MTC Scenes Autumn 2014

MTC

scenes Autumn 2014

WRITERS AT WORK Lally Katz Girl next door Santo Cilauro Team player Gale Edwards Being faithful

INSIDE INFORMATION: THE NEON FESTIVAL LIGHTS UP AGAIN IN 2014

Afterglow

Fraught Outfit at NEON

Inside information Last year, MTC hosted its first NEON Festival of Independent Theatre and, honestly, no one knew how it would go.

A key to our new Open Door program, the festival gave support to five of Melbourne’s top independent theatre companies to create and present shows of their choice in the Lawler for two week seasons each. We knew from looking at the history of these types of ventures that there were risks, but our hopes were pretty high. We were excited and believed that we could communicate that excitement to Melbourne theatre-goers.

Thankfully we were right. The inaugural NEON exceeded even our most optimistic expectations. Everyone concerned was a little overwhelmed by the response, which was strong and positive from the start and built up steadily. It began with the supportive reaction to NEON by the theatre com-munity when Brett Sheehy announced it at our 2013 Season Launch, which fed the enthusiasm of the media, which helped boost ticket sales from Day One, which energised the five companies to create the fantastic, diverse and innovative works that they did, drawing much praise from critics and approval from the arts commentators. The Monthly named it Best Theatre in Australia in its Best of 2013 list and The Age declared it to be ‘one of the most exciting events on the local calendar’.

Melbourne audiences also shared this excitement. With seventy percent of the shows sold-out, approximately 6500 people attended the productions and just a little under half of ticket-buyers had never been to an MTC venue before. We were also pleased that 250 individuals bought a five-show pass before the festival even began, a real sign of their faith, enthusiasm and intrepidness.

But let’s give proper credit to the artists and companies involved: Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, Fraught Outfit, the Hayloft Project, the Rabble and Sisters Grimm. Long before NEON arrived as a showcase and support for their talents,

Cover: Robyn Nevin stars in Neighbourhood Watch Scenes is produced quarterly and is a publication of Melbourne Theatre Company. All information was correct at the time of printing. Melbourne Theatre Company reserves the right to make changes.

each group had been creating brilliant work, building up their own loyal followings. Making no stipulations of what they could create was our smartest move. We were completely hands-off artistically. NEON merely helped them create theatre of their usual artistic insight and invention, and allowed audiences, many of whom might not be fully aware of the independent theatre scene, to experience the diversity of theatremaking in Melbourne.

It was the aim of our Open Door program to make MTC more accessible. NEON succeeded in that beautifully.

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Remember, it was a risk and an experiment for the independent companies, too. They were right to be a little nervous about how they would be received in our mainstream environment. Yet I think the apprehension eased pretty quickly when they saw not only their usual audience turning up to Southbank Theatre, but many people who were seeing their work for the first time.

In addition to the productions, NEON delivered a diverse program of free events ranging from panel discussions to workshops, masterclasses, networking events and mentoring opportunities. Like the productions, the response to these was overwhelming, and the feedback

EDITOR Paul Galloway GRAPHIC DESIGN Helena Turinski COVER IMAGE Heidrun Löhr MAIN PHOTOS Jeff Busby, Heidrun Löhr, Mandy Jones Melbourne Theatre Company is a department of the University of Melbourne

from participants and industry professionals who gave their time to the events was truly inspiring – reminding us again that we are very much part of a thriving and exciting community.

For MTC, the immediate benefits of the festival have been more intangible than anything else. It was the general aim of our Open Door program to make MTC more accessible, to create new connections with theatre makers and welcome new audiences. NEON succeeded in that beautifully. I think it has repositioned us in the theatre landscape and I hope made a small breach in the wall of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ that had built up between the subsidised theatre and independent sector over the years. The most substantial benefits of NEON for the Company, I think, are still to come and will be lasting.

And it is on again!

NEON 2014 will run from 29 May to 3 August, offering MTC audiences theatre as they might never have experienced it before. There is a fresh set of independents – Angus Cerini/ Doubletap, Antechamber Productions with Daniel Keene, Arthur, Little Ones Theatre and Sans Hotel – as well as a full festival program of play readings (from MKA), panel discussions, workshop, masterclasses and an exclusive keynote conversation. It’s pretty exciting, but you are going to have to wait until it’s launched on Thursday 13 March to find out the details.

Hope to see you there!

Martina Murray NEON Producer

MTC Headquarters 252 Sturt St, Southbank Vic 3006 TELEPHONE 03 8688 0900 FACSIMILE 03 8688 0901 E-MAIL info@mtc.com.au WEBSITE mtc.com.au Southbank Theatre 140 Southbank Blvd, Southbank Vic 3006 BOX OFFICE 03 8688 0800

Meetings with remarkable women

Playwright Lally Katz found a great story close to home Neighbourhood Watch began with the most casual commission; in fact, ‘commission’ is too strong a word. The play began with a bit of thrown away conver-sation at an Opening Night reception some years ago between playwright Lally Katz and an actor she hardly knew, Robyn Nevin. Katz, by the way of idle foyer chat, said perhaps she could write a play for Nevin some time, and Nevin said sure but the character would need to be tough and funny.

