Mundaring | Midland Junction Arts Centre

Mundaring Arts Centre | 7190 Great Eastern Hwy (corner Nichol Street) 9295 3991 | mundaringartscentre.com.au

Wednesday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am - 3pm

If you haven’t seen Altered States by seminal artist Stuart Elliott you still have time –it closes on Sunday 7 May, a not to be missed exhibition.

From Saturday 20 May, Genius Loci, Spirit of Place artists Shelley Cowper, Haya Hagit Cohen and Elmari Steyn explore the intricate ties between place, space, feelings and emotions, where the heart and mind work together to construct a spiritual connection to place; communicating this through traditional printmaking techniques and mixed media works.

In Gallery 2, Barbara Gell captures feelings and impressions of being in the Perth Hills’ Whistlepipe Gully, and a sense of place through her paintings and drawings. Geometric structure forms the scaffolding on which a variety of marks reintroduce the tangle of natural forms. Gell’s work is centred around the push and pull of chaos and order.

Altered States is on display until 7 May 2023.

Genius Loci, Spirit of Place and Into the Gully are on display from 20 May to 16 July 2023

Coming up:

Public Program details available via our website mundaringartscentre.com.au

Image: Elmari Steyn, Story Tree I, 2022, multi-plate viscosity etching, 107 x 70 x 3 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Midland Junction Arts Centre | 276 Great Eastern Hwy (corner Cale St) 9250 8062 | midlandjunctionartscentre.com.au

Wednesday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday 11am - 3pm

The Galleries are currently closed for a lighting upgrade but never fear, workshops and artists in residence are still at work:

Artists in Residence:

Studio 1 to July 15 – Kristen Brownfield | Almost Nothing (visual)

Studio 2 to July 15 - Gok-Lim Finch | Dream Pool Press (storytelling and zine workshops)

Veranda to July 15 – Martien Van Zuilen | Material Confluence (fibre art)

Coming up:

Workshop and Public Program details available via our website midlandjunctionartscentre.com.au

Image: Martien van Zuilen, Interlude I-V, 2021, mixed media, dimensions variable, image courtesy of Bewley Shaylor.

Marloo Youth Theatre in the Spotlight

Marloo Theatre is well known in the Perth Community Theatre scene for their high quality plays and musicals with five seasons per year. With highly skilled on-stage performers and off-stage creative teams, every production at Marloo consists of a plethora of dedicated adults who give their time and energy to these shows.

The unique aspect to Marloo Theatre is the Marloo Youth Theatre program, commonly referred to as MYTh. This dynamic youth theatre program, run by members of the Marloo Theatre community not only provides youth in our community the opportunity to be involved in the theatre, but since its inception in 2018, is beginning to produce graduates of the program who are now moving into pivotal roles within the theatre. The program is a training ground for the performers and creatives of the future and it is right on our doorstep at Marloo Theatre.

The MYTh team produced their first full length youth production ‘Heroes’ in 2022 which was very well received and took out the title of Best Youth Production at the 2023 Finley Community Theatre Awards.

Sophie David, graduated from the MYTh program at age 18 in 2020 and has just completed her first full length production as a Director, taking the reins for Marloo’s February production of ‘The Wind in the Willows’. Sophie is the first MYTh graduate to direct a full length show. “The skills MYTh teaches the children helps to adapt to situations and explore not just acting but other production aspects like directing, tech and dance” Sophie said. “The confidence to direct a full length play is all due to the overwhelming support MYTh gives and the dedication to make us the best possible performer we can be” she continued. “I am glad that I now have the opportunity to do that for other young, talented kids and help them to grow and develop in the theatre” she concluded.

Over the past several months, the MYTh members have been busy learning all different aspects of the theatre. They were placed into groups and tasked with writing, planning, directing and staging their own plays. This has been a fantastic way of teaching them to work together in order to bring multiple ideas to fruition in a cohesive way. They were lucky enough to have a special visit from award winning playwright Yvette Wall, who came in as a mentor for one session and gave them all some great tips and ideas on how to progress their plays from the page to the stage. The four plays are all completely different and it will be exciting to see them performed on the Marloo stage in the near future!

This term has also seen the start of MYTH Tech, a program designed to teach the students about the variety of backstage roles within the theatre. During this ongoing program they will learn hands on about lighting, sound, backstage-crew and stage management. They will also spend some time learning about set building and costuming and the many areas that work together to bring a production to completion.

Several of the MYTH Tech members were also lucky enough to head into the ‘Moulin Rouge' technical showcase for schools, where they were wowed by the magnitude and skill involved to put on a large performing show. This was a fabulous way of them seeing a vision of where these backstage skills can take them later in life.

Marloo Youth Theatre will present a showcase on the 20th May where audiences will be able to see the spectacular original plays performed for one night only, along with several toe tapping dance numbers. Keep your eye on the Marloo Theatre Facebook page for details.

By Chris McRae and Amanda Moloney

@KoolKakess www.koolkakes.com.au