.David Williamson's The Club

BIOGRAPHIES

DAVID WILLIAMSON - Playwright

David Williamson is Australia’s best known and most widely performed playwright.  His first full-length play, The Coming of Stork, was presented at La Mama Theatre in 1970 and was followed quickly by The Removalists and Don’s Party in 1971.  His prodigious output since then includes Jugglers Three, What If You Died Tomorrow?, The Department, A Handful of Friends, The Club, Travelling North, Celluloid Heroes, The Perfectionist, Sons of Cain, Emerald City, Top Silk, Siren, Money and Friends, Brilliant Lies, Sanctuary, Dead White Males, Heretic, Third World Blues, After the Ball, Corporate Vibes, Face to Face, The Great Man, Up For Grabs, Soulmates, Charitable Intent, Birthrights, Amigos, Flatfoot, Operator, Influence and Lotte’s Gift.

His plays have been translated into many languages and performed internationally including major productions in London, Los Angeles, New York and Washington.  As a screenwriter, David has brought to the screen his own plays, The Coming of Stork (filmed as Stork), The Removalists, Don’s Party, The Club, Travelling North, EmeraldCity, Sanctuary and Brilliant Lies.  He has also written original screenplays for the feature film Libido, Petersen, Eliza Fraser, Duet for Four, Gallipoli, Phar Lap and The Year of Living Dangerously.

His television scripts include The Perfectionist, the miniseries The Last Bastion, A Dangerous Life and The Four-Minute Mile and the series DogsHeadBay.  David wrote the telemovie adaptation of Neville Shute’s On The Beach, screened in the US for Showtime.  The series was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the AFI Best Miniseries Award.  David’s directing credits include Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and John Power’s The Last of the Knucklemen for State Theatre of South Australia and his Sons of Cain for Melbourne Theatre Company, which toured nationally.

In 1971 he became the first person outside Britain to receive the George Devine Award (for The Removalists).  Subsequently, among numerous other awards, his work has been recognised with the 1973 London Evening Standard Award for Most Promising New Playwright of the Year, the Australian Writers’ Guild Awgie Award (11 times), the Australian Film Institute’s Award for Best Screenplay (four times) and, in 1966, the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award.  In 2005 he received the Richard Lane Award for Services to the Australian Writers’ Guild.

David has been named one of Australia’s Living National Treasures.

 

CAST

JOHN WOOD  –  Jock

John is a veteran of the Australian entertainment industry, having appeared in numerous roles on stage and screen. The 2006 TV Week Logie Awards’ “Race for Gold” took the general public and the media by storm - John Wood had been nominated for the Gold Logie (for Australian Television’s most popular personality) for the 10th year in a row and voting only ceased when the broadcast went to air. The room erupted when Maggie Tabberer announced “JOHN WOOD” had won the Gold Logie. In 1976, he appeared in ABC TV’s groundbreaking Power Without Glory for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Logie. John starred in the hit drama Rafferty’s Rules from 1984 to 1989 and in 1988 and 1989 John received the TV Week Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor. In 1993, John landed the role of Tom Croydon in one of Australia’s most popular TV dramas Blue Heelers which ran for an astonishing 12 years. In 2004, John took on a very different role as one of the celebrities in the year’s biggest debut program Dancing With The Stars. John has appeared in numerous plays and musicals including Chess The Musical, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Love Letters, Away, A Flea In Her Ear, Another Time, King of Country, Jonah, The Trackers of Oxyrhyncus, Brittanicus, Measure for Measure, Flash Jim Vaux, Death of a Salesman, For Julia, Art, Born Yesterday, She Loves Me, The Real Inspector Hound, The Goldberg Variations, The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin (his first solo performance)and It Just Stopped. These productions have been for companies such as MTC, STC, Black Swan, Company B (Belvoir), Playbox/Malthouse, Nimrod and the Old Tote. John has most recently been seen in Ghostwriter for the MTC and the telemovie To Catch a Killer (based on the Joanne Lees story).