And that’s as far as it went for a while.

Katz kept the ‘tough and funny’ stipulation in the back of her mind, but nothing came to her until an elderly Hungarian woman in her street called her over one day and they began to talk. Pretty soon they were friends.

‘She started telling me all these stories, about her life, about her experiences in Hungary and the war, and I realised this is “tough and funny”, this is her, this is the character I have to write for Robyn.’

When Lally Katz talks about her friend Ana, she can’t resist imitating her voice.

It is the voice that comes through so strongly in the play. The tone is low and gloomy, heavily accented with a syntax all her own. She does sound tough and funny – also suspicious and prickly – and Katz admits that the relationship over the years has occasionally been difficult. In fact, at the time of our interview, Ana had cut her off. Katz is not sure why. A dark and final message was left on Katz’s phone two weeks before, but Katz doesn’t seem too worried. ‘She’s threatened to cut me off

a thousand times – she’s always like: “If you do not come visit to me, we are finished!”’

In many long conversations over two years Ana spun her stories and Katz gathered them up, knowing they were gold, but writing nothing. Procrastination set in. ‘Ana kept giving me more and more great stuff,’ Katz says. ‘And I kept thinking, I can’t write the play yet because I’m still living it. But I also knew that I had to start writing.’ In 2009, to break the inertia, she wrote a note to Nevin when she was at MTC performing The Year of Magical Thinking that went along the lines of: ‘By the way, I don’t know if you remember this conversation, but you said if I wrote you something, a tough and funny character, you might

She’s a magic person in real life,’ Katz says.

‘She enters a room and the atmosphere changes. If she tells you a story, it’s like the movies.

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be interested. Well, I’ve spent the last two years of my life with this character and maybe we could talk about her.’

At subsequent meetings, Nevin loved what she heard and encouraged Katz (‘She sort of ordered me’) to start writing the play. With so much raw material, the first draft was about two hundred pages long, but Nevin, the director Simon Stone and Ralph Myers at Belvoir thought that a great story about careless, contemporary Australia

clashing with Ana’s vivid memories of war-wasted Europe could be hewn out of the monolith. In subsequent drafts, Katz’s removed many of her trademark quirks and recurring characters, the magic realist elements that MTC audiences would remember from Return to Earth and The Apocalypse Bear Trilogy. ‘The external magic stuff had to go’ she says, ‘but … it became clear that I didn’t need all this other stuff when the play’s magic can be in Ana.’ ‘She’s a magic person in real life,’ Katz says. ‘She enters a room and the atmosphere changes. If she tells you a story, it’s like the movies; fairy dust sprinkles around and suddenly you are in the story. So I realised, I just had to be distilling it all, so that her story and the story of our neighbourhood, Hungary, World War II, could be used to its fullest potential.’

Neighbourhood Watch was a smash for Belvoir in 2011 and Lally Katz’s biggest success yet, giving her theatrical recognition beyond the Melbourne independent scene where most of her plays have been performed. Although she had always told Ana she was writing a play about her, Katz didn’t think it really clicked with her until the Opening Night at Belvoir. Her reaction to the play was somewhat typical, says Katz: ‘It was a mixture of being very pleased and wanting to sue me.’ ▲ Neighbourhood Watch by Lally Katz runs at Southbank Theatre, the Sumner from 17 March to 26 April.

(Top) Robyn Nevin, and Megan Holloway (Neighbourhood Watch, Belvoir 2011)

Entourages Prompt corner

Long suffering but hard as nails, Mrs Alving in Ghosts is one of the many great Ibsen roles for women. Recently director Gale Edwards announced that Linda Cropper, last seen at MTC in Poor Boy, will take it on, joining Philip Quast (His Girl Friday) as Pastor Manders and MTC favourite Richard Piper (Music) as Engstrand. The others in the cast will be new to the Company: Ben Pfeiffer (pictured below) as the young Oswald Alving and Pip Edwards as Regine.

Lally Katz’s Neighbourhood Watch comes to MTC with most of the cast of the 2011 Belvoir hit intact. Natasha Herbert (centre; God of Carnage) will Linda Cropper in Poor Boy (2009); (top left) Naomi Ruckavina with Grant Cartwright in The Crucible (2013)

take her place among the original ensemble that includes Robyn Nevin (Queen Lear), Kris McQuade (When the Rain Stops Falling) and Megan Holloway (The Swimming Club).

