCA and NIDA. In addition to teaching at various schools, Leslie has taught voice for the theatre companies such as MTC, and The Malthouse.He has worked as a voice/dialogue coach on many theatre productions, including The Boy from Oz, Reg Cribb’s Last train to Freo, Stephen Sewell’s Nil, Cat and Buried, and Marguerite Duras’ Agatha. Leslie is also a Voice consultant to Fremantle Media Group and works regularly with the actors on Neighbours. Leslie has worked with many professional actors including Marta Dussledorp – Crownies and A Place To Cll Home, Kat Stewart – Underbelly and Mr and Mrs Murder, Richard Davies – Offspring and Tosh Greenslade – Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell.
