Tag Archives: Pepa Wolfe

Take Five With… Felicity Ward

– Pepa Wolfe
Take Five With… Felicity Ward

Felicity Ward is very honest. Painfully, brilliantly, hilariously honest.

Familiar to television audiences from her work on The Ronny Johns Half Hour and regular guest spots on the ABC’s Spicks and Specks and Channel 7’s Thank God You’re Here, the comedian is about to bring her self-depreciating, disarmingly charming self to Brisbane in her new show, Honestly.

Writing from Hong Kong, where she is currently touring with the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow, Ward gave Life Music Media a brief taste of what is to come.
Continue reading Take Five With… Felicity Ward

Take Five With… Simone Romaniuk

– Pepa Wolfe
Take Five With… Simone Romaniuk

One of David Williamson’s most celebrated plays, The Removalists, is set to make a return to the Brisbane stage as one of the QTC’s education performances. An examination of police corruption, domestic violence and sexism in 1970s Australia, this new production begs the question, “How far have we really come?”

Working to recreate the look and feel of those times is production designer Simone Romaniuk, an Affiliate Artist with the QTC this year. A graduate of both NIDA and the Queensland College of Art, and with credits that span film, television and especially theatre, including the STC, Pacific Opera and Sydney Dance Company among others, Romaniuk took a break from the slightly abstract set and retro furnishings of The Removalists to share some insight with Life Music Media.
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Take Five With… Kat Henry | Interview

By – Pepa Wolfe

Take Five With… Kat Henry

Questions of family and loyalty crushed against the palpable spectre of hate crime and social violence; the QTC production of Orphans is currently receiving rave reviews. With an award-winning script by London playwright Dennis Kelly and in the hands of an exhilarating ensemble, this intense thriller is astounding Brisbane audience’s night after night.

At the helm of this visceral piece is director Kat Henry, who recently directed The Ugly One for indie company 23rd productions at Metro Arts. From within the swell of the Orphans experience, the NIDA graduate and Artistic Director of Stella Elektrika shared her thoughts with Life Music Media.
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Take Five With… Toby Francis | Interview

By: Pepa Wolfe
Life Music Media invites you to

Take Five With… Toby Francis

Toby Francis is making waves. Winner of the Annual Cabaret Showcase in Sydney last year and hot off the heels of an appearance at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the irrepressible young star brings his edgy rock cabaret show Bloklahoma! to Brisbane. Life Music Media takes a quick peek at the man behind the buzz.
Continue reading Take Five With… Toby Francis | Interview

Take Five With… Gillian Cosgriff | Interview

by: Pepa Wolfe
Life Music Media invites you to

Take Five With… Gillian Cosgriff

After a great reception at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, shiny WAAPA graduate and singer-songwriter with a penchant for quirky comedy, Gillian Cosgriff is excited to be returning to Brisbane with her own special brand of cabaret in Waitressing, and Other Things I Do Well. Fresh from an ash cloud-imposed cross-country tweet-fest and quite possibly about to do another, Cosgriff took the time to chat with Life Music Media.
Continue reading Take Five With… Gillian Cosgriff | Interview

Take Five With… Jason Klarwein | Interview

By: Pepa Wolfe
[Photo credit: Jonathon Oxlade]
Life Music Media invites you to

Take Five With… Jason Klarwein

Would you sell your soul for youth, fame, power and love? Michael Gow’s adaptation of the classic tale of Dr. Faustus, the man who sold his soul to the devil, is currently conjuring praise as it plays Brisbane Powerhouse. Presented by the Queensland Theatre Company, together with Bell Shakespeare, the twisted journey is imagined through a mix of live action, video and music – from German arias to death metal, and brought to torturous life by a wonderful cast.
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Take Five With… Mitchell Butel

By: Pepa Wolfe
Life Music Media invites you to…
      Take Five With… Mitchell Butel

While the Adelaide Cabaret Festival is currently celebrating a stellar year, Brisbane’s not about to miss all the fun, with QPAC presenting some equally smokin’ cabaret on this side of the ash cloud. 12 Acts of Cabaret features a delicious mix of artists, with international acts, Aussie stars and some of the hottest new names in cabaret.

Saturday night will see the enchanting Mitchell Butel grace the stage at the Cremorne in his show Killing Time. With an extensive career in theatre, film and television, touring in grand scale productions like Dusty, the provocative puppetry of Avenue Q, and performing for Opera Australia, Butel is about to get intimate, as only cabaret can.

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Take Five With… Kat Davidson

By: Pepa Wolfe
Take Five With… Kat Davidson

Over the next three weeks, The Sit Down Comedy Club is presenting Ladies Comedy Night, featuring some of the best stand up around, male or female! With the likes of Kat Davidson, Fiona McGary and Melinda Buttle serving up the laughs, the stage is set for rollicking good time.

Life Music Media caught up with the super sly, super tall, super funny Kat Davidson on eve of their first show.
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Bluesfest 2011 – Day Four, Featuring: The Blind Boys of Alabama, Irma Thomas, Mavis Staples & Her Band, and The Snowdroppers. – Live Review

It was Easter Sunday, the sun was shining over Bluesfest and the Crossroads tent was gearing up to celebrate with a solid block of gospel, soul and blues, kicked off by the enigmatic, effervescent powerhouse Mavis Staples and Her Band.

