Ordinary Days | Program
Ordinary Days is anything but Ordinary
This is a piece that seems to choose Me, rather than the other way around. I was lucky enough to direct Ordinary Days very soon after I moved to Melbourne 8 years ago. It was unexpected in many ways. The Company lost their director, and I stepped in, not knowing much about the piece. It was a joyous experience for us, and we were delighted when that joy was also experienced so readily by audiences.
Though I am not one for repeating anything, when 45 Downstairs reached out with an unexpected opening in their season, I again felt the right time to delve into this show and again remind myself to find the beauty in the everyday. The request for a show came in a particular week where I felt genuinely concerned about where the world was heading. The ever-worsening world events of the now, the reliance on technology and social media, the anxiety generation, the lack of leadership, the increasing pressures to keep people separate filled me with a sense of despair and I felt the need to offer up something beautiful in the world. I feel we need a paradigm shift, a new perspective, just as the impressionist painters were exploring in their revolutionary work. This is the prevailing idea that is mirrored in our four characters struggling to establish who they are to themselves and each other, against the pressures of a big city where success is just outside the window.
New York, like many cities is a destination for the ambitious. It is where you can make a mark, create cultural change on a global platform AND make a significant amount of money in doing so. It is a destination for the elite, and it is all possible. If you can just get in the right rooms. Our piece is set in the early 2000s where the population ticked over eight million people, all living in cramped boxes next to/on top of each other, yet all searching for connection. There’s nothing like the ache of loneliness when surrounded by eight million people.
When it came to imagining the show inside of 45 Downstairs, we knew it was a crime to negate the incredible opportunities and aesthetic that the venue offers us. My own experience of New York is often expressed as looking through the window of what is possible. I know many creatives that have relocated to attempt to enter ‘the room where it happens’ and have had the experience of actually being in the room NEXT to where it happens. It’s hard not to feel despair when presented repeatedly with the experience of looking in, separated by circumstances, luck, choices. But the proximity is addictive. Several characters discuss aspects of desire being just outside the window. Thank you, 45 Downstairs. We got those for nothing!
New York is both the opportunity (the bridge to fulfillment) and the barrier. And in my work with young students of the Arts at the VCA, I see a growing sense that Melbourne is similar. People plot and plan at their various desks and workstations, wrangling an ambition linked to identity that when not fulfilled, can leave a sense of not just professional failure but a much more personal impact, of failing as a human being.
Ordinary Days reminds us to connect with now, to find beauty in the everyday, to enjoy the journey and embrace the frustrations, heartache and disappointments and to find the beauty in sharing them. Through connection, comes meaning. It is my experience that the space between us, though sometimes scary, exists to connect us, not separate us, if we can see through another’s perspective.
I am beyond proud that after the great success of last year’s Elegies: a Song Cycle, that Clovelly Fox is returning with an incredible company to present this beautiful piece that might hopefully bring some lightness in each of our Ordinary Days.
Cast
Melanie Bird
Deb
Read MoreMelanie Bird
Deb
Melanie Bird is a Melbourne-based performer and a graduate of Showfit. Before undertaking her studies at Showfit, Melanie completed a year at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music studying classical singing and opera technique.
Most recently she appeared in the Australian touring production of Sister Act: The Musical (Crossroads Live).
Her other theatre credits include Paquette in Candide (Victorian Opera), Jess in A Christmas Carol (GWB/The Old Vic), Tiffany in Midnight (Aspect Entertainement), Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music, Nellie/Lucy cover in Jekyll and Hyde (Hayes Theatre Company), Natalie Goodman in Next to Normal (James Terry Collective) and Princess Josiana in The Grinning Man (Salty Theatre) which garnered her a Green Room Award nomination for Oustanding Artist in a Supporting Role.
She has also been part of many developments of new Australian work. These include Kate Miller-Heidke and Kier Nuttall’s Bananaland with the Brisbane Festival, Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank’s My Brilliant Career, Miranda Middleton, Grace Chapple and Luke Bryne’s Paper Stars with Salty Theatre and Sean Donehue and Nicholas Waxman’s Bearded with the Australian Music Theatre Festival. Melanie has also been featured on the original cast recording of My Brilliant Career by Bryant and Frank as well as Scarlet: The Original Concept Recording with DhB Theatrical.
