May Session: Out of the Shadows

Alison has adored musical theatre ever since her gran took her to see Julie Andrews twirl on a Swiss mountain in The Sound of Music as a very young girl.

She has performed in musicals such as Salad Days and The Boyfriend with companies including the Northern Light Theatre Company.

More recently Alison renewed her love of performing through cabaret. She wrote and performed several solo cabaret shows Musical Skeletons in My Closet, Loveaholic a light-hearted look at her love life and most recently a show called Sixty Sassy and Celebrating. Her shows were self-penned and autobiographical and were accompanied by popular music and gems from musical theatre.

Alison is thrilled to be able to perform for you along with other lovers of musical theatre at Broadway Sessions.

Amy’s love of theatre began when she joined the Hills Youth Theatre aged 7. Since then she has worked with many companies around Adelaide.
Favourite roles include Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz (Hills Musical Company, 2001, The Advertiser Oscart Award- Best Actress), Sandra, Breezeblock Park (St Jude’s Players, 2006), Deidre, I Hate Hamlet (Adelaide Repertory Theatre, 2006) Louise/Linda/Claire, Road (REDChilli Theatre, 2007), Celia, As You Like It (This Rough Magic Theatre & Film, 2008) Olive, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (MBM, 2009), Kate Monster, Avenue Q (MBM, 2011, ATG Curtain Call Award- Best Female Performance), Tessie Tura, Gypsy (Gin & Vodka Productions, 2011), Audrey, Little Shop of Horrors (Northern Light Theatre Company, 2013), Susan, [title of show] (Irregular Productions, 2015) and Lucy, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Hills Musical Company, 2015).

Volleyball player turned actor Andrew Smith was a member of the inaugural graduating cohort of the Elder Conservatorium’s Music Theatre Program. During the course he played the Male Adults in Spring Awakening (dir. George Torbay 2019), Herr Schultz in Cabaret (dir. Erin James 2021), and Father Alexandrios in Mamma Mia! (dir. Zoe Komazec 2021). After graduating he, alongside 3 other graduates, co-founded EXEUNT (Pursued By A Bear) Productions and performed in their inaugural show: Rodgers and Hammerstein's A Grand Night For Singing (dir. Erin James 2022) in the Adelaide Fringe earlier this year. Other credits include Peach Cobbler (dir. Laura Desmond 2020) and Shakespeare in the Bar (dir. Tony Knight 2021). He has also appeared on the game show Challenge Accepted (dir. Brayden Green 2019/20) on Channel 44.

Bethany trained in musical theatre at Associated Studios London in 2020, Gertrude Opera (now Australian Contemporary Opera Co.) and the Elder Conservatorium of Music in classical voice performance. She was a guest artist for Cunard Cruise Line on the Queen Elizabeth World Voyage. Her opera credits include Suor Angelica (Cordelia's Potted Opera), La Voix Humaine (BK Opera) and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi (Co-Opera). In 2022, Bethany performed her comedy cabaret, Broadway Baby, at both the Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Cabaret Fringe. She has now debuted her cabaret, JUDY & LIZA, and featured her favourite Liza Minnelli numbers at CabLive and with Dr. Trevor Jones at the Piano Bar for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Callum is a performer born and raised in Sydney. In 2019, Callum studied a Diploma of Musical Theatre at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). While studying in Adelaide Callum has performed in the choir for Chess: The Musical (StoreyBoard Entertainment, dir. Tyran Parke) and as Caldwell B. Cladwell in Urinetown: The Musical (ECMT, dir. George Torbay). Other ECMT projects include In Pieces (ECMT, dir. George Torbay), Prison Blues (ECMT, dir. George Torbay) and Songs for a New World (ECMT, dir. Mitre Khammash).

Casmira is an experienced performer and teacher with a great passion for storytelling. Highlights have included performing the role of ‘Violet’ in Davine Productions’ Violet (for which she won the TASA award for Best Female Performance 2017) and 'Fantine' in the G&S Society's production of Les Misérables (for which she was nominated for a Curtain Call: Best Female Performance 2018).

