Creatives

Jim Jacobs is the co-creator of the hit Broadway musical Grease and was one of three judges on NBC’s talent competition series in the UST: Grease: You’re the One That I Want.  Jacobs, who created Grease (in 1970) with Warren Casey was born and raised on the mean tough streets of Chicago’s far northwest side.  During the golden era of rock ‘n’ roll (1956-1960) he was a guitar-playing ‘greaser’ student at Taft High School.  In 1963, Jacobs met Warren Casey when they were both cast in a local theatre production of A Shot In The Dark. Seven years later, the pair sat down and wrote what was to become one of the greatest musicals of all time.  Grease opened in 1971 in a draughty old former trolley barn called the Kinston Mines Theatre of Chicago and was an instant success.  A year later, Grease made it to Broadway and ‘Greasemania’ took off, eventually resulting in the longest-running show in Broadway history and the 1978 movie which became the highest-grossing movie musical in film history (a record that still stands today). Originally an actor, Jacobs has been seen on television, in motion pictures, regional theatre, national tours and on Broadway.  He is the co-author of several other plays and musicals including Island of Lost Co-eds, a musical spoof of the low budget sci-fi/horror/jungle movies of the 1950’s which he wrote with his Grease collaborator, the late Warren Casey.

Warren Casey was born in Yonkers, New York, and attended Syracuse University.  During the last 1950’s, he learned all about the “greasers” while working as an art teacher in upstate New York.  He moved to Chicago in 1962, where he hoped to pursue an acting career.  He appeared in dozens of productions, including creating the role of Bernie Litko in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He supported himself with jobs in retail, including working as an assistant manager of a chain of apparel stores, and as a record salesman.  In the meantime, he taught himself how to play the guitar and began writing songs.  Mr. Casey acted with the Chicago Stage Guild (where he met Jim Jacobs), the Old Town Players, and the Kingston Mines Theatre.  The latter company staged the original production of Grease which he wrote with Jim Jacobs. After the incredible success of both the musical and the movie, the two collaborated on Island of Lost Co-eds, a musical satire of the B-movies of the 1950’s.  Warren Casey died in 1988.

James is a graduate from Theatre Design at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Art Direction. He has received nominations in the Australian Production Design Awards, Green Room Awards and Sydney Theatre Awards and won Best Costume Design – Musical for HAIR in the 2020 BroadwayWorld Sydney Awards. Other MainStage musicals include GHOST (Theatre Creation Japan), THE SELFISH GIANT (Victorian Opera), CABARET, MIRACLE CITY (SOH), LAST 5 YEARS, XANADU, CRUEL INTENTIONS and recently the new Australian musical MIDNIGHT.  Plays include TURNS (CDP), LADIES DAY, DIVING FOR PEARLS (Griffin), GUARDS AT THE TAJ (NTOP) and LETTERS TO LINDY (Merrigong), YONG (Monkey Baa) and TIM (CDP).

Circus and Cabaret shows include VELVET, CIRQUE STRATOSPHERE and BLANC DE BLANC which continue to run globally.

Trudy Dalgleish, one of Australia’s most sought-after Lighting Designers, has received many prestigious awards for her Lighting Designs such as a Helpmann Award for White Devil (Best Lighting Design, Theatre), an ‘Entech’ Award for Best Lighting Designer – Live Events, the John Truscott Design Award for Excellence, the Music Theatre Technical Design Award for the lighting of Eureka at the Green Room Awards and a Green Room Award for Best Lighting for Hairspray. She was nominated for a ‘Mo’ Award for outstanding contribution to musical theatre as well as a Helpmann Award for Dead Man Walking and Green Room Awards for Orlando (Opera Australia), Boy from Oz (Production Company) and Cunning Little Vixen (Victorian Opera).

2023, an exciting year for Trudy, also sees her creating lighting designs for Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica (Ensemble Theatre), HMS Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance and Macbeth (State Opera South Australia), Midnight: The Fairytale Begins (Joint Ventures), and The World of Wearable Art, New Zealand.

