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ARTS

Joel Beskin has had three careers.

He worked for twenty years for mass media (Newspapers), followed by seven years in commercial sales and managerial positions. He stopped his world, won tertiary qualifications, and took up a teaching career. Upon retirement he was Department Head of Performing Arts – by way of Department Head of English - in the Secondary School division of the then Queensland Department of Education. He was charged with the development of curriculum and the teaching and management of Music, Film and Television, Theatre, Speech and Drama courses in his Secondary Schools’ appointments. He has served Queensland as a Justice of the Peace and, currently, as a Commissioner for Declarations since 1974.

Joel has truly had some sixty-seven years of experience in Community Theatre, taking his first principle role at the age of 9yrs. Since then he has engaged with all forms of professional and community performance except dance (for which audiences may be grateful.) He was an inaugural inductee into the Association of Community Theatres’ Hall of Fame in 2004. He has been recognised with Gold Coast City Council Australia Day nomination and Gold Coast Bulletin nomination in the ‘Entertainment’ category. He was awarded a Queensland Government ‘Volunteer’ medal in 2001.

He has served on a number of Gold Coast City Council Cultural Development Advisory Committee, Arts Forums and three separate terms on the Regional Arts Development Fund committee.

He has also been active in a number of Community Theatre groups in Queensland, including Brisbane Arts Theatre, Twelfth Night Theatre, Tamborine Mountain Little Theatre and Spotlight Theatre. He was also President of the Gold Coast Secondary Schools Drama Festival for a number of years. Joel also served as an invitee member of the Gold Coast City Council Cultural Development Model Reference Committee which reported to Arts Queensland through the Gold Coast City Council in forming a cultural policy for our City. Other arts activities include voluntary narrator to the national Hear-A-Book organisation, and lobbyist for a citywide Arts and Cultural Festival.

He has had the unusual distinction of serving on theatre committees at the time of the planning and construction of no less than three community theatres. Brisbane Arts Theatre, Twelfth Night Theatre (Brisbane) and now The Spotlight Theatrical Company, who were successful in self-financing and building in 2001 of the first new community group theatre on the Gold Coast for over twenty years.

The Gold Coast Theatre Alliance, which he helps to lead, is currently undergoing a cultural expansion and is developing from a community theatre base to also representing the public interests of Dance and music-performance groups.

Joel still turns up in stage performances and this year (2009) has managed to appear in two full seasons and has also narrated Ballet and Orchestral presentations as well as filling a weekly radio spot on the ABC (all for community theatre, of course.) He is in demand as a speaker at community group meetings.

He is now devoting his energies to promoting the art, profile and accessibility of community theatre in the Gold Coast and Districts in Arts Administration.
 

ACTOR – Drama/Comedy/musicals

Hamlet: Polonius
King Lear: Gloucester
Merchant of Venice: Shylock
Macbeth: Ross, Porter
Henry V: Fluellen (x2)
Twelfth Night: Malvolio (Rehearsed public reading)
The Tempest: Gonzalo (Dir Rick Billinghurst)
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream: Peter Quince
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream: Theseus
Julius Caesar : Publius
Much Ado About Nothing Friar Francis
Krapp’s Last Tape: [Self-directed]
A Resounding Tinkle: Bro Paradock
Under Milk Wood: First Drowned/Mr Pritchard/Ocky Milkman/Cherry Owen/
Evans the Death
Under Milk Wood: Rev. Eli Jenkins
A Servant for Two Masters (Goldoni) Dr. Lombardi
One O’Clock From the House: [Principal]
Caesar & Cleopatra (Shaw): Theodotus
Androcles and the Lion: Spintho
The Diary of Anne Frank: Mr. Van Daan (Dir Maryanne Howard)
Arsenic and Old Lace: Mr. Gibbs
Death of a Salesman: Howard
Detective Story: Sims
Endgame Nagg

Actor – Musical Theatre
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Lycus
“ “ “ “ “ (Dir. Tony Alcock) Erronius
Oliver Fagin x 3
Oliver Mr Sowerberry
Fiddler on the Roof Lazar Wolf
Fiddler on the Roof Rabbi
Camelot Merlin & Knight
HMS Pinafore Sir Joseph
HMS Pinafore Marine (Chorus)
The Mikado Gentleman of Japan
Tarantara, Tarantara W.S.Gilbert
Little Shop of Horrors Mushnik
Something’s Afoot Doctor Grayburn
Follies (Zeigfield characterization)
Red Hot and Cole various/ensemble

Film/TV; Roleplay; Radio; VO; Narration, Public Speaking; Pantomime; Children’s Theatre; MC. Director of Drama, Comedy, Musicals.