Making their MTC debuts will be Charlie Garber, Anthony Harkin, and Akos Armont.

Having featured as Tituba in The Crucible last year, Naomi Rukavina returns in MTC Education’s Yellow Moon, with Luke Ryan, last seen in Clybourne Park.

Finally, a cast for the The Speechmaker has been assembled. As announced at the Season Launch, David James (Australia Day), Toby Truslove (The Cherry Orchard) and MTC

newcomer Jane Harber (left) have already booked their flights on Air Force One. Completing the Presidential entourage will be Nicholas Bell (Richard III), Sheridan Harbridge (The Beast), Kat Stewart (Frost/Nixon), and Christopher Kirby (Festen), with MTC debutants Lachy Hulme (known from television’s Howzat! in which he played Kerry Packer) and Brent Hill.

Production Briefings

This season our popular Subscriber Briefings were renamed Production Briefings in order to emphasise that they are not just for Subscribers. They are for everyone curious about how our productions are created from first thoughts to first performance. So feel free to invite your friends and colleagues – or perhaps the young person you know studying Drama for VCE. These free panel discussions,

involving the director, cast and creative team, are a good way to prepare the mind before seeing the show.

Note, however, that there will be no Production Briefing for Neighbourhood Watch, but mark in your diary the dates for Ghosts and The Speechmaker.

Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Monday 12 May, 6pm The Speechmaker by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch Monday 26 May, 6pm

Having second thoughts?

If you regret leaving a show off your subscription, or want to add another person to your theatre-going party, all is not lost. Single tickets for all MTC 2014 shows are now on sale and good seats are available for all shows to Subscribers at a reduced rate. The discounts apply to both online bookers and visitors to our box office. Just have your subscription number handy. ▲

Three men and a brainwave Many ideas come but only the best stick around, says Santo Cilauro According to writer Santo Cilauro (below) the most important quality a comic idea must have is a fawning persistence.

‘Often we’ll just have an idea and then walk away from it, and if it keeps following us like a stray pup, then we’ll feed it a little and see if it sticks around.’

The idea behind The Speechmaker, the play Cilauro has written with his Working Dog team-mates Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch, turned up about a decade ago and just wouldn’t go away.

It grew under their care and is now a fully developed play.

Cilauro remembers the moment it turned up in a discussion among the team about the big news image of the day: President George W Bush walking heroically in his US Navy flight suit on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, before announcing ‘Mission Accomplished.’ It struck the Working

Dog team as hollow US triumphalism, a shameless PR stunt.

‘Even at the time we thought, “Mission accomplished?” The war had only just started and God knows how long it would go for,’ says Cilauro. ‘This speech seemed like such a diversion. It was a stunning event, stage managed so incredibly.’

From that point, they began to notice how, as the enormities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began to stack up (rendition, torture, Guantanamo, drones),

the idealistic rhetoric of Presidential speeches would ramp up even higher.

‘While the practices have become frightening, somehow the speechmaking has worked to smooth it over,’ he says, ‘and it hasn’t stopped with Obama.

Speechmaking has become the event, the major thing that Presidents do.’

From the original idea a story evolved, about the President and his official entourage dealing with a political crisis mid-air on Air Force One. The President has just delivered the greatest speech of his political career and the play’s acidic

Speechmaking has become the event, the major thing that Presidents do.

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comedy emerges from the chasm that soon opens up between the high-flown words and the low, deceitful actions forced on him by the developing situation.

The play was written in the tried-andtested Working Dog manner. First comes the idea, then a lot of talk and acting things out (usually Rob Sitch). It’s all fun at the white board at this point. If the idea hangs around long enough, a decision is made to ‘lay seige’ to it, to start writing. At this point one of them steps away while two writers work on it.

In the case of The Speechmaker, Cilauro

and Sitch wrote a number of drafts before inviting Tom Gleisner back to look at what they had written. ‘We really value that objective view,’ say Cilauro.

‘Someone with nothing at stake, who can look at it and say, “I don’t get this.

Can’t we just do that complicated scene with one man and a phone?”

That first read-through with Tom is gold, that’s special. Then basically we are all in again, writing. For instance, right now Tom is working on certain scenes we targeted for a bit of polishing. He loves sitting at his computer tinkering away.’

The three men have been working together since meeting at the University of Melbourne in the late eighties, writing and performing in student theatre and revues. The success of the revues led to TV sketch shows (The D Generation, The Late Show) and breakfast radio (on Triple M), before they formed, with Jane Kennedy and Michael Hirsh, Working Dog Productions in the early nineties, subsequently producing and writing, among others, Frontline, The Panel and Thank God You’re Here for TV and the films The Castle and The Dish. Also on the group’s extensive CV are three very successful travel guide parodies (Phaic Tan, San Sombrero and Molvania), TV travelogues (A River Somewhere), a tonguein-cheek cooking show (Audrey’s Kitchen), and a World Cup football show (Santo, Sam and Ed’s Cup Fever!).