Recent lighting designs include A Little Night Music for Victorian Opera, The Cunning Little Vixen for Victorian, West Australian and State Opera South Australia, Macbeth for West Australian Opera, The Woman in Black for Ensemble Theatre, Summer of the 17^th Doll for State Opera South Australia, The Secret Garden for John Frost and Opera Australia, In the Heights for Blue Saints Productions at Hayes Theatre and Sydney Opera House, Saturday Night Fever for the Gordon Frost Organisation, Cat Stephens’ Cat in an Attic in New Zealand, Melba at the Hayes Theatre, Candide for New Zealand Opera and All Out of Love, the Air Supply musical.

Trudy’s work as Associate Lighting Designer includes  Beautiful: The Carole King Musical for Michael Cassel, Cinderella, Shrek, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz, The Bodyguard, Driving Miss Daisy, Grease and The Sound of Music for Gordon Frost, and Evita The Musical presented by Opera Australia and John Frost in association with Ian David Productions; for SEL Gordon Frost’s The Producers – The New Mel Brooks Musical, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,  The New Rocky Horror Show  for both Australian and Hong Kong seasons, Hey Hey its Cinderella for the Paul Dainty Organisation, Pageant for Harry M Miller, Carols by Candlelight for the Seven Network, Australia Day Live for the Nine Network, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Opera in the Park for Sydney Festival.

Original sound designs include: Grease, Mamma Mia!, Hairspray, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, 9 to 5, FANGIRLS, The Woman In Black, The Time Machine, Muriel’s Wedding, My Fair Lady, Drummer Queens, Shrek, Barnum, Doctor Zhivago, The King And I, Anything Goes, The Tap Pack (US tour 2020), Bran Nue Dae, Dream Lover, Singin’ In The Rain, Fiddler On The Roof, Chess, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Atomic (Sydney & Off Broadway), Annie, Priscilla – Queen Of The Desert, Saturday Night Fever, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva, Grease – The Arena Spectacular, We Will Rock You, Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage, The Full Monty. Operas include: The Rabbits, Dead Man Walking, Orpheus In The Underworld, and Plácido Domingo & Katherine Jenkins in Concert.

Australian Sound Design Associate credits include: Beauty and The Beast; Hamilton, Jagged Little Pill, Frozen, Aladdin, The Lion King.

As sound designer and mix engineer: Jekyll and Hyde (with Anthony Warlow), Hugh Jackman’s Broadway to Oz and The Boy From Oz, Anthony Warlow with Faith Prince; Placido Domingo; The Magic of the Music with Anthony Warlow and Lesley Garrett.

Michael’s awards include: Helpmann for Best Sound Design; Muriel’s Wedding; The King And I; The Woman In Black; Dusty – The Original Pop Diva; Green Room Award for Best Sound Design; My Fair Lady; Dirty Dancing; Italy’s DAPA Award for Best Sound Design: Priscilla – Queen Of The Desert.

Craig Wilkinson APDG is an award-winning Live Performance Video Designer and the Creative Director of optikal bloc. His video design work has toured extensively across Australia and internationally to Hong Kong, UK, North America, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Craig’s most recent live performance video design works include the record-breaking stage adaption of Trent Dalton’s novel Boy Swallows Universe (Queensland Theatre / Brisbane Festival / QPAC), Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show (CiRCA / Aardman Animation / QPAC), the critically acclaimed Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (shake & stir theatre co / QPAC), Australia’s most successful theatrical exports Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs (Broadway Entertainment Group) and the Australian and New Zealand tour of Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell: The Musical (TEG DAINTY) as Australian Associate Video Designer.

