B L AC K S WA N S TAT E T H E AT R E C O M PA N Y PRESENTS
I AM MY OWN WIFE BY Doug Wright
Image: Daniel James Grant
FEATURING
JOE HOOLIGAN LUI
CHERISH MARRINGTON
CHRIS DONNELLY
LUZITA FEREDAY
HUGO AGUILAR LOPEZ
AMELIA TRENAMAN
BRENDAN HANSON
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf
Director & Composer/Sound Designer Set & Costume Designer Lighting Designer Voice & Dialect Coach Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager
BEN GREEN NATHAN FRY SUSI RIGG MAREK SYZLER KIM WESTBROOK
Set Constructor Company Mechanist Milliner Scenic Art Transportation
Original Broadway production presented by David Richenthal. I AM MY OWN WIFE IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY: PRINCIPAL PARTNER
WESF1391 WWW.BRONWYNROGERS.COM
Celebrating 20 Years of Partnership BLACK SWAN LAB PARTNER
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
SYNOPSIS
DOUG WRIGHT Playwright
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, playwright Doug Wright met Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The eccentric German antiquarian, born Lothar Berfelde, lived as a woman in plain sight through the Nazi and communist regimes. Wright, fascinated by Charlotte and her resilience, proposed to write a play about her life. She agreed. Charlotte described her childhood and her discovery that she was a girl in a boy’s body. Doug listened enthusiastically and like Charlotte’s collection of antiques and memorabilia, he collected her stories. I Am My Own Wife is a story that spans Charlotte’s adolescence in the 1930s, through to the erection (1961) and deconstruction (1989) of the Berlin wall. Throughout all this, under two of the most repressive totalitarian regimes in history, she lived by her own terms and defied rigid gender norms as a transgender woman.
Doug Wright earned the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play I Am My Own Wife. Other stage works include Grey Gardens (Tony Nomination), The Little Mermaid, Hands on a Hardbody, and War Paint. Film: Quills, based on his Obie-winning play, nominated for three Academy Awards. Television: “Tony Bennett: An American Classic,” directed by Rob Marshall. Honors: Benjamin Dank Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters; Tolerance Prize, Kulturforum Europa; Paul Selvin Award, Writers Guild of America. Professional affiliations: Image: Joan Marcus President of the Dramatists Guild; member, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, board of the New York Theatre Workshop. Wright is married to singer/ songwriter David Clement.
STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WA DURATION approx. 90 mins [no interval]
Image: Daniel James Grant
12 – 29 OCT
STUDIO UNDERGROUND
WARNING Adult themes, strobe lighting, ages 16+
Please remember to turn off your mobile phone during the performance.
C O N TA C T U S W bsstc.com.au
T (08) 6212 9300
Acknowledgments Black Swan State Theatre Company would like to acknowledge the Whadjuk people from the Noongar nation who are the traditional owners and custodians of this land. We pay respect to the Elders; for they hold the history, the cultural practice and traditions of their people. It is a privilege to be together on Noongar country. Thank you to Richard Rennie, Astrid Cantu, Patricia Price and Gregory Yurisich. Black Swan would like to thank Brian Heller and the Arts Angels, and Cathy Penglis. We would also like to thank the team at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia for their support and assistance. Special thanks to Stephen Genovese for his ingenuity with animatronics and Richard Rennie for his generosity on this project. In addition, thanks to AJCD, Graduates of Architecture – Design Studio for their assistance.
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A note from the
DIRECTOR & COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER For a play finished and first produced in 2003, based on interviews conducted in the 90s, about the life of a woman – Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, surviving Cold War East Germany and the Nazis, I Am My Own Wife is remarkably, disquietingly present and relevant in 2017. Recent world events have illustrated too clearly that the quest for civil rights and the ethical treatment of all peoples is far from over. While many of us like to imagine history as a never-ending trend toward betterment and clarity, humanity is at times all too willing to dig itself into its hateful, xenophobic roots.
resort to morally ambiguous means to survive. That even under the most terrifying circumstance, human beings will celebrate, will misbehave and make love (oh how they will make love)! Because no number of goon squads, commandments or executions will “fix” humanity in the manner that dictators desire.
