Are you an actor who sings but hasn’t made the leap into musical theatre yet? The Equity Foundation is offering a rare opportunity for financial NSW Equity members to work with Australia’s leading teacher of audition technique for musical theatre, Queenie van de Zandt. This is a masterclass about auditioning for musical theatre. Queenie and a guest musical director will be offering a five hour format of Queenie’s celebrated weekend masterclass. Date: Saturday 24 October from 11.30 am to 4.30 pm, venue tbc. To register please send your name, membership number, contact number and bio to alex.jones@alliance.org.au by Monday October 19.

Queenie van de Zandt – Biography

Queenie van de Zandt is a versatile performer having worked extensively in musical theatre, plays, cabaret, on television and film, and as a recording artist, comedienne and writer.

On television Queenie has worked on: Very Small Business; City Homicide, Da Kath & Kim Code; Let Loose Live; All Saints; Denton; Mornings with Kerri-Anne; Good Morning Australia; The Midday Show; The 7.30 Report and The Mick Molloy Show and in theatre she has worked for companies throughout Australia including STC, QTC, The Ensemble, La Boite and the Malthouse, in plays such as: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Barmaids; Caucasian Chalk Circle; Secret Bridesmaids' Business; Women of Troy; Abigail’s Party; The Vagina Monologues; The Road to the She-Devil’s Salon; Furious; and Speaking in Tongues.  Queenie has also had roles in the films: Scooby Doo - The Movie, Salem’s Lot, and recently completed filming one of the lead roles in the soon to be released Aussie feature film Girl Clock.

However Queenie is still probably best known for her extensive work in musical theatre and cabaret. Queenie has played leading roles in the hit musicals: Oliver!; The Full Monty; Anything Goes; Cabaret; The Boy From Oz; Eureka – The Musical; I Love You, Your Perfect, Now Change and Hair; along with performing in such classic musicals as Les Misérables and The Threepenny Opera.

As a songwriter, Queenie has co-written two albums of original music: Amazon Woman and Other Stories and her subsequent one-woman cabaret show, Amazon Woman and Other Stories, has been performed at music festivals, cabaret festivals and music venues all over Australia.

Queenie is also fast becoming known as “Jan van de Stool”, the madcap musical therapist immortalized in her one-woman show I GET THE MUSIC IN YOU an evening with Jan van de Stool which she co-wrote with Tony Taylor.  The show has performed to packed houses in Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide and in 2006 played to sold-out houses and great critical acclaim for an extended season at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney.

In 2008 Queenie won the Jeffry Joynton-Smith Memorial Glug Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play and the AussieTheatre.com Award for Best Female Actor and in 1997 she won the MEAA A.C.T. Green Room Award. She has been nominated for many other awards including: 2009, 2008 and 2005 Green Room Awards; in 2007- 2 AussieTheatre.com Awards; in 2006 - a Sydney Theatre Award; and in 2004 - a Helpmann Award.

Queenie is currently developing I GET THE MUSIC IN YOU an evening with Jan van de Stool for television and writing a book on Audition Technique for Musical Theatre. For more information: www.queenievandezandt.com

Queenie currently serves on the National Performers Committee of the MEAA and has been a proud Union member since 1989.