Credits include: First Casualty, The Mountaintop, Gasp! (Queensland Theatre), Cruel

Intentions: The 90s Musical (David Venn Enterprises), Fourthcoming, A Christmas Carol, Green Day’s American Idiot, Wuthering Heights, 1984 (shake & stir theatre co / QPAC), Singin’ In The Rain – In Concert (Prospero Arts / QPAC), Avoidable Perils (Counterpilot), Let’s Be Friends Furever, I’ve Been Meaning To Ask You (The Good Room / Brisbane Festival), Prize Fighter, Pale Blue Dot (La Boite Theatre), One The Bear (Black Honey Company / La Boite Theatre / Campbelltown Arts Centre), Snapshot (Polytoxic), Frank & Fearless, The Night Parrot, Help Is On It’s Way, Voices of Remembrance, One Hundred and One Years (Queensland Music Festival), Seven Sisters Songline (HHO Events for the  Canberra Centenary), Terror Australis (Leah Shelton), Viva Spectacular, Cyber Illusion Spectacular (Aerial Angels Australia / Ocean Park Hong Kong).

Craig is an Accredited and Full Member of Australian Production Design Guild, a Seasonal Lecturer in Live Performance Video Design at the Queensland University of Technology since 2015 and was a recipient of a Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowship in 2022.

Trudy began as a performer in Perth with WA’s National Theatre Company. She went on to work for the West Australian Theatre Company in such shows as Sentimental Bloke, Company and On The Wallaby, and performed with the company’s Theatre-In-Education branch in Hating Alison Ashley and Smash Hit. Trudy sat on the Board of the West Australian Theatre Company and was their representative on the then Playwrights‘ Consortium.

Trudy worked in close association with the Midnite Youth Theatre Company, initially as Artist in Residence, then as production manager, choreographer and director. In these roles, she travelled to

the UK, Canada and Singapore, delivering workshops in staging and movement. Since her association with Midnite, Trudy has directed and choreographed a broad range of musicals and straight theatre for young performers. Trudy has been the Director of Drama at various educational institutions and has advised on theatrical venue design for education facilities.

Prior to her recent move to Melbourne, Trudy was instrumental in the development and design of the Diploma of Acting at WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts) eventually coordinating the course delivery and staff. More recently through Antipodes Arts Winter Labs Trudy has helped to develop new Australian works as well as operating as an independent dramaturg.  Trudy is a contributing writer for a new Australian musical WAGs, and directed its workshop development in Melbourne.  Trudy recently directed Maverick Newman in Conversation at the Hayes theatre, Urinetown for the VCA, and a play reading for the Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cyber Electric program. Trudy was recently Resident Director for StoreyBoard Entertainment on “tick, tick…BOOM!” starring Hugh Sheridan.

Trudy is passionate about the continued development and diversification of theatre in Australia, in particular that of new work that celebrates our many unique voices and perspectives. She grew up in a theatrical family and both her children pursue careers in the performing arts. She is married to a VERY understanding teacher.

Madeleine’s extensive list of credits include recent tours of Hairspray! – Swing & U/S ‘Velma Von Tussle’ (John Frost for Crossroads Live) and 9 to 5 – ‘Margaret’ (Crossroads Live), and ‘Maggie’ in Darlinghurst Theatre’s A Chorus Line.

She was Female Dance & Fight Captain for Disney’s Aladdin before taking up the position of Resident Choreographer. Other credits include the world premiere of Georgy Girl; Love Never Dies; Mamma Mia; Guys and Dolls plus West Side Story, Promises Promises and Guys and Dolls for The Production Company, Michael Ralph’s Hollywood Honky Tonk, Company – ‘Kathy’ for Watch This and Selina in the play Kindred for GoldFish Films.

Madeleine is a graduate of Howard Fine Acting Studio and of Dance World Studios from which she graduated with honours.

Adrian’s career has seen him work with the best theatre practitioners around the globe in various forms, initially through Company/Stage Management, General Management and then as a significant Producer in his own right.

