CHAT SESSIONÂ 54Â with Jonty
Topic- Not-for- profit Mornington Peninsula Theatre Company will be touring around the peninsula (and maybe further afield, too).
Catch up and listen to our chat session https://megaphone.link/LCRUI5508698997
Monday 6th May 2024 1pm https://rppfm.com.auÂ
Jonty arrived in Australia almost two decades ago to help an old mate with his business only for the long-time 'friend' to up sticks and run away to France with all the money. Some friend, huh?
Happily, in the meantime, he had met Donna and had settled on the Peninsula. So, after a brief foray into running a cafe in Mornington (well, we all do daft things at times) he has settled down and picked up his creative endeavours once more.
As a member of Peninsula Writer’s Club, he has made some great friends here and is still (after many years) writing his first novel, HENRY’S ROOM. More on that any day now.
In a previous life he ran the family business selling starch. Until that just got too exciting. Before that he was a telephone engineer, until they said he had come to the end of the line. (True story – he admits he probably should not have laughed at that point).
After drama school in London, he moved around the world a bit. Spain then back to London then over here where he found himself a new acting agent and has had acting roles in GODLESS (currently on Binge), LA TAVERNA (currently on SBS) and in the upcoming Robbie Williams biopic BETTER MAN - in cinemas near you soon, also as the cricket commentator in a recent Ladbrokes TV advert.
These are all added to his impressive film and theatre CV, which includes appearances on London’s West End stage in PRESENT LAUGHTER with Peter Bowles and as GEORGE WICKHAM in a musical adaptation of Jane Eyre! As well as being a guest star in the BBC soap opera EL DORADO. Recently he’s just finished a gig with MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY playing "the ghost of a future that didn’t happen" - yeah, weird right, but hugely enjoyable and immensely challenging.
In between acting gigs and being a glutton for punishment, he just couldn’t help himself; he goes and starts theatre companies left, right and centre. In 1992, after leaving drama school, he organised a tour of Joe Orton’s play ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE, in which he played Sloane at the start of the tour and Eddie at the end of it. (Not both at the same time of course).
After his divorce in the UK, he moved to Spain. While there he spent ten years doing dinner theatre up and down the Costa del Sol. That was great fun. He also managed to fit in playing HAMLET on tour. There are a few good stories lurking in there.
Then, back in the UK, he was looking for a venue for a play 'what he wrote' - Long story short, he decided to open his own fringe theatre, The Royal George Theatre in Deptford SE London.
Fast-forward to today, and reinvigorated after open heart surgery at the Alfred, he’s now doing it again—enter stage right — Mornington Peninsula Theatre Company Inc., a registered not-for- profit theatre company that will be touring around the peninsula (and maybe further afield, too).
MPTC’s schtick is "Classical theatre with a modern minimalist twist".
What does that mean? Well, I’m glad you asked.
It means that many of the classical plays are seen as being a bit stuffy, old hat, and not relevant anymore. MPTC aims to challenge that perception by bringing vibrant and exciting new productions of classic plays to today’s audiences. After all, these plays have stood the test of time, and we aim to show that they are truly still relevant and just as worthy as they ever were. Everything from Shakespeare to Euripides, from Wilde to Wilder, from Chekhov and Ibsen to Shaw.
One perhaps slightly unusual aspect of our shows is that they are presented in the round – that means there is audience on all four sides of the acting space. As an actor that means there’s nowhere to hide! But it is fantastically engaging for an audience - almost film-like in its intimacy & immediacy. This of course is how theatre always used to be done in the times of the ancient Greeks and at Shakespeare’s Globe shows done three-quarters in the round. So having four times the 'width' of audience we only need a couple or rows of seat, so everyone is assured a great view.
Find them online at all the usual social places or mptc.net.au where you can sign up for their newsletter, so you’ll be first in the queue for tickets to the shows and all sorts of special giveaways and prizes.
Match’s inaugural production is Oscar Wilde’s fabulous comedy LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN - A play about a Good Woman as Wilde put it.
It opens at Dromana Community Hall June 21st at 7:30, then to Rye for two shows on Saturday June 22nd at 3:30 and 7:30.
From there we move to Mornington, to the Peninsula Community theatre in Wilsons Road where we play Thursday 27th at 6;30 Friday 27th June at 7;30 and again two shows on the Saturday at 3:30 and 7:30.
Finally, across to the other side of the Peninsula to Hastings Hall for the final four performances on Thursday July 4th at 6:30, Friday July 5th at 7:30 and Saturday July 6th at 3:30 and 7:30pm.
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This will take 10% off the ticket price.
Its valid for 2 weeks from 6/5/2024 for until 20/5/24
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My hope is that when you’re looking at yourself in the
‘The Daily Mirror’
YOU SMILE
EMBRACE BEING YOU
AND FIND 10 MINUTES IN YOUR DAY TO NOURISH YOUR SOUL!
To get in touch with Cathy email smileinthedailymirror@gmail.comÂ
'The Daily Mirror' acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present.