The creative minds behind the Games opening and closing shows
Katie Noonan has accepted one of the biggest challenges of her esteemed career but, as she tells Dwayne Grant, she is far from alone when it comes to creating the Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies.
KATIE Noonan doesn’t have to look far for inspiration when navigating her first global ceremonies as a music director.
All she needs to do is glance at the woman by her side.
“Merryn has had years of experience working at the scale of these events, which I don’t think you can really understand until you’re inside them,” the renowned musical talent says of Merryn Hughes, the executive producer of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies.
“You can think on a scale you’d never (normally) dream of … and I was really inspired by the vision Merryn and David (Zolkwer, artistic director) had concocted and dreamt up for the ceremonies.”
Much of that vision will remain a mystery until two memorable nights in April when Metricon Stadium transforms from a sporting cathedral into a stage for some of the world’s most creative minds and talented performers.
Central among those minds will be Hughes, who has previously worked as an executive producer on two Rugby World Cup opening ceremonies, the closing ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and a range of other international events broadcast to millions of people worldwide.
“You don’t ever feel completely comfortable but calm is good,” she says of what she has learned in more than 25 years of bringing global public events to life.
“It’s like you go on this journey where every day is different, it’s challenging and you never know what’s going to happen, but the deadline is never going to change.
“Everybody is working towards that day and we know we have to deliver the best show possible so everyone throws themselves at it.
“It doesn’t suit everyone but most people get very passionate about this job.”
When it comes to passion, few have more than the woman Hughes and Zolkwer hand-picked to create the ceremonies’ musical journey.
“I thought they were just going to ask me to sing (at a ceremony) so when they asked me to be music director I was like ‘Woah, that’s amazing’,” recalls Noonan, a five-time ARIA Award winner and fierce champion of the arts.
“My first gig with my band (george) was on the Gold Coast in 1996 so I have a deep bond with this area and am deeply interested in the culture of our state and what we want to say as a huge group of people with a huge identity.
“The integrity of anything you do remains the same whether you’re playing in a club for 40 people, a stadium for
40,000 or a television audience of millions. It all comes back to the integrity of the story and the honesty of the narrative and I think we’re getting that right (for the Games).”
And while this is Noonan’s first taste of working behind the scenes on a Games ceremony, she did perform for Hughes at the Rugby World Cup in 2003.
“That’s actually when I met Merryn,” she recalls of the opening ceremony.
“I sang a song of mine called Release about letting go and was amazed by the amount of rehearsals and practice runs.
“It’s been really nice to reconnect with Merryn on this project. We tried to work together again earlier than this but I was too busy being pregnant (laughs).”