Graduating with a BA(Hons) in Public Administration and a post-graduate diploma in Stage Management, Adrian toured extensively throughout the UK, USA, Israel, India and Australia; as well as working in the West End. He is honoured to have worked with Sonia Friedman Productions (Harry Potter & the Cursed Child), Playful Productions (Wicked) and continues a long-standing relationship with the Ambassador Theatre Group, Gordon Frost Organisation, Opera Australia & Tim Lawson Enterprises. Adrian has worked in all styles of theatre, from Shakespeare to Musicals, which include acclaimed productions of: ‘The Cherry Orchard’, ‘Suddenly Last Summer’, ‘Hedda Gabler’, ‘A Servant to Two Masters’, ‘Humble Boy’, ‘Afterplay’, ‘Sexual Perversity in Chicago’, ‘Arms and The Man’, ‘Kiss Me Kate’, ‘By the Bog of Cats’, ‘Ragtime’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Blue Man Group’. Working with some of the world’s most prolific or high-profile performers such as Eric Sykes, Peter Bowles, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith, Holly Hunter, John Hurt, Matthew Perry, Minnie Driver & Hank Azaria.

After relocating to Australia in 2008, Adrian has quickly become a major player on the national arts scene, working on the blockbuster musicals, ‘Jersey Boys’, ‘Hairspray (2010/2022)’, ‘A Chorus Line’, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, ‘South Pacific’, ‘The King & I’, ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, ‘Magic Mike Live: Australia.’

Adrian also owns and operates a boutique commercial theatrical company “StoreyBoard Entertainment” which has recently produced the works ‘Follies – in Concert’, ‘Barnum’, ‘Chess’, and ‘tick, tick…BOOM!’

Dave Skelton’s theatre credits include Musical Director on the Australasian and UK tours of Saturday Night Fever (04-07) as well as the World Premiere of Priscilla – Queen of the Desert -The Musical as Associate Musical Director. Dave has also worked as Musical Director on the Australian productions of Avenue Q, Fame, An Officer and a Gentleman, Rock of Ages (2011 Theatre People Pro Choice Award- Best Musical Director), The Rocky Horror Show, Dirty Dancing, the Australian Premiere of Ghost – The Musical, We Will Rock You, The Bodyguard and Shrek. Dave was an original member of the ABC’s Long Way to the Top tour which enjoyed triple platinum sales. He has been Musical Director for several cruise lines around the world and has worked with Tony Award winners and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees.

An enthusiastic gay alien, Eric was dropped by the stork in the woods of Maine, studied acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and enjoyed a successful career as a Broadway actor, performing in such shows as Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, The Book of Mormon and Something Rotten.

A graduate of The University of Western Sydney and The Actors College of Theatre and Television, Luke has forged a successful career in both musical theatre and straight drama, as well as being highly sort after as a director.

Luke worked as an Actor for 15 years. In 2009 he won the Helpmann and Greenroom Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Nicky/Trekky in Avenue Q. Luke was also Nominated for a Greenroom Award for Best Male in a Supporting Role in 2018 for Brigadoon.

Directorial credits include Annie for Riverside Theatre, Educating Rita for Seymour Centre, Thank You For Being a Friend for Neil Gooding and Matt Henderson, Songs for a New World (Melbourne and Sydney) for Blue Saint and Hayes Theatre, Giggle and Hoot Live show for ABC and Live Nation, In the Heights (Hayes and Sydney Opera House) for Blue Saint and Sydney Opera House in which he was nominated for a Helpmann Award and Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director, Resident Director for Shrek the Musical for GFO, Les Miserables for Packemin Productions and Riverside Theatre, Revival Director – Otello with Opera Australia, Resident Director – Cinderella The Musical for John Frost at XRoads and Opera Australia and Bells are Ringing with Neglected Musicals. Luke also spearheaded the Riverside Theatre Digital Concert series where he conceptualised and directed six shows back to back. Luke most recently was show director for both Jimmy Rees’s Not that Kinda Viral Tour and the Swag on the Beat Live Show.