Such was the case in post Weimar Germany, in post WW2 East Germany, in the post-cold-war right wing backlash, and now. That the story of a transvestite woman surviving and navigating two brutal regimes is being told amidst a vote to acknowledge the humanity of our queer community is as saddening as it is unconscionable.
But I Am My Own Wife is, above all, a mirror. We see ourselves reflected in Charlotte’s survival, and we see ourselves reflected in playwright Doug Wright rediscovering that no human being is all angel or all demon. I hope, however, that we also see ourselves in the oppressors in the play. That in watching this brilliant work, we remember that as people lucky enough to be watching and making theatre, we are part of a privileged class of people that have a voice – and that how we choose to exercise that voice will in very real ways determine whether or not we stand with the Charlottes of the world, or with the systems of power that sought to exterminate her.
Yet, if I Am My Own Wife were merely a rumination on the brutality of social conservatism it would be nowhere near as powerful as it is. I Am My Own Wife is no hagiography. It is a powerful reminder of the complexity involved in being human. It is a reflection of the lengths to which human beings will go when survival and existence are under threat. That in those circumstances, the hunted will themselves
JOE HOOLIGAN LUI
Director & Composer/Sound Designer
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JOE HOOLIGAN LUI Director & Composer/Sound Designer BLACK SWAN: ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Angels in America, Part One. SOUND DESIGNER: LOADED: A Double Bill of New Plays. LIGHTING DESIGNER: The Lighthouse Girl, Venus in Fur. OTHER THEATRE: DIRECTOR/WRITER: Renegade Productions: The Book of Life, Letters
Home, Laryngectomy, The Book of Death (A Story of Life), The Tribe. DIRECTOR: Ten Tonne Sparrow: Tamagotchi Reset & Other Doomsdays. Renegade Productions: Selkie. Blue Room Theatre: Giving Up the Ghosts. Nicole in Red: Kitsch. Fringe World 2013: If I Drown I Can Swim. Deckchair Theatre (Emerging Director): Taking Liberty, Lorelei, Modern International Dead. COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER: Renegade Productions: Selkie. Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company: The Fever and the Fret, Kaarla Kaatijn. Performing Lines: The Magic Hour. Perth Theatre Company: From the Rubble, Operation Zebra. Steamworks Productions: Standing Bird 2/Verge (also lighting design), Rites. LIGHTING DESIGNER: Ochre Dance Company: Dreamtide. The Skeletal System: Great White. WAYTCO: Fire and Another. ACTOR: Renegade Productions/Blue Room Theatre: Letters Home. Theatreworks/Blue Room Theatre: Porto, Letters Home. PVI Collective: Blackmarket. POSITIONS: Joe is a founding member and creative leader of Renegade Productions. AWARDS: Blue Room Theatre AWARDS: Judge’s Choice Award for Laryngectomy, Spirit of the Fringe Award. TRAINING: Bachelor of Arts Murdoch.
