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Little Lon
Work in development
Many have heard of ‘Madame Brussels’, or frequented the bar named in her honour, but few have delved into the complex history of Little Lon. Barbara Minchinton's book 'The Women of Little Lon' did much to share the stories of these groundbreaking women of commerce and resourcefulness, and we now want to extend that research into their musical lives, forming a narrative that celebrates both the history of Melbourne as well as the history of sex workers during Australia's gold rush period.
'Music was integral to many of the women's lives, but it doesn't have a high profile in the historical record; if it appears at all, it is almost accidental to the reportage' Barbara Minchinton
CREATIVE BIOGRAPHIES
(click on image for biog)
Virginia Gay
Writer
Virginia Gay graduated from WAAPA and has an illustrious career in Television and Theatre. She will be seen in the upcoming SBS series Safe Home and ABC's Savage River.
As a playwright, she has written a new adaptation of Cyrano for MTC and wrote and directed the hugely successful Boomkak Panto! For Belvoir Theatre.
She won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress for Calamity Jane, starred in the film Judy & Punch, which premiered at Sundance and wrote and directed her first short film Paper Cut, which made the 2018 Tropfest finals.
Television Credits include All Saints (7), Winners & Losers (7), The War That Changed Us (ABC), Adam Liaw’s The Cook Up (SBS), The Book Club (ABC), Q + A (ABC), Adam Hills’ In Gordon Street, Tonight (ABC), Good News Week (Channel 10), Studio at The Memo (Foxtel), The Unbelievable Truth (Channel 7), and was team captain on CRAM (Channel 10).
Theatre credits include Eddie Perfect’s Vivid White, The Beast, On The Production Of Monsters, and Minnie and Liraz, all for the MTC. High Society, and Mame (Hayes Theatre Company). Cautionary Tales for Children (Arena Theatre Company @ The Opera House) and Hidden Sydney for Sydney Festival.
She has written two solo cabaret shows, Songs To Self-Destruct To and Dirty Pretty Songs, both sold out at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and toured nationally and internationally, most notably headlining the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Fringe. She also hosted La Clique in the Spiegeltent in London’s West End in2019.
Virginia Gay graduated from WAAPA and has an illustrious career in Television and Theatre. She will be seen in the upcoming SBS series Safe Home and ABC's Savage River.
As a playwright, she has written a new adaptation of Cyrano for MTC and wrote and directed the hugely successful Boomkak Panto! For Belvoir Theatre.
She won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress for Calamity Jane, starred in the film Judy & Punch, which premiered at Sundance and wrote and directed her first short film Paper Cut, which made the 2018 Tropfest finals.
Television Credits include All Saints (7), Winners & Losers (7), The War That Changed Us (ABC), Adam Liaw’s The Cook Up (SBS), The Book Club (ABC), Q + A (ABC), Adam Hills’ In Gordon Street, Tonight (ABC), Good News Week (Channel 10), Studio at The Memo (Foxtel), The Unbelievable Truth (Channel 7), and was team captain on CRAM (Channel 10).
Theatre credits include Eddie Perfect’s Vivid White, The Beast, On The Production Of Monsters, and Minnie and Liraz, all for the MTC. High Society, and Mame (Hayes Theatre Company). Cautionary Tales for Children (Arena Theatre Company @ The Opera House) and Hidden Sydney for Sydney Festival.
She has written two solo cabaret shows, Songs To Self-Destruct To and Dirty Pretty Songs, both sold out at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and toured nationally and internationally, most notably headlining the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Fringe. She also hosted La Clique in the Spiegeltent in London’s West End in2019.
Victoria Falconer
Music Director
Victoria Falconer is an award-winning musical director, composer, cabaret artist, theatre maker and multi-instrumentalist.
