MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS
ELIZABETH
ALMOST BY CHANCE A WOMAN
[QUASI PER CASO UNA DONNA: ELISABETTA] BY DARIO FO - FREELY ADAPTED BY LUKE DEVENISH & LOUISE FOX DIRECTED BY MICHAEL KANTOR
MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS
ELIZABETH
ALMOST BY CHANCE A WOMAN
[QUASI PER CASO UNA DONNA: ELISABETTA] BY DARIO FO TRANSLATED & FREELY ADAPTED BY LUKE DEVENISH & LOUISE FOX
FROM A LITERAL TRANSLATION BY SILVIA FRASSONI DIRECTOR MICHAEL KANTOR SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER ANNA CORDINGLEY LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON COMPOSER MARK JONES SOUND DESIGNER RUSSELL GOLDSMITH DRAMATURGE MARYANNE LYNCH CHOREOGRAPHER TONY BARTUCCIO STAGE MANAGER DARREN KOWACKI ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER TANITH HARLEY MAKE UP ERIN O’BRIEN WARDROBE SUPERVISOR AMANDA CARR THE CAST BILLE BROWN, JULIE FORSYTH, MARK JONES, CHRIS RYAN NIKKI SHIELS, DAVID WOODS SECONDMENT (STAGE MANAGEMENT, VCA) ELINA LIM BESEN FAMILY ARTIST PROGRAM (ACTING) TOM DOIG A MALTHOUSE THEATRE COMMISSION SET AND PROPS CONSTRUCTED BY MALTHOUSE WORKSHOP COSTUMES BY MALTHOUSE WARDROBE
MERLYN THEATRE, CUB MALTHOUSE 3 APRIL - 24 APRIL 2010
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE As long as we can remember, we have had a fascination with Tudor England. Despotic kings, beheaded queens, Sir Walter Raleigh and his chivalrous cloak, the Spanish Armada and of course the Virgin Queen herself.
“I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too.” The Spanish Armada Speech by Elizabeth I, reportedly addressed to the English army at Tilbury Fort, 1588.
Elizabeth I (1553-1603) reigned for almost 45 years and her influence was vast; even at this remove we are compelled by her story. There’s the mother (Anne Boleyn) executed by the father (Henry VIII) for lack of a male heir; Bloody Mary, the sister who burnt 273 Protestants at the stake in a five-year reign of religious frenzy as Mary I; an impossible love affair with the Earl of Leicester; triumphant battles; notorious tirades; a tiresome claimant to the throne (Mary, Queen of Scots); and an infinite capacity by Elizabeth to adorn herself with the most handsome of courtiers and the most sumptuous of gowns. “Good Queen Bess” was in her sixth year of sovereignty when another towering figure in our cultural life was born. For most of William Shakespeare’s life (1564-1616), Elizabeth was his queen. She was also a lover of the theatre and watched his plays, and perhaps even his performances. She banned the more seditious plays, such as Richard II, featuring a king who was forced to abdicate. And in her dying days she reflected upon the parallels between some of Shakespeare’s most famous princes and her own rule. Indeed Shakespeare wrote a large number of plays that celebrated but also cleaved a way through the history of the English monarchy. But also, and importantly, he was an English subject in a time marked by political intrigue and religious repression. Some speculate that he was a Catholic, and it was the Papists who suffered the most mounting of restrictions on their lives across Elizabeth’s rule. Shakespeare also endured the rise of Puritanism, the frequent eruption of the plague and the oft’ fiery relations between England and its surrounding nationstates. Both Elizabeth and Shakespeare may be said to have lived in interesting times, and from our vantage point they define these times. In the twenty-first century, moreover, they have become vessels for the conflicting raft of ideas that bind us together as a society. For us the desire to bring the pair face to face, something that may never have happened in historical fact, has been irresistible. Dario Fo introduced Shakespeare in his text and, through two wonderful writers, we have taken the next step and put them into suffocating proximity. What if …? MICHAEL KANTOR & MARYANNE LYNCH References Asquith, C. Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, New York, PublicAffairs, 2005. Greer, G. Shakespeare’s Wife, London, Bloomsbury, 2007. Hackett, H. Shakespeare and Elizabeth: the Meeting of Two Myths, New Jersey and Oxfordshire, Princeton University Press, 2009. Harrison, G.B. A Last Elizabethan Journal 1599-1603, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1933. Schama, S. A History of Britain (DVD series), London, BBC, 2000. Weir, A. Elizabeth the Queen, London, Vintage Books,1998 Image credits. Cover: Anna Cordingley. Original design sketch for Elizabeth. Opposite page: The Hampden Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, 1563. This page: The Armada Portrait. Possibly commissioned by Sir Francis Drake, 1588.