CAST BRENDAN HANSON Charlotte von Mahlsdorf BLACK SWAN: Clinton The Musical, Next to Normal, As You Like It, Midsummer [a play with songs], Arcadia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing. OTHER THEATRE: Brainbox
Productions: The Last Five Years, Lebensraum. Deckchair Theatre: Checklist for an Armed Robber,The Lonely Hearts Club, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It. Logos Productions: The Spook. Shakespeare Festival NSW: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sydney Theatre Company: Neon Street. Mildura Arts Festival: Water to Wine. Brainstorm Theatre: Misfits. Agelink Theatre: As Ships Pass By. TV: I Will Survive, Air Australia, Under One Roof. FILM: South Pacific. OPERA: Lost and Found: The Telephone. Opera Australia: Tristan und Isolde. WA Opera: The Tales of Hoffman, Tosca, Carmen, Orpheus in the Underworld, The Magic Flute. Nova Ensemble: Into the Shimmer Heat. Singapore Lyric Opera: Die Fledermaus. AS DIRECTOR: WA Opera: Opera in the Park, Our Opera, Our WA, Opera’s Got Talent. WAAPA: Cabaret Carnivale, Opera! The Opera, Acis and Galatea, Angelique, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Dido and Aeneas, La Serva e L'ussero. MUSICALS: Musae: Oklahoma!. ICW Productions: Les Miserables, Company, Cats. David Atkins: Singin’ in the Rain. Cameron Macintosh: Les Miserables. Production Company: Mame, She Loves Me. Action Theatre, Singapore: Chang & Eng – The Musical. Gordon Frost Grease. OTHER: Brendan is a regular on the Perth cabaret scene and has appeared in Sharing’s not for Everyone, Who Threw that Jaffa? and Are We There Yet? for the Brainbox Project, Downstairs at the Maj. He toured his one man show Homeward Bound and Gagged around Australia in 2000. Proud member of Equity since 1990. AWARDS: Equity Guild Award for Best Actor for Lebensraum. PAWA award for Best Supporting actor for Clinton The Musical. TRAINING: WAAPA graduate. 7
A note from the
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER Early on into my first read of the script I was gripped by visions of a space – the world of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf – hovering between depiction and abstraction… from visceral to horrific.
Similarly with costuming it was important to articulate a distinctive manner of flexibility to assist in enhancing a vast array of expressions and movement: holding a multi-layered and textural quality not all entirely conceivable at first glance. And with much admiration for the beauty within the eccentric yet sophisticated simplicity of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, I hoped to support the captivating poetry of inner strength vacillating amongst the outer chaos.
The piece requires a space with much versatility, cradling a domestic central area yet holding elements of surprise or complete transformation. Represented initially by hard lines and dark shapes that create a sort of blank canvas deceptively simple, vibes reminiscent of German Expressionist Theatre, Brutalist Architecture, and Film Noir came to mind. I wanted to find a way to achieve a level of unsettling vastness, an asymmetrical cityscape: precarious, unpredictable.
CHERISH MARRINGTON
Set & Costume Designer
Of course, early on into any conceptual development process, nothing is overambitious. Diving into a wild design journey of research and discovery, I was especially enthralled by the opportunity to explore the notion of shifting environments and a changing sense of scale - an outer, broader sense of desolation and chaos - something majestic beyond her world.
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Joe Hooligan Lui and Cherish Marrington. Image: Daniel James Grant
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CREATIVES CHERISH MARRINGTON Set & Costume Designer BLACK SWAN: This marks Cherish’s debut with the company. OTHER THEATRE (COSTUME DESIGN): Iona College: Cinderella (Regal Theatre). LINK Dance Company (2015-2016): Motion State, Tipping point. SET AND COSTUME DESIGN: Renegade Productions: Selkie, Letters Home. OTHER:
Cherish also works as a production designer for film and is a visual artist and independent fashion designer based in Perth. TRAINING: WAAPA Graduate (Theatre Design) 2013 and Fine Art Graduate (CIT) 2010. CHRIS DONNELLY Lighting Designer BLACK SWAN: LIGHTING DESIGNER: Coma Land, Flood. ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER: LOADED: A Double Bill of New Plays. PRODUCTION ELECTRICIAN: The Importance of Being Earnest, Midsummer, A play with songs. OTHER THEATRE: LIGHTING DESIGNER: West Australian