Bobby Fox
Jason
Read MoreBobby Fox
Jason
Bobby Fox is an Irish born Australian actor who originated the role of Franki Valli in the Australian production of Jersey Boys which he performed over 850 times. He is a 4 times World Irish Dance Champion and toured with dance productions Riverdance, Dancing on Dangerous Ground, To Dance on the Moon and starred in the revival of Australian musical Hot Shoe Shuffle as Spring. On stage Bobby has had lead roles in Blood Brothers, Mamma Mia!, Leader of the Pack, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva, We Will Rock You, Spamalot and The Production Company’s Oklahoma!, Sweet Charity and Damn Yankees. In 2016 and 2017 he appeared in Ladies in Black which toured nationally and for which he received a Green Room Award nomination. Later in 2017 he performed in Assassins at The Hayes Theatre and he received a Helpmann Award nomination.
Bobby performed as a star vocalist in Saturday Night Fever’s Sydney season for GFO in 2019 before debuting The Irish Boy to sell out shows at The Sydney Opera House and The Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Later that year he supported the incomparable Michael Feinstein at The Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall before debuting in Ch 9‘s Carols by Candlelight in which he has appeared in every year since.
2022 saw Bobby appearing in the concert series of Boublil and Schoenberg’s Do You Hear the People Sing and playing Don Lockwood in Singin’ In the Rain in a short Brisbane season. The year closed out with Bobby performing in numerous Carols celebrations including The Kings of Christmas with Rob Mills in concert at GPAC and at Channel 9’s Carols by Candlelight and playing Corny Collins in the Adelaide and Sydney seasons of Hairspray the Musical into mid 2023. Bobby performed as Fontaine in Grease in Brisbane in early 2025 and then as Nathan Detroit in Opera Australia’s/HANDA Guys and Dolls on Sydney Harbour in March and April Onscreen Bobby’s credits include Upper Middle Bogan, It’s a Date, Tricky Business and Househusbands. He also appeared in the feature film The Cup.
Joel Granger
Warren
Read MoreJoel Granger
Warren
A graduate of WAAPA’s Music Theatre course, Joel Granger’s theatre credits include Benny Southstreet in Guys & Dolls, Tony Standby in West Side Story (Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour), Elder McKinley in The Book of Mormon, Pippin (GFO), Hairspray (Crossroads Live), The Producers (JRP), Gabe in Next to Normal (The Court Theatre, NZ), A Letter for Molly (Ensemble Theatre), Arpad in She Loves Me, Baldwin in Cry-Baby, Big Fish (Hayes Theatre Co.), Harry Beaton in Brigadoon (The Production Company), Tobias in Sweeney Todd (NZ Opera), Warren in Ordinary Days (Pursued by Bear), The Gathering (Vic Theatre Company), Harold Bride in Titanic (StageArt), and Bernstein in Dogfight (Doorstep Arts).
Joel’s screen credits include Please Like Me (ABC / Pivot) and True Story with Hamish & Andy (Channel Nine). He has been nominated for a Helpmann Award, Sydney Theatre Award, Green Room Award, and was a Top Six Finalist for the Rob Guest Endowment (2018).
He can currently be seen on screen as a core cast member in the role of Adam in New Zealand’s new musical television series Happiness (TV3 NZ).
Sarah Morrison
Claire
Read MoreSarah Morrison
Claire
Following the international tour of seasons of Miss Saigon as Ellen, Sarah most recently reprised the beloved role of Belle in The Old Vic production of A Christmas Carol.
Sarah’s career began with Opera Queensland performing in the children’s chorus in La Bohème and Hansel and Gretel. She went on to study and after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theatre from the Ballarat Arts Academy (now known as Federation University). Sarah played Tracy in Dust (Queens Theatre and Brisbane’s Powerhouse) and Elizabeth in Third World Blues (Company 11).
Sarah’s breakout role was the one she originated as the lead of Lisa Miles in the national tourof Ladies in Black, a new work co-produced by the Queensland and Melbourne Theatre Companies. Next came Sophie Sheridan in the Australian tour of Mamma Mia! and then sellout seasons of Come From Away in the role of Janice and Others. Sarah made her West End debut when she then joined the London production of Come From Away. Other credits include You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown in the role of Sally Brown.