As musical director and arranger, recent productions include Bourgeois & Maurice's Insane Animals (dir. Philip McMahon, HOME Manchester) and the groundbreaking queer reimagining of Oklahoma! (dir. Richard Carroll, Black Swan State Theatre). Victoria is currently musical directing and performing in a remount of the Australian re-staging of Once (Darlinghurst Theatre Company) in which she also plays the role of Reza. In 2019 she received nominations for a Sydney Theatre Award (Once, DTC), and a Green Room Award (Glittergrass, Malthouse) for musical direction. Victoria has received Best Cabaret at Adelaide Fringe twice (2018/2011), and is engaged as associate composer/arranger and band leader with genre-defying ensemble Hot Brown Honey.
Other MD credits include LIZZIE (Sydney Festival), Courtney Act’s Under The Covers (Underbelly, London), Unroyal Variety (Hackney Empire) and Sasquatch The Opera (Summerhall, Edinburgh) written by Roddy Bottom of Faith No More. Victoria has composed for award-winning films including Yer Old Faither (dir. Heather Croall, 2020), Double Portrait (Ian Bruce, 2018), and live shows including Trygve Wakenshaw’s Only Bones v1.4 (London International Mime Festival 2020) as well for as her own award-winning projects (Glittery Clittery, EastEnd Cabaret, Smashed: The Brunch Party), and hosting The People of Cabaret’s We Are Here for Sydney Festival. She is co-creator and performer with multi-award-winning feminist firebrands Fringe Wives Club, who have presented on stages including Arts Centre Melbourne, Southbank Centre London, Darwin Festival, BATS Theatre (Wellington) and Edinburgh Fringe (Winner: Spirit of the Fringe 2018).
She is a founding member of The People of Cabaret, an initiative formed to advocate for performers identifying as Indigenous and/or Bla(c)k and/or People of Colour.
Victoria Falconer is an award-winning musical director, composer, cabaret artist, theatre maker and multi-instrumentalist.
As musical director and arranger, recent productions include Bourgeois & Maurice's Insane Animals (dir. Philip McMahon, HOME Manchester) and the groundbreaking queer reimagining of Oklahoma! (dir. Richard Carroll, Black Swan State Theatre). Victoria is currently musical directing and performing in a remount of the Australian re-staging of Once (Darlinghurst Theatre Company) in which she also plays the role of Reza. In 2019 she received nominations for a Sydney Theatre Award (Once, DTC), and a Green Room Award (Glittergrass, Malthouse) for musical direction. Victoria has received Best Cabaret at Adelaide Fringe twice (2018/2011), and is engaged as associate composer/arranger and band leader with genre-defying ensemble Hot Brown Honey.
Other MD credits include LIZZIE (Sydney Festival), Courtney Act’s Under The Covers (Underbelly, London), Unroyal Variety (Hackney Empire) and Sasquatch The Opera (Summerhall, Edinburgh) written by Roddy Bottom of Faith No More. Victoria has composed for award-winning films including Yer Old Faither (dir. Heather Croall, 2020), Double Portrait (Ian Bruce, 2018), and live shows including Trygve Wakenshaw’s Only Bones v1.4 (London International Mime Festival 2020) as well for as her own award-winning projects (Glittery Clittery, EastEnd Cabaret, Smashed: The Brunch Party), and hosting The People of Cabaret’s We Are Here for Sydney Festival. She is co-creator and performer with multi-award-winning feminist firebrands Fringe Wives Club, who have presented on stages including Arts Centre Melbourne, Southbank Centre London, Darwin Festival, BATS Theatre (Wellington) and Edinburgh Fringe (Winner: Spirit of the Fringe 2018).
She is a founding member of The People of Cabaret, an initiative formed to advocate for performers identifying as Indigenous and/or Bla(c)k and/or People of Colour.
