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Listen to Margaret sing
(from her album "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" |
I
Say
a
Little Prayer My Funny Valentine |
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See Video
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Margaret
Sings
Her
Way Margaret with the Legendary Mudsharks of Raglan - Proud Mary Margaret O'Hanlon with the Oracle - Across the Universe |
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Margaret O’Hanlon was born and raised in New York City where she attended the prestigious Laguardia High School of the Arts, as a vocal major. She went on to attend the State University of New York at Purchase where she studied Social Sciences and Film. She began her performing career doing one-woman cabaret shows in New York’s Greenwich Village circuit, working with Peter Dizozza. The one hour shows combined a mixture of original and non-original song with comedy, under the titles “Infidelity”, “Depression” and “Tropical Depression”. Margaret left New York in 1988 to travel abroad and found herself stopping in New Zealand on her way to Australia. Intending to stay 2 weeks she ended up staying 5 months and meeting her future husband, Nigel Hirst. Margaret settled in Queenstown, NZ permanently in 1990. Her first major project was a music-comedy ‘exposé’ called “Exposed”, co-written with Michelle A’Court among others, which toured the four major centres in 1992. In 1993 they were picked up by the Arts On Tour circuit and toured regionally throughout New Zealand. From there Margaret put together a solo show “Confessions Of A Neurotic New Yorker” which she took to the Wellington Fringe Festival. The show featured on Kim Hill’s radio broadcast. Back in Queenstown Margaret felt there was a need for some sort of original music/comedy/performance art venue, and as there was no such forum, she created and hosted the very popular “Showcase” open-mic evenings. “Showcase” ran for 15 years in Queenstown boasting appearances from Laughton Kora (Kora), Dave Dobbyn, Te Radar, Frank Bennett and Michelle A’Court, as well as countless locals and travelers. In 1998 the Queenstown Winter Festival introduced an entertainment event cleverly dubbed “Starry Eyed” based on the (at that time) popular British television series “Stars In Their Eyes”. The show had all the elements of the TV show including the video clip of the people in their ‘everyday’ life. Margaret felt it had tremendous potential to develop into something greater. The following year, NIMA took over the production of the show. Margaret became the Director and Musical Director of the show. “Starry Eyed” became Queenstown’s “most popular event” (TV3’s Nightline) and ran as a sell-out week long event for 10 consecutive years. In 1999 Margaret collaborated with two other writers, Chris Parvin and Mike Legge to create an original musical, “Kitchens”. This very funny music/comedy full-length stage show was a parody of the hospitality scene in Queenstown. It was a tremendous success in Queenstown and is still talked about. In 2001 Margaret set her sights on developing a Performing Arts Centre in Queenstown, primarily as a place to develop emerging and ongoing talent in an adequate facility. Forming the Queenstown Performing Arts Centre Trust she spear-headed a campaign to raise the funds to renovate and maintain an existing council building, the former High School manual block. The Performing Arts Centre Trust is home to over 250 members who dance, sing, play music, practice martial arts, fire dance, and rehearse plays. It is home to Ican Modeling and Casting, Danceworx, Queenstown School of Dance, Flame Fire Productions, and The Singers Workshop (Margaret O’Hanlon). 2003 saw the return of her one-woman cabaret style shows, with “Life Begins At 40”, whereby Margaret visited her past and future through comedy and song. The show featured at Queenstown’s Winter Festival in 2004.  In 2007 Margaret formed UnderGround Productions with fellow Starry-Eyed production team worker, Martin Grounds. Their first project was a tribute to Tom Waits entitled “Tom Waits For No Man” featuring the voices of some of Queenstown’s finest interpretive singers and the expertise of Mark Wilson and drummer Tim Ebeling. 2010 brought UnderGround Productions into the international spotlight briefly with the short-lived original rock-opera “Rock And Roll Suicide”, constructed from the songs of David Bowie. Although the show (which played in tiny Arrowtown) received attention from the man (www.davidbowie.com) himself, UnderGround were denied the rights from Universal Music Publishing Ltd. to take it further. It can be seen on YouTube. In music Margaret has always been an active band member with The Master Blasters who can boast a line-up of the best and the brightest of Queenstown musicians. She also performs as a duo with Mark Wilson (piano). “I Don’t Know Just What To Do With Myself” is a collection of classic ballads with just Margaret and Mark. She also enjoys working with her Celtic vocal group “The Screaming Banshees” on occasion. On the traditional stage Margaret has most notably performed the role of The Emcee from Good Value Productions (Caroline Hutchinson) with Theresa Healey in “Cabaret”, The Witch from “Into The Woods” (Good Value), Sheila from Hair (Showbiz Queenstown) and recently the part of Lee from an original show, “Introducing the Sheralee’s”. Future projects include the recording of a collection of original songs and more shows… |
Newspaper Articles:
From the team that brought you "Showcase", "STARRY EYED" and the original musical "Kitchens", comes the return of Margaret O'Hanlon's madness in "Life Begins At 40".
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