Screen credits include The Doctor Blake Mysteries and Making Dust for ABC Artscape.
Creative Team
Tyran Parke
Director
Tyran Parke
Director
Tyran Parke worked as an actor for two decades before firmly establishing himself as an acclaimed director on the Australian theatre scene.
He is now a much sought-after director, producer and teacher. He directed the all-star production of Follies at the Melbourne Recital Centre, followed by the acclaimed production of Barnum starring Todd McKenney and Rachael Beck, and CHESS starring Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Rob Mills and Paulini.
Further professional directing credits include the plays Thom Pain, Pool (no water), The Laramie Project, Great Expectations, and Proof; the musicals Jekyll and Hyde, Rent, The Goodbye Girl, A Chorus Line, Songs for a New World, Hello Again, and the operas The Coronation of Poppea and The Fairy Queen.
Concert work includes the acclaimed, Here’s to the Ladies, Rob Mills is Surprisingly Good, Debra Byrne and Vika Bull in Tapestry, Caroline O’Connor’s From Broadway with Love, Dirty Dancing in Concert, Mark Vincent’s Broadway three separate national tours of From Broadway to La Scala over a six-year period and the reunion tour of pop sensation, ‘JenTyDaQuee’.
Other productions include the acclaimed, Ordinary Days (Green Room Award- Best Director), Big Fish (Broadway World and Glugg Nominations- Best Director), Falsettos (Green Room nomination- Best Director) and The Coronation of Poppea (Opera Chaser Award- Best Director of an Opera).
Tyran created Clovelly Fox with the debut Production, Elegies: A Song Cycle in 2024 being nominated for 5 Green Room Awards, with Tyran winning the Best Director Award.
As a teacher, Tyran has worked for all the major training institutions and is currently the Head of Music Theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). He is Artistic Director of Clovelly Fox Productions as well as the acclaimed Australian Musical Theatre Festival in Launceston, where he has just completed his 5th program.
Vicky Jacobs
Musical Director
Vicky Jacobs
Musical Director
Vicky Jacobs has built a reputation as the go-to person for bringing out the best in every singer — from Australia’s leading music theatre performers to the most hesitant first-timers. Her ability to inspire confidence and vocal excellence is at the heart of everything she does.
Most recently, Vicky has been the Musical Director of A Christmas Carol at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre. She received Green Room Award nominations for her work as Musical Director on Elegies (Clovelly Fox) and The Heartbreak Choir (Melbourne Theatre Company).
As an Associate Musical Director, Vicky has contributed to some of the biggest musical theatre productions in Australia, including Hairspray, Moulin Rouge, Come From Away, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Jersey Boys, Grease, and Singin’ in the Rain.
Away from the mainstage, Vicky is passionate about community singing. She is the founder and director of Glee Club Singing which offers choirs, singalongs, workshops, solo opportunities and joyful events across Victoria and Tasmania. She has guest-conducted the MSO Chorus and in 2023, travelled to San Francisco to study with Bobby McFerrin.
Her choral arrangements are available through Sheet Music Plus and the Australian Music Vault Choir Project.
A passionate advocate for accessible and inspiring arts experiences, Vicky is the Workshop Coordinator for the Rob Guest Endowment and part of the programming team for Festival of Voices.
She’s also proud to be part of the team behind Warm Me Up, the No.1 vocal warm-up app for iPhone and Android.
Richard Roberts
Set Designer
Richard Roberts
Set Designer
Richard Roberts is a freelance theatre designer and design teacher, based in Melbourne.
His design experience has included designs for drama, dance, film, television and opera. Since his first professional engagement in 1977 as a resident designer at the State Theatre Company of South Australia, he has worked for all the major performing arts companies in Australia as well as working extensively internationally.
As a teacher, he was the inaugural Head of Design at West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth (1991 – 96), Head of Production at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne (2000 – 2010) and Head of Design at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (2013 – 15). He is now a Professor at the University of Melbourne and teaching in the department of Design and Production at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Recent design work includes, sets and costumes for Victorian Opera’s 2023 production of The Visitors, sets for Victorian Opera/Opera Australia’s 2024 production of Idomeneo (mounted this year at San Francisco Opera) and sets and costumes for Victorian Opera’s 2024 production of La Rondine. He is currently preparing the set designs for a production of La Fille Mal Gardee for Estonian National Ballet opening in March 2026.
