food
Belvoir and Force Majeure present
food By STEVE RODGERS Directors KATE CHAMPION & STEVE RODGERS This production of Food opened at Belvoir St Theatre on Saturday 28 April 2012. Set & Costume Designer ANNA TREGLOAN Lighting & Audio Visual Designer MARTIN LANGTHORNE Composer & Sound Designer EKREM MÜLAYIM Assistant to the Directors DANIELLE MICICH Producer (Force Majeure) KAREN RODGERS Stage Manager ERIN DALY With FAYSSAL BAZZI KATE BOX EMMA JACKSON
Stu Spence – photographer of Hakan’s slideshow. Thank you Bourke Street Bakery, Cellarmasters, Love Supreme, Alejando Rolando, Leah Purcell, Jed Kurzel, Jo Kerrigan, Annette Madden, Tahli Corin, Carriageworks, Aimee Neeme and Ruby Langton-Batty. Photography Heidrun Löhr DESIGN Alphabet Studio The food in this production is vegetarian, does not contain nuts, and is composted at the end of each performance.
Biographies STEVE RODGERS Writer & Co-Director Steve’s play Ray’s Tempest was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and nominated in the Best New Australian Work category of the Sydney Theatre Awards, following productions at both Belvoir and Melbourne Theatre Company. Steve’s second work Savage River played at the Griffin Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and the Tasmanian Theatre Company, and was also nominated for Best New Australian Work at the Sydney Theatre Awards. As well as writing for television, Steve has worked as an actor in film, theatre and television for the last 20 years. KATE CHAMPION Co-Director Kate has worked as director, choreographer, dancer, teacher and rehearsal director for various companies including Australian Dance Theatre, Belvoir, Legs on the Wall, Dance North, English National Opera, Opera Australia and the UK’s DV8 Physical Theatre. She has also created, performed and toured two critically acclaimed solo shows, Face Value and About Face. As Artistic Director of Force Majeure, Kate has directed Never Did Me Any Harm, Same, Same But Different, Tenebrae – Part 1 and 2, Already Elsewhere, the film series The Sense of It, The Age I’m In and Not In a Million Years. Kate has been awarded Helpmann, Green Room and Australian Dance awards, as well as the Robert Helpmann Scholarship for Choreographic Excellence.
FAYSSAL BAZZI Hakan Fayssal last appeared at Belvoir in Woyzeck (B Sharp/Arts Radar). Other recent theatre credits include I Only Came To Use The Phone (Darlinghurst Theatre); The Pigeons and Lord of the Flies (Griffin Theatre); Don Juan in Soho (New Theatre); Redemption, This Blasted Earth: A Christmas Musical, Poster Girl, KIJE and Sprout (Old Fitzroy Theatre); All the Blood and all the Water (Riverside Theatre); Cross Sections (Sydney Opera House); and To the Green Fields Beyond (Seymour Centre). His TV and film credits include Tough Nuts, Crownies, The Strip, East West 101, Double the Fist, Stupid Stupid Man, All Saints, Emulsion and Cedar Boys. KATE BOX Elma Kate has appeared most recently for Belvoir in The Business. Other theatre credits include 7 Blowjobs (B Sharp); Knives in Hens (Malthouse Theatre); The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Doubt (Sydney Theatre Company); Tender (Griffin Theatre Company); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bell Shakespeare); A Clockwork Forest, 4:48 Psychosis (Brink); I’ve Got the Shakes (Darlingurst Theatre); Attempts on Her Life and Triple Threat (State Theatre Company of South Australia). Kate’s television credits include Rake, Offspring, My Place, Tripping Over, All Saints and Small Claims. Kate has also appeared in the feature films Random 8, Oranges and Sunshine and The Black Balloon. Kate has been a proud member of Actors Equity since 2003.
ERIN DALY Stage Manager Erin has been working as a stage manager since graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art. For Force Majeure, Erin has worked on The Age I’m In, Not in a Million Years and Never Did Me Any Harm. She has also worked in stage management and other production roles for companies including Sydney Theatre Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Bell Shakespeare and Sydney Festival. EMMA JACKSON Nancy Emma’s career has spanned theatre, film and TV since her graduation from NIDA. She was last seen on stage at Belvoir in Fool for Love (B Sharp/Savage Productions). Other credits include Nothing Personal, Let the Sunshine (Ensemble Theatre); Dead Man’s Cellphone (Melbourne Theatre Company); and Stoning Mary (Griffin Theatre). Emma won the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship in 2006 and relocated to New York to train with the SITI Co and intern with The Wooster Group. In the US, Emma appeared in The Bird, Reader, Windows and Bed (One Year Lease Theatre Company, New York); and C4 The Chekhov Project (Prospect Theatre, New York). She also performed in Reasonable Doubt (Theatre Tours International) in London and at the Edinburgh Festival.
