We are very excited to present the first ALVA Buzz for 2017. Thank you to Kerri Lacey for the new format and for bringing the Buzz into the 21st Century. It is with great excitement that we introduce the new Editor, Jacqui Alexander. We thank her for the time and energy invested in this first edition. We look forward to seeing the future of the Buzz. To view the full colour version, click on the link below.
So honoured to have received the ” 2016 ALVA Golden Girl” award today at the 38 th Annual ALVA Banquet! It means so much to be loved and appreciated be my peers, my friends for my art and personal achievements. Still shocked and very emotional Ladies. Thank you 
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I also had the chance to meet our speaker today, the fabulous and very funny Denise Drysdale! 
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Hi Everyone, The very popular event Hidden Sydney – of which many ALVA members attended and enjoyed – is back with some new and very exciting events and formats. Please see below all about this event and all the booking details courtesy of Olivia Ansell who got us all involved last time. And featuring ALVA Bloke Mark Kristian.
From the Producers of Hidden Sydney – The Glittering Mile, KINGS BLOODY CROSS…tales from the Glitterati & Criminale is talking heads program running over three weekends in Kings Cross, as part of Vivid Sydney. More information can be found here. The producers of wildly popular immersive cabaret Hidden Sydney – The Glittering Mile, are returning their smash hit show for Vivid Sydney in tandem with a curated season of raw and riveting ‘in conversation events’ featuring Kings Cross luminaries as part of Vivid Ideas.
Presented over three weekends from Saturday 27 May 27 to Sunday 11 June, Kings Bloody Cross will engage audiences with thrilling insight into the dirty half mile’sPeople, Bohemia and Place. Rub shoulders with original Les Girls and hear fascinating stories about ‘ungentrified’ Sydney – the heady days of rock n roll, free love, corruption, opportunity, sex, greed and politics. Join Mark Kristian and Sydney’s favourite hoofers Saturday, 27 May as they spin a few “backstage yarns” on the legacy that was Les Girls.
Host: Mark Kristian Guests: Colleen Windsor and Monique Kelly
Date: Saturday May 27, 2017
Venue: The World Bar – 24 Bayswater Road, Potts Point
Time: 11:15am – 12:30pm
Queens of the Cross – Les Girls was a Sydney institution, running 34 years and starring some of Australia’s most successful and adored cabaret entertainers, whose stories inspired the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Carlotta and her ensemble of flamboyant dancers pioneered change for gay and transgender people, during an era that was unaccepting and dangerous. The 1970s Drag Queen Scene was a sub culture of feathers, sequins and fabulously brave souls coming together, who despite their differences, looked out for each other and paved the culture of Gay Sydney.
It is with great pleasure that ALVA welcomes Angela Ayers to the membership fold. Angela became the Golden girl on NZ television in the 70’s through her actor entertainer television appearances with Peter Sinclair and Craig Scott on TV shows Happen Inn and Sing. By her early 20’s she had 2 hit records and had become a household name. This led to her being named “New Zealand’s Queen of Television” and “Most popular Female Artist”. Shortly after moving to Australia, she won the plum role of Maggie in the Australian Production of A Chorus Line subsequently winning the only scholarship the New York Shakespearean Festival Trust had ever awarded to study ballet / jazz in Los Angeles. A steady stream of significant roles in the musical theatre circuit kept her in Australia throughout the 80’s including West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Show, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Cabaret, Chicago, and Guys and Dolls with Anthony Warlow and the late Ricky May.
In the late 80’s Angela had moved to London but was lured back to Australia by Gordon Frost to star in the Australian National Tour of Jerry’s Girls alongside Marcia Hines, Judi Connelli and Jeannie Little. In 1998 she wrote her own one woman cabaret show entitled I Can Cook Too performing with the legendary Jazz Pianist Ray Alldridge. This show worked all over Australia and New Zealand to rave reviews such as: “Never mind that she can cook, this woman can really sing cabaret. Ayers has a rich and true voice, her technique is polished and her articulation superb.” (The Sun Herald, Australia)
In a career of many high lights Angela rates one of them as being singing the New Zealand National Anthem to over 90,000 people at the Bledisloe Cup Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Angela has appeared on all National variety shows including Don Lane Show, Mike Walsh Show, Ray Martin and Kerrie Ann Kennerley show, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Countdown plus the 2 Ronnie’s Television specials. She was a regular favourite entertainer in the 80’s and 90’s on the Cruise ships and entertained the troops in the Sinai with the late Ricky May.
Returning to NZ she starred in musicals such as 42nd St, Jerry’s Girls, Mums the Word, numerous television credits as Shortland Street, Spin Doctors and Menopause the Musical both in Australia and New Zealand. 2014 Angela played Miss Potts in Hairy Maclary at The Opera House and you may have seen her on several television commercials. Angela’s cabaret show is in demand throughout Australia and is popular with the Senior Citizens Concerts alongside her new show Simple Dreams the songs of Linda Ronstadt. Currently she is working with some fellow jazz musicians and appearing regularly at the Opera Bar and The Golden Sheaf Hotel.