 

CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY – Laurie

Chris Connelly, originally from Adelaide, spent his formative years training at the Q theatre. He has worked extensively in Stage, Television and Film. His numerous MTC productions include After Shocks (Green Room award for best ensemble acting), Pax Americana, The Caretaker, Never in My Lifetime and A Fortunate Life. Other theatre credits include David Williamson’s Face to Face, HIT Productions’ Hotel Sorrento and the Red Stitch’s Harvest (winner of the Green Room award for best production). Chris’ solo shows, which include The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Playbox Theatre, Edinburgh, Convent Garden) and The Meeting (Dallas, Los Angeles), have also been staged both nationally and internationally. His numerous television credits include Neighbours, Stingers, Blue Heelers, Mercury, Good Guys Bad Guys and The Adventures of Lano and Woodley. His film credits include Queen of the Damned, Angel Baby, Kill, Death of a Soldier and Unfinished Business. Chris has directed and devised a number of theatre projects both in Australia and abroad. He has also collaborated with refugees and people from developing countries and was the co founder of the Maya Shakti drama school/company in Sri Lanka.

 

GUY KABLE – Geoff

Guy has completed two years of Bachelor of Dramatic Arts at the VCA. He has been involved in many VCA short films as well at Theatre Productions. His stage credits included the role of Fred in Saved (directed by Bruce Myles), Frankie in Lie of the Mind (directed by Greg Stone) and Pericles (directed by Rhys McConnochie). Guy has been involved in many television commercials for international companies such as Ford and Streets. He is an up and coming talent and HIT is delighted to have Guy on board for this production of David Williamson’s The Club.

 

 

DENIS MOORE – Ted

Denis's career as an actor and director spans over 30 years. An honours graduate of the Flinders University Drama Centre, based in Melbourne, Denis has worked extensively in both capacities for companies such as the Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, STCSA, Playbox and Malthouse. He is also proud of his work with many of Melbourne's smaller companies such as La Mama, Commonplace Productions, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Theatreworks, Church Theatre and Red Stitch. A highlight of all this has been his involvement in many Australian works, both premieres and revivals, including A Stretch of the Imagination (MTC), Essington Lewis - I am Work (Church Theatre), Lonely Lennie Lower (Playbox), The Incorruptible (STC), Too Young for Ghosts (MTC), Pacific Union (Playbox), The Ishmael Club (Commonplace) and The Big Con (Malthouse). His extensive TV credits include Bastard Boys, Tripping Over, Blue Heelers, Stingers, MDA, Newlyweds and Janus. His work in feature films includes Struck by Lightning, Crackerjack, Bad Eggs, Waiting and Death in Brunswick. In his career Denis has directed over 30 plays, most recently Peter Kenna's A Hard God for STC and Richard Bean's Harvest for Red Stitch which received Victorian Green Room awards for Best Direction and Best Production for 2006.

 

CHRISTOPHER PARKER – Danny

Chris is a year 2000 Graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. His stage credits include Shane Warne: The Musical (Adelaide Cabaret Festival), Sideshow Alley (McPherson), MacBeth (Complete Works Theatre Co), Romeo & Juliet (CWT), Oedipus Rex (CWT), Oklahoma (The Production Company), After the Beep (Adelaide Cabaret Festival), Bat Boy (Melbourne Theatre Company), Summer Rain (Sydney Theatre Company), Mamma Mia! (Littlestar) and The Three Musketeers (Australian Shakespeare Co). In 2005 Chris was nominated for the Best Newcomer award by the Sydney Theatre Awards and received a Green Room Award nomination for his performance in Oklahoma.  Chris has appeared on Carols by Candlelight, Love Letters from a War (ABC), Marshall Law (Ch7) and the award winning short film Dry Tested (Tropfest).  He also performs regularly with the twice internationally acclaimed opera act The Three Waiters and has directed It’s All About Me for Chapel off Chapel and Song for a New World for Treehouse Productions.  This is Chris’ second tour with HIT Productions, the first being Daylight Savings in 2001.

 

SIMON WILTON – Gerry

 Simon has had a diverse career as actor, director and teacher. More recent works include the Premiere (for Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre) and Australian tour of Jenny Kemp’s Still Angela, Piaf (Melbourne Theatre Company & Ensemble, Sydney), the feature film Lake Mungo and he directed graduating students at the National Theatre Drama School in Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? Television credits include regular roles in Acropolis Now and Neighbours as well as Blue Heelers, Stingers, Murder Call, Phoenix and others. He has created roles in the premieres of many Australian plays including Pacific Union by Alex Buzo, Love Suicides by John Romeril, A Return to the Brink by Rodney Hall and is a regular collaborator with the team of Bruce Myles, Glenn Hughes & Judith Cobb particularly in the plays of Michael Gurr: Shark Fin Soup (Melbourne Theatre Company), Underwear, Perfume and Crash Helmet (Playbox), Desirelines (Melbourne International Arts Festival) and Jerusalem (Playbox & Sydney Theatre Company.