MARTIN LANGTHORNE Lighting & Audio Visual Designer Martin graduated from NIDA in 2000. He has previously worked with Force Majeure on The Age I’m In and Never Did Me Any Harm. As lighting designer, Martin has worked on a variety of productions, most recently in the UK. These include Epic (Foster and Déchery); Quickening of the Wax (Marisa Carnesky); Rat Rose Bird (Fierce Festival); Microscope (Sadler’s Wells); Vantastic, Lobster (Oval House); and Covet Me Care for Me (Wellcome Collection). As production manager, Martin has worked on Lullaby and Copyright Christmas (Duckie/Barbican Centre); Spill Festival (Barbican Centre) and on Landguard Point, a film for the Cultural Olympiad. He was production manager for Performing Lines from 2002 until 2004. DANIELLE MICICH Assistant to the Directors Danielle is an independent director, choreographer and performer. She was the Artistic Director of STEPS for four years. In 2011 she performed in Wish with Humphrey Bower (winning awards for Outstanding Female Performer, Best Individual Performance and Members Choice 2011), choreographed Into the Shimmer Heat for Nova Ensemble and premiered her own dance theatre work Shiver that will tour regional WA in September. Recently she has choreographed Standing Bird for Sally Richardson, Driving into Walls for Barking Gecko and is currently in development for Good-Bye Jamie Boyd, a co-production between Monkey Baa and Buzz Dance Theatre.
EKREM MĂœLAYIM Composer & Sound Designer Ekrem is a Sydneybased composer born in Istanbul, Turkey. His fields of specialty range from music for theatre, film and dance to concert hall. Currently doing a PhD degree in composition at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Ekrem has collaborated with Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare, Song Company, Ensemble Offspring, Critical Path and Campbelltown Arts Centre. His Belvoir credits include composition and sound design for The Kiss and Cut (2011 Sydney Theatre Awards nomination). Other credits include Yellow Moon (B Sharp/white blackbird) and Judith (The Impending Room). In March 2012, and we chart the topography of a moment, composed for a solo percussionist, made its world premiere at Sydney Opera House, performed by Claire Edwardes of Ensemble Offspring.
ANNA TREGLOAN Set & Costume Designer Anna has collaborated with a large and eclectic mix of companies and artists. Her work has toured to all Australian capitals along with work showing in Edinburgh, Paris, New York, Prague, London, Kyoto, Malaysia, Belgium, Dublin, Holland and many other international stages. Companies Anna has worked with include Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Store Room Theatre Workshop, Bell Shakespeare, Ranters Theatre, Lucy Guerin Inc, Arena Theatre Company, Back to Back, Danceworks, Handspan, Chunky Move, Circus Oz, and Finucane and Smith. She has also designed many productions for Malthouse Theatre, where she was a resident artist. Anna has been awarded several Green Room Awards, a Helpmann Award and the John Truscott Award for Excellence in Design for Theatre.
Directors’ Notes Kate Champion & Stevie Rodgers in conversation Food rehearsal room 23 March 2012 Kate: Why did you think movement and a dance-theatre director would be the right fit for your play? Stevie: It’s a domestic story, set in a very common place – a kitchen, a takeaway shop. But at the same time it deals with these big, archetypal themes. I mean the story isn’t new: a parable without a clear moral; a play about siblings, dealing with memory; how we construct and frame it; and how we own an experience according to whether we were a witness, or participant to the event. The characters’ memories are contentious and often ambiguous, and I think, sometimes, voicing them, words aren’t enough… Kate: So it’s the interaction between the micro and macro? Stevie: Yeah, the domestic interacting with the epic. I wanted the theatrical form to be able to meet that objective – where inner thoughts can be explored through body and image, physically, sometimes transcending the words. Kate: So it’s not just choreographed movement you’re talking about? It’s also observational physicality, or proximity – all the things that can be dealt with without words. So we’re not talking dance per say, we’re talking about every movement possibility, in the staging and stylisation. Stevie: My best nights in the theatre as an actor and in the audience have been when the shows interact with other art forms. Kate: Like you were saying, sometimes words aren’t enough, and sometimes dance isn’t specific enough.
