Moira Blumenthal

Moira Blumenthal (born 19*). Australian producer and director, with close connections to South African theatre.

Biography

Career

Moira has directed and produced mainstream theatre internationally since 1988.

Moira began her association with Australian Theatre in 1992 with a co-production of March of the Falsettos with The Sydney Theatre Company. Her association with the STC continued with Two Weeks with the Queen (adapted by Mary Morris) which was produced in Johannesburg and Pretoria in 1995. In 1996 she directed Timothy Daly's Livingstone in Florida, USA, and presented Michael Gow's Sweet Phoebe and Timothy Daly's Kafka Dances in South Africa. Both Two Weeks with the Queen and Kafka Dances won National Theatre Awards. Director of Moira Blumenthal Productions, she became the Seymour Centre's Programming Manager (200?); Executive director of BITE - or Best Independent Theatre – which she founded with Colin Rose at the Seymour (2008?).

She directed Timothy Daly's Livingstone in Florida, USA.

Highlights from international works include William Finn's March of the Falsettos, Joshua Sobel's Ghetto, Persona by Margaret Laurence, and David Mamet's Oleanna. Through 1997/98 she directed Woman in Black, Into the Woods, Deathtrap and All in the Timing in Orlando, USA. In 1997 Moira produced Meze, Mira and Make-Up as part of the Carnivale Festival in Sydney. She co-produced David Mamet's Speed the Plow at the Fitzroy Hotel and redirected Bellydancing for a Sydney season. In 1999 Moira directed John Mistro's Shoehorn Sonata as part of the Ensemble Theatre School's subscription season and the Ensemble's main stage production of Sue Woolfe's Leaning Towards Infinity.

She produced Sir David Hare's Via Dolorasa for a launch in Canberra

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Established and managed The Rosebank Theatre in Johannesburg.

Her South African productions include William Finn’s March of the Falsettos (with NAPAC, at the Adcock-Ingram Theatre, 1989), Joshua Sobol's Ghetto (with PACT in 1991), David Mamet's Oleanna (1993). She established and ran The Rosebank Theatre in Johannesburg (1992 - 1994) which was the home of many new South African works, such as The Return of Elvis Du Pisanie, Bloodstream and The Harum-Scarum Girl, based on the life of Ellen Terry.

As a result of her association with the Sydney Theatre Company, Morris Gleitzman's Two Weeks with the Queen was produced as the first theatre exchange between Australia and South Africa in 1995. She presented Michael Gow's Sweet Phoebe and Timothy Daly's Kafka Dances in South Africa ('96). In Sydney she produced Irene Stephanou's Meze, Mira and Make-Up and Joanna Weinberg's Bellydancing. She co-produced and directed Gary Henderson's Skin Tight (1999) and Collected Stories by Donald Margulies (2000/1) for tours of South Africa, as well as Joanna Weinberg's The Lightness of Feeling in Sydney (2001). In 2002 she co-produced Pieter-Dirk Uys's Foreign Aids at the Sydney Opera House and the world premier of Craig Freimond's The King of Laughter for the 2003 Carnivale Festival. In 2004 she directed Mum's the Word for Pieter Toerien Productions. In 2005 she co-produced Pieter-Dirk Uys's Elections and Erections in Sydney and Brisbane. In 2005 she directed From Door to Door for Pieter Toerien Productions. In 2006 Moira directed the Naledi award-winning Bombshells starring Kate Normington. This was followed by the hit It’s a Dad Thing in 2007.

In 2000 she directed Peter Shaffer's Amadeus in Orlando USA and Collected Stories for South African tour.

In 2002 Moira Bloementhal Productions co-produced Foreign Aids starring Pieter-Dirk Uys.

In 2004 Moira directed Mum's the Word for Pieter Toerien and My Name is Asher Lev in 2017.

She co-produced and directed the New Zealand play Skin Tight for a South African season.

Sources

From Door to Door programme notes, 2005.

Tucker, 1997.

My Name is Asher Lev in Studio Theatre, Artslink 07/12/2017[1]

For more information

[2]

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