luke gallagher
Luke Gallagher gained his Bachelor of Education in Drama and Dance from Deakin University (Rusden).
Upon completing his degree Luke spent two years full-time with the Victoria State Opera Schools Touring Company. In this time he performed for over 40,000 school children around Melbourne and the Victoria in Bookworm: Adventures on the Internet and The Bitter Curse of Baggle-Crunch.
After his work with the VSO Luke spent two years with the new Opera Australia Melbourne chorus in major productions including The Barber of Seville and Beatrice and Benedick.
Following his work with Opera Australia Luke freelanced for a number of years as a singer/actor, director, producer and publicist.
Theatre work as a performer includes the original two seasons of Eurobeat - the Eurovision Musical, Anthony Crowley's The Wild Blue, Brad Pitt Why Haven't You Called?, Get Away From Me Bitch, his one man show VoiceMale, Cling (with Nigel Ubrihien), Only Heaven Knows (with Michael Smallwood and Nigel Ubrihien), The Last Blue Angel, SuperNature and Vincent: An A'Cappella Opera both by Anthony Crowley.
Luke is soon to direct a new production of the award-winning Off-Broadway musical Zanna Don't at Chapel Off Chapel for the 2009 Midsumma Festival.
Other directing work includes Beyond Therapy (The Store Room), Lucky Stiff (Chapel Off Chapel), Arabian Nights (Seattle, USA), A Snatch of Miss Penelope (Melbourne International Comedy Festival), Elegies (Victorian AIDS Council Special Event, Athenaeum Theatre), Trial By Jury (Port Fairy Spring Music Festival), Partners In Rhyme (St Martins & Playbox Theatre) and associate director of Vincent: An A'Cappella Opera (Homemade Musicals). He was nominated for a Best Director Green Room Award for his work on Lucky Stiff in 2000.
Aside from his work with Friends of Barbra, Luke works extensively as a performer in Melbourne's ever-expanding cabaret scene. In recent years he has worked with Melbourne drag identity Ms. Kaye Sera and musical director Adrian Kirk on a range of hit shows including two seasons of Harder, Longer, Faster (The Farewell Tour), The Grass Roots Tour (Adelaide and Melbourne), Beyond the Buggery Belt, Hey Fancypants and Share and Cher Alike. Luke and Kaye also teamed up with Peter Hurley in 2002 for Naughty Little Showtunes.
Luke has also worked as an MC for a range of large scale events including the 1st Asia Pacific Outgames, Festival Melbourne (Commonwealth Games) 2006, Midsumma Festival, Pride March Victoria and many others.
He now works as a marketing professional and in recent years has worked as a Brand Marketing Executive with The Age newspaper and a Marketing and PR Manager with the Walt Disney Special Events Group.
In 2008 Luke was Marketing Director and joined the Board of the 1st Asia Pacific Outgames in Melbourne. He has also joined the fundraising committee of Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and has helped promote and assisted in producing the annual Hats Off concerts in Melbourne for the past two years.
Currently Luke is Marketing Manager for the Entertainment Store Group pf companies. He has the pleasure of looking after live performances and touring productions for a range of international children's licensed TV brands amongst many other company projects throughout Australia and Asia.
nigel ubrihien | michael smallwood