The variety of the work across so many media requires a very broad job description and Cilauro settles on ‘comedy observers’. ‘We just think up a funny idea and then find the best vehicle for it. For The Speechmaker, we felt that for this particular idea the perfect place is the stage. We didn’t make a conscious decision, “Let’s return to the stage!” or “Wouldn’t it be fun to write a play?” No, we had an idea and the stage seemed the best place for it.’ ▲ The Speechmaker by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch runs at the Playhouse from 31 May to 5 July.

Redressing the balance Women Directors’ Program

For a number of careers on the independent scene over Admitting that this is the first Affirmative years now, there the past few years; some already have Action program she has taken part in, has been serious had success with Australia’s major Edwards sees the dearth of women concern about theatre companies, especially directing directors at the highest level as part of a the underStudio and Education shows. But there larger problem. ‘I only really got interested representation of has been something of a glass ceiling in the cause of women directors when I women directors when it comes to moving up to direct saw a need for greater diversity in the with Australia’s mainstage productions. Our program culture that’s making art in this country. major profeshas been designed to help create a way Classes, ethnicities – there’s so much sional theatre up and through. under-representation. It’s across the companies, board. I think we must deal with gender including our For director Naomi Edwards (pictured) on our way to dealing with opportunities own. At the 2014 Season Launch in the key benefit of such programs are to for a wider range of people.’

September, MTC Artistic Director Brett turn outsiders into insiders: ‘They bring Sheehy announced the inaugural Women you into the conversation, inside the With most of the thirteen directors in this Directors’ Program, our most concentrated building, to form relationships inside year’s program being in their twenties effort yet to help redress and thirties, the new the imbalance. Over the program is also designed course of the year, a group to help fill a generational Tony Martin, Max Gillies and Sara Gleeson in The Seed (20i2), of emerging and midas well as a gender gap. directed by Anne-Louise Sarks career directors will have The pool of women ready access to the MTC directors that MTC has organisation, its drawn on over the past professional culture and its few years has tended audiences and will be towards established provided with leadership talents, those who broke and career development through as mainstage support. The hope is that in directors in the eighties coming seasons, boosted and nineties: Robyn Nevin, by our support, these Pamela Rabe, Nadia Tass, women will be directing Gale Edwards and Jenny mainstage shows for MTC Kemp. The clear message and other professional is that mainstage companies throughout companies have not been Australia. providing the same opportunities to our present More than seventy generation of up-andapplications were received and, from the Company, to get to know people coming women directors. It’s a lapse the these, thirteen directors were chosen to artistically. I guess the thing I’m hopeful program has been designed to address. take part in our inaugural program: for is that this will be a fabulous twoOlivia Allen, Bridget Balodis, Naomi way conversation, us with the Company And while we expect benefits to flow to Edwards (pictured), Lucy Freeman, and the Company with us – or, in fact a the chosen directors, the Company stands Petra Kalive, Nadja Kostich, Sarah three-way, with a conversation between to benefit from the program, too. As Kriegler, Elizabeth Millington, Janice the women directors ourselves. For Naomi Edwards points out: ‘Bringing Muller, Kate Sulan, Yvonne Virsik, me, the program is about growing as an together such an exciting group of women Ingrid Voorendt and Claire Watson. artist and developing towards having with such diverse practices inside Many of these names might already be my own work programmed at a MTC will have to be as fruitful for the ST familiar to you: all have been building mainstage level.’

Company as it will be for us.’ ▲ ERS D FLIN

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Space adventures Parking your car in Southbank can be troublesome, especially when all the theatres have shows in them, and the problem has been made a little harder recently with the closure of the car park next the ABC Studios. Always remember that there is limited on-street parking on St Kilda Road, Dodds Street, Sturt Street and Grant Street, but note that those places get snapped up quickly on show nights. Of course, the Arts Centre has a car park and there are a number of commercial car parks close by, which we have marked on this map.

text. I didn’t want audiences to have a dense wordy and worthy night at the theatre. I wanted them to experience a dynamic, vivid human story presented in a real way.’

Masterpiece theatre

Director Gale Edwards relished working through Ibsen line by line

Gale Edwards is one of only a handful of Australian directors with an international reputation and career, directing productions for major theatre and opera companies at home, Europe and the US. She was an Associate Director with MTC in the early nineties and has returned a number of times, most recently directing Hitchcock Blonde in 2005. She had been wanting to return ever since, so it’s a double pleasure to be offered Ghosts, a play that has long been on top of her wish list.