Barbara Minchinton
Historian/Cultural Consultant
Barbara Minchinton began her study of history with her own family background and in the process uncovered the tragedies behind the stiff upper lip of previous generations in country Victoria. She moved from there to conducting historical research to support archaeologists interpreting artefacts recovered from the cesspits of Little Lon, and discovered another whole set of parallel stories (and tragedies) in the urban setting. She has since conducted research on many families throughout Victoria in the nineteenth century, and is currently extending her study of the women of Little Lon into a biography of Madame Brussels (Melbourne’s most famous flash madam) and her husband.
Barbara Minchinton began her study of history with her own family background and in the process uncovered the tragedies behind the stiff upper lip of previous generations in country Victoria. She moved from there to conducting historical research to support archaeologists interpreting artefacts recovered from the cesspits of Little Lon, and discovered another whole set of parallel stories (and tragedies) in the urban setting. She has since conducted research on many families throughout Victoria in the nineteenth century, and is currently extending her study of the women of Little Lon into a biography of Madame Brussels (Melbourne’s most famous flash madam) and her husband.
Sarah Giles
Director/Dramaturg
Sarah Giles is an award winning theatre and opera director. She studied directing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and has an Arts Degree from the University of Melbourne with a double major in Italian and History.
Sarah has directed work for Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, State Theatre of South Australia, Malthouse Theatre, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland, Sydney Chamber Opera, NIDA and WAPPA.
Most recently Sarah received a Helpmann nomination and Green Room nomination for Best Direction of an Opera for her multi award winning production of Lorelei for Victorian Opera. Her production, for which she was both dramaturg and director, won Best New Australian work and Best Design at the Green Room awards where it was nominated in five categories.
Sarah Giles is an award winning theatre and opera director. She studied directing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and has an Arts Degree from the University of Melbourne with a double major in Italian and History.
Sarah has directed work for Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, State Theatre of South Australia, Malthouse Theatre, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland, Sydney Chamber Opera, NIDA and WAPPA.
Most recently Sarah received a Helpmann nomination and Green Room nomination for Best Direction of an Opera for her multi award winning production of Lorelei for Victorian Opera. Her production, for which she was both dramaturg and director, won Best New Australian work and Best Design at the Green Room awards where it was nominated in five categories.
Ali McGregor
Creative Director
Ali McGregor is an internationally renown soprano and cabaret artist who has performed everywhere from Glastonbury to Carnegie Hall. After starting her career as a principal soprano with Opera Australia she soon ran away with the circus in the form of international touring sensation La Clique (La Soiree). After her appointment as artistic director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2016-2018 she has gone on to create a number of cabaret shows including the Helpmann Award winning show Yma Sumac: The Peruvian Songbird in 2019.
She has performed with SSO, MSO, Sydney Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, Festival of Voices among others. She has been performing and producing shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festivals for 14 years. She appeared multiple times on ABC’s Spicks & Specks, has been nominated for an ARIA award for her family jazz album JAZZAMATAZZ!, and won multiple green room awards for both cabaret and opera.
Ali is a board Member of The Song Room - a national for-purpose organisation that brings tailored, high-quality music and arts programs, to the most disadvantaged students at schools across Australia.
Ali McGregor is an internationally renown soprano and cabaret artist who has performed everywhere from Glastonbury to Carnegie Hall. After starting her career as a principal soprano with Opera Australia she soon ran away with the circus in the form of international touring sensation La Clique (La Soiree). After her appointment as artistic director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2016-2018 she has gone on to create a number of cabaret shows including the Helpmann Award winning show Yma Sumac: The Peruvian Songbird in 2019.
She has performed with SSO, MSO, Sydney Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, Festival of Voices among others. She has been performing and producing shows at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne Comedy Festivals for 14 years. She appeared multiple times on ABC’s Spicks & Specks, has been nominated for an ARIA award for her family jazz album JAZZAMATAZZ!, and won multiple green room awards for both cabaret and opera.
Ali is a board Member of The Song Room - a national for-purpose organisation that brings tailored, high-quality music and arts programs, to the most disadvantaged students at schools across Australia.
REFERENCE IMAGES
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