Stevie: And is that why you set out to create your own work, so you couldn’t be pigeonholed as just a dance choreographer? Kate: From a very early age I’ve been exposed to task-based performance and movement triggered from improvisation. In Force Majeure’s work, actors, dancers and creatives bring their ideas into the room and I edit, shape and direct them with my associates. I find this more liberating and challenging than what you would call traditional choreography. If you had to give a percentage of what’s autobiographical in the play, how much would it be? Stevie: It’s hard to work out when the memory stops and fiction starts. A lot of it comes from my own experience and the people I’ve observed and loved in my life: my family, girlfriends, mates. But the characters in the play take over and it becomes something else. I’ve had battles with weight and my relationship to food has been destructive over the years; I was 118 kilos at worst. Have you always had a healthy relationship to food? Kate: I can remember getting off a plane in Munich when I was 16 and the dance company I was working for telling me I had to lose five kilos minimum. And I remember thinking I’d love to escape to the country and have six kids and eat whatever I like – I couldn’t believe the whole of life seemed at that time to revolve around food and weight. But whenever I was thin I’d receive more praise for my dancing, so I started to equate the two – being skinny and good dancing became one. If you spend your whole day in a leotard looking at yourself in the mirror you’re going to feel fat.
Stevie & Kate
Stevie: I’m interested in how we view ourselves as being good enough – especially for another’s affections … emotionally and physically. I’m interested in how self-perception can be determined by the role you were cast in or actively sought out as a kid (the funny one, the smart one, the creative one, the shy one) by your family, or friendship group, or the role you’re still playing now as an adult… Is it possible to shed that role? How do you navigate all that now as adults? Kate: And you’re not awake to the ramifications when you’re young. I mean you’re just looking forward on your own trajectory. But if you fill up a space, take on a role, it can mean your sibling or partner won’t take it up because it’s already done for them. We often take on the roles that need filling. Stevie: And if you compete for the same role – that can be interesting too – it’s like a whole lot of extroverts in a room. There’s nothing more full on than watching a whole bunch of extroverts cancelling each other out. Competing natures.
Kate: Like that flocking game when you all have to move and stop at the same time – I always request that if you’re someone who initiates all the time, please don’t. And you can see the controllers finding it difficult because they can’t determine when the group moves. Stevie: That’s like yesterday when we were doing yoga. We were doing the third salute and you weren’t talking us through it – we were supposed to just let the breath lead us and stay together. I was in dog pose and we normally do three breaths in that position but I’d done about five, but I didn’t come up because I was determined to come up with everyone else. You were on my right, so I thought the only way to get this right is to take it off Champion. And then you went and I went with you. And I was the only one, I was so proud – I went with Champion … even though I cheated. Kate: (laughs) Are you a bit sore today? Stevie: Yeah, stomach muscles. Kate: From all the sit-ups. Stevie: Yep.
Minestrone Recipe Courtesy of Love Supreme
175g dried cannellini beans 1.85L water 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1 stalk celery, chopped 1 leek, finely sliced 2 carrots, finely chopped 5 thyme sprigs 1 bay leaf 2 teaspoons salt 2 zucchini, diced 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or 1 can pureed) 2 cups silverbeet, chopped Handful parsley, chopped Parmesan and olive oil to finish Soak the beans overnight and drain. Bring to boil in the water, then simmer for 1 hour or until beans are tender. Puree and set aside. In olive oil, cook garlic, onion, celery, leek and carrots for 15 mins or until tender. Add 3 cups of water, bring to the boil with thyme, bay leaf and salt. After 5 mins add zucchini and tomatoes. Cook for 15 mins. Add bean puree and silverbeet. Cook for 5 mins. Adjust seasoning, remove bay leaf and add parsley. Serve garnished with extra virgin olive oil and grated parmesan. Â Belvoir and Force Majeure are grateful to our Food partners:
Belvoir Sponsors Corporate Partner
Major Sponsors
Supporters
Indigenous Theatre at Belvoir supported by The Balnaves Foundation
Associate Sponsors
Besen Family Foundation Coca-Cola Australia Foundation Enid Irwin Charitable Trust managed by Perpetual Events & Stays in the Vines Gandevia Foundation The Greatorex Foundation Media Tree Thomas Creative Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation
Event Sponsors Government Partners
Silver Spoon Caterers
For more information on partnership opportunities please contact our Partnerships Coordinator ZoĂŤ Hart on 02 8396 6209 or email zoĂŤ@belvoir.com.au
Knives, like ’em sharp
BELVOIR corporate partner
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