Mark Featherby
Director MTM
Mark is principal of Featherbys Lawyers. He has been a Director of numerous private companies and a director and committee member of several community organisations over many years.
Mark was 43 before he discovered the exquisite pleasures of theatre performance when he played ‘Cooley’ in Don’s Party. He then joined with his daughters in several music theatre productions before he established Stella Entertainment with Mark Raynes and Peter Fitzpatrick.
Mark was the original founder of Stella Entertainment in 2003. Stella produced several pro-am productions including the Victorian premiere of Jon English and David MacKay’s iconic musical Paris. Stella produced two musicals off-Broadway before it morphed into its current company, Music Theatre Melbourne when Jon Madgwick joined the team as co-director.
Since its formation, MTM has been focused on producing and promoting new Australian musicals. It is entirely privately funded with a dedicated commitment to promote Australian talent at its own expense. Both Mark and MTM have also been a financial supporter of community theatre and school productions over many years.
Mark is proud of the contribution that MTM has made to Australian music theatre and is excited about the contribution it will continue to make in the future.
Jonathon Madgwick
Director MTM
Jon has over 30 years’ experience in public practice accountancy and is a Chartered Accountant and registered tax agent. He graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1984 with a Bachelor of Business Degree with distinction. Jon is an experienced company director having served on both ASX listed and private company boards.
Jon is a passionate supporter of music theatre and is committed to driving MTM’s mission. He has been involved in the music theatre industry in a professional capacity and as an investor in Australian productions over many years.
Mark Raynes
Production Manager
Mark began his love of theatre when cast as an orphan at ten alongside Jamie Redfern and John Diedrich in J.C.Williamsons Oliver.
He continued to perform in numerous amateur production over the next twenty years until he had the joy of performing with his talented daughters. Realising they were better, he turned his hand to set construction, costumes and lighting design, earning a guild nomination for design. Eventually he moved on to Directing with companies such as PLOS (Beauty and the Beast) as well as numerous productions for Panorama. In 2004 he gained the rights to Produce the World Premier of Jon English’s Paris and formed Stella, a new company with Mark Featherby. Mark took on the role of Production coordinator and Paris was followed by the Australian Amateur Premier of RENT and Life After High School. Stella then collaborated with John Bucchino to produce its only Life which was eventually taken to the States to perform at the iconic Birdland.
Peter Fitzpatrick
Creative Director
Castro’s Children is the fourth of Peter Fitzpatrick’s musicals to be professionally staged. It has had a frustrating journey to its Premiere season, with three seasons in Melbourne cancelled due to Covid in 2021-2, and another in New York scuttled when the New York Music Theatre Festival went bankrupt in 2019!
Peter’s previous shows are flowerchildren – the Mamas and Papas story, which followed a sellout season at Theatre Works in 2011 with a six-week run at the Comedy Theatre in 2013, Life’s a Circus (2009) and CrossXRoads (2016); the latter two were written in collaboration with composer Anthony Costanzo.
Peter has extensive experience as a writer in other genres: as a novelist, he has published the crime-novels-with-a-twist Death in the Back Pocket (with Barbara Wenzel, 1995), Promontory (2001), and, most recently, Mayo Street (2023); in cinema, Peter’s credits include Hotel Sorrento (for which he won an AFI Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, 1995) and Brilliant Lies (1996); as a biographer, he is the author of Pioneer Players: The Lives of Louis and Hilda Esson (1995) and The Two Frank Thrings, which won the National Biography Prize in 2013.
In a previous life, Peter lectured in English and was Foundation Head of Performing Arts at Monash University, where he directed twenty-four productions of plays and musicals with students, and published a number of books and articles on Australian theatre.
For Castro’s Children, Peter has written book and lyrics, in collaboration with Melbourne composer Simon Stone.
Peter has produced two feature film screenplay adaptations, Brilliant Lies and Hotel Sorrento (for which he won an AFI Award in 1995). As a novelist, Peter has published the football murder mystery Death in the Back Pocket (1993) and the historical crime novel Promontory (2001). His venture into suburban noir, Mayo Street, will be published in late 2023.
He is the author of the musical flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story, which enjoyed highly successful seasons at Theatre Works (2011) and the Comedy (2013), and with composer Anthony Costanzo created the book for both the Green Room Award-winning Life’s a Circus (2009) and Crossroads (2016). Peter has written book and lyrics for Castro’s Children (in collaboration with composer Simon Stone), which MTM will premiere in 2024.