Ballet: Takuto- Ballet at the Quarry. Barking Gecko Theatre Company: Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories. Shona Erskine: White Matter. Woodford Folk Festival 2017: Fire Event closing ceremony. PRAXIS: Dark Matter. Jo Morris and theMOXYcollective: Those Who Fall In Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon The Ocean Floor. SpoonTree Productions: LaLaLuna. Isabella Stone: Mouseprint. Danielle Micich: Overexposed. Company Upstairs: From Afar On A Hill. The Lost Boys: Latitudes. Whiskey and Boots: Benjamin and Me. Houston Sinclair Productions: The Little Mermaid. theMOXYcollective: The Polite Gentleman. TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Spoontree Productions: Letters End. Spoontree Productions: LaLaLuna. Co3 and The Farm: Frank Enstien. PRODUCTION MANAGER: Aimee Smith Productions: Wintering. Performing Lines: The Ghost’s Child. Mondo Di Corpo: Cured. Sandpiper Productions: The Turtle and the Trade Winds. TRAINING: 2007 Murdoch University Bachelor of Arts (Hons). LUZITA FEREDAY Voice & Dialect Coach BLACK SWAN: Angels in America, Part One, Extinction, Blithe Spirit, Glengarry Glen Ross, Dinner, The Damned. OTHER THEATRE: Barking
Gecko Theatre Company: Jasper Jones, ONEFIVEZEROSEVEN, Driving Into Walls. Two Left Feet Productions: Annie, The Musical. The Blue Room Theatre/Nest Ensemble: Joey: The Mechanical Boy. WAAPA: Great Expectations, The Berkoffs, The Bacchae, The Greeks, Beauty and the Beast, The Laramie Project, Violet, Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Blood Will Have Blood. DIRECTOR: Luzita’s directing credits include work for John Curtin College of the Arts, WA Youth Theatre Company and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. ACTOR: Royal Shakespeare Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Man in the Moon: Edmond. Channel Theatre Company: Jack and the Giant Killer. Hackney Empire: Taking Liberties. Almeida Theatre: Surrender Dorothy/Paca Mamas Blessing. Bloomsbury Theatre: Blood Wedding. TV: Firm Friends, Minder. FILM: Sister, My Sister.
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OTHER: Luzita currently teaches Voice to Acting and Musical Theatre students at WAAPA and has also taught at Curtin University, Notre Dame University, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD). TRAINING: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) Acting graduate 1992, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD) Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Theatre 2007. Luzita has a Masters by Research at Edith Cowan University (WAAPA) on Accent and Dialect Training for Actors. HUGO AGUILAR LOPEZ Stage Manager BLACK SWAN: STAGE MANAGER: The Lighthouse Girl, A Perfect Specimen, Next to Normal, Extinction, The House on The Lake, Twelfth Night. The HotBed Ensemble: The Shape of Things. ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Madagascar. OTHER THEATRE: French Woods Festival of the Arts 2017, Weeping Spoon Productions: The Ballad of Frank Allen (FringeWorld 2016). Perth Theatre Company: From the Rubble. Lockwood Productions: I Honestly Love You. The Workshop Productions: The Amber Amulet (metro & regional school tour 2015/2016). PRODUCTION & TOURING MANAGER: Perth Theatre Company: The Ugly One, Africa, The Pride, The Disappearances Project, Tender Napalm, The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, Blackbird, It’s Dark Outside. PRODUCTION & STAGE MANAGER: The Kabuki Drop: The Average Joe, The Elders Project (Creative Development). AUSDANCE National: Australian Dance Awards Side Pony Productions: The Pride (Blue Room Season & Under The Radar Festival Brisbane tour). WAYTCO: Sweat. ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: West Australian Opera: The Pearl Fishers, Opera in the Park (Gianni Schicchi). BBC: Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular. Shakespeare WA: Taming of the Shrew. FESTIVAL & EVENTS: Great Big Events -Floor Manager – Australia vs South Africa Rugby match 2017. AUSDANCE WA: MOVE ME Festival 2017, Stage Manager for City of Joondalup’s Joondalup Festival 2010/2014/2016, Valentine’s Concert 2010-2011, Little Feet Festival 2010, Blues and Roots 2010, AUSDANCE WA’s Dance Live (2013-2016), Up Late in Mount Hawthorn (2013), Variety WA’s Christmas Party (2013-2014). OTHER: Academic Staff at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2012-2017). AWARDS: 2009 HAWAIIAN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Stage Management. TRAINING: 2009 WAAPA Advanced Diploma of Stage Management Graduate, CERTIV in Training and Assessment 2013 and a Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2014. AMELIA TRENAMAN Assistant Stage Manager BLACK SWAN: Switzerland. OTHER THEATRE: Melbourne Theatre Company: Three Little Words (intern) 2017. PRODUCTION/STAGE MANAGER: Graduate College of Dance: The Nutcracker. STRUT Dance: In Situ 2016. PRODUCTION MANAGER: The Blue Room: Devised work - The Astronaut. STAGE MANAGER: TedX Perth 2016. ASM: ICW: Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera. The Blue Room: 3 Seeds. FESTIVALS/ EVENTS: Stage Manager Fringe World Festival 2015, 2016, & 2017. Outdoor Production Intern at Adelaide Festival of the Arts 2017. Lord Mayor’s Party Intern at Sydney New Year’s Eve 2016. Event Coordinator – Adobe Symposium Sydney 2017. Site Crew - Wanderlust 108 Perth 2017. AWARDS: Production & Design Outstanding Student in Stage Management 2016 at WAAPA. TRAINING: WAAPA Graduate (Stage Management) 2016.
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CHARLOTTE VON MAHLSDORF: Survivor and hero BY AIDAN GIRARDI
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (1928-2002), born Lothar Berfelde, was a German transvestite who founded ‘the museum of everyday items’ (the Gründerzeit Museum) in 1960. During the Third Reich, a period of time where Christians and Jews were murdered, racism (especially anti-semitism) was central focus to the Nazi regime and sexuality was shunned, von Mahlsdorf expressed her transvestism proudly, wearing women’s petticoats and shoes while walking down the streets of East Germany. Her entire lifestyle, from her sexuality to her personality were in opposition to the ideals of the Nazi regime. She lived her life as an individual, breaking social taboos while facing exile, or worse death, on a daily basis Throughout her childhood, von Mahlsdorf grew increasingly comfortable with her sexuality, frequently donning women’s clothing and diverging from socially acceptable ‘boy’ hobbies. Although her father was a known leader of the Nazi Party (as was expected of Germans during the era) and her mother a traditional housewife, she defied her father by living on her own terms.
Image: Daniel James Grant
In her adolescent years, von Mahlsdorf worked as an assistant, clearing furniture from homes of exiled Jews – they were sent to concentration camps as part of the Nazi extermination mission of nonGermans. This unsettling work encouraged von Mahlsdorf’s passion for collecting historical artefacts and furniture. Large amounts of antique furniture, carpet, rugs and technological devices were left behind by Jewish families and were obtained and sold. She spent most of her pay cheques
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purchasing and salvaging items for her collection. As her collection grew, she restored a rundown manor and opened the Gründerzeit Museum. She established the museum to save precious memories and artefacts from the deported and exterminated Jewish population, and to educate future eras of craft and taste, instead of war, violence and discrimination during the Nazi regime. Throughout the 1960’s the museum became a popular and in the cellar, she recreated the Mulackritze, an infamous Weimar-period bar. In 1992, she was honoured with the Ribbon of Merit for service to the German Bundersrepublik. To this day, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf remains a prominent woman in European history, for her dedicated preservation of antiques and for her alliance with the gay community.
Black Swan is a theatre company of national significance, promoting collaborations of excellence and creating work with a vibrant hub of collaborators that celebrates and excites our Western Australian communities.
KEY PROGRAM AREAS Black Swan’s strength lies in artist development and broadening access and engagement with our state-wide community. Over the past five years, we have seen enormous growth in our audiences, built our internal capacity and established a benchmark for quality productions of scale in Western Australia. Looking to our future our three core areas of strategic focus are artist development, education and regional engagement.