“The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” Shakespeare, W. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Act II, Scene II), c. 1600
DARIO FO Dario Fo is a vulgar man. He celebrates censored bits, pulls apart sexual politics and upturns the status quo. It’s all about challenging the structures and the systems that promote injustice in any form — in a madcap mode that is as Italian as himself. Dario Fo is deadly serious. In Quasi per Caso Una Donna: Elisabetta (1984) Fo creates a stage work that pokes a dagger through despotic rule. Written in Edinburgh as Margaret Thatcher ascended in England, the play depicts Elizabeth I as a frightened tyrant clinging to power in the final days of her life. Fo is an exponent of la commedia d’arte, a style of improvisational theatre originating in Italy where stock characters play out the base plots of life in a larger-thanlife style. Thus, in Elisabetta every character is an idea as much as a person—a queen, a spymaster, a servant and so on. The dame of the piece, in our production called Lady Donna Grozetta, but in literal translation an amalgam of meanings around the idea of a coarse large woman, is not the panto dame to which we are accustomed. In an Italian context, she/he is a grotesque figure; anarchic, scatological, frightening. Here we place Lady Donna in the uber-form of Shakespeare in our efforts to translate Fo’s political intentions and the particular cultural form he has given them. The play is a romp, a satire, a savage commentary on the abuse of power. It’s also a reminder to all tyrants that it’s dust to dust in the end. MARYANNE LYNCH DRAMATURGE IN RESIDENCE
Image credit:
FRIGHTENED, FLAWED AND FEROCIOUSLY FOUL-MOUTHED Inspired by historical accounts, this adaptation of Dario Fo’s play takes place during Queen Elizabeth’s final hours on earth. For eleven days she has “refused to be prone”, in mortal horror of her bed. She fears that if she lays her broken body upon her sheets she will not rise again. By this, the twelfth day of refusal, she is mad. Everything seen is from Elizabeth’s cracked point-of-view, conjured up in her head. She is haunted by memories and gripped by paranoid delusions. She believes that William Shakespeare has channeled the events of her life into every one of his plays. But her façade of outrage at this notion is shaky. She is secretly thrilled at the thought, believing that the immortality of Gloriana is assured, tricked up as the star of his shows. Consumed by misconception, Elizabeth sees a world that resembles the Globe Theatre. What’s more, her subconscious has conjured up Shakespeare in person to both torment and beautify her. It is worth saying something about the unusual title – Almost By Chance a Woman. Elizabeth was ruler of her realm by accident; queen through a series of tragedies. But Dario Fo has given this a twist. He takes her queenly state as a given, unquestionable – it is her status as a woman that he sees as a quirk of fate and a source of surprise. It is ‘Elizabeth the Woman’ that Fo illuminates – frightened, flawed, ferociously foul-mouthed and quite unlike any other version of the Virgin Queen in popular culture. This all too human portrait of Elizabeth – wildly veering from outrageous to heartbreaking in turns – is what makes Fo’s play such a true comic gem. LUKE DEVENISH & LOUISE FOX TRANSLATORS & ADAPTORS
Image credits. This page: Portrait of WIlliam Shakespeare, 1623. Opposite page: Anna Cordingley. Original costume design sketch for the character Shakespeare.
CORSETS, COLLARS AND FARTHINGALES: COSTUME DESIGN IN ELIZABETH - ALMOST BY CHANCE A WOMAN. “No other English monarch had such an obsession with her own stage management. Throughout her life the Queen led fashion and each day the decision about her dress was important. Which of the hundred and twentyfive petticoats and sixty-seven round gowns would she wear?” Roy Strong, Elizabeth R, London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1971.
“She imagined that the people, who are much influenced by externals, would be diverted by the glitter of her jewels, from noticing the decay of her personal attractions.” Francis Bacon, 1605.
Original costume design sketches by Artist in Residence (Design) Anna Cordingley. On the left is a sketch of Dame Grosslady’s costume. This character was later renamed Lady Donna Grozetta and is played by Bille Brown. On the right is a sketch of Elizabeth’s nightgown, which is constantly referred to by the other characters as they tempt the Queen to bed.
Elizabeth is dressed from the bottom up in hose, bloomers, corset, farthingale, hip pads and bum-rolls, skirt, overskirt, bodice and leg-o-mutton sleeves, full standing collar, wig, crown and bolerocape. Historical accuracy is obviously not a necessary burden here – rather, I’ve designed in order to echo the playfulness, mania and excess of Fo’s piece - but I absolutely wish to quote a rich, opulent Elizabethan world. I’ve drawn on the style, form and structure of sixteenth century regalia, but as the characters are constantly dressing, undressing and cross-dressing, I looked to Westwood for something of a deconstruction of the classics. I adore the rough-hewn and delicate alongside one another; the self-consciously crass and the superbly refined. Sixteenth century dress, with its countless layers and stiff decoration can’t have been pleasant. Add running around on a revolving stage, recalling lines, blocking and directorial nuance… a near impossible task! Rarely are our costumes, thus, presented as complete ensembles and we’ve substituted finer, contemporary fabrics for the authentic, heavy piles. The set and props did, however, need to yield to the volume of those farthingales! ANNA CORDINGLEY ARTIST IN RESIDENCE (DESIGN) It took a team of five makers five intensive weeks of sixteenth century toil and twenty-first century stoicism to realise these eccentric and complex creations. The quirk and detail of each outfit has allowed us to invent, which is a far more enjoyable situation than reproducing regimented realism. Sixty metres of piping, thirty metres of corset boning and fortytwo metres of sprung-steel later, we’re totally spent but smiling. AMANDA CARR WARDROBE SUPERVISOR THE ELIZABETH – ALMOST BY CHANCE A WOMAN COSTUME TEAM IS: KATE AUBREY, CHLOE GREAVES, KONY DIAMAN, TARYN VAN KAN, HEIDI AINGST. HORSE DRESSING BY JULIANNE JONAS. Image credit. This page: Anna Cordingley, original design sketch for the character Mary Queen of Scots.