In 2018 she performed in Edges with Irregular Productions for the Adelaide Fringe, ‘Shelby’ in Steel Magnolias with IpSkip,'The Lady of the Lake' in Spamalot with Marie Clark (winner of Best Ensemble Curtain Call 2018), and the ‘Sour Kangaroo’ in Seussical with Northern Light. In 2019 Casmira played nine characters in Judge Jackie: Disorder in the Court with Davine Productions (which won Best Ensemble and Best Musical at the 2019 Curtain Call Awards, as well as the TASA for Best Musical) and Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme in Assassins for Hills Musical Company.

Professionally, Casmira has acted and provided voices for several short films and children’s productions. She also spent many years directing and music directing musicals for Adelaide Theatre Academy, including Snow White and Alice in Wonderland for the Festival Centre’s ‘Something on Saturday’ program. Her fondest memories are working with Peter Combe in directing and choreographing his Adelaide Fringe shows from 2013-2015.

Claire is a child sized adult who likes hats, op shops and short walks along the beach. You might remember her for her classic work as the face of KFC Zinger Burgers back in 1993.

Claire is proud to have been a part of Adelaide's musical theatre and cabaret scene for almost 20 years. She's had the chance to play some fantastic roles in shows such as Kiss Me, Kate, The Sound of Music, [title of show], The Wedding Singer, and Homemade Fusion. Over the years Claire has been a part of a number of Adelaide Fringe and Cabaret Fringe festival shows, and has also tapped into the local theatre scene in London and Rotterdam during her time living overseas.

Performing and choreographing for the upcoming Adelaide Fringe show ‘An Evening on Broadway,’ Claudia is currently Head of Performing Arts and Director of Choreography at VIVA Perfoming Arts.

Danielle started performing at age 5 within her school and also in the Australian Girls Choir. She landed her first lead role in a musical at age 6 starring as Henny Penny in the year 1 & 2 production of The Sky is Falling, where she was seen pulling actors into their correct spots and mouthing everyone's lines. Nothing much has changed... You may have seen Danielle recently, since returning to theatre after havinga child, in Northern Lights Les Misérables playing a crazy lady of the night who quite partial to a porcelan doll, asleep throughout G&S's Into the Woods as Sleeping Beauty, or in Northern Lights Catch Me If You Can in the Ensemble. You will next be able to see her belting out some pop bangers as a Diva in G&S's Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in September 2023.

Ellis Dolan toured as Eddie/Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Show, and with the company of School of Rock as an Understudy for Dewey Finn and as a Swing – travelling all over Australia, China, and New Zealand.

He spent 2017 studying Musical Theatre at NIDA; appearing in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Chimerica as part of the NIDA Ensemble.

He has appeared in several productions around Adelaide, including Evita (The Met) in which he portrayed Che; The Producers (HMC) as the Stormtrooper; Oliver! (Shane Davidson Presents) as Bill Sykes; as well as ensemble roles in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (HMC) and Jesus Christ Superstar (G&S Society). Off-stage, he acted as Assistant Director for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Smokey Joe's Cafe (HMC).

He also toured across Australia, portraying the role of Peter Dutton, as part of Abbott: The Musical (George Glass Productions), performing as part of the Canberra Comedy Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as a sell-out run in the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Outside of performing, Ellis is a writer – having completed his Honours in Creative Arts: Creative Writing at Flinders University. He’s currently struggling through the third draft of a novel and is constantly side-tracked by wanting to write reviews and film analysis; because of this, nothing seems to get done, but he has a lot of fun doing it.

He made his directorial debut with Edges as part of the 2018 Adelaide Fringe Festival and loved every second of working with such fine people.

