For the past twenty years, Craig Christie has been at the helm of No Mates Productions creating original plays and musicals in educational, community and commercial settings. These innovative productions have toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally.
Craig first came to prominence in the field of commercial music theatre with Crusade (1998) which, at that time, was the largest concert presentation of an original Australian musical (performed in the then Melbourne Concert Hall). Crusade was later presented at the Edinburgh Festival (2000) to standing ovations and rave reviews.
Other musicals include The White Rose (2003) which premiered in Melbourne, then toured Singapore, and the international hit Eurobeat. From it’s humble beginnings at the 2004 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Eurobeat went on to win Best New Musical at Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2007), followed by an acclaimed UK tour and London West End season (2008). It was nominated for Best New Musical in the Evening Standard and was voted third most popular New Musical of 2008 in the Whatsonstage awards. During 2008, Eurobeat also toured South Korea, headlining at the Daugu Music Festival. Most recently (2009), Eurobeat delighted audiences in a season of performances at QPAC in Brisbane.
Since first establishing No Mates Productions, Craig has written original musical productions that have toured primary schools every year celebrating Children’s Book Week. These have been seen by over 1.5 million children in Australia and internationally. His recent productions Jungle Bungle and Rev It Up have now been seen by 500,000 students worldwide and current productions Jump To It, Totally Amazing and West End Pantomania (currently touring throughout the United Kingdom for West End In Schools) are seeing annual audience figures continue to expand.
Craig’s work as a playwright and songwriter has spanned a number of fields. He has a passionate interest in the use of storytelling and songwriting in a positive social context and has employed his writing skills to a number of groundbreaking community projects such as Water Into Wine (2000) and Right Where We Are (2002). Most recently he has explored the theme of cyber bullying and relationships within social media with My Friends Dot Com which has already enjoyed an excited response in schools throughout Australia and New Zealand. These themes are being explored in greater depth and for a more mature audience in the new musical with the working title Connected currently in development.
Currently, Craig is working on exciting new projects for stage, film and television in Australia, the UK and the USA. He recently completed the score for a new musical Totally Over You in London, working with internationally acclaimed playwright Mark Ravenhill and Britain's National Youth Music Theatre, which was presented in workshop at the Lyric Theatre on London's West End, August 2009. His latest musical Hey Florence! premiered in Nashville, Tennessee in September 2009 to standing ovations at every performance, and recently performed to standing ovations in New York. It has since enjoyed an acclaimed performance in Singapore July 2011 and a return season in Nashville November 2011.
Andrew Christie (B.App.Musc) is a Melbourne-based composer and musical arranger. He graduatedfrom Box Hill Institute of TAFE with a Bachelor of Applied Music (Composition) majoring in Film Scoring with High Distinctions in 2008. He has worked extensively on projects that have had a profile both in Australia and internationally, and as the resident arranger for No Mates Productions and its London-based partner organisation West End In Schools.
His work embraces an eclectic range of musical styles and settings. Andrew’s primary interest laid in composing for film during the years he spent earning his degree, during which time he also worked on several small independent short films. Andrew has also arranged the soundtracks for the shows Rev It Up! (2008) and Jungle Bungle (2009), both of which earned great reviews in Australia (‘…does a terrific job with the accompaniments’ - The Age Green Guide, October 15 2009). Jungle Bungle, featuring Andrew’s show tracks, is currently touring the UK with West End In Schools. In 2010 he worked on the original score of Jump To It! as the arranger, associate producer and mix engineer.
Andrew is currently working as an arranger, composer and producer for a variety of clients. He is available for new projects including scoring for media and as an arranger/producer.
Listen to Andrew's compositions "Choose Your Identity" here and "Trust" here
Ben has three years experience as a website developer and content manager, during which he helmed many websites for the Melbourne-based theatre production company Glynn Nicholas Group. He also has a background in music journalism and creative writing, having contributed to Melbourne street press publications including Beat, Mixdown and Inpress. In addition, he has written and published his own zine Thoughts since 2004.
Andrew Christie (B.App.Musc) is a Melbourne-based composer and musical arranger. He graduatedfrom Box Hill Institute of TAFE with a Bachelor of Applied Music (Composition) majoring in Film Scoring with High Distinctions in 2008. He has worked extensively on projects that have had a profile both in Australia and internationally, and as the resident arranger for No Mates Productions and its London-based partner organisation West End In Schools.