Artist Development The following programs promote Western Australian talent, create stories significant to the Western Australian community and develop new pathways to existing ones for artists and audiences alike. Our artist development programs promote Western Australian talent, create stories significant to the Western Australian community and develop new pathways for artists and audiences alike. We are committed to training and developing artists in their early years of practice and working with new and recent graduates as part of our WAAPA BRIDGING PROGRAM, offering them the opportunity to be profiled in our productions to help kick-start their professional careers. THE BLACK SWAN LAB continues to be a creative melting pot of emerging and established artists, a wonderful mix of old and new wisdom that empowers artists. In 2017, we feature four productions as part of the Lab in the Studio Underground. Supported by the Patrons Club and Wesfarmers Arts.
Supported by our Principal Partner, the RIO TINTO BLACK SWAN COMMISSIONS enable us to commission Australia’s leading playwrights to develop new works that engage meaningfully with Western Australians, and reflect our unique position in the world. In 2017, Hellie Turner’s The Lighthouse Girl received its World Premiere after being commissioned and developed through this program. Many emerging and mid-career artists across various disciplines from directors, designers, writers, composers and actors are mentored and nurtured within the company, both in productions for the Studio Underground and on the main-stage of the Heath Ledger Theatre. A key focus is the EMERGING WRITERS GROUP, where Western Australian playwrights can apply for year-long discussion and mentoring with the aim of developing their work. Supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation. 14
Education Black Swan is committed to supporting educators in developing a lifelong love of theatre and inspiring audiences of the future. We are accessible to all school communities with selected performances at the State Theatre Centre, student and teacher workshops, quality teaching resources and in-school experiences
that align with the curriculum. Heavily subsidised student priced tickets and school subscription packages are offered in addition to work experience, internships and student ambassador programs. Education program supported by Chevron and Feilman Foundation.
Regional Engagement As a state theatre company, Black Swan aims to embed theatre in the lives of all Western Australians regardless of location. Our regional engagement programs seek to support vitality, pride and capacity building in regional and remote WA communities. We engage with our regional communities in multiple ways throughout the year – through the annual live broadcasts from
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the Heath Ledger Theatre, regional touring and bespoke community engagement activities. Underpinning this strategy is the appointment of regional ambassadors who act as a conduit between the company and their community. Regional Engagement program supported by Chevron, Water Corporation and Thrifty.
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To find out more about our program areas visit bsstc.com.au.
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
LET the �IGHT ONE in
Jack Thorne John Ajvide Lindqvist
A STAGE ADAPTATION BY BASED ON THE swedish NOVEL AND FILM BY
Presented by arrangement with Marla Rubin Productions Ltd.
H E AT H L E D G E R T H E AT R E
11 NOV - 03 DEC
B O O K AT TICKETEK
GIVING TO BLACK SWAN
BLACK SWAN STATE THEATRE COMPANY
PATRONS CLUB Black Swan greatly acknowledges the members of our Patrons Club for their generous commitment to supporting the Black Swan Lab and the activation of the Studio Underground. The Patrons Club help implement this essential development program for artists in Western Australia. They will ensure the WA theatre industry remains vibrant and sustainable through the Black Swan Lab and promote opportunities for collaboration between emerging and experienced artists. We thank the Patrons Club members for their generous support: Michela and Adrian Fini Janet Holmes à Court AC Stan and Jean Perron
Simon Lee Foundation Ungar Family Foundation
FOUNDING PATRON
FINANCE MANAGER
MARKETING COORDINATOR
Janet Holmes à Court AC
Amanda Luke
Chantel Dyball
CHAIR
INTERIM PRODUCTION MANAGER
TICKETING & SUBSCRIPTION OFFICER
Collin Best
Amy Welsh
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PUBLICIST
Les Hickford
Irene Jarzabek
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PROJECT COORDINATOR
Alex Fisher
Jessica Knight
Alan Cransberg Nicola Forrest Rob McKenzie Kellie Parker Vicki Robinson Linda Savage
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EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ACCESS MANAGER
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
Mark Barnaba AM DEPUTY CHAIR
Kate O’Hara TREASURER
Craig Yaxley DIRECTORS
Clare Watson EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
BLACK SWAN PRODUCTION FUND A future fund designed to ensure we can develop works of exceptional quality that match the boldness and beauty of the state in which we live. The Production Fund will enable us to develop breathtaking original theatre productions of scale and ambition and to work with the best artists locally, in the country and the world.
