Meet the Newcastle's Triple Threat Producer

Newcastle’s Daniel Stoddart (left) is making a unique success of school, community and professional theatre. He spoke to David Spicer over an early dinner in Sydney.

Daniel Stoddart has a lot on his plate. At the Ventura restaurant in Walsh Bay, we both had to polish off our Affogato dessert in a hurry, to dash into the Sydney Theatre Company before the doors closed.

The purpose of our pre-show meeting was to discuss the 10th anniversary of the Junior Theatre Festival which takes place in Newcastle in October, preceded by the second festival in Melbourne in August.

The Stoddart Entertainment Group also manages Australia’s largest community theatre company – The Very Popular Theatre – which fills the Newcastle Civic Theatre for weeks at a time, and this year he is expanding to professional theatre with a national tour of The Play That Goes Wrong.

When I met Daniel, he was fresh back from the United States where he attended the world’s biggest Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta.

“It has thousands and thousands of young people all waving their jazz hands excitedly being a part of that. I got lots of ideas to bring back to for the 10th anniversary Junior Theatre Festival Australia,” he said. 

The model is similar. “Students present 15-minute cuts of their Broadway Junior shows that they do in their school, and they bring that along and perform that for the industry professionals to get feedback.”

Image: OzTheatrics' The Big One-Oh! JR. Photographer: Jamie Gilmore

Impressive guests come along to speak to the students. In Atlanta no less than composer Alan Mencken was on hand to play some songs from his latest musical.

A highlight of this year’s event in Newcastle will be the New Works Showcase, where attendees will get a preview of new Broadway Junior musicals that are being piloted for the first time. 

A recent release was a musical Stoddart had a hand in, Dot and the Kangaroo. 

The Australian festival began in 2016 with six groups and 250 students turning up. These days 1500 fill the Civic Theatre for two days. He’s hoping that the Melbourne festival soon outgrows its Bunjil Place home and moves to the Convention Centre. 

“The great thing about it is that the kids who come along realize their passion and love of performing musicals. The kids, families and teachers go home to their communities feeling like they're part of something much bigger than themselves.”

A part of the success of the festival is that it brings the dynamic of a sporting competition to the arts. 

“The whole model is based on promoting excellence through that little bit of edge of competition. Although there's no winner, everybody goes home with some kind of acknowledgement of their achievements.

“It’s harder to cancel an award-winning theatre program, if you go back to your school principal and saying, we won the award for most outstanding dance at the at the Junior Theatre Festival Australia.”

Stoddart has a whole mantlepiece of awards himself. He won the local CONDA Director’s Award for his company’s production of Mary Poppins.

“I was a little embarrassed. We got every award we were nominated for. I could feel the daggers in the room,” he joked.