With the Jan/Feb season just around the corner, Anthony Mayne, president of the Red Door Theatre Company says "I am delighted to confirm that we will be joined by the wonderful Stafford Ray.
"I first met Stafford a few years ago when we were speaking with musicians to team up with the theatre company. Suffice to say, when he mentioned that he had played with The Seekers, the gig was his. Stafford Ray & The Moonlighters will play a set before Act 1 and then during the interval.
"Moruya's Red Door Theatre came into my life five years ago, when they appealed for musicians to play for the Peter Pan panto after which my role grew to be Musical Director with a band of great musicians we call the Moonlighters and the fun goes on!" said Stafford.
"Music is a passion for Stafford. Early on, having resigned from teaching to be a full-time musician, he went on to work in every major TV station and studio of the time. Stafford got to play with such greats as Billy Daniels, Billy Eckstein, Florence Henderson (Mom in the Brady Bunch), Rod McKuen, and many more, and these were only some of the American stars. Cilla Black, Dudley Moore and Georgie Fame, a few British and of course all the Australians, from Lucky Starr, Johnny O’Keefe, Little Pattie, John Farnham and many more, including The Seekers but the best of them was actually Ricky May for raw talent and musicianship.
"Unfortunately by 1976, Stafford's hearing had deteriorated, due to a congenital condition, to the point he chose not to remain in the Sydney music scene. As they say, your last session is the audition for the rest of your life, so Stafford decided to leave while still at the top and took up farming, which he did for 25 years.
"It was only after meeting Jo, a retired doctor, that he was persuaded to have his ears operated on and his was hearing restored to a level that allowed him to take up music again, and so, since giving up on the guitar in 1968, he is now once again sharing his musical gift.
"Stafford's love of theatre started, as was the case for many of us, in the school play. Over the years 1975 to 1995, he wrote and published fifteen musical plays and several straight plays for schools, which were the basis for a very effective literacy program. From 2006, while nursing his mum in Eden, he wrote the first of two novels, since published. After moving to Batemans Bay almost ten years ago to take up a position as a Carer, he has written another novel, one adult play and his working on the third novel. Last year, Pem Gerner published a collection of limericks by Stafford with illustrations by Pem.
"So it is an absolute pleasure to be teaming up once again with the incredibly talented Stafford Ray & The Moonlighters for our January and February production of Love on the Run", said Anthony, president of the Red Door Theatre Company.