Ethan is 15 years old and is currently receiving vocal coaching from Ben Francis as well as being a member of the Showstoppers class with Adelaide Theatre Academy. Ethan most recently performed the role of Dr Doolittle in Adelaide Theatre Academy’s October production of Dr Doolittle jr. He has also played the roles of Fred Casely in Chicago, George banks in Mary Poppins, Smee in Peter Pan, Eddie in the production of 13: The Musical, and Noah Claypole in Oliver! in 2018. This is where his love for theatre began and has continued to grow.

Ethan is currently a year 9 student at Gleeson College, after moving from St. Pauls where he performed in two St Pauls and Kildare musicals.  Ethan be featured in next year’s Adelaide theatre academy’s Fringe production of the Musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as the Lead caracticus Potts. Ethan's favourite musician is Ben Platt however, he enjoys most genres of music. His favourite Broadway musicals are Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, and Shrek.  His dream roles would be to play Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, Shrek in Shrek and Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen.

Gab is in his final year of training at the Elder Conservatorium of Music studying Music Theatre. He is originally from Perth, WA. Gab started performing at the age of 13 and has been involved in many productions in Perth, the latest being Heathers for the Perth Fringe Festival. Since moving to Adelaide to study, he has been involved in various ECMT productions, the latest being the Australian premiere of the new Joey Contreras song cycle, In Pieces.

Harley Dasey is an up-and-coming musical theatre performer originally from Perth. After completing a Diploma of Musical Theatre in 2019, he moved to Adelaide in 2020 begin a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theatre at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. Harley's love for Musicals came at the age of 13 when he performed the role of Mr Mayor in everyone's favourite musical, Seussical. He is currently rehearsing for ECMT's production of Les Misérables.

Jaxon is an avid 19 year old musical theatre performer and fan in Adelaide. Since he began performing regularly in 2017, Jaxon has explored various outlets of Adelaide theatre, performing in major shows, original musicals, and even his own cabaret. Jaxon’s love of Music Theatre has only grown since finding his niche, a challenge for him as a performer on the spectrum. Some notable roles include Captain Hook in Adelaide Theatre Academy’s Peter Pan (2020), Grantaire and Courfreyac in two productions of Les Misérables; the first with Adelaide Youth Theatre (2021), the latter with Northern Light Theatre Company (2022), and Joe Pesci in Northern Light Theatre Company’s Jersey Boys (2022). Jaxon is also keen within the background of theatre as the youngest MD in the history of Scouts SA's Performing Arts Branch for Adelaide Gang Show, where he initiated the return of a full youth band. Jaxon is also a keen Theatre Technician, working casually in a northern adelaide theatre. Jaxon is currently studying the Bachelor of Music Theatre at the Elder Conservatorium, with an aim to finish at the end of 2025.

Most recently, Jaxon performed in the Fringe-award winning Show Fountain Lakes: A Very Foxy Parody Musical, where he played the role of Kel Knight.

Jemma is chuffed that Broadway Sessions is finally back!! She is here for a good time and can't wait to jam with the band and see all of her lovely theatre friends again!! Yay!!!

Josie grew up in Dubbo in regional New South Wales where she danced at Dubbo Ballet Studio. After completing her Diploma of Music Theatre at WAAPA in 2020, she moved to Adelaide to study a Bachelor of Music Theatre at Elder Conservatorium, where she has just graduated. She most recently played the role of Judy in her graduating show A Chorus Line directed by Matthew Hyde. This is Josie’s final Broadway Sessions as she is moving to Sydney in less than a month!

Karen has been involved with a number of theatre companies in Adelaide over the last 15 years. Some of her stage highlights include Oliver, Into the Woods, Beauty and the Beast, Avenue Q and Spamalot. Although she had a seven year run off stage in the role of "Mother of two", she recently made the return to the theatre by playing Ursula in Disney's The Little Mermaid, and in the ensemble of Les Misérables with Northern Light Theatre Company and Granny/Cinderella's Mother/Giant in Into the Woods with the G&S Society of South Australia.  You will also be able to see Karen in the upcoming production of Urinetown at the Hills Musical Company in the role of Old Ma Strong.