Gavan Swift
Lighting Designer
Gavan Swift
Lighting Designer
Gavan Swift is a multi award-winning lighting designer. He graduated from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1994. His musical lighting designs include Mamma Mia!, Heathers the Musical, Mack & Mabel, The Mikado, The Pirates Of Penzance, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Jolson, Buddy, Oh What A Night, Footloose, Hair, Xanadu, Chess, Carousel, Follies, Annie and Saturday Night Fever both in Australia and on London’s West End. Gavan was the lighting designer for Moby Dick at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, LA Opera, and The Dallas Opera.
He has designed the lighting for The Production Company’s Anything Goes, Sugar (Some Like It Hot), The Music Man, Hair, Mack & Mabel, The Pirates of Penzance, Thoroughly Modern Millie and their inaugural production of Mame. For the State Theatre Company of South Australia his designs include Three Sisters (co-set designer), King Lear and Hamlet. For Bell Shakespeare; The Winter’s Tale, Pericles and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also designed the lighting for the Victorian Opera production of La Rodine and the multi award-winning production of Salome. Gavan has also designed lighting for productions at the Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Ensemble Theatre, and Opera Australia. Gavan was the Associate Lighting Designer for the Australian productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Cabaret, The Full Monty, Chicago, High School Musical, A Chorus Line, South Pacific, The Lord of the Rings, Wicked, Frozen, An American In Paris, 9 to 5, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairspray, Beauty & the Beast, Moulin Rouge, Beetlejuice and The Lion King; as well as the West End production of A Chorus Line, the Japanese production of Beauty and the Beast, plus the Mexican production of Wicked.
Louisa Fitzgerald
Costume Designer
Louisa Fitzgerald
Costume Designer
Louisa Fitzgerald is a Set and Costume Designer for Theatre, Opera and Dance. Her practice is informed by a passion for design history, and her skilled background as an artist and maker. Originally from Sydney where she earned a Bachelor of Design from the University of New South Wales, she moved to Melbourne to complete a Master of Production Design for Stage at the Victorian College of the Arts. Recent design credits include set and costume design for Victorian Opera’s Mansfield Park (2025) and English Eccentrics (2024); set design for The Grumpiest Boy in the World (2023); costume design for The Australian Ballet’s The Nutcracker Act II (2025) and Storytime Ballet: Cinderella (2023); Boys on the Verge of Tears (2025) and Milked (2024) at fortyfive downstairs. Recent associate design credits include Victorian Opera’s Follies (2025) and La Rondine (2024), and Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre’s Your Name Means Dream (2024). Recent award nominations include a 2024 Greenroom Award nomination for Opera Design and a 2024 Australian Production Designers Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Emerging Designer. Louisa was a 2024 Graduate Ensemble Member of Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, and represented Australia as co-designer of ‘Storylines’ at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial.
Jack Scandrett
Sound Designer
Jack Scandrett
Sound Designer
Jack Scandrett began his career in 2009 in the System Sound warehouse before moving to London to work with the National Theatre. Back in Australia he rejoined System Sound for the national tour of War Horse and after that, the world tour of The Phantom of the Opera, and contributed to 26 shows with The Production Company. In 2019 he mixed Chicago (Australian tour) as operator. Following that, Jack founded his own Queensland-based sound company and has mixed sound for notable acts such as Meow Meow, Paul Kelly, Paul Grabowsky and others while designing sound for commercial musical theatre productions and tours across Australia. Jack is once again excited to work with Tyran Parke on Ordinary Days after two fantastic collaborations with both Everything’s Coming Up Sondheim (2018) (Green Room Award nomination) and Elegies at fortyfivedownstairs (2024).
Mitchell Dand
Sound Designer
Mitchell Dand
Sound Designer
Mitchell Dand began his sound career in 2020, assisting Jack Scandrett on a school musical in regional Queensland. Over the following years the pair mixed and designed numerous school, community and pro–am productions; as Jack expanded Sunshine Coast Sound’s professional work and increased commitments in Melbourne, Mitchell stepped up to mix and ultimately design most productions. He is currently a sound engineer at Noosa’s The J Theatre and Technical Manager of The Precynct, a thriving new Sunshine Coast destination for touring musicians.
