Most of the cast are American, but ex-Sydneysider Kaye Tuckerman plays governess and mathematics teacher Greta McCraw, while assistant costume designer Jemima Firestone Greville is another Australian transplant to the Big Apple.
The Americans have had to learn Australian accents, though Gold says it wasn’t as tricky as one might have thought – largely thanks to a certain anthropomorphic cartoon pup.
Anne-Louise Lambert as Miranda in Peter Weir’s film of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).Credit: Alamy
“A lot of the young actors have grown up with Bluey – it’s very well ingrained in their consciousness,” she says. “Some of them have also been watching Steve Irwin’s son on TV.”
For the unfamiliar, Robert Irwin last month won the US edition of Dancing With the Stars, watched by a little over 9 million Americans.
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The development of Picnic was assisted by Creative Australia, Create NSW and Hayes Theatre Co, as well as the Australian Consulate-General in New York and private investors.
Before moving overseas in 1999, Gold co-wrote The Whitlams’ classic Blow Up the Pokies with frontman Tim Freedman, as well as one of the band’s darkest songs about lost young men, Charlie No. 3.
Drawn to New York City’s music scene from a young age, she moved there in her late 20s following a short stint touring in Germany supporting an Australian singer-songwriter.
At the end of the tour, “I asked them to fly me to New York instead of Australia”, Gold says, using her tour cash and a cousin’s bed to springboard into a new life in the big city.
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While Australian actors have found success in Hollywood and on Broadway, it’s relatively rare for American audiences to be exposed to Australian stories. Last year, New York’s Public Theatre hosted a limited run of Counting and Cracking, a 3.5-hour play about multiple generations of a Sri Lankan family who migrate to Australia, originally developed by Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre.
“As someone who has lived in New York as an Australian for a long time, it’s very gratifying to bring that culture to life on stage here,” Gold says.
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