ELIZABETH I IN THE NEWS: A SERPENT ‘REAPPEARS’ IN A PORTRAIT OF THE MONARCH THAT GOES BACK ON DISPLAY AFTER NEARLY 80 YEARS, IN THE EXHIBITION CONCEALED AND REVEALED: THE CHANGING FACES OF ELIZABETH 1. Image credits. Left: The portrait questioned in the Reuters article, Elizabeth I of England, 1575-80, National Portrait Gallery of London. Below from L-R: The Darnley Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, 1575, National Portrait Gallery of London; Unknown artist, 1585-90, National Portrait Gallery of London; Unknown artist, 1570s; Variant of The Armada Portrait, George Gower, 1588; Unknown artist, 157175; The Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, attributed to Isaac Oliver or Marcus Gheeraerts the Young, 1600-02.
THURSDAY MARCH 4, 2010 LONDON (Reuters) A serpent originally included in a 16th century portrait of Elizabeth I, but painted over shortly afterwards, has “reappeared,” the National Portrait Gallery in London said on Thursday. Degradation over time has revealed that the monarch was originally painted holding a serpent, the outline of which is now visible again in the work by an unknown artist dating from the 1580s or early 1590s. But at the last minute the emblem was covered, and the queen was depicted holding a small bunch of roses instead. The gallery said it was not sure why the change was made, but suggested that it may have been to do with the ambiguity of meaning the symbol carried. While a serpent was sometimes used to represent wisdom, prudence and reasoned judgement -- all fitting attributes for a queen -- snakes also symbolised Satan and original sin in the Christian tradition.
The portrait, which has not been on display in the gallery for nearly 80 years, is part of a new exhibition titled Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I, which runs from March 13 until September 26. It features four portraits which date from the 1560s until just after the queen’s death in 1603, all of which have changed in appearance in some way since they were created. Advanced scientific techniques have helped unlock clues as to how they would have looked originally. The portrait of Elizabeth holding a serpent, for example, was painted over the unfinished picture of an unknown woman, showing how 16th century panels were sometimes re-used and recycled by artists. Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6233BD20100304
TONY BARTUCCIO
BILLE BROWN
TONY BARTUCCIO CHOREOGRAPHER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman. Other theatre includes productions at Black Swan, Belvoir, Crown at the Palms Theatre, Griffin, STC and MTC. Commercial productions: JC Williamsons, Conrad Jupiters, ICA, Crown Palladium. Awards include: Drama Critics, Mo, Helpmann Awards, Logies and Penguins. Currently: Tony is resident Choreographer and Creative Director for the Nine Network. BILLE BROWN SHAKESPEARE / LADY DONNA GROZETTA Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Exit The King. Other theatre: MTC: Hitchcock Blonde. Bell Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida. STC: Howard Katz. QTC: The School of Arts, Bill and Mary, The Forest, The Marriage of Figaro, After the Ball, Summer Rain, The Shaughraun, Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cheapside, The Real Thing, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, The Philanthropist, Death of A Salesman, The Imaginary Invalid, Pygmalion, President Wilson in Paris, The Chocolate Frog, White with Wire Wheels. Company B Belvoir: King Ubu, The Judas Kiss. Belvoir Street Theatre: Popular Mechanicals. QUT: Caucasian Chalk Circle. Marion Street Theatre: Tom and Clem. La Boite Theatre Company: Kiss of the Spider Woman. McKenna Productions NY: Dear Liar. Grin and Tonic: Richard II, King Lear. Virginia Stage Company USA: Waiting for Godot, The Beastly Beatitudes of Bathazar. Art Institute of Chicago US: Life Class. English National Opera: La Belle Vivette. Chichester Festival: Love’s Labours Lost, London Assurance. Shaw Festival USA: The Threepenny Opera, The Millionairess. LA and Broadway: Wild Honey, Accidental Death of An Anarchist, A Man For All Seasons, A Christmas Carol, Almost a Joke, The Fantasticks. Dublin Theatre Festival: The School For Scandal. Old Tote Theatre Company: The Chapel Perilous. Kennett-Frame Productions: Hamlet on Ice. Royal Shakespeare Company includes: As You Like It, Henry VI, Richard II, Richard III, Troilus and Cressida, Saratoga, The Swan Down Gloves, Twelfth Night, The Wizard of Oz. Television: 3 Acts of Murder, The Hollowmen, Blackjack, The Cooks, Silent Storm, White Collar Blue, Good Cop Bad Cop, Grass Roots, The Farm, All Saints, A Difficult Woman, Big Sky, Medivac, Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Kennedys. Film: Dirty Deeds, Black and White, The Man Who Sued God, Walk the Talk, Serenades, The Dish, Passion, Oscar and Lucinda, Fierce Creatures, The Suicide Club, The Light Fantastick. As Director: NZ and US Tour: John Cleese: His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems. Opera Queensland: Samson and Delilah. Lyric Opera of Queensland: Noye’s Fludde (St John’s Cathedral), Don Giovanni, A Rossini Gala, The Magic Flute, Faust. Victoria Opera: Faust. State
