The 21st birthday hangover has subsided; Women In Voice return to the Judith Wright Centre, hosted this year by the ever-qualified, ever-hilarious, Jan Van De Stool.
Queenie Van De Zandt first performed her alter-ego, Jan Van De Stool, at Women In Voice back in 2006, and has been a regular audience member of the variety show. “Jan was actually the headline in the WIV show that I did. It was one of the first times that she got out of the scout hall in Woy Woy and it was one of the first times for her to show, what she does, to a wider audience.”
Queenie put Jan on the phone to explain, what exactly it is that she does. “I am very skilled in many things. I am an MC, I am an interpretive dancer, I am also a singing psychologist, and a therapeutic musical masseuse. So I can bring all of these skills to the WIV team, onstage and off, actually.”
Jan was very excitable about her impending trip to Brisbane to join Emma Dean, Carol Lloyd, Yani and Alison St Ledger onstage. “Oh yes, very excited. Pieter and I– he is my husband of course, and cousin – will be going up with the car, and probably taking Helen with us as well. She is in charge of tea and coffee at the scout hall, where I do my courses, but she's also my pianist. She often comes with me to these gigs, in case I need to do singing or anything like that. You know, [Jan whispers], she doesn't really have many friends, Helen, so we like to take her along and give her a little outing.”{youtube}Dcl5uBoJaRg{/youtube}
When Jan is not jetting about to perform, she is teaching workshops to help others engage with music. “I did a lovely workshop recently for ladies. It was called 'Female Genitalia And Its Relationship To The Music Of Rodgers and Hammerstein'. That was really powerful. One lady, she really knocked my socks off, by doing a lovely interpretive melody with three songs, that were very confronting. She did 'Bloody Mary', 'I Want To Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair' and 'It's A Real Nice Clam Bake'. I will not forget that in a very, very long time.”
She was also spotted taking selfies with Bob Downe at The Famous Spiegeltent earlier this year “Yes, Robert is a close friend, he is actually an old singing student of mine. I used to teach him, way way back, when he was only a little boy, and I feel very proud of what he has achieved in his life. It's lovely now that he is an adult – and quite old now – to be able to perform with him.”
Posted by Women in Voice on Monday, 6 July 2015
Having earned its right as a performance institution, Women In Voice has crowd-funded its own coffee-table book to commemorate its rich history. Jan is fairly confident she will appear within its pages. “I hope that they would put me in there, because, I'm pretty famous online. So that might help them to sell some copies. I haven't purchased one yet myself, Queenie has, but I'd like to see how it goes first.”
Queenie is in talks with fellow Melbourne-based performer, Carita Farrer, about bringing WIV down south. “We're wanting to do it here in Melbourne next year. So we'll be having a meeting with Annie [Petersen], who runs WIV, when I go up.”
Queenie says WIV’s longevity is due to its amazing diversity of talents. “They always have six women from completely different walks of life... You get completely involved in somebody's act, and then, she's gone! It always leaves you wanting more. They'll have a rock singer, a pop singer, a jazz singer, a performance artist, a comedian… It's like you're seeing six shows in one night; it's fantastic.”Women In Voice perform the Judith Wright Centre 15-24 October.