‘I love plays with a strong literary basis, where words and language communicate deeply,’ she replies when asked to define the attraction of Ghosts. ‘I am also drawn by the fact that Ibsen tends to write strong and complex women in every one of his plays.’

The power of Ibsen’s writing, according to Edwards, is his ability to give the lives of women the weight that the Greeks gave their tragic male heroes. Mrs Alving in Ghosts is one of Ibsen’s most intriguing and tragic characters, ‘a complex, majestic, vulnerable, fortified woman at the centre of the play.’

These days, the fashion in adapting classical works for the stage is to be as free and open as possible, to treat the original text as a place for exploration – the play as playground.

A classic play, seemingly stuck in its time, can benefit from a change of period or a make-over to the modern day; a director can get fresh insights into characters through improvising scenes with the cast; and language grown antiquated can be smartened up with broad strokes of contemporary idiom.

deep into the specifics of the text. It took me ten weeks to do the adaptation and I would get a thought at two in the morning, rush out to my computer and type until dawn. It causes you to examine the play in enormous detail, because you have to justify virtually every single word. And there is an alternative for every line of the play.’

However, director Gale Edwards, who has recently completed her adaptation of Ibsen’s Ghosts for the MTC season, doesn’t belong to that school. She accepts that such a process can create ‘some sort of new and exciting concoction, which may be faithful to the general themes and ideas of the writer’, but she believes that they tend to scant the details, the subtleties. For Edwards, who has adapted a number of canonical texts in her career, capturing the detail and intricacy of the original is where the challenge lies – and the enjoyment.

Edwards knows no Danish, the original language of Ghosts, but she worked from a literal translation and about ten other English translations going back to the 1890s. All those versions, each different in subtle ways reminded her that being perfectly faithful to the original is a vain hope. ‘Any adaptor is by necessity an interpreter,’ she says.

‘No matter how much one stays loyal to the text, one finds oneself emphasizing certain things, because you are making a choice on every line.’

she is going to reap the rewards for that sacrifice, her world comes crashing down.’

As a director, she is always aware of the actors and the audience, and they influenced her choices, too. ‘One of the things I wanted was a swift, speakable

Marco Chiappi and Rachael Griffiths in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1998)

‘I love the exercise of doing it,’ she says.

‘I relish it. I think it causes you as an interpretive artist and director to dig

‘She’s a woman who has suppressed the truth about the past all her life. And had done it for noble and good reasons, because the society she lives in has required it of her. And just as she thinks

As I have written this adaptation, at every turn, I have found myself in awe of Ibsen

’

‘As I have written this adaptation, at every turn, I have found myself in awe of Ibsen,’ Edwards says. ‘The construction is so intricate – the way he plays with hints for example, he’s always planting seeds that grow as the play goes on.’ ▲ Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen runs at the Sumner from 17 May to 21 June.

MTC would like to thank the following Patrons, Trusts and Foundations for their support in 2014

Leading patrons 20000+ Supporters of Education Dr Geraldine Lazarus and Mr Greig Gailey

Season Donors Louise and Martyn Myer AO Caroline and Derek Young AM

10000+ Supporters of Open Door Luisa Valmorbida

Season Donors Cattermole Family Mr Norman and Mrs Betty Lees

Gordon Moffatt AM and Jacqueline Moffatt

Supporters of Costume and Design Sandy Bell and Daryl Kendrick The Dowd Foundation

Supporters of Professional Development Professor David Penington AC and Dr Sonay Hussein Jeanne Pratt AC

5000+ Supporters of Literary Development Dr Andrew Buchanan and Mr Peter Darcy John and Robyn Butselaar Dr Helen Ferguson Mrs Jane Hemstritch

Supporters of Education Anne Le Huray Dr Michael and Mrs Lynne Wright

Season Donors James Best and Doris Young Ian and Jillian Buchanan

Margaret Gardner and Glyn Davis The late Noel Mason and Susanna Mason Ian and Margaret McKellar Daniel Neal and Peter Chalk Tom and Ruth O’Dea Pinky Watson Maureen and Tony Wheeler

Sandy and Yvonne Constantine Dr Anthony Dortimer and Mrs Jillian Dortimer Melody and Jonathan Feder Paul and Janice Ferla Rosemary Forbes and Ian Hocking Michelle Gallaher and Michael Avery Gjergja Family Henry Gold Murray Gordon and Lisa Norton Isabella Green OAM and Richard Green Lesley Griffin Bruce and Mary Humphries Irene Kearsey Joan and George Lefroy Mr Alex and Mrs Halina Lewenberg Dr Peter and Mrs Amanda Lugg