ANNA CORDINGLEY
LUKE DEVENISH
University of New York: God’s Idiots, The Philanthropist. As Writer: The School of Arts, Aladdin (Lord Vic, London), Bill and Mary, Séance, The Swan Down Gloves, Unreal, The Peculiar Treasure, Tuff (Royal Court London), Springle, Ship of Fools. Other: Adjunct Professor English Department University of Queensland. Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Australian Catholic University, University of Queensland, the Queensland University of Technology, the State University of New York, the Michael Chekhov Studio, New York University. Artist in Residence State University of New York. Writer in Residence The Acting Company NY. Actors Equity since 1973. ANNA CORDINGLEY SET & COSTUME DESIGNER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Furious Mattress, One Night the Moon, Knives in Hens, Happy Days, A Commercial Farce, Rogue, Woyzeck (as Assistant Designer), Not Like Beckett, Autobiography of Red. Other theatre: MIAF: Hidden Republic Black Arm Band. VCA/Daniel Schlusser: Peer Gynt. HotHouse Theatre: The Glory. Red Stitch: The Pain and the Itch, Bug. Melbourne Opera: Barber of Seville, Carmen, The Italian Girl in Algiers. Storeroom: Mile in Her Shadow, Conversations in a Brothel. Peepshow Inc.: Slanting into the Void. National Institute of Circus Arts/Sydney Opera House: The New Breed. Black Box: Wounds to the Face. Installations & Public Art: Bambuco: The Eighth Bridge over the River Tyne (UK), Ephemera for Spine, Ludo and Rue Faidherbe, Lille 2004 (France). Well: The Great Wall of Books (Macau). Exhibitions: Baltic Contemporary Art Centre/Sage Gateshead: An Account of Bridges (UK). Den Haag Sculptuur Exhibition 2007: Colony – facilitation for Brook Andrew (The Netherlands). Events: Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games: Opening Ceremony (Indigenous Section) and Closing Ceremony (Marvelous Melbourne). As Assistant Designer: The National Theatre of Prague: The Death of Klinghoffer (Czech Republic). MIAF: Remembrance of Things Past. Melbourne Workers Theatre: 1975. Awards: John Vickery Scholarship (2003), Australian Student’s Prize (2000). Education: Victorian College of the Arts (Bachelor of Dramatic Art, Production Design). Melbourne University (Masters of Curatorship - ongoing). Currently: Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre. Archival project of the work of the late Trina Parker at the Victorian Performing Arts Collection. LUKE DEVENISH TRANSLATOR As writer: Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth - Almost By Chance A Woman. Playbox Theatre: Disturbing the Dust (with Adelaide Festival). Other theatre: Kickhouse Theatre: Fun & Games with The Oresteia (Melbourne Fringe Festival), St Rose of Lima (with Sydney
DARIO FO
JULIE FORSYTH
LOUISE FOX
RUSSELL GOLDSMITH
Festival). Television: Home and Away, SeaChange, RAW FM. Novels: Den of Wolves, Nest of Vipers. As Script Producer: Neighbours (2001-2007). As Script Executive: Something in the Air, ABC TV Drama. Other: Luke teaches screenwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, RMIT University and Monash University.
Theatre: Mr September. Film: (includes) Romulus, My Father, Stan and George’s New Life, Three Dollars, Harvie Crumpet, The Sounds of One Hand Clapping, Edithvale, Feathers. Television: (includes) The Brush Off, MDA, Kath and Kim 2, Mercury. Other: Recipient of the Individual Award, Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards, 2009.
DARIO FO WRITER Dario Fo, an Italian actor-author, can claim to be the most frequently performed living playwright in the world. Born on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy in 1926, he made his debut in theatre in 1952 and is still writing and performing. His work has gone through various phases, always in company with his actress wife Franca Rame. His stage career began with political cabaret, moved on to one-act farces, and then to satirical comedies in his so-called ‘bourgeois phase’ in the early 1960s when he became a celebrated figure on TV and in Italy’s major theatres. In 1968, he broke with conventional theatre to set up a co operative dedicated to producing politically committed work in what were then known as ‘alternative venues’. His best known work, including Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Mistero Buffo and Trumpets and Raspberries, dates from this period. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, and in the official citation the Swedish Royal Academy stated that he had ‘emulated the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.’
