New Theatre News
VALE GILL FALSON
The New mourns the passing of one of our oldest members, Life Member Gill Falson, who worked tirelessly for the theatre over 16 years as a director, choreographer and on the Management Committee. One of her greatest achievements was teaching “two left feet-ers” how to hoodwink audiences into thinking they could dance. Under her patient guidance, even the most hopeless mastered the box step, the grapevine and basic tap routines.
Gill Bowen Daniels was born into a Hunter Valley musical family. Her paternal grandmother was a talented musician and singer, her mother taught music, and her father was a music teacher who had his own band. Gill learned to dance from the age of five and from the age of eight studied music, classical ballet, tap, national and contemporary dance at Jessie Brownlie’s studio at Newcastle. Gill was a regular performer in Cessnock High productions of Gilbert and Sullivan and other musicals.
In 1954, Gill moved to Sydney to work as a singer and dancer at nightspots such as Chequers and Joe Taylor’s Celebrity Club. After a season as a cabaret artist and model in the last days of colonial Singapore, she returned to Australia to marry jazz trumpet player and arranger Ron Falson. The partnership was a professional as well as a personal one. Gill transcribed the sheet music they used in their musical contributions to radio, television and live theatre. She performed in and produced vocals for commercials, often using her own three children in kids’ ads, plus students from the Ramsgate Dance Centre where she taught ballet, tap, character and jazz. Gill also acted in films, documentaries and TV soaps.
Gill’s involvement with New Theatre began in 1985 after she had finished a two-year stint teaching dance-movement to Brian Syron’s acting students. The project was called Neighbourhood, but the show experienced problems during the production period and ultimately had to be cancelled – the first cancellation in New Theatre’s then 54-year history. Taking onboard the cast’s enormous disappointment, Gill suggested mounting a workshop production based on her own, and her family’s, involvement with dance and music over the years. Members of the Neighbourhood company were invited to participate, in what would eventually become a musical called Oh, How We Danced. The production showcased the dances and musical styles from the 1920s to the 1970s, and explored the changes in society through the decades. Gill invested her heart and soul into the project and involved her whole family.
Other shows that Gill choreographed for New Theatre included Just Talk/Apart From the Songs, On The Wallaby, Privates On Parade, Coming Attractions, And A Nightingale Sang, No Room For Dreamers (also assistant director), The Boys In The Band, The Hired Man (also co-director), Dreyfus in Rehearsal, The Death of Peter Pan, Kafka’s Dick, The Destiny of Me and Only Heaven Knows. She staged workshops, plus a number of Christmas concerts and revues, and served on the Management Committee variously as Secretary, Play-Reader, Workshop Coordinator, and finally, Artistic Director. Her husband Ron also became involved with the New, photographing and documenting many productions.
One of Gill’s milestone contributions to the New was the trilogy of gay and lesbian cabarets No Funny Business, Lots More Funny Business and Life is a Funny Business which she directed and choreographed in the years 1998-2000 as part of the annual Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. Gill persuaded musical director Betty Leone, lyricist Colleen Cook and head writer Donna Abela to team up with her for three years running and wasn’t too shy to call them every day during the six months it took to devise each show. Collaborations on these large cast extravaganzas were stormy and intense, and rehearsals were hard but ultimately rewarding. The 1998 show delivered the theatre from financial ruin; long ticket queues and extended seasons meant the New was saved from having to sell its building. These cabarets also forged valuable connections with the local queer community which continue to this day.
Gill left the New in 2001, but continued to attend and enjoy productions. She eventually moved from Sans Souci to The Wintergarten apartments at Rose Bay, and – not being one to slow down – became to involved in the Older Women’s Network. She also started work as a presenter and producer at Eastside FM radio station. Her radio program Playing Favourites was a popular jazz program there. But maybe even more importantly, Gill produced Sonic Tales, a series of radio plays written by Australian playwrights, involving Sydney actors and sound designers. These radio play podcasts are now a precious database of original Australian works, thanks to Gill’s hard work and determination to keep the tradition of radio drama alive.
Those of us who knew Gill will think of her now with much sadness but we can also be so grateful that we got to work with her and witness her extraordinary generosity and dedication to so many shows and to so many people. We extend our condolences to Gill’s family.
(Lyn Collingwood, Donna Abela, Gina Schien and George Hoad)
Images (L-R): the soubrette years; New Theatre Management Committee, 1997 (Gill front row, far left); No Funny Business, 1998; opening night of The School for Scandal, 2015 (with Elaine Hudson, Gina Schien and John Short).