Ian and Judi Marshman George and Rosa Morstyn Donald Murray Orloff Family Charitable Trust Janet Reid OAM and Allan Reid Colin and Josephine Rendell Ernst Riest Professor Barry Sheehan and Pamela Waller Diana and Jeffrey Sher Tim and Lynne Sherwood Andrew Sisson Trawalla Foundation Cheryl and Paul Veith Ralph Ward-Ambler AM and Barbara Ward-Ambler Ray and Margaret Wilson Roz Zalewski and Jeremy Ruskin

2000+ Supporters of Literary Development Bill and Sandra Burdett Stephen and Jenny Charles Grant Fisher and Helen Bird Heather and Bob Glindemann OAM Robert and Jan Green Price and Christine Williams

Larry Kornhauser and Sophie Russell Sandy and Sandra Murdoch Jane and Andrew Murray Ricci Swart Gillian and Tony Wood

Supporters of Costume and Design Mrs Patricia Burke Jan Nolan Rae Rothfield Laurel Young-Das and Heather Finnegan

Season Donors Rosemary Ayton and Sam Ricketson Peter and Carolyn Berger Marc Besen AO and Eva Besen AO Bill Bowness Beth Brown and Tom Bruce AM Janet and Michael Buxton The Michael and Andrew Buxton Foundation Robert and Caroline Clemente

Supporters of Education Robert Bird and Jane Howe Barry and Joanne Cheetham

Supporters of Open Door Craig Semple

Supporting patrons 1000+ James and Helen Angus Margaret Astbury John and Dagnija Balmford Miriam Bass and Peter Jaffe John and Lorraine Bates Jay Bethell and Peter Smart David and Rhonda Black Ross and Alix Bradfield Sally Browne Fund – Australian Communities Foundation Patricia L Burke Diana Burleigh and Chrys Black David Byrne Pam Caldwell Alison and John Cameron John and Jan Campbell Ingrid and Per Carlsen Clare and Richard Carlson Mark Carlson Fiona Caro Chef’s Hat Elizabeth Chernov Sue Clarke and Lindsay Allen Dr Robin and Mr Neil Collier John and Christine Collingwood Mark and Jo Davey Mrs Jocelyn Davies

Jessica Denehey Mark and Amanda Derham Katharine Derham-Moore Kathy and George Deutsch Elizabeth and Geoffrey Donnan Robert Drake Bev and Geoff Edwards Florentine England Dr Alastair Fearn Nola Finn Jan and Rob Flew Gillian and Wayne Franklin John Fullerton Nigel and Cathy Garrard Diana and Murray Gerstman Gill Family Foundation Prue Gillies AM Mr Brian Goddard Judy and Leon Goldman Roger and Jan Goldsmith John and Jo Grigg Sir Andrew and Lady Grimwade Ian and Wendy Haines Jane Hansen Mr Glen Harrington and Mrs Robyn Eastham

Philanthropic Trusts and Foundations

David Harris Mr Michael Heine Scott Herron Dawn and Graham Hill OAM Mr Tony Hillery and Mr Warwick Eddington Gil and Sandi Hoskins Professor Andrea Hull AO Will and Jennie Irving Peter and Halina Jacobsen Ed and Margaret Johnson Malcom Kemp Fiona Kirwan-Hamilton and Simon E Marks SC Doris and Steven Klein Margaret Knapp B Kornhauser Elizabeth Laverty Rosemary Leffler Mrs Alison Leslie Mary Lipshut Mr Peter and Mrs Judy Loney Mrs Elizabeth Lyons Tiffany and Matthew Lucas Carol Mackay and Greg Branson Ken and Jan MacKinnon Alister and Margaret Maitland

The Joan and Peter Clemenger Trust The Cybec Foundation Marshall Day Acoustics (Denis Irving Scholarship) Sidney Myer Fund (Geoffrey Cohen AM Scholarship)

Bernard Marin AM Joyce and Bernard Marks Pamela Marshall Stuart and Noela McDiarmid Garry McLean Elizabeth McMeekin Douglas and Rosemary Meagher Dr Gabriele Medley AM Dr Mark and Dr Alla Medownick Robert and Helena Mestrovic Mr John G Millard Ross and Judy Milne-Pott David and Barbara Mushin Dr Paul and Mrs Sue Nisselle Mrs Alison Park Dr and Mrs Harry Perelberg Dr Annamarie Perlesz Dug and Lisa Pomeroy Bill and Katharine Ranken Marnie Rawlinson Peter and Terryl Read Sally Redlich Victoria Redwood Julie and Ian Reid Ian and Diana Renard Mr David Richards

Dr S M Richards AM and Mrs M R Richards Rae Rothfield Edwina Sahhar Susan Santoro Max and Jill Schultz Mr Berek Segan AM OBE and Mrs Maria Segan Judith and John Sime Jane Simon and Peter Cox Tim and Angela Smith Reg and Elaine Smith OAM Earimil Gardens Charity Diana and Brian Snape AM Rodney and Aviva Taft M Taylor Miriam and Frank Tisher Lyle Thomas and Christina Turner Ann Tonks Peter and Liz Turner Kevin and Elizabeth Walsh Ursula Whiteside Mandy and Ted Yencken Graeme and Nancy Yeomans Greg Young Ange and Pete Zangmeister

