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Prima Donna Podcast

by Nat Grant

Sonic portraits of Australian artists, created by Nat Grant. Winner of the 2022 PROV Community History Award for Oral History.

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Episodes

  1. Katrina Rank

    Dr Katrina Rank is an award-winning choreographer and educator based in Naarm, Melbourne, Australia. Her work creates spaces where the imagination flourishes, expressive forces are harnessed and dynamic exchanges occur. A graduate of the Australian Ballet School, she performed in dance companies…

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  2. Deborah Kayser

    Deborah Kayser performs in areas as diverse as ancient Byzantine chant, French and German Baroque song and classical contemporary music, both scored and improvised. Her work has led her to tour regularly both within Australia, and internationally to Europe and Asia. She has recorded, as soloist…

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  3. Rosemary Johns

    Playwright, Vice-President of Women Playwrights International, actor and director. Rosemary Johns grew up as a child in a seaside town in Wales, went to a boarding school in England, spent seven intense and strange years in America and fell in love in Australia. She's a maverick

  4. Wilma Tabacco

    Wilma Tabacco was born in Italy, and lives in Australia Wilma uses abstract iconography to refer to aspects of Italian cultural history, archaeological artefacts found in ancient ruins and she ‘maps’ ground plans of architectural spaces. She has presented 45 solo exhibitions since 1988, in...

  5. Alma Quon

    ​Jazz drummer and bandleader Alma Quon was born in 1911 and died in 2007. Her ensemble The Joybelles comprising women from a range of cultural backgrounds was active from the 1940s until the 1990s. In this episode Nat interveiws Alma's nephew, musician Ray Quon.

  6. Julie Peters

    Julie Peters grew up in the 1950s, way before trans was generally heard of, let alone understood. As a child she had difficulty working out why people insisted she was a boy when she knew she was a girl. She affirmed her gender in 1990. Julie has been activist off and on since the early 1980s.…

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  7. Jane Murphy

    Jane Murphy considers herself to be an “Accidental Property Master”. She stumbled across a role in a film art department in the mid 1980’s in Sydney. Her love of stories & people, combined with a fascination of things, has proved the perfect marriage for her role of Props Master for film, TV and...

  8. Elizabeth Russell-Arnot

    Elizabeth Russell-Arnot is an inquisitive adventurer with academic credentials across multiple arts disciplines. Her Churchill Fellowship and 2 Masters Degrees in the Arts have led to a focus on our endangered environment expressed through creativity in writing, illustrating, painting and...

  9. Peta Murray

    Peta Murray is a recovering playwright, best known for her plays Wallflowering and Salt. A late-blooming academic, she is also a Lecturer in the School of Media & Communication at RMIT University where she writes extravaganzas with preposterous titles, performs essays, coins neologisms,...

  10. Lella Cariddi

    Lella Cariddi OAM is a writer/researcher of community history, curator of contemporary art, documentary producer, installation artist, adult educator and Community Cultural Development Practitioner. She is committed to the advancement of literatures and the Arts as a vehicle for intergenerational...

  11. Cath Murphy

    Animator and educator Cath Murphy has a rich history in animation spanning more than 20 years and has won numerous awards in film for: Animation; Writing; Directing; Producing and Visual Effects. A registered nurse with extensive experience in mental health, Cath’s approach to animation is about...

  12. Madeline McGrady

    Aunty Madeline McGrady is a proud Gomeroi elder. She made the first film on black deaths in custody, and was the first Indigenous person on the Australian Film Council. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqjE3M4tdWw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_ILzy8ELBI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0UX--K7IHE

  13. Margret RoadKnight

    A performer at the very first National Folk Festival (and many more since then), Margret has sung blues, jazz, gospel, folk, comedy, and social commentary songs in concert halls and cathedrals, clubs and campuses, from Broome to Hobart, Beijing to Memphis, Paris to Auckland, Edinburgh to Tel…

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  14. Sue Nattrass

    First female lighting designer in Australia. Stage Manager. Actor. Operations Manager at the Victorian Arts Centre. Artistic Director Melbourne and Adelaide Arts Festivals.

  15. Sue Ingleton

    Writer, actor, comedian, architect, and celebrant Suzanne Ingleton comes from a tradition of theatre, sacred ritual and spiritual shamanism. She has created solo and collaborative performance works in Australia and overseas for more than 40 years and is particularly vocal about the constant…

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  16. Duré Dara

    Percussionist, social worker, and Board Member of the Victorian Women's Trust, Duré Dara OAM is Indian by race, Malaysian by birth, and Australian by choice. A proponent of spontaneous and improvised music for more than 40 years, she is well known for her work as a percussionist with the late…

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  17. Liz Jones

    Actor and teacher Dr Elizabeth Jones has been the Artistic Director of La Mama Theatre since 1976. For 20 year prior she was a teacher of English, History, Drama, and Politics in Australia and Indonesia. She has worked over many years as an advocate for refugees and First Nation's peoples, and is...

  18. Elizabeth Drake

    Classical pianist and composer Elizabeth Drake creates original music for theatre, film, dance, and radio. She was the first woman to win an AFI award for screen composotion, for her score from the 2003 film 'Japanese Story'.

  19. Shirley McKechnie

    Shirley McKechnie is a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She founded the first tertiary dance course in Australia at Rusden College (Deakin University) in 1975 and has written extensively on dance and dance education. She was a co-founder of the Australian Association for Dance Education…

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  20. Jo Jo Smith

    Born in New Zealand, Jo Jo Smith is a soul singer, songwriter, guitarist, and drummer. She was the first woman to perform at the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival in the 1980s. In 2017 she performed 50 shows around Australia with fellow songwriter Lucy Thorne, celebrating 50 years as a...

  21. Joyce McGrath

    Joyce McGrath is a 92 year old portrait painter. She was the first arts librarian at the State Library of Victoria, and received a Churchilll Fellowship to travel to arts libraries around the world and investigate their collections. Joyce spent years in hospital as a child with tuberculosis - she...

  22. Sandra Shotlander

    Feminist playwright, actor, and teacher Sandra Shotlander is a regular feature at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre, and at Women Playwrights International conferences around the world. She has founded several theatre companies including Mime and Mumbles deaf theatre group, and believes strongly in the...

  23. Robin Laurie

    Performance artist Robin Laurie was heavily involved in the infamous Melbourne Pram Factory in the 1960s and 70s, was a founding member of the first Women's Circus in Victoria, as well as Circus Oz. She's a trombone playing, Feldenkrais practicing legend who believes comedy is vital for survival.

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Sonic portraits of Australian artists, created by Nat Grant.

Winner of the 2022 PROV Community History Award for Oral History.

HOSTED BY

Nat Grant

CATEGORIES

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Prima Donna Podcast have?

Prima Donna Podcast currently has 23 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Prima Donna Podcast about?

Sonic portraits of Australian artists, created by Nat Grant. Winner of the 2022 PROV Community History Award for Oral History.

How often does Prima Donna Podcast release new episodes?

Prima Donna Podcast has 23 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Prima Donna Podcast?

You can listen to Prima Donna Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Prima Donna Podcast?

Prima Donna Podcast is created and hosted by Nat Grant.
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