This year’s festival boasted an array of music a legends, not least of which was the incomparable Staples, who either solo or together with The Staple Singers has been >performing for over 60 years. Returning to Bluesfest with material from her Grammy Award winning CD You Are Not Alone, Staples is loads of fun. She’s got the moves, she’s got the attitude and that voice – a rich, raw, rip your guts out and make you happy sound that only improves with age.
Continue reading Bluesfest 2011 – Day Four, Featuring: The Blind Boys of Alabama, Irma Thomas, Mavis Staples & Her Band, and The Snowdroppers. – Live Review

Byron Bay Bluesfest 2011 – Day Three, Featuring: Michael Franti & Spearhead, Indigo Girls, Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band and Grace Barbe Afro Kreol – Live Review

By: Pepa Wolfe

Blues Fest 2011 – Day Three, Featuring: Michael Franti & Spearhead, Indigo Girls, Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band and Grace Barbe Afro Kreol.

On day three, the Original Sinners were once again at the Jambalaya tent, running through the same set to an equally rapt audience. The afternoon also saw Melbourne’s The Red Eyes dubbin’ it at the Juke Joint, Bluesfest veteran Jeff Lang gracing the main stage and Trombone Shorty jammin’ at the Crossroads with Gospel legend Mavis Staples.

Celebrated actor and director turned musician Tim Robbins, touring Australia on the back of his debut CD with the Rogues Gallery Band, brought a mixture of blues, country and a dash of sing-a-long to the Jambalaya tent on Saturday. Robbins, on guitar and vocals, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself, rumbling through Folsom Prison Blues before festival superstar and all-round maestro Trombone Shorty joined the Rogues for “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep”. A change of tempo and “Crush On You”, inspired by the young victim of a hate crime, demonstrated a simple approach, buoyed by beautiful instrumentation, as was a gorgeous, measured cover of Tom Waits’ “All The World Is Green”. Featuring the sweet wail and wallow of a musical saw over vocal harmonies, it was easily the high point of their set.
Continue reading Byron Bay Bluesfest 2011 – Day Three, Featuring: Michael Franti & Spearhead, Indigo Girls, Tim Robbins & The Rogues Gallery Band and Grace Barbe Afro Kreol – Live Review

Live Review | Bluesfest 2011 – Day Two, Featuring: Rodrigo y Gabriela, B.B. King, Fistful of Mercy, Jack Thompson & the Original Sinners and RocKwiz Live

Review By: Pepa Wolfe
Photos by: Silvana Macarone
Early birds and trivia buffs rocked up to the Jambalaya Tent on Friday to test their skill and perhaps earn a place on the panel of RocKwiz Live. Cracking the proverbial whip and vetting the various hopefuls was producer and co-host of the SBS series Brian Nankervis who after seven years with the show has it down to a fine art. Appearing across four days of the festival, Friday’s first taste had host and improv queen Julia Zemiro in top form, and featured musical guests Tim Rodgers (You Am I), Marcia Hines and Glenn Richards (Augie March), as well as a couple of impressive punters whose extensive music trivia knowledge was bested only by their brazen karaoke efforts, one contestant whipping out a harmonica and riffing with the impeccable RocKwiz Orkestra. A highly entertaining start to the afternoon, Richards, Hines and Rogers blasting Kiss’ I Wanna Rock and Roll All Nite, the icing on the cake.
Continue reading Live Review | Bluesfest 2011 – Day Two, Featuring: Rodrigo y Gabriela, B.B. King, Fistful of Mercy, Jack Thompson & the Original Sinners and RocKwiz Live

Music Legends, Movie Stars and Generosity of Spirit – Bluesfest 2011

By: Pepa Wolfe

  A mammoth six-day festival, hosting what many consider the best line-up to date, Bluesfest 2011 had it all. From bright sunny days to the traditional rain and mud, from international legends of music like B.B. King and Bob Dylan to the local sounds of Byron Ukulele band The Blackbirds, it was a celebration of community, culture, diversity and most of all, of music.

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Take Five With… Clayton and Lachlan Doley of Aussie soul band The Hands

  Life Music Media invites you to
Take Five With… Clayton and Lachlan Doley of Aussie soul band The Hands

(Bluesfest 2011 Edition)

Interview: Pepa Wolfe

:: If you could join another band, who would you choose? ::
Lachlan: Oh… (thinks) There’s too many bands.
Clayton: Do they have to be alive?
Lachlan: I would’ve loved to have been in Tower of Power, I think,
when I was younger. That would’ve been amazing.
Clayton: That would’ve been pretty cool, yeah.

:: Which artist would you like to see perform at Blues Fest this year? ::
Clayton: BB King. The Funky Meters were pretty awesome
Continue reading Take Five With… Clayton and Lachlan Doley of Aussie soul band The Hands

Take Five with Alinta Chidzey

By Pepa Wolfe

 
Life Music Media invites you to…

Take Five with Alinta Chidzey

:: Do you have a favourite musical? ::
I think this [West Side Story] would have to be one of the favourite ones, to be honest.

:: Is there a character that you’d give anything to play? ::
Oh. Um… (thinks) I’d love to play Velma in Chicago. That is one I would love to play, for sure.
Continue reading Take Five with Alinta Chidzey

On the Road to Somewhere – Alinta Chidzey in West Side Story [Feature Article]

By: Pepa Wolfe

 
On the Road to Somewhere

Actress Alinta Chidzey is wowing audiences as she burns up the floor in West Side Story, bringing sass and charm to the role of Anita. Life Music Media caught up with her for the Brisbane leg of the Australian Tour.

For someone who has just taken a quick break from an intense tech week to talk to the media, Alinta Chidzey appears very relaxed.

It’s a sunny day at Southbank in Brisbane, where the cast and crew of the classic musical West Side Story are busily preparing to launch the next leg of their Australian tour. Chidzey sits sipping an orange juice and speaks enthusiastically about the role of Anita – the fiery Puerto Rican immigrant unwillingly caught up in a 50s gang war – for which she is receiving rave reviews.
Continue reading On the Road to Somewhere – Alinta Chidzey in West Side Story [Feature Article]