Margaret O'Hanlon
Writer/Producer/Director
Margaret was born and raised in New York City where she studied at the prestigious LaGuardia High School of the Arts. Before moving to New Zealand Margaret earned her stripes in New York’s Greenwich Village Cabaret scene writing and performing one-woman shows. Always an avid traveller Margaret found herself In New Zealand in 1990, where she decided to make Queenstown her home. Finding the theatre scene a bit scant when she arrived, Margaret began writing her own music infused shows. In 1992 she toured nationally with the collaborative "Exposed" (co-written with Michelle A'Court). From there it was "Confessions Of A Nuerotic New Yorker" which made its debut at the Wellington Fringe Festival. 1999 launched the first full-scale original musical "Kitchens" (co-written with Mike Legge and Chris Parvin) , based around the hospitality industry.
This production co-incided with the birth of the highly acclaimed and very popular "Queenstown Starry Eyed" (NIMA Entertainment) which ran for 10 years and launched many a young star. The completion of Starry Eyed opened up the possibility to develop her own script ideas and musical ideas. 2010 launched a return to all that remained pure in her heart with "Rock and Roll Suicide" a rock opera based on the unaltered lyrics of David Bowie. This followed with the launching of "Songstars" - an original artists live-show competition, the only one of its kind in NZ. Each year followed with more ideas for original rock and roll theatre and a few film projects along the way. Thus Whirlwind Productions NZ was born and we continue to promote original music, theatre, performance, film annually.
Margaret is also renowned for her work as a Singer, Actor, Director, Vocal Coach, Vocal Tutor and Improvisational Theatre. She is a Trustee on the Queenstown Performing Arts Centre Trust, Creative Queenstown and The Songstars Trust. She developed and maintains The Singers Workshop Academy; singing courses on Beginner Level to Performance Level.
She lives in Queenstown with her husband Nigel.
In the Press:
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown-lakes/new-yorker-pumping-heart-queenstown
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown-lakes/bowie-keen-see-queenstown-womans-musical
https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/culture/in-the-south/5963133/True-rock-n-roll-theatre
https://www.scene.co.nz/features/queenstowns-singing-whirlwind/
https://stylemagazine.co.nz/backstage-story-a-malaria-proposal/
https://www.teatamira.nz/news-article/if-you-can-cry-you-can-sing
https://lwb.co.nz/content/margaret-ohanlon-from-new-york-theatre-to-queenstowns-queen-of-the-stage/
https://lwb.co.nz/content/margaret-ohanlon-from-new-york-theatre-to-queenstowns-queen-of-the-stage/