Production Team
Zan Reynolds
Sound Operator
Zan Reynolds
Sound Operator
Dioni Butt
Stage Manager
Dioni Butt
Stage Manager
Dioni was a Stage Management graduate of the VCA way back in 2004 and has been working as a Casting Director, Casting Associate, Company Manager and Children’s Manager on commercial musicals for the last 20 years.
Casting credits include: SIX The Musical, MAMMA MIA!, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella The Musical, Phantom Of The Opera, Matilda The Musical, Here Lies Love, Strictly Ballroom, Legally Blonde The Musical, Love Never Dies, King Kong The Musical, The Addams Family, How To Train Your Dragon, Mary Poppins, West Side Story, Jersey Boys, Hairspray, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva.
Company Management credits include: SIX the Musical, MAMMA MIA!, A Christmas Carol, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella The Musical, West Side Story 2021, School Of Rock, Barry Humphries: The Man Behind The Mask, American Idiot Live, Legally Blonde The Musical, West Side Story 2010, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva.
Children’s Management credits include: Billy Elliot The Musical, Matilda The Musical
Dioni is thrilled to finally be adding ‘Stage Manager’ to her CV.
Jasmine Doak aka ‘Cool Plane Lady’
Production Manager
Jasmine Doak aka ‘Cool Plane Lady’
Production Manager
Once upon a time Cool Plane Lady (occasionally also known as Jasmine Doak) sat next to a stranger, the Clovelly Fox Founder and Artistic Director, on a three and a half hour flight. An ‘anything is possible‘ spark was ignited and when the opportunity came to join the Elegies production team, she didn’t take a backward step. CPL is proud to bring her love of musical theatre, deep curiosity, ability to see around corners, razor sharp organisational and problem solving skills, and her passion for living life to its full, to the Clovelly Fox production of Ordinary Days. She continues to be involved and loves it.
Ordinary Days is presented by permission of ORiGiN™ Theatrical
On behalf of R&H Theatricals, A Concord Theatricals Company
August 2025
Rehearsal Images
Photography Credit Ben Fon
Thank Yous
Victorian College of the Arts, Emma Redding, Pursued By a Bear, Tash Milton Taylor, Mark Taylor, Brittanie Shipway, Matt Hamilton, Nix Bowman, Pella Gregory, Simon Mumme, Natalie Gamsu, Angie Terranc, Danny Gibson, Jordan Twigg, Maverick Newman
Why Clovelly Fox?
Storytelling is pretty much a religious pastime to me. As long as I can remember, I have wrapped my world inside of certain narratives – those conscious and unconscious – and then spent my life excavating the stories of others.
A good deal of my time developing as a director was spent in the beach-side suburb of Clovelly. Late at night, after a long day’s rehearsal, I would often record notes – my fingers can’t keep up with the speed of my thinking when I try and transcribe the thoughts! The problem was that I had various flatmates during this time, and I would unintentionally wake them with midnight mumblings, snippets of singing and snippets and highlighted bold, dramatic enquiry. So, being the respectful young person that I was, I would travel to the nearby beach regularly, and it was there that I would record my notes.
In several of these early morning note sessions, a certain Fox would make an appearance. I would find myself grappling with a problem and articulating it to an actor through a voice memo, and this Fox – the Clovelly Fox – would come by, have a moment of sizing me up, and then travel on its way.
And often the thrill of the visit would inspire a new way into creative problem solving!
I’ve always found my resting place in nature, and there was something about this Fox, the inquisitive look, the driven energy and the alertness to the world around him, that meant he became a symbol of creativity for me.
And as legend goes, to others as well.
Actors woke to voicemails full of notes and these occasional, intriguing interruptions. It’s not unusual to this day to receive images from people, all over the world, claiming they have just had an encounter with the Clovelly Fox, a symbol of great creativity.
This company was created so that I could tell collective stories in a particular way, through something that feels bigger than myself and share them in the kind of community that theatre encourages.
Long may we follow the Fox…