Kirsty grew up in Mount Gambier where they were involved in multiple community choirs and theatre productions, including Little Shop of Horrors as Chiffon and Rizzo in Grease. After moving to Adelaide they played Martha in Segue Productions Heathers in 2019 as well as being involved in choral groups. They took a few years off before returning to the stage again in 2022 with HMC’s Shrek, playing the all so loveable ‘Egg’.

21-year-old, Liliana Carletti, has been singing, acting, and dancing since she was five. Audiences last saw her as a multitude of characters in NLTC's Catch Me If You Can (2023), most notable being a "sexy singing nurse"... Eponine in Les Misérables with Northern Light Theatre Company (2022), and Little Red Ridinghood in Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA's production of Into The Woods (2022).

Liliana has performed theatre roles with G&S, Adelaide Youth Theatre, Northern Light Theatre Company, and Pedare Christian College. Other recent credits include: Mersister ‘Andrina’ and Flounder understudy in The Little Mermaid (2021), Frenchy in Grease (2020) and Kendra in 13: The Musical (2019).

Off-stage, Liliana studies a Bachelor of Creative Industries at UniSA, majoring in Digital Media and Communications. She runs her own freelance business, ‘Lily Rose Media’, offering services of photography, videography, and graphic design in Adelaide.

Madeleine Riggs is 17 years old and currently learning Chechetti Ballet at Motivate Dance Studio, she learns Voice with Natasha Woods and had the opportunity to do a summer camp with the State Theatre Company late last year, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Her most recent performance was Sandy in Grease with Now Productions in 2022, her theatre highlights also include; Miss Hannigan (Annie), Babette (Beauty and the Beast), Amy (Voices- an adaption of Little Women), Beatrice (Much ado about nothing). Madeleine is currently year 12 at Tyndale Christian School and is involved in the drama program there as well as Cabaret, where she is loving developing her drama and performing arts skills.

Madeleine is learning that performance creates a moment and excited to be sharing her love for singing with you.

Nikki is an Adelaide raised performer. Last year she graduated from the Bachelor of Music Theatre degree at Elder Conservatorium Music Theatre. Before ECMT she completed her Certificate IV in Dance at Australian Company of Performing Arts. In 2019 she played Heather Chandler in Segue Productions Heathers. In 2021 she made her Adelaide Fringe Festival debut in Friendly Feminism for The Mild Mannered and was also part of the choir in Chess: The Musical (dir. Tyran Parke). Nikki appeared in the second year production of Urinetown (dir. George Torbay) as Mrs Millennium. She was also the Josephine “Old Ma” Strong and Soupy Sue cover, and performed as Josephine “Old Ma” Strong for two performances. While at ECMT she performed in the third year production of In Pieces (dir. George Torbay). Nikki performed in the ensemble of ECMT’s third year production of Les Miserables (dir. Erin James) and she performed as Kate/Ensemble in the graduation production of Legally Blonde (dir. Nikki Snelson) Nikki has just finished a tour with Echelon Productions performing Way Too Cool for children’s book week in schools and will be moving to Sydney in January.

Sophie is a recent graduate of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre) at the Victorian College of the Arts. Before moving to Melbourne, Sophie was heavily involved in the Adelaide theatre scene. She began dancing at the age of 6 which naturally progressed to discovering the allure of music theatre. She has been involved in a variety of cabarets, competitions and musicals including Rent (MCMT), The Little Mermaid as Ariel (AYT), Beauty and the Beast as Belle/Babette (AYT) and The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy (AYT and Gleeson College).

Taylah is a Brisbane born performer who moved to Adelaide straight after school to start studying a Bachelor of Musical Theatre at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, of which she is in her third and final year.

Zachary Baseby is 23 years old and has had a burning passion for all things musical theatre related from a very young age, starting from his first performance in 2008 as Humpty Dumpty in Surprising Old King Cole (Stars on Stage). From there on, he has trained with various acting schools such as Actors Ink., Theatrebugs, Mighty Good Productions, and Heesom Casting before performing in his first musical theatre show in 2017 with The Parks Youth Theatre as an ensemble member in Grease.