To find out more about supporting MTC please call 03 8688 0959 or visit mtc.com.au/support

A beautiful collaboration Business Development The Kozminsky brand is synonymous with beautiful jewellery. For over 150 years, Kozminsky has provided beautiful and rare gems, diamonds and jewellery to its clients. Every piece of Kozminsky jewellery shines with style and substance, so we were thrilled when Kozminsky became jewellery partner for our decadent production of Noël Coward’s Private Lives.

Kozminsky provided the exquisite jewellery worn by the cast of Private Lives during dress rehearsal, production photos and media calls. Additionally, as the exclusive provider of jewellery adorning cast members (and a few lucky MTC staff) at the Audi Opening Night party, Kozminsky added the perfect sense of luxury and elegance to the evening.

Cast member Lucy Durack was so excited to be wearing the gorgeous jewellery that she posted photos of

herself and fellow cast members to Instagram.

‘We were thrilled with Kozminsky’s association with MTC’s Private Lives and loved seeing our beautiful jewellery being worn by the talented Lucy Durack, Nadine Garner, Julie Forsyth, Leon Ford and John Leary, said Kristen Albrecht, owner of Kozminsky. ‘We look forward to continuing to partner with MTC in the future.’

Thank you to our friends at Kozminsky for adding even more beauty and luxury to MTC’s glamorous Private Lives.

Interested in partnering with MTC? Please give me a call to discuss ways of integrating your brand with our unique experiences.

Julia Dyer Corporate Partnerships Co-ordinator 03 8688 0951; j.dyer@mtc.com.au ▲

(Clockwise from top left) Lucy Durack on Opening Night, wearing Kozminsky earrings; Private Lives cast members John Leary, Nadine Garner, Lucy Durack and Leon Ford dressed to the nines and wearing Kozminsky jewellery for the Audi Opening Night after party (photo courtesy of Lucy Durack); John Leary with his Bee cufflinks furnished by Kozminsky (photo courtesy of John Leary); Kristin Albrecht and John Lonergan, owners of Kozminsky.

Corporate entertaining Are you looking for money-can’t-buy experiences to entertain your clients? MTC’s Corporate Partners enjoy special benefits including access to great seats, backstage tours and functions with special guests such as directors and cast members.

Southbank Theatre’s function rooms offer a private space featuring stunning views of the Melbourne skyline. With delicious catering from our friends at Script Bar and Bistro, it’s the ideal way to entertain your most important clients or staff.

To find out more about our Corporate Entertaining packages, please contact Julia Dyer: 03 8688 0951; j.dyer@mtc.com.au.

Teen spirit Education

Long before schools reopened in January, MTC Education was up and running, gearing up for a big year ahead. All our popular programs will be back, the gamut of workshops, forums, and tours, our scholarship courses and programs for disadvantaged students and our MTC Ambassadors. But for a theatre company, there’s nothing quite as exciting as putting on a show and in 2014 there will be two major Education productions, Yellow Moon by David Greig coming to the Lawler for older students in May, and Marlin by Damien Millar, a co-production with Arena Theatre Company, for primary students in September.

However, just because shows come under our Education banner, doesn’t mean they don’t have wide appeal.

The proof of that is in the strong critical response we’ve received over recent years for shows such as Random, Helicopter, and Boy Girl Wall, all thoughtful entertainments, dealing with difficult issues in imaginative ways, and not skimping on MTC production standards. Alerted by great reviews, general audiences found their way to the Lawler in healthy numbers.

about young people in our time.’ With MTC’s Associate Director Leticia Cáceres, responsible for Random and Helicopter (as well as recent mainstage hits Constellations and Cock) at the helm, you can expect Yellow Moon to be densely packed with verbal and visual poetry. It’s the perfect show to share with a young person with an interest in theatre, or just to go see for yourself.

Yellow Moon is another production in that vein. It’s a contemporary take on the Bonnie and Clyde story, two young outsiders on the run from the law, written by one of Britain’s sharpest stage writers, David Greig. Of its original production by TAG Theatre in Glasgow, the Scotsman’s reviewer found it hard to imagine ‘how theatre could say more

After its Melbourne run, the show will tour to Geelong Performing Arts Centre and also to regional Victorian secondary schools in partnership with Regional Arts Victoria. ▲

YELLOW MOON

by David Greig

A contemporary tale of Bonnie and Clyde 2 to 16 May Southbank Theatre, The Lawler Book at mtc.com.au Presented for Victorian senior high school students, Yellow Moon is a powerful story investigating identity and first love.

