PETER HOSKING - Theatrical Resume(updated June 2002)

- Starting at the Pram Factory in 1978, I performed in Light shining in Buckinghamshire and Zastrozzi, and took excerpts of two Jack Hibberd plays (One of Natures Gentlemen and The Les Darcy Show) to schools with T.I.E.. In 1979, toured with Children’s Arena Theatre. In 1980, worked with Roger Pulvers on Witkatcy’s Two Headed Calf; in 1981, two original Pulvers’ pieces at La Mama, and in 1982 two Sam Shepard plays (Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class) at Playbox and the Adelaide Festival.

In 1982 I began working in theatre restaurant. This was the start of an aspect of performing which involved acting, singing, movement, stand-up comedy and audience participation which was to continue intermittently for ten years at The Bull & Bush, The Naughty Nineties and The Tivoli. Working with Terry Gill who managed these venues also meant performing in traditional pantomimes for children, usually at shopping malls - great lessons in holding an audience.

Television, film and voice work explain the large gaps in the theatrical acting time stream, but the career has however been continuous.

In 1985 I performed at La Mama (Yellow Girl), Playbox (Blue Window), The Melbourne Theatre Company (Cyrano de Bergerac), and in the Strike a Light Labour Day concert at the Playhouse where I appeared as a 20ft Queen Victoria perched on a motorised forklift hidden under my dress. In 1987, understudied Gary McDonald and Eddie Bracken in Sugar Babies on its Australian tour, and in 1988, after performing with the late Caz Howard in Escape to a Better Place, got to sing with Jeannie Lewis as the narrator in Piaf . In 1989 it was Nice Girls for Playbox, its Tasmanian tour being curtailed when the set was frozen in a dock strike.

The Royal Commission into Corruption in Victoria for the 1989 Comedy Festival lead to The Royal Commission into the Australian Economy (1991 Comedy Festival), easily my most enjoyable theatrical experience - the punters were intelligent devotees, and loved it. The show outlived the Festival by a couple of months and only closed due to the previous commitments of most of the cast. In between the two 'Commissions', there was Grass at Theatreworks and Esterhaz at Playbox.

After the ‘Commission’ I went to Japan on a whim, taught English, and got into an English production of Twelfth Night (with a predominantly Irish cast) which toured Japan for six weeks. Great training in drinking. After that, returned to Melbourne to perform in Othello at the Melbourne Theatre Company. In 1994 I toured Australia and New Zealand with The Buddy Holly Story for nine months (with two musical solos!).

1995 was the year of (acting) the drunk, appearing in various stages of intoxication in All Souls at Playbox, Love Me Tender at The Stage, and Grand Final at La Mama - all either premier or second productions of new Australian plays.

In 1997 Greg Carroll and myself produced A Stretch of the Imagination, me acting, he directing. The season was critically acclaimed and details of this can be found at the Stretch web page. This year also included a trip to Townsville in Far North Queensland to appear in the Theatre UpNorth production of Hamlet, a continuation of the Hibberd connection by appearing in Jack's latest play Legacy at the Carlton Courthouse, and a play dealing with the difficulties of coping with manic depression, - Alive at Williamstown Pier by Neil Cole.

In 1998 Greg and I took Stretch to the Adelaide Fringe Festival in Feb/March. This resulted in the sort of reviews you would pay for. They are also at the above mentioned web site. This was followed by a production of Bring on the Talent, an expose of shonky acting gurus, at The Carlton Courthouse. Last theatrical production for the year was playing Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. This ran for ten weeks, ending in Feb. 1999.

In 1999 I appeared in the Ross Mueller play Poetsday at La Mama, (this would be my second play by Ross if I had been available for No Man's Island, having been involved in the reading of that play previously), a return season of Alive at Williamstown Pier, and another play by the same author, Neil Cole, dealing with police shootings - A Policewoman's Absurdity. This production underwent a bit of revised choreography when I broke my leg mid-season and finished the season in a wheelchair. Break a leg! Ha Ha! In October Glynn Nicholas approached me with an offer to appear in his production of Certified Male which was to run as part of the 1999 Melbourne International Festival of the Arts. This production extended a month past the end of the festival and wound up with the promise of more engagements inthe new millenium. These promises were realised in February 2000 with a 9 week season at Sydney's Star Casino, a three week return season in Melbourne, and a sellout five week season in Perth which took a million bucks.

Certified Male took up three months of 2000 and that was pretty much it for me and theatre for the next two years. In a typical cycle of the performing world, theatre and I parted company. A short season playing a revenge driven restrateur in Death by Eating,a play written by a food critic, performed for the 2001 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, was my only stage work till April 2002.