Some of Zachary’s theatre highlights over the past few years have been: The Grinch in Seussical (NLTC, 2018), Horton the Elephant in Seussical Jr (Shane Davidson Presents, 2020), Javert in Les Misérables (NOW Productions, 2021), The Wolf in Into the Woods (Adelaide Youth Theatre, 2022), Uncle Fester in The Addams Family (Alternative Theatre Company, 2022), Wadsworth in Clue (Phoenix Variety & Music Group, 2023), Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid (Balaklava Community Arts, 2023) and most recently, the titular role in Peter Pan: A Christmas Pantomime (Blackwood Players, 2023).

Other than theatre, Zachary has also appeared in two short films to date created by students of Flinders University: Plastic Aeroplane (2018) and Rock, Paper, Scissors (2019). He has also appeared in two full length film projects with NOW Productions as the role of Bobby Packer in TEN FOUR, Agent Percash: REWIND, and Detective Jamieson in their spin-off adaptation: RED DAWN.

Recently, Zachary has landed his most recent roles as Cretin in Agatha Twisty: A Murder in Pantoland for the Adelaide Fringe 2024 and venturing into his first show with the G&S Society of South Australia in their May 2024 production of Oklahoma!

Peter is a music director, accompanist, repertoire coach, and the founder of Irregular Productions - one half of the brains behind Broadway Sessions.

He has been a theatre music director since 2005, with a number of his shows winning local awards. Theatre Credits include: (as Music Director) Beautiful, Mamma Mia, Les Misérables, Next to Normal, Violet, The Story Of My Life, Songs For A New World, The Light In The Piazza, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, Into the Woods, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, [title of show], Edges, Avenue Q, Bring It On, Singing In The Rain, Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver!, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Chicago, Sweeney Todd, The Sound of Music, Urinetown the Musical, Scrooge, The Witches of Eastwick, Little Shop of Horrors, Seussical the Musical, Grease, Once Upon a Mattress; (as Associate Music Director) Kinky Boots; (as Conductor) City of Angels, The Addams Family; (as Associate Conductor) Rent; (as Assistant Music Director) Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, South Pacific, Copacabana; as well as playing keyboard in over 25 other productions.

Besides co-producing Broadway Sessions, Irregular Productions has also staged the South Australian premieres of Songs for a New World, [title of show] and Edges, as well as a new production of Godspell (with Lydian Productions).

Peter is also the music director for Civic Park Carols, Australia's second-largest candlelight carols event, working with some of Adelaide’s finest musician’s and performers, as well as artists such as Justine Clarke, Guy Sebastian, Rachel Beck, and Jimmy Giggle.

Louis has been playing both double bass and bass guitar as long as he can remember. Beginning with lessons at the age of 7, he quickly developed his skills and decided that music was the career for him. Louis began playing for Musical Theatre shows in 2011, with the Northern Lights Theatre Company’s production of Beauty and the Beast, which coincidentally, was the beginning of a long-standing working relationship with Musical Director, Peter Johns! Since, Louis has played for many theatre companies around Adelaide, including Adelaide Youth Theatre, Lydian Productions, Pelican Productions, Davine Productions, Irregular Productions, Marie Clarke Musical Theatre, The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of South Australia, and Hills Musical Company. Some of his favourite shows to play for have been In the Heights, for Pelican Productions in 2019, and Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, for Davine Productions in 2020. In 2018, Louis had the privilege of playing in the pit for the Gordon Frost Organisation’s touring production of The Wizard of Oz. Louis graduated from the Elder Conservatorium of Music in 2016, with a Bachelor of Music (Classical Performance.) That same year, he began performing as a casual member of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - some of his favourite performances include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and Last Night of the Proms at the Adelaide Festival Centre.