About J & B
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Johanna Bourke |
Brydie Lee-Kennedy |
| Jo Bourkehas been training as a singer since she was a teenager as well as having many years of theatrical performance experience. Her extensive vocal range has been put to good use in the Alice productions in which she was asked to switch rapidly between vastly different characters.Jo has strong improvisational and performance skills that were built upon at her time at the University of Sydney. As an active member of Australia’s oldest continuous theatre company, Sydney University Drama Society (SUDS), Jo has experimented with numerous different types of theatre. Highlights from her time at University include a key role in the pantomime ‘The Critic’ performed at the Cellar Theatre in 2007 and the lead role, a kindly nanny in the vein of Mary Poppins, in the self-devised ‘From The Stars’. This show was aimed at children and involved Jo operating puppets, singing and performing strenuous dance routines.From 2008 Jo was a key cast member of ‘Princess Cabaret’ in which she played Belle. Through working and touring with Princess Cabaret (and subsequent Tumbleweed shows) she and Brydie have cemented their friendship and creative partnership. What goes on tour stays on tour (or ends up on stage!)
Jo’s first festival experience was with the 2008 edition of Princess at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. At the 2009 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Jo proved her acting stamina (alongside musician Sophie Miller) as she ran from Alice at 6pm to Doll’s Cabaret at 7pm, at Trades Hall. In 2009 Jo was part of the reunited cast of Princess Cabaret which set out on a tour of regional NSW, followed by successful runs at the Bondi Pavilion and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that same year. With the Princesses Jo was invited to perform at Sydney’s island comedy festival The World’s Funniest Island in 2009. Jo has been part of every Festival production by Tumbleweed Theatrical Productions, including the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival in which she played an alarming number of roles in Fairy Fail and Alice in Wonderland, as well as the 2010 Sydney Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival productions of Princess Cabaret and Fairy Fail. Jo co-wrote both the original show Fairy Fail and the adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. In 2011, Jo has been getting her writing and performance juices flowing and her Festival highs with her show ‘Jo & Brydie Play Doctor’ which she has created with her best bud, Brydie Lee-Kennedy for your viewing pleasure. It premiered at the Tuxedo Cat at MICF 2011 and is scheduled to run at the Gilded Balloon as part of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. |
Brydie Lee-Kennedy is a Sydney-based writer, director and performer, who began her comedy career at The University of Sydney.In March 2007, she directed the sketch comedy/improvisation show, The Battle of the Sketches, as part of Twisted Melon Impro Festival. Since then Brydie has written and directed three all-female sketch shows: Objectify This!, Princess Cabaret and Dolls Cabaret. Princess and Dolls had seasons at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
She is also co-creator and performer of musical adaptations of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which played at the 2009 Melbourne International Comedy Festival at Trades Hall. The shows have subsequently been performed at Sydney’s legendary Bondi Pavilion Theatre, as well as schools and libraries. Brydie made her Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut in 2009 with a revamped Princess Cabaret. In addition to her roles as writer and director, she appeared as Ariel. The show had an acclaimed season at The Gilded Balloon, receiving 4 stars from The Scotsman. In late 2009, Brydie was again on stage with Princess Cabaret at the inaugural World’s Funniest Island Festival, on Cockatoo Island in Sydney. She took two children’s shows to the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival: Alice in Wonderland and Fairy Fail, an original musical comedy. The latter subsequently enjoyed a successful season at the Sydney Comedy Festival. As part of the 2010 Sydney Comedy Festival the “Princesses” were invited to perform at the prestigious Mother of All Galas, the all-female finale of the Sydney Comedy Festival in celebration of Mother’s Day, which was preceded by a run of Princess Cabaret as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival’s inaugural program at the NIDA centre. Princess then went on to a return season at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, once more at the Gilded Balloon. Fairy Fail, in which Brydie co-wrote and played the role of Brownie Locks, aslo played at the Gilded Balloon as part of the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. With Princess Cabaret taking a well-earnt rest, Brydie is using her comedic energies working with her best buddy, Jo Bourke in the show ‘Jo & Brydie Play Doctor’. The show premiered at the Tuxedo Cat in Melbourne as part of the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and is touring to Edinburgh for the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of the Gilded Balloon line-up. Brydie is well known in the Australian improvisation scene, in particular as a regular cast member of Sydney’s innovative show, BLANK The Musical, which played at the 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. She has also performed in four Theatresports seasons. Not one to get type-cast, Brydie has also been working on non-comedic projects, most lately in the So What? production of ‘Night Letters’ by Susan Rogers and Chris Drummond at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. Additionally she can be found performing excerpts from a current songwriting project at Arthur B’s Fringe Affair on random Wednesday nights in Erskineville! Brydie is Creative Director of Tumbleweed Theatrical Productions and a proud member of Equity. |
About Jo & Brydie’s Producer, Amanda Jessup
Assistant Producer: Charlie Shute
