STAGES with Peter Eyers

Stuart Maunder is Artistic Director of Victorian Opera. Beginning his career in stage management at the then Australian Opera, Maunder has a long history in opera, as a director and arts administrator. 

He served in senior management roles at Opera Australia from 1999 to 2008 before being appointed General Director of New Zealand Opera in 2014. He was appointed Artistic Director of State Opera South Australia in 2018. In his time at State Opera, Maunder proved himself a passionate advocate for finding a distinctive Australian voice, championing Australian repertoire, developing the next generation of Australian artists while still pursuing a balanced repertoire designed to reach the widest possible audience.

His work as a director is highly revered and has ensured Stuart Maunder has remained a consistent presence on Australian stages for over three decades.

Grant Piro began his career in the early 1980’s soap opera Sons and Daughters and has since appeared in more than 100 productions. His work has been recognised with several Green Room Award nominations and two wins (The Merry Widow and The Producers) as well as AACTA and Helpmann nominations.

Best known to young television viewers of the 1990’s as the cult TV host of Couch Potato, just a small sample of Grant’s multiple television credits include; Janus, Correlli, GP, Wildside, Seachange, City Homicide, Blue Healers, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, SeaPatrol, Jack Irish, HalifaxFP, The Librarians, Good Guys Bad Guys, CrashBurn, Newton’s Law, How To Stay Married, Wanted, Ex PM 2, and My Life is Murder. He also featured in the biopics for Olivia Newton John, INXS, Hoges, and Warnie. More recently in ABCTV’s flagship comedy UTOPIA and its flagship drama The Newsreader3.

A few of Grant’s feature film appearances include Rolf deHeer’s horror classic Bad Boy Bubby, Darkness Falls, The Outsider, The Condemned, Crime and Punishment, Mr Accident, The Lighthorsemen, Crocodile Dundee in LA, Mormon Yankees: The Spirit of the Game, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, Predestination, and alongside Daniel Radcliffe in Escape From Pretoria.

As a performer Grant’s one true love has always been the theatre. Highlights have included the world premiere of Realism, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The 39 Steps, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, His Girl Friday, and The Odd Couple all for the Melbourne Theatre Company. As well as Moby Dick, The Merry Widow, Taking Steps, The Producers, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Under Milk Wood, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hand to God, Oklahoma, Death Of A Salesman, A Christmas Carol, and credits his ultimate highlights as being Connor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s Girl From The North Country for GWB, and performing opposite his wife Marina Prior AM in Hello Dolly!

Grant is back on stage in GWB’s annual festive delight - A Christmas Carol, as Mr Nigel Fezziwig. The Old Vic’s big-hearted, smash-hit production of A Christmas Carol returns to the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne for a third triumphant season from 22nd November!

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Evelyn Krape has over five decades of diverse acting experience in theatre, film and television, beginning as a stalwart at Carlton’s Pram Factory. A Melbourne-based actor and director, Evelyn is currently the Artistic Director of the Kadimah Yiddish Theatre.

She joined the Australian Performing Group in 1970 when it moved into the Pram Factory, performing in such classic Australian works as Dimboola and Don's Party.

She has performed with Victoria’s major companies, from the Melbourne Theatre Company, Playbox and the Victorian Opera to La Mama and Eleventh Hour.

Notable performances include A Floating World, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, Endgame, A Toast to Melba, Ginger, The Scoundrel That You Need, and recent seasons of Bloom and A Very Jewish Christmas Carol. 

Evelyn has toured extensively with a number of one-woman shows including Emma Celabrazione!, Ironing Out The Wrinkles and Female Parts. 

Evelyn has played several major roles with Glenn Elston’s ‘Shakespeare in the Gardens’ series, including Bottom, Titania and Verges.

Her film appearances include Quigley Down Under, Babe 1 & 2, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping, and television work includes Australia You’re Standing In It, Flying Doctors, Blue Heelers and Homicide.

Evelyn has received multiple prestigious awards, such as Best Actress for her role as Nellie Melba in A Toast to Melba and the Green Room Award for Best Actress in Ginger at the Playbox. She also shared the Best Actress Award at Tropfest 2019.

Evelyn Krape is presently on stage at the Sydney Opera House until November 17th, in Kadimah Yiddish Theatre’s production of YENTL. She gives a visceral and finely detailed performance as The Figure.

In 2025, Evelyn will be seen in Victoria Opera’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s FOLLIES and the Sydney season of the musical BLOOM at Sydney Theatre Company.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Musical theatre Leading Lady Ashleigh Rubenach was born and raised on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and is a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Most recently Ashleigh played Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard for Opera Australia and Nancy in the hit musical Groundhog Day at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne for GWB Productions.

Ashleigh starred as Johanna in Sweeney Todd at the Sydney Opera House (Victorian Opera), toured Australia as Milo Davenport in the Broadway-hit musical An American In Paris (GWB/Australian Ballet) and was much-lauded for her performance as Billie Bendix in the classic Gershwin musical Nice Work If You Can Get It (Hayes Theatre Company).

One of her most notable accomplishments came with the role of Allison in Cry Baby (Hayes Theatre Company) with her exceptional performance earning her the Best Female Actor award at the Sydney Theatre Awards. Other theatre credits include Muriel’s Wedding (Global Creatures), Anything Goes and My Fair Lady (GFO/Opera Australia), Funny Girl (Sydney Symphony Orchestra) and The Sound of Music (GFO); in which she not only performed but also understudied the role of Maria.

She made her screen debut as Lisa in Seven Network’s Home and Away.

Ashleigh next appears with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in Showstoppers - a celebration of the legendary Broadway show makers, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. 

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

After 25 years at the Wharf, the Seymour Centre, and many suburban, regional and interstate venues, The Wharf Revue is calling it a day after a final show - The End of the Wharf as we Know it!!!

To acknowledge this milestone and celebrate the team who have gifted its with so much joy and laughter, the STAGES podcast revisits conversations with Jonathan Biggins, Amanda Bishop, Drew Forsyth and Philip Scott.

After twenty-five years in the harsh and unforgiving spotlight of politics, The Wharf Revue has decided to step away from public life.

“It’s an opportunity to spend more time with family,” said a spokesperson. “At the end of the day, this is about the need for renewal. We’ll serve one last term to max out the super and then try to pick up some kind of consultancy work or do a series of “Survivor” - look, it’s too early to say but it has been an honour to serve the Australian people.”

Many public figures who’ve appeared in the show regularly over the years are lining up for a place in the final hurrah: Keating, Howard, Downer, Costello, Gillard, Abbott, Carr and other throwbacks too numerous to mention. Those who bear the torch of democracy today: Lambie, Hanson, Bandt, Dutton and Albo - a veritable “Who’s that?” of Australian politics.

So join the team for a joyous yet bitter-sweet send-off to one of the great national theatrical institutions.

The End of the Wharf as we Know it!!! opens in Sydney at The Seymour Centre and runs from November 11th to December 23rd.