LOUISE FOX TRANSLATOR Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Tartuffe. Other Theatre: STC: This Little Piggy. Adelaide Festival: (co-devisor) Excavation. Sydney Opera House: Capsis vs’ Capsis (For Paul Capsis). TV: Love My Way, Always Greener, Fireflies, The Alice, SN:tv, The Genie From Down Under, Round the Twist, Fast Forward, Comedy Inc, Jimeoin, Full Frontal. TV in Development: Star Wars live-action (Lucasfilm), Pretty Flowers. Radio: ABC: Drive Time, Life Matters. Fox FM: Breakfast Crew. Film: AFC: Help Me. YFF: A Natural Talent. Film In Development: See-Saw films: Dead Europe. AFC: The Witch of Kings Cross. As Co-devisor: Gilgul Theatre: Es Brent, The Operated Jew, The Wilderness Room. Awards: Jameson Award for Best Australian Film at Flickerfest 2005 (A Natural Talent). Australian Writer’s Guild Award for Best Screenplay in a Television Drama, (Episode 8/Series One, Love My Way). Australian Writer’s Guild Best Screenplay for Television (Round the Twist). 2003 Centenary Medal for Services in Writing for Children. Award Nominations: 2005 AWGIE Award and AFI Award, Best Short Screenplay (A Natural Talent). 2003 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, Dendy Award (Help Me). Other: Dramaturge STC Blueprints: These People, Morph, King Lear.
JULIE FORSYTH ELIZABETH Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Happy Days, Moving Target, Exit the King, Babes in the Wood, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, The Ham Funeral, Journal of the Plague Year. Playbox Theatre Company: Babes in the Wood, Cloudstreet. Other Theatre: includes Company B Belvoir: The Book of Everything, Exit the King, The Ham Funeral, Small Poppies, Cloudstreet, The Caucasian Chalk Circle. MTC: The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Visit, Great Expectations, The Tempest, Man the Balloon, The Chairs, After Magritte, The Real Inspector Hound, The Comedy of Errors, A Cheery Soul, Short Works, The Marriage of Figaro. STC: The Miser, Great Expectations, Old Masters, The Misanthrope. Anthill: (includes) Artaud and Cruelty, The Stranger in the House, Slow Love, Tartuffe, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Don Juan, The Misanthrope, Macbeth, The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, The Imaginary Invalid, Peer Gynt, Happy Days, Endgame, The Chairs, Life is a Dream, Mother Courage and Her Children, Kids’ Stuff. STCSA: The Time is Not Yet Ripe, Romeo and Juliet, Don Juan. Handspan: Daze of Our Lives. Back to Back
RUSSELL GOLDSMITH SOUND DESIGNER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth - Almost By Chance A Woman, Happy Days, Optimism, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Moving Target, Sleeping Beauty, Exit the King, It Just Stopped, Love. Playbox Theatre Company: The Frail Man, Ruby Moon, Stolen (Touring Production 2002-2005). Other theatre: Sound Designer for: Ethel Barrymore Theatre 2009: Exit The King Broadway production. Sound Designer/Composer for: Melbourne Theatre Company/Black Swan: The Swimming Club. HotHouse Theatre Company/Black Swan:The Web. Ignite Theatre: A Dream Play. Melbourne Town Players: Attract/Repel, Sandwiches. Echelon Productions: Virgins. ChamberMade Opera: The Children’s Bach, Slow Love. Major Events: 15th Asian Games, Doha, Qatar. 2006 Commonwealth Games, Melbourne, Australia. Other: Sound designer/composer for numerous film, radio and installation projects including: Panic – An audio installation in the vaults below Federation Square, Rosie’s Secret - a commission as part of
PAUL JACKSON
MARK JONES
the City of Melbourne Laneway Project, A Packet of Seeds – A 30 minute audio narrative for BBC Radio, London. Awards: Sydney Theatre Awards: Best Sound Design/Composition (Exit the King, 2008). Award Nominations: Tony Awards: Best Sound Design of a Play, (Exit the King 2009), Green Room Awards: Best Sound Design/Composition (Exit the King, 2008) Best Sound Design/Composition (The Frail Man, 2005) Currently: Freelance sound designer & composer, audio system designer & engineer. Principal of TotalTech Productions. TANITH HARLEY ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Woyzeck, Kitten, Vamp, The Spook (tour). Other theatre: In Australia, Tanith has worked on shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, Spamalot, Oh! What a Night and Swan Lake on Ice. In London’s West End: Mary