The Age du lieu suivant : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 52

GREEN GUIDE 27 FEBRUARY 1997 sjFbT" i would have been all of seven or eight." So was Monica's talent obvious early on? "Monica was very clumsy as a dancer," Martin says. "She always had big feet. But she always could charm the boots off anybody." Despite her early stage confidence, Trapaga did not shine at school. She left St Ives High at the end of year 10, determined to make her own way. "I suppose I wasn't meant to be in school," Trapaga says.

"I think my parents gave up trying to keep me there." They insisted, however, that if performance was to be her profession, she must study it. She had singing and acting lessons. But it was life experience that firmed her resolve to pursue the stage. At 17, she went to visit her aunt in Virginia, in the United States, the Miss Carmen Miranda of Manila, 1942. "She greeted me at the train station with fruit on her head and said, 'Let's go'.

She decided that (performing) was the path for me." On her return to Australia, Trapaga hunted down Dixie bands that would let her sing with them. Still a teenager at the time, her brother, Ignatius Jones (he changed his name because it was too difficult to pronounce) also gave a helping hand. She performed with his band, called Pardon Me Boys, until she fell pregnant with Lily. Eighteen years old and unmarried (Lily's father is a street performer), she quit the city and went to live at her mother's place in Gosford, where she experienced a "different side to Babies, four-hourly feeds and nappies. Three months after Lily was born, her brother rang to see if she would fill in as co-lead singer of the band for six weeks.

That gig lasted three years. She met her husband-to-be and father of etta Clark, says Trapaga was given a hard time during the audition. It Was her first television gig and )ohn Fox, the show's executive producer at the time, really put her through her paces before hiring her in 1989. "I'm sure Monica wouldn't mind me talking about this in that she had not had any television experience. She had just had the stage presentations and things and she found it really quite confronting dealing with the different camera shots and the discipline of television.

The way we write it, you have to know what lines you're speaking close up, what lines you're speaking direct to camera and he just sort of pushed her and pushed her and pushed her. And then it was great." Clark says Trapaga is a wonderfully warm performer. "She's got a fabulous face for television. The cameras absolutely love her. She's got a glow about her and a magnetism that I think just makes her a terrifically attractive presenter for Play School and one whom the children just love." After Monica and the Moochers disbanded, Trapaga worked with the group Continental Deli, another eclectic musical arrangement featuring African, Cuban and Brazilian sounds.

Brazilian Spectacular, which was launched last year, takes over where that left off. It's a hectic juggling act but Trapaga is not prepared to give anything up. At least not at this stage. "What do you give up?" she says, perplexed at the thought. "The adult side? That's too great a part of your character.

The children's work? No. I can't stop being a mum and I don't want to stop being a wife." Nothing then. She must continue doing it all. Monica's careers moves: from 'Play School' to Jazz chanteuse and now 'Better Homes'. Alticus, Julian Gough, through the band.

He was the sax player. "I fell madly in love with him from the moment I first met him," she says. The family lives together in Sydney's inner west. After Pardon Me Boys, Trapaga and Gough formed Monica and the Moochers, her trademark group that was enormously popular for the five years it stayed together. While still with the band, Trapaga decided to try out for Play School.

Her agent warned her against it. "Monica, everyone tries out for Play School and no one ever gets it. Don't think you are any different." She was, though. She got the job. "I wanted to try it," she says of her motivation.

"I had my own daughter at the time, who was three, and 1 think as soon as you have children you are aware of what's offered to them. I kind of felt there wasn't a hell of a lot happening in the children's world for our youngsters that was challenging and treated them as the individuals they are. I think that's what attracted me to Play School. I watched it and 1 thought, 'It's great'." The executive producer of Play School, Henri stems VoyaieTjLSy 738 HEIDELBERG RD.ALPWNGTON 3078 PH 94996243 FAX 94997820- SPEOAUSiNQ IN QUALITY P.C'S FOR OVER 7 YEARS HDD tautm smc tsao t2.V3.ZGB HDD S345A430 Djuarrocii 12701700 tip oirn rxrt mutort btoon 1.V5.1GBHDD SHUBW P120VPIJ3 CPU SISW34S P1WP200CPU 13801790 HP LASERJET SL S6 HPUtPAMP HP OFFICEJET 350 SHOO tmb RAH: 1.20b HDD ptm. pro zoo cpu 32mt RAM: 1.6GB HDD 211 ET6000; 13" Monitor I CD-ROM 4 VI BRA 16 SC HSU Stytui PRO 1660 V.mtii.'.miTM Rcortuut CD'i Pentium HKMfl Silk 11(0 IMEV16M8 SIMM uanm I32MBSIMM S240 1MB PCI VMao; 14- Monitor PENTIUM 120 (1190 PENTIUM 133 S12M PENTIUM 166 $1460 PENTIUM 200 S1760 PENT, pnn 3ftn INTERNET ACCESS Rates from 501 Per hr Setting-up, training, on-site support, web pages designed.

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