Actors - Dennis Olsen

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	Actors - Dennis Olsen

Dennis Olsen (born February 28 1938 in Adelaide, South Australia), is an accomplished pianist, actor, director and is Australia's leading exponent of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He originally trained for a professional career as a pianist, but decided to become an actor and attended the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, New South Wales.

Dennis Olsen has appeared with the following theatre companies: Old Tote Company, The State Theatre Company of South Australia, Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. Some of the theatre productions, in which Dennis Olsen has appeared, include: "The Importance of Being Earnest
", "The Crucible" and "The Venetian Twins".

He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1985 to study operetta in Europe, and has directed many stage productions. In 1987 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the performing arts.

In 1970/1971 Dennis Olsen spent a year in the chorus of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in England. Later, in Australia, he was very successful in the comic roles of Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy Operas "The Mikado" (as "The Lord High Executioner"), "Patience" (as "Bunthorne"), "H.M.S. Pinafore (as "Sir Joseph Porter, KCB"), "Iolanthe" (as the "Lord Chancellor"), "Ruddigore" (as "Robin Oakapple"), "Trial by Jury" (as "The Learned Judge"), "The Yeomen of the Guard" (as "Jack Point") and "The Gondoliers" (appearing in one production as "The Duke of Plaza-Toro", and in another production as "Don Alhambra").

Dennis Olsen directed, as well as starred in, a State Opera of South Australia production of "H.M.S. Pinafore" (as "Sir Joseph Porter, K.G.B."). The production also starred Thomas Edmonds (as "Ralph Rackstraw") and Judith Henley (as "Josephine"). Dennis Olsen also sang the role of the "Lord Chancellor" in the production of "Iolanthe" in the opening performance of the Lyric Opera of Queensland, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1984.

Dennis Olsen also appeared as George Grossmith (the original Gilbert and Sullivan comic lead), in a very successful one-man Musical theatre show called A Song to Sing O, in the Cremorne Theatre at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

In October, 2000, in Melbourne, Victoria, Dennis Olsen appeared in the Production Company's presentation, in association with Melbourne Festival, of "The Gilbert & Sullivan Show", which represented a family party, with some of the family members gathering in a parlour and singing Gilbert and Sullivan songs to entertain the others family members at the party. Accompanying Dennis Olsen were David Gould, Gary Rowley, Roxanne Hislop and Tiffany Speight.

Dennis Olsen is also an excellent exponent of Noel Coward, and appeared in a one-man combined Noel Coward Gilbert and Sullivan show, as well as a Noel Coward production, "Marvellous Party!" with Amanda Muggleton in the Cremorne Theatre at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

Dennis Olsen recorded "Gilbert and Sullivan Highlights" with Australian tenor Thomas Edmonds, and also recorded "Together with Music" with Australian soprano June Bronhill

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