Poppins, Acorn Antiques the Musical!, The Woman in White, Telemaco, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Les Miserables. Tanith has also worked on a number of art projects in Cambodia including the Giant Puppet Project and with the Angkor Hospital for children in Siam Reap. Television: Most recently Tanith has worked in the Art Department on Neighbours. PAUL JACKSON LIGHTING DESIGNER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Furious Mattress, Knives in Hens, Happy Days, Optimism, Woyzeck, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Venus & Adonis, Moving Target, Tartuffe, The Tell-Tale Heart (Lighting Adaptation), Criminology, Sleeping Beauty (also as co-creator), The Pitch, Anna Tregloan’s BLACK, Babes in the Wood, Eldorado, The Ham Funeral, Journal of the Plague Year, The Odyssey, Boulevard Delirium. Playbox Theatre Company: The Frail Man, Babes in the Wood, This Way Up, The Fat Boy, Double Bill. Other theatre: MTC: Madagascar, Enlightenment, Ghost Writer, Frozen, The Recruit, Dinner, Cruel and Tender. ChamberMade Opera: Crossing Live, The Hive, Teorema, The Possessed, Recital, Walkabout, Corruption. Victorian Opera: Don Giovanni, Ariadne Auf Naxos. Also includes: Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Black Swan Theatre Company, Ballet Lab, Not Yet It’s Difficult, Oz Opera, Melbourne Opera, The Production Company, Lucy Guerin, Melbourne Workers Theatre. As Set Designer (with lighting): Melbourne Workers Theatre, Neon Heart Theatre, La Mama, Ranters Theatre. Awards: 2007 Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill Fellowship. Green Room Awards: Lighting for Drama 2008, Lighting for Opera 2004, Design Cabaret 2005. Award Nominations: 18 Green Room Award nominations for design, Bulletin Magazine 2004 Smart 100, 2005 & 2008 Helpmann nominations for lighting, 2008 & 2009 Sydney Theatre Critics’ Circle Award
MICHAEL KANTOR
DARREN KOWACKI
nominations. Other: Paul has lectured in design and associated studies at University of Melbourne, RMIT, NMIT, VCA. Currently: Resident Artist (Lighting) at Malthouse Theatre. Lighting Designer with Melbourne based firm, The Flaming Beacon. Technical manager of Not Yet It’s Difficult performance group. Lighting Designer for the Australian Art Orchestra. MARK JONES BYRD / GUARD / COMPOSER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd, And the Coloured Girls Go… Playbox Theatre Company: What’s a Girl To Do?, Confidentially Yours. Other Theatre: Anthill: Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living in Paris. Melbourne Comedy Festival/Adelaide Cabaret Festival: The Beautiful Losers – Fresh Filth. Sydney Opera House/Token: Good Evening. Chapel Off Chapel/The Adelaide Cabaret Festival: Three Weill Men, After The Beep. The Melbourne Comedy Festival/The Athenaeum Theatre: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Adelaide Cabaret Festival/Adelaide Fringe: Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey. The Glynn Nicholas Group: Eurobeat. The New York Cabaret Convention/Chapel Off Chapel/ The Adelaide Cabaret Festival: Me And Mr Jones. The Athenaeum Theatre: Elegies. Composition: The Beautiful Losers, After The Beep, The Tales of Peter Rabbit. Awards: Green Room Awards: Best Male Performer 2009 (Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd), Best Composition and Sound Design with Jethro Woodward 2009 (Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd), Best Cabaret Ensemble 2006 & 2007 (The Beautiful Losers). Best Cabaret Ensemble 2002 (Me & Mr Jones), Best Musical Direction 2001 (Three Weill Men). Best Cabaret 2000 (Jacques Brel). Helpmann Award Nomination Best Supporting Actor 2009 (Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd). MICHAEL KANTOR DIRECTOR As Director: Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Happy Days, Optimism (with STC and Edinburgh International Festival), Woyzeck, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Sleeping Beauty, Babes in the Wood, Not Like Beckett, The Odyssey, The Ham Funeral, Journal of the Plague Year. Playbox Theatre Company: Babes in the Wood, Meat Party, Natural Life (and presented later as Natural Life 2). Other theatre: Adelaide Festival of Arts: Excavation, Moon Spirit Feasting (touring to Melbourne International Arts Festival, Berlin and Tokyo). Company B: The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Ham Funeral, Macbeth. Melbourne Festival: Lenz, Ubu (with Company B). STC: Howard Katz. Perth Festival: The Burrow (touring to Sydney). Chunky Move: Tense Dave (for Melbourne Festival, Perth Festival, Sydney Festival
