Joanne Beldham & Bowie

“I’m in the production for ‘Rent’ which will be performed in May, I’m playing Mrs Cohen and some other small parts, it’s a great cast. I was also in The Little Mermaid last year which was my first show. I love meeting new people and having the experience on stage, it’s lots of fun.

It’s been a long time since I was on the stage, though in my younger days I was a semi-professional Country and Western singer.

I was singing in bands up until I started having kids, I went back for a little while and it was hard, because family comes first.

I sang with Smoky Dawson in Newcastle, my three-year-old got up and sang with him too and I remember I always had this nervous twitch with my leg and my knee would wiggle, I would come off stage and ask my Mum, “Did you see it, did you see my knee!?” She would say, “No, I was looking but I couldn’t see it!” *laughs* so, that was bit of a running joke in the family - let’s see if we can see Jo’s knee wiggling.

I started bringing music into my work (Aged Care), I’ve been working for Allity for 10 years now and I love what I do. At different stages throughout my career I’ve used my guitar and sung with our residents, that has been really nice.

Bowie has been a big part of it too, he is actually going to be in the show as well, we are a bit of a team, him and I, we don’t do too much without each other.”