Company:

Hobart Repertory Theatre Society

Season: 12 - 23 April 2023

Venue: Playhouse Theatre, Hobart

Book by: Donald Harron

Music by: Norman Campbell

Adapted from the novel by:

L.M. Montgomery

Director: Anne Blythe-Cooper

Stage Manager: Rogan Brown

Production Manager: Ingrid Ganley

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

Having been named after the titular character more than a decade before I was born, I was beyond thrilled to be asked to direct this show.  Anne of Green Gables continues to be beloved and has been retold in many ways.  The version which you will see presented by Hobart Repertory Theatre Society in 2023 is that which has been running at the Charlottetown festival since 1965.  It was officially recognised in 2014 as the longest running annual musical theatre production in the world.

Anne continues to charm audiences not because she is a hard-done-by orphan who makes good, nor because she is able to put a positive spin on awful situations.  Anne makes dreadful mistakes and is intimately acquainted with the state of “the depths of despair.”  Her magic is in her ability to see the world as something glorious in the midst of her despair and failure.  

CAST

Amelia Millington: Anne

Meophy Smith-Williams: Anne

Jill Holloway: Marilla Cuthbert

Raymond Dunstan: Matther Cuthbert

Miki Browne: Diana Barry, Mrs Sloane

Astrid Tiefholz: Mrs Lynde

Will Norris: Gilbert Blythe

Eliza Smith: Josie Pye

Elise Bagorski: Cecil the Farmer, Mrs Blewett

Grace Burdick:  Mrs Pye

Hamish Chilcott:  Charlie Sloane

Jo-Maree Courtney: Mrs MacPherson

Clare Ebsworth: Miss Muriel Stacy, Ensemble

Andrew Gregson: Earl the Mailman  

Grace Gregson: Prissy, Female understudy

Emilia Hawkey: Mrs Spencer, Ensemble

Tom Howard: Mr Phillips, Ensemble

Willa Johnson: Ruby Gillis

Holly Jury: Mrs Barry

Stuart Nichols: The Minister, Stationmaster

Katisha O’May: Tillie Boulter

Kiri Patterson: Tommy Sloane, Malcolm Andrews

Caroline Senkbeil: Gertie Pye

Andromeda Smith: Lucilla, Ensemble

Liam Tope: Gerry Buote, Gilbert understudy

Hannah Wigston: Moody Spurgeon MacPherson

Because of ongoing concerns about cast and crew absences due to COVID-19, the role of Anne was double-cast and some cast also performed understudy roles.   

PRODUCTION TEAM

Musical Director: Anne Blythe-Cooper

Set  Design: Rogan Brown

Lighting Design: Hayden Green

Properties: Josie Okey, Rogan Brown

Costumes: Janet Smith

Choreography: Anne Blythe-Cooper, Cast

Assistant Stage Managers: Janet Smith, Elise Bagorski

Backstage Crew: Jessica Ashworth, Scarlett Higgs, Willow Lockett

Head Mechanist: Matthew Andrewartha

Repetiteur: Gabby Cayoun

Sewing/Costume Assistants: Deb Dean, William Dowd, Liv Hill, Naomi Lawrence, Ange McKenzie, Gail Read, Suzie Torok, Julie Wills

Set Construction: Rogan Brown, Andrew Cooper, Donald Hine, Stephen Gallagher

Hair: Jenifa Dwyer

Wigs: Ann Harvey

Hats: Kerri Smith

Marketing/Publicity: Ben Armitage, Grace Burdick

Graphic Design: Carolyn Whamond

Program Editor: Moya Deigan

Photography: Bob Linacre, Wayne Wagg

She does not ignore the difficulties of her situation but brings imagination to bear to augment the beauty she discovers in the world.  Hers is a rich inner life, a resilient spirit and her superpower is gratitude.  In recent years, many have tried to pin a “diagnosis” on Anne. Suffice to say, most people are able to find a little bit of Anne in themselves.  It’s a broad spectrum and a colourful one.  This cast has brought their own colourful energy, talent and individuality to this season of Anne of Green Gables.

“There’s such a lot of different Annes in me.  I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person.  If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting.”

- Anne Blythe-Cooper

CAST

Ronnie Winslow: Zac Forey, Stella Wesseldine

Violet: Tam Bloomfield

Grace Winslow: Philippa Clymo

Arthur Winslow: Ian McQueen

Catherine Winslow: Louise Stubs

Dickie Winslow: Tom Howard

John Watherstone: Adrian Reddish

Desmond Curry: Jon Lenthall

Miss Borgen: Sigrún Ósk Jóhannesdóttir

Fred, the photographer: Tony Webb

Sir Robert Morton: Rowan Dix

PRODUCTION TEAM

Set  Design: Rogan Brown, Meredith McQueen

Lighting Design: Rogan Brown, Meredith McQueen

Assistant Stage Manager: Tony Webb

Properties and Set Dressing: Lynn Hawkes, Meredith McQueen, Carolyn Whamond

Costume Design and Coordination:

Tam Bloomfield, Dawn Clarke, Meredith McQueen, Nikita Robertson

Set Construction and Decoration: Rogan Brown, Peter Miller, Peter Orpin, Russell Rowlands, Louise Stubs

Choreography: Sigrún Ósk Jóhannesdóttir,

Louise Stubs

Graphic Design: Carolyn Whamond

Program Editor: Moya Deigan

Photography: Wayne Wagg

Theatre Technician: Henry Dennison

Company:

Hobart Repertory Theatre Society

Season: 9 - 24 June 2023

Venue: Playhouse Theatre, Hobart

Written by: Terence Rattigan

Director: Meredith McQueen

Stage Manager: Rogan Brown

Production Managers:

Amy Crosby, Ingrid Ganley

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

The Winslow Boy is a play by a very gifted playwright, Terence Rattigan, who has undeservedly fallen out of favour in recent years. I came across him several years ago when we performed The Browning Version in the one-act play festivals and have now read many of his full-length plays and become a Rattigan fan!

This play is based on the true story of a family in England over 100 years ago. They started a legal case against the Crown and this play follows their real-life journey over a two-year period just before the start of World War 1.

Terence Rattigan very cleverly locates the action entirely within the drawing room of the family’s Kensington home and brings different characters to the room over this period. Reporters, lawyers, family friends and servants all enter the room to progress the story. In today’s terms it is a relatively long play, but Rattigan keeps the action moving.

Fascinatingly, the story shows us the parallels between family life 110 years ago compared with what we know today. We meet a retired bank

manager who worries whether his superannuation is sufficient to fund his children’s education and set them up for life. We have parents complaining about the modern music of the day that their son plays on his device – that is “blessed ragtime” music on a gramophone machine! We have gender equality and pay-gap issues being discussed by the daughter who works for the suffragette movement. We have a family providing care and support to an employee with an intellectual disability.

Even more interestingly, we see the social media of the day. Both in true life and in the play, the legal case very much entered public awareness in England. The case was debated in the House of Commons and certainly polarised public opinion. Letters were written to the newspapers – some wholeheartedly supporting the family and some condemning the family for wasting parliament’s time.

And the result? Well – no spoilers here I’m afraid! At the play’s end, all will be revealed!

- Meredith McQueen