MARYANNE LYNCH
CHRIS RYAN
and Dance Theatre Workshop, New York). Collaborated with Barrie Kosky’s Gilgul Theatre, performing in The Dybbuk, Es Brent, The Wilderness Room, The Operated Jew. Currently: Artistic Director of the Malthouse Theatre. Training: University of Melbourne (1986-90), L’Ecole de Phillipe Gaulier, Paris (1988). DARREN KOWACKI STAGE MANAGER Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost by Chance A Woman, Africa, Knives In Hens, A Commercial Farce, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd, Venus & Adonis, Kitten, Tartuffe, Exit the King. Malthouse Theatre touring: Optimism, The Spook, The Tell-Tale Heart. Other Theatre: The Store Room & MIAF: The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, ChamberMade Opera: The Children’s Bach. Chapel off Chapel: Shadow Passion. McLaren House: Fully Committed. HMT: Miss Saigon, Cabaret. Lano & Woodley: Goodbye (Australian Tour). Dave Hughes: Dave Hughes Live (Adelaide Fringe Festival). St Martins Youth Arts Centre: Pretty White Lies & The Velveteen Undertow, Radicals & Misanthropes, The Wild Blue, When Sand Becomes Glass, Polyglot: We Built This City. Events: Mariner Theatre Events, 2009 AFL Grand Final Breakfast (CFMEU), Nickelodeon Events, 2007 Australian Jamboree, St Kilda Festival. Other: Darren has also worked as a lighting designer for St Martins, Oz Opera, VCA, CVP, Scouts Australia. Darren was also the Production Manager for St Martins Youth Arts Centre (2005-2007). Launches: Grease the Arena Spectacular (SEL), Chicago the musical (GFO) Training: Victorian College of the Arts (Production). MARYANNE LYNCH DRAMATURGE As Dramaturge: Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Furious Mattress, One Night The Moon, Happy Days, Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd, Woyzeck, Vamp, Through the Looking Glass, Venus & Adonis, Anna Tregloan’s BLACK, Not Like Beckett, A View of Concrete, The Odyssey, Woman-Bomb, Journal of the Plague Year, The Ham Funeral. Other (includes): Ausdance, ANPC, ABC, Backbone Youth Arts, Brisbane Festival, Digitarts, Ethnic Communities Council, Experimetro, JUTE, Kage Physical Theatre, Kooemba Jdarra, Lucy Guerin Inc, Next Wave, Playbox Theatre Company, Playlab, PlayWriting Australia, Playworks, QPAC, QTC, RedInk, VCA, Vulcana Women’s Circus, University of Melbourne & individuals and collectives in a range of performance-making models. As Writer or CoCreator (includes): Sleeping Beauty, gamegirl, Pyjama Girl, Toxic. As Director (includes): My Of-course Life, Double Vision, Pyjama Girl. Awards: AWGIEs 1998 & 2005, Eat Carpet 2001 & 2003. Currently: Dramaturge in Residence, Malthouse Theatre.
NIKKI SHIELS
DAVID WOODS
CHRIS RYAN THOMAS Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman. Other theatre: Company B: The Promise. Griffin Theatre Company: Concussion (with Sydney Theatre Company), The Call. Melbourne Theatre Company: The Hypocrite. Bell Shakespeare Company: Hamlet, Othello, Actors At Work. Full Tilt: The Man With The September Face. The Hayloft Project: Platonov. VCA: Hamlet, Translations, The Three Sisters. Film: The Jammed. Short Film: Numurkah. Training: VCA 2005. Awards and Nominations: Sydney Theatre Award nomination for Best Newcomer in Othello. Green Room Award nomination for Best Male Performer in Platonov. NIKKI SHIELS MARTHA Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman. Other theatre: VCA: Invisible Stains, The Bourgeois Gentleman, Peer Gynt, Vinegar Tom, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Julius Caesar, Three Sisters. Training: VCA Drama 2009. Awards: Richard Pratt Memorial Scholarship for an outstanding Actor in their Second Year of Training. DAVID WOODS EGERTON Malthouse Theatre: Elizabeth – Almost By Chance A Woman, Optimism, Exit the King, The Importance of Being Earnest. Other theatre: How to be Funny; Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow. Other: David is one half of the performance outfit Ridiculusmus (www. ridiculusmus.com), whose performances include: The Importance Of Being Earnest; Say Nothing; Yes, Yes, Yes; The Exhibitionists; Ideas Men; Paranoid Household; Tough Time; Nice Time.
GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES ITS SUPPORTERS PRINCIPAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
MALTHOUSE THEATRE IS SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL, ITS ARTS FUNDING AND ADVISORY BODY
MAJOR PARTNER
PRODUCTION PARTNERS
CORPORATE PARTNERS
CORPORATE ASSOCIATES
TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS
Education & Youth Access Program
State of Play
Company in Residence Program
Artists in Residence Program Annamila Pty Ltd, Berry Lieberman & Daniel Almagor Nordia Foundation
The Dara Foundation The Malcom Robertson Foundation
Indigenous Theatre Program
Artist Program
The Slome-Topol Charitable Trust
MUSE DONOR PROGRAM WE EXTEND OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING DONORS URANIA (Muse of the Stars) ANONYMOUS (1)
At the CUB Malthouse 113 Sturt Street Southbank VIC 3006 Box Office +61 3 9685 5111 Administration +61 3 9685 5100 Facsimile +61 3 9685 5112 Email admin@malthousetheatre.com.au Web www.malthousetheatre.com.au
CLIO (Muse of History)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Simon Westcott (Chairman), Frankie Airey, John Daley, Michele Levine, Ian McRae, Neil Smart, Thea Snow, Sigrid Thornton, Leonard Vary
THALIA (Muse of Comedy)
Artistic Director Executive Producer Interim Business Manager
John & Janet Calvert-Jones Berry Liberman & Daniel Almagor Daniel & Danielle Besen John & Lorraine Bates Debbie Dadon Neilma Gantner Philanthropy Squared
Interim Company Manager Julian Hobba Dramaturge in Residence Maryanne Lynch Assistant to the Dramaturge Kate Sulan Artist in Residence - Design Anna Cordingley Artist in Residence - Lighting Design Paul Jackson
EUTERPE (Muse of Music)
Beth Brown & Tom Bruce AM Terry Cutler D.L and G.S Gjergja Scott Herron Ian Hocking & Rosemary Forbes Graeme & Joan Johnson Michael Kingston KereKere Peter & Anne Laver Dame Elisabeth Murdoch A.C., D.B.E. Tim & Lynne Sherwood Geoffrey Smith & Gary Singer Simon Westcott ANONYMOUS (3)
TERPSICHORE (Muse of Dance) Devinder & Helen Chauhan Sieglind D’Arcy Colin Golvan SC Brad Hooper K & J Lindsay Robert Peters
ERATO (Muse of Love) Ingrid Ashford Nan Brown Chris Clough Diane Clark Callum Dale Rev Fr Michael Elligate Carolyn Floyd Taleen Gaidzkar Peggy Hayton Leonie Hollingworth Irene Kearsey Ruth Krawat Ann Kemeny & Graham Johnson Robyn Lansdowne
Michael Kantor Stephen Armstrong Emma Calverley
Robert Sessions & Christina Fitzgerald Robert Templar Leonard Vary & Matt Collins Phil & Heather Wilson Angelika & Pete Zangmeister ANONYMOUS (2) Anna Lozynski Rosemary Mangiamele Gael & Ian McRae Pamela McLure Gregory Ridder Rae Rothfield Lisl Singer Beth & Bob Spence Gina Stuart Fiona Sweet John Thomas Bruce Wapshott Rosemary Walls Barbara Yuncken ANONYMOUS (12)
Administration Coordinator Angela Flood Education Program Manager Fiona James Finance Manager Mario Agostinoni Finance Assistant Liz White Marketing & Communications Manager Brad Martin Marketing & Communications Coordinator Nicole Smith Marketing & Communications Assistant Jaclyn Birtchnell Interim Media Manager Annette Vieusseux Media Assistant Abby Allen Ticketing Manager Sonja Fea Assistant Ticketing Manager Emma Howard Building Manager Frank Stoffels Front of House Managers Sean Ladhams, Brendan Lee & Tristan Watson Bar Manager Carl Thompson Production Manager David Miller Technical Manager Baird McKenna Operations Manager Dexter Varley Production Coordinator Lucy Birkinshaw Head Electricians Tom Brayshaw & Stewart Birkinshaw Campbell Head Mechanist Andy Moore Workshop Supervisor David Craig Wardrobe Supervisor Amanda Carr Wardrobe Construction Kate Aubrey Steel Fabricator Goffredo Mameli Workshop Staff Dan Talbot Scenic Artist Patrick Jones Front of House/Bar Staff Matt Adair, Milo Adler-Gillies, Mira Adler-Gillies, Rebecca Bower, Jacqui Brown, Pablo Calero, Nadine Dimitrievitch, Graham Downey, Tanja George, Kate Golding, Chloe Greaves, Kate Gregory, Paula Lay, Tanya Lazar, Gabrielle Lowe, Bridie McCarthy, Daniel Newell, Cynthia Nolan, Ruby Nolan, Sarah Ogden, Nick Prideaux, Jesse Rasmussen, Claire Richardson, Mimosa Schmidt, Kathryn Stuckey, Johanna Thain, Lee Threadgold, Janine Watson. Box Office Staff Annalise Hooper, Cindy Elliott, Fiona Wiseman, Kate Gregory, Liz Bastian, Liz White, Mark Byrne, Michelle Hines, Mike McEvoy, Michael Lindner, Rachel Gelzinnis
For further information about making a gift to the company please contact Malthouse Theatre on (03) 9685 5174. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.
We welcome Avenue Bookstore @ The CUB Malthouse. The Malthouse Bookshop is staffed by volunteers.
This program has been printed on 100% recycled paper using Soya based inks.
Program Layout / Design Annette Vieusseux & Abby Allen
Malthouse Kitchen
Conrad Dudley-Bateman & Murray Pitman
YOU’RE INVITED… MALTHOUSE THEATRE SEASON 2 2010 LAUNCH MAY 3, 6PM MERLYN THEATRE RSVP ESSENTIAL
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