meet the CREATIVES
The Composer and The director
Walking along an icy winter street in London, England - writer Alice Gillham looked around her and realised that so many of the faces she could see were from somewhere else… that in today’s world so many of us are from somewhere else…
but we are all seeking Home.
So she began to write a story of hope, a story of love, a story of home…
Alice Gillham
COMPOSER | WRITER | LYRICIST | ARRANGER
Affectionately known by her nickname ‘Shy’, Alice is a quiet, thoughtful composer and writer. She prefers to work with a small team of trusted creative partners and often disappears to remote locations to write and create music.
Alice is a highly experienced and respected composer, producer, preproduction development specialist, vocal producer, orchestrator, lecturer and music consultant. She has produced and worked with musicians, artists, producers and composers in South Africa, Australia, the United States of America, Britain and Germany and is currently signed to Sony Music Publishing.
Throughout her life Alice has been passionately involved in all aspects of music, from its inception and creation to its production. She composes across multiple genres, loves the integration of music and great storytelling, and is enthralled by the emotional power of the human voice.
In a world obsessed with celebrities, in an industry obsessed with fame, from the very beginning of her career, Alice has shied away from the spotlight. With no social media presence and very rarely giving press interviews (under duress!) - Alice has mostly released her music production projects under pseudonym. She believes that the spotlight should shine on the superb singers and actors who she works closely with and who bring her songs and characters to life.
In 2014, after a decade in general commercial production, Alice decided to focus primarily on Composition (Musical Theatre, Movie Scoring, and larger Production Works) and since then has drawn substantial international investment into the South African theatre sector for original grand-scale projects. Her work is aligned under the production company Shy Music (Pty) Ltd.
She started work on Calling Us Home in 2014, writing the score, libretto, book and all piano and orchestral arrangements.
In 2020 she began writing Clarence Square – an original grand-scale musical set in 1904 during the Great Fire. Clarence Square was introduced to industry and audiences at an International In-Concert Showcase at the Wintergarten Variéte Theatre in Berlin in March 2024.
In 2011, she founded the Africa Voices Trust, a South African non-profit foundation created to support the development of highly talented young African musicians.
Peter FLYNN
DIRECTOR
Peter is a New York based, award winning director and Associate Professor of Musical Theatre at Montclair State University. His New York credits include the off-Broadway premiere of Smart Blonde by Willy Holtzman; Curvy Widow at the Westside Theatre; Chess with Josh Groban & Julia Murney; Funny Girl with Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Krakowski, & Sutton Foster; Our Town with B.D. Wong, and S. Epatha Merkerson; On the 20th Century with Douglas Sills & Marin Mazzie; & Rhapsody in Seth starring Seth Rudetsky. He is the first American director to premier a full scale musical in southern Africa.
Peter also created original musicals for young people with TheatreworksUSA which have toured for the past 17 years, including Junie B. Jones (two Lucille Lortel Award nominations); Henry and Mudge; Nate the Great; Skippyjon Jones; and Rosie Revere and Friends.
He kept active and innovative throughout the pandemic, and created a hybrid teleplay performance of Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates starring Andréa Burns for the George Street Playhouse, which received glowing notices from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Peter is also the Founding Artistic Director of Plays In The House, an award-winning play reading series raising money for the Actors’ Fund and NAACP / LDF which was featured on CBS’ Sunday Morning.
Other credits include Sweeney Todd for Connecticut Repertory starring Terrence Mann; Into the Woods for Ford’s Theatre (Helen Hayes Award nominee); Born Yesterday for the Maltz-Jupiter Theatre; Andrea Martin’s one woman show, Andrea Martin: Final Days Everything Must Go; Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop; Gypsy for the St. Louis MUNY; 1776 & Ragtime for Ford’s Theatre; & Man of La Mancha for the Maltz-Jupiter Theatre (Carbonell Award, Best Direction).
Peter is the Board President for Live And In Color a not-for-profit theatre organization dedicated to the development of plays and musicals by and for BIPOC Artists. He is also an Associate Artist at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C; an Artistic Ambassador for the Christchurch International Musical Theatre Summer School in New Zealand; and a graduate of Northwestern University.
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It takes a village to build a musical…
Meet the Creative team who brought the 2023
run of #CallingUsHome to life!
Originating Director | a daunting task
Originating a musical from the page is a daunting task. Characters have yet to come to life, the visual world of an imaginary place yet to be created, songs have never been sung before and the story has to come alive!
In 2016 South African director Magdalene Minnar took up that challenge and, with an extraordinary team of South African Creatives, began Calling Us Home’s development journey! Calling Us Home did two development runs in South Africa in 2017 & 2018.
