Ali McGregor to research Australian actress Nellie Stewart as the 2024 Frank Van Straten Fellow

Opera and cabaret performer Ali McGregor will investigate the life and career of 1880s Australian actress, affectionately known as ‘The Rose of Australia’, as the fifth recipient of the annual Frank Van Straten Fellowship. McGregor was awarded a $15,000 grant which provides opportunities to research and develop projects that explore the iconic Australian Performing Arts Collection.

McGregor:

I was introduced to Nellie Stewart only recently. To realise that just three generations ago, there was an artist who was so well known and loved here in Melbourne that I did not know of was humbling, to say the least

Stewart left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape during her lifetime as her career traversed both high and low arts. She began performing on stage at the age of five but rose to prominence as a leading lady during the 1880s, and remained a favourite performer throughout the following decades.

In 1885, she had gained much praise as the female lead in the first Australian production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. She went on to entertain audiences in lavish pantomimes, popular musicals and dramatic plays but her most famous role was Nell Gwynne in Sweet Nell of Old Drury – a play that became synonymous with her name.

Many things about her career resonated with me, from singing high opera and then moving into light operatic comedy, to her experience of grappling with the choice to try and make it overseas or to stay at home and build a career as a working mother in the arts. I felt a very strong desire to follow the metaphorical breadcrumbs from her life to my own.

While Stewart performed in England and the United States, she always remained much-loved in Australia. Her story provides a lens through which McGregor can examine the shifting dynamics of cultural value attached to different art forms and how they are remembered over time.

McGregor Continued:

The aim is to resurrect Nellie’s legacy and shed light on the complex interplay between popular entertainment and cultural memory. I also hope to demonstrate to other performers and artmakers in Victoria the wealth of resources available to strengthen the connection to our cultural legacy

McGregor’s research will result in the development of a stage show aimed at reviving Nellie Stewart’s legacy by revisiting the musical repertoire that made her famous.

McGregor:

The more I discovered about Nellie, the more I knew it was essential to create a show about her. My aim is to establish a direct connection with the artists who laid the foundation for contemporary performers. Exploring themes such as motherhood, the avoidance of social stigma and the societal perception of high versus low arts will add depth to the narrative, providing a nuanced understanding of Stewart’s impact on the cultural fabric of her time.

Over the past four years, the Frank Van Straten Fellowship has produced outstanding works highlighting stories from the diverse and rich history of performing arts in Australia.

Previous recipients include:

2023 Fellow – Dr Amaara Raheem

Dr Amaara Raheem is a dance practitioner asking the question: Can an archive become a meeting place? Her recreation of the Chunky Move work C.O.R.R.U.P.T.E.D II provides an opportunity for creators to marry bodily memory with archival memory from the Australian Performing Arts Collection. The workshops and filmed recreation of the piece provides a starting point for teaching, workshops and discussion.

2022 Fellow – Angela Bailey

Angela Bailey’s fellowship The GLAD Project explored the often-secreted queer lives of performance artists, including legendary musical theatre singer Gladys Moncrieff (known as ‘our Glad’). One of Bailey’s outcomes included an installation at the Victorian Pride Centre as part of the 2023 Midsumma Festival.

2021 Fellow – Cathy Pryor

Cathy Pryor’s project Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies: Stories of women and magic from the Australian Performing Arts Collection focused on the careers of three female Magicians – Esme Levante, Myrtle Roberts and Moi-Yo Miller. Pryor produced a podcast in partnership with Radio National and an online exhibition.

2020 Fellow – Dr Kate Rice

Inaugural Fellow, Dr Kate Rice researched several historical theatrical performances bringing some forgotten stories of the Australian stage to life. Dr Rice researched and produced the podcast series Performing the Past that included the impact of the 1918 Flu pandemic on theatres.

The Frank Van Straten Fellowship is made possible by the generous contribution of The Van Straten and Turley Foundation. Frank Van Straten played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Australian Performing Arts Collection (APAC) in the late 1970s and was the founding director and first archivist of what was then the Performing Arts Museum. Arts Centre Melbourne has been the proud custodian of the APAC for over five decades of collecting. It now holds over 850,000 items.

---

For more information click HERE