Natalie Jenkins EMERITUS ARTIST
Andrew Ross DIRECTOR OF NEW WRITING
Jeffrey Jay Fowler LITERARY DIRECTOR
Lynn Ferguson CUTTER
Marie Nitschke-McGregor WARDROBE ASSISTANT
Louise Arcus Monique Beaudoire PARTNERSHIPS COORDINATOR
Jordan Nix PHILANTHROPY MANAGER
Andree McIntyre PHILANTHROPY COORDINATOR
Amber Craike
We thank the following inaugural donors for helping us launch the Production Fund.
Polly Low
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Founding Partner
ARTISTIC COORDINATOR
Maria Sioulas
Chantelle Iemma
Founding Donors Mimi & Willy Packer Tim Roberts Giving Angela Roberts Tony & Michelle Grist Katrina & Craig Burton Ungar Family Foundation
PERTH THEATRE TRUST
Linda Savage & Stephen Davis Alan Cransberg Gilbert George Ben & Gina Lisle Sue McDonald & Mark Westbrook Anonymous (2)
PLAYING YOUR PART If you are interested in supporting Black Swan, please contact our Philanthropy Manager Andree McIntyre on andree@bsstc.com.au or 0417 187 025.
CHAIRMAN
STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Morgan Solomon
MANAGER
TRUSTEES
Alice Jorgensen
Max Kay AM, Cit WA Michelle Tremain Cr. Jim Adamos Cr. Janet Davidson AO JP Julian Donaldson Tanya Sim Colin Walker
ASSISTANT MANAGER
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, SPORT AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES &
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Mitch Thomas TECHNICAL MANAGER
PHILANTHROPY COMMITTEE
Michela Fini Gina Lisle Sue McDonald Fred Nagle Mimi Packer Chris Ungar 2017 INTERNS
Isa Cammarano Aidan Girardi Caitlin Oakley OVERSEAS REPRESENTATIVES
London Henny Finch New York Stuart Thompson
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Luke Donohoe HEAD OF LIGHTING
Sam Elbery HEAD OF AUDIO
Dylan Crosbie
Graham Piper
HEAD FLY
EVENT OPERATIONS COORDINATOR
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Ashlee Karpinczyk
Matt Power
Perth Theatre Trust General Manager Duncan Ord OAM
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Alena Tompkins
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Amelia Dymond Dagmar Ludwig
BLACK SWAN STATE THEATRE COMPANY
THANKS OUR SUPPORTERS
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Celebrating 20 years of partnership GOVERNMENT PARTNER
GOVERNMENT PARTNER Black Swan State Theatre Company is supported by the State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries
Black Swan State Theatre Company is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
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Painted Dog Research
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PRODUCTION FUND FOUNDING DONORS
Would your company benefit from a partnership with Black Swan? 18
PATRONS CLUB
GIVING CIRCLES
Janet Holmes à Court AC Michela and Adrian Fini Ungar Family Foundation Stan and Jean Perron Simon Lee Foundation
Encore! Donors Local Larrikins White Swans Wild Swans
Contact us to discuss how we can help you do business. 19
COMPANY PARTNER
Lot Twenty
We saw the potential twenty years ago.
As principal partner of our state theatre company we’re committed to sharing local stories, developing emerging talent and inspiring regional audiences. It’s a role we’re proud to play.