Magdalene MINNAAR
ORIGINATING DIRECTOR
Magdalene Minnaar is a South African director, producer and performer, well-known in the music industry locally and abroad for setting new trends and challenging conventional boundaries. She directed and produced her first opera in 2004, which led to a lucrative career in producing and directing operatic and theatrical experiences, enhanced by her innovative approach. Minnaar has been appointed as the new Artistic Director of Cape Town Opera.
After receiving her Honours Degree in Music with distinction from the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, she was accepted into the Cape Town Opera Young Artist Programme after which she was awarded a WBHO bursary for overseas studies, leading her to the New York Opera Studio.
In 2010, Minnaar founded the acclaimed company Biblioteek Productions, providing a platform for artists and theatre makers to collaborate on Classical music productions. Through Biblioteek Productions, she was able to successfully commission a large body of new South African works for various ensembles, including several new operas.
Magdalene has produced, directed, and performed in numerous operas, musical theatre works, inventive concerts and conceptual experiences. Her own productions include La Bohème (Cape Town Opera, Innibos Festival), Die Zauberflöte (Johannesburg International Mozart Festival), Bastien und Bastienne (Gauteng Opera), La Voix Humaine (Impac Film Festival) and Calling Us Home (Shy Music).
She is presently working on the new international Eco-Opera series of “recycled” operas, which will start in Brazil and Germany in 2022. Other projects taking flight are an original American opera about the life of Tesla, currently in pre-production; as well as an electronic oratorio film project with Mikhael Subotsky. Most recently, she has been director of the La Bohème touring production for Cape Town Opera. Learn more.
2017 - 2018 CREATIVE TEAM
Below, find the African Creatives who have walked with us on this journey so far…
Scene Painting & Props by
Scene Visual Productions
(Nadine Minnaar, Vicki Gauld, Ronel Watkins and Luan Taute)
Set Coordination by
Scene Visual Productions
Associate Director
Shelly LothiAN
2017 - 2018
Story by
Alice & Antonia Gillham
Book, Music, Lyrics, Orchestrations & Arrangements by
ALICE GILLHAM
Wardrobe Design & Coordination by
JUANITA KØTZE & Sue Daniels (2017), GRAÇA OLIVEIRA (2018)
The Crew
Below find the African Crew that helped call our story to life…
Stage Manager
Carynn wolff
Deputy Stage Manager & Props Mistress
Morag Tison
Assistant Stage Manager & Assistant Props
Kei-Ella Loewe
Props
Robyn Sacks
Stage Crew
Junaid Karriem
Mzukisi Nkantini
Zaheer Murphy
Elton Ceasar
AV Engineer
Tyrone Dobbin
Lighting Operator
Nazeem Griebelaar
Senior Follow Spot Operator
Buntu Tyali
Follow-spot Operators
Willem van Wyk
Kerston Charles
2018
Cape Town
Original Production Manager & Technical Director
Alistair Kilbee
Associate Technical Director
Michael Inglis
Fight Choreographer
Richard Lothian
Audio FOH Engineer
Dominique Adams
Mechanist
Jonathan Van Der Vent
Orchestra
Cameron Andrews (Clarinet)
Anna-Maria Muller (Flute)
Olga Korvink (Violin)
Marga Sander (Piano)
Maureen Marler (Cello)
Wardrobe Mistress
Mariam Moerat
Deputy Wardrobe
Melissa van Eck
Wardrobe Assistant
Chad Abrahams
Production Electrician
Clement Makama
Scenic Painting
Idelette Jordaan
Stage Manager
Leigh-Anne Nanguia
Deputy Stage Manager
Carynn Jean Wolff
Assistant Stage Manager
David Mgidi
Props Manager/ Assistant Stage Manager
Robyn Sacks
Lighting/Watchout Programmer
Tyrone Dobbin
On Stage Lighting
Moegamat Cloete
2017
Johannesburg
Production Manager & Technical Director
Alistair Kilbee
Assistant to Technical Director
Michael Inglis
Head Carpenter
Enrico Cloete
Set Construction
Verita Brand
Head of Sound
Emily Adams
Audio Visual System Design
Marcel Wijnberger
Radio Technician
Muzi Gule
Sound Operator
Johnson Oketade
Orchestra
Cameron Andrews (Clarinet)
Anna-Maria Muller (Flute)
Olga Korvink (Violin)
Marga Sander (Piano)
Maureen Marler (Cello)
Head of Wardrobe
Sue Daniels
Deputy Wardrobe
Frankie van Straten
Seamstress
Poppy Kemmey
Designers