We’ve just completed our third (and final) studio day on Night Terrace so it’s a perfect time to tell you what we’ve been up to.
Our third day included all the Kickstarter backers who chose to record a line and we were thrilled with their performances. We also had our first chance to work with Eryn Saunders who we’re certain you’ll be hearing more of in the future, Aamer Rahman brought his talent to the role of “Tony”, and the gloriously talented Dave Lamb and Amanda Buckley came in to provide a range of voices.
Our wizard of sound David Ashton has been putting the first mixes together and it’s all sounding fantastic. Curiously David is unflappable when the script calls for “the sound of the universe being torn to shreds in an explosion, then sucked into a single tiny point, then thrown out again in a new and exciting way”, but gets deeply annoyed when we ask for footsteps.
We’d also like to thank the wonderful people at Big Finish – especially Kris Griffin and Nick Briggs – who have been extremely generous with their advice and help.
We’re hoping to have the show finished and in your ears in September and our public launch party for Kickstarter backers will be in October, but we’ll tell you more about that soon.
Final cast update!
We’re pleased to announce the remaining guest stars for series one of Night Terrace!
Joining our amazing line-up of actors are Aamer Rahman, Virginia Gay, Andrew McClelland, Naomi Rukavina, Jason Tamiru, Eryn Saunders and Gnarnayarrahe Waitairie!
Gnarnayarrahe Waitairie is a musician, actor and street performer who has appeared in the feature films Dead Heart and Quigley Down Under. He started out in the band Stony Broke and the Hi-Spenders and has recorded with Not Drowning Waving, Joe Dolce and Alies Sluiter. He co-founded the Indjibundji Tribal Aboriginal Cultural Dance School in 1985, and was the lead in Ray Mooney’s play Black Rabbit at the Victorian Arts Centre. He won the title of ‘World’s Best Busker’ at a competition in Coff’s Harbour in 1992, and is famous for his Elvis impersonation. He’s not playing Elvis in Night Terrace but you will find him in episode six, The Last Hunt.
Also in episode six is Jason Tamiru. Jason is an actor, musician and producer and currently the indigenous audience development consultant for the Malthouse Theatre. He’s been the producer of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Deadly Funny competition and Blak Cabaret for the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival. You’ll also find him in the feature film comedy 10Terrorists, and we’re thrilled to have him onboard.
Virginia Gay is best known to Australian audiences as registered nurse Gabrielle Jaeger in the television series All Saints and Frances James (“the sensible one”) on Winners and Losers. Virginia is a WAAPA grad and alongside her TV work has a stellar theatre career, including playing Julia Gillard in The Wharf Revue, a “prize bitch” in Eddie Perfect’s The Beast for MTC, and a transgendered actor auditioning for the role of Hitler in The Production Company’s The Producers. Despite that last qualification, she doesn’t appear in episode five, Sound & Führer, but rather plays the central role in episode three, Time of Death.
Which is where you’ll also find Andrew McClelland. He’s best known as a comedian, having toured four times to the Edinburgh Fringe, appeared in 15 consecutive Melbourne International Comedy Festivals and has won the coveted “Piece of Wood” Comedian’s Choice award. He’s also an in-demand DJ, both at his own hugely successful club night Mr McClelland’s Finishing School and at special events around Australia. His television appearances include Spicks & Specks, In Siberia Tonight, The Chaser’s War on Everything and Slideshow. Night Terrace is hardly Andrew’s first foray into voice acting; he provides the voice of every character in ABC3’s The Dukes of Broxtonia.
Naomi Rukavina works mainly in the theatre, where you may have seen her in Yellow Moon or The Crucible (both for the Melbourne Theatre Company), The Seizure for The Hayloft Project, or as both Tybalt and Romeo in The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet for the Zoey Louise Moonbeam Dawson Shakespeare Company. She’s also been on the telly in Offspring. She’s in episodes six and seven of Night Terrace playing two very different characters, and she’s fab.
Eryn Saunders is probably the most professional actor we’ve worked with on Night Terrace…and she’s only ten! As well as appearing in episodes six and eight, Eryn also stars in the upcoming supernatural drama television series Sonnigsburg (alongside Night Terrace’s own Petra Elliott), and will soon be on stage with the Australian Ballet in The Nutcracker. We think she’s a performer with a big future in front of her.
Aamer Rahman rose to fame as half of comedy duo Fear of a Brown Planet with Nazeem Hussain, winning the Best Newcomer award at the 2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. As well as playing to sell-out crowds around Australia, Aamer has toured overseas and in 2014 opened for Dave Chappelle on the Melbourne leg of his tour. His debt solo stand-up show, The Truth Hurts, has played in Melbourne and London, and he recently successfully crowdfunded the making of his first comedy DVD. In Night Terrace, Aamer’s confident attitude serves him well in an important role in episode four, but he also got to live out his Star Trek dreams with a bit part in episode two.
Plus there’s some cameo surprises – but we’ll let you discover them for yourself!
We’ve been having a great time putting Night Terrace together and we’re really hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do! The show will be coming very soon to some ears near you.