(Above) Paul Denny, Daniela Farrinacci and Terry Yeboah in Helicopter (2012)

Feeling the benefits CentreStage

MTC’s CentreStage membership program offers a great way of enriching your MTC theatre-going experience, either as an add-on to your subscription or as a stand-alone membership.

Our Members enjoy discounted Wednesday matinee tickets, complimentary tickets to selected performances, exclusive invitations to Dress Rehearsals and complimentary Genovese Coffee in the Members Lounge. From time to time, our Members also receive complimentary or discounted film passes and opportunities to meet casts and creative teams at special events such as our annual Christmas Lunch.

CentreStage membership cards entitle Members to a range of discounts and offers at participating businesses. We have recently negotiated some fantastic Member benefits for 2014 from new and returning local businesses. Discounted house wines, beers and sandwiches at Southbank Theatre’s bars and a complimentary glass of house sparkling or wine with every main meal purchased at Script Bar and Bistro are compelling reasons to enjoy a drink and bite to eat at Southbank Theatre during your theatre visit.

Within the Southgate Restaurant and Shopping Precinct there are special offers for Members at eateries including The Deck, La Camera, Red Emperor and Tutto Bene. We are also pleased to announce Bluetrain Restaurant, Big Café Southgate, BearBrass Eating & Drinking, PJ O’Brien’s Irish Pub, Jarrah, and Muffin Break also have special offers this year for Members.

For everyday shopping needs at Southgate, Members also receive discounts on purchases at Bloch Dancewear and Lifestyle Wear, Boast Gift Home Style, Eyes on Southgate Optometrists, Mary Martin Bookshop and Southgate Pharmacy.

A full list of all 2014 benefits can be found on the MTC website. mtc.com.au/support

Mandy Jones Fundraising and Events Manager 8688 0958 m.jones@mtc.com.au

CentreStage membership is a thoughtful gift idea for anyone who loves theatre and, with memberships from as little as $95, the gift keeps on giving for an entire year.

CentreStage Members, Brian Gleeson and Robyn Tully-Gleeson (above) have been coming to MTC productions since the days of Russell Street, and often treat themselves to a drink and light snack before performances. Now with so many new discount offers, they are spoilt for choice.

For more information about becoming a Member and taking advantage of these discount offers and all the other benefits of CentreStage membership, please contact Mandy Jones on membership@mtc.com.au; phone 8688 0958; or visit mtc.com.au/ support ▲

Dress Rehearsals for CentreStage Members Neighbourhood Watch

by Lally Katz 2pm, Monday 17 March, Southbank Theatre, The Sumner CentreStage Members Lounge will be in operation from 12.30 in the VIP Rooms, Level 2, Southbank Theatre Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen 2pm, Saturday 17 May, Southbank Theatre, The Sumner CentreStage Members Lounge will be in operation from 12.30 in the VIP Rooms, Level 2, Southbank Theatre The Speechmaker

by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch 2pm, Saturday 31 May, Arts Centre Melbourne, The Playhouse To book phone Ryan Nicolussi on 8688 0953 or email membership@mtc.com.au specifying the number of members and guests attending.

Bookings are essential.

Dress Rehearsals are subject to change or cancellation.

Special offers Autumn 2014 Concert Offer

Movie Preview

Bernadette Peters and Adrienne Angel

7 and 8 April 2014

The New York Times said: ‘As an actress, singer, comedienne and all-around warming presence, Bernadette Peters has no peer in the musical theatre right now.’ In conjunction with Bernadette Peters’s Australian tour, legendary voice teacher and music theatre specialist, Adrienne Angel will be conducting a three-hour masterclass in each city, sharing invaluable insight into her Seven Deadly Sins. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity also features an exclusive Q&A session with Bernadette Peters.

For your chance to win a double pass to both Bernadette Peters’s concert (Monday 7 April, 8pm) and the masterclass with Adrienne Angel on (Tuesday 8 April, 10am), email your name and subscriber details to offers@mtc.com.au with PETERS in the subject line by Wednesday 2 April 2014.

The Invisible Woman Developed by BBC Films and adapted for the screen by Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady), The Invisible Woman explores the secret love affair between acclaimed author Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) and young stage actress Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones).

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, this powerful period drama has all the traits to become a British classic.

It opens in cinemas on 17 April.

DVD Offer

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Mythic, elemental and atmospheric, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a powerful tale of crime and punishment, passion and tragedy, forgiveness and redemption. Set in 1970s small-town Texas, Academy Award nominee Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) are Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, soul mates and lovers that prison can’t keep apart. After taking the rap when Ruth accidentally shoots the local sheriff, Bob escapes jail to reunite with Ruth and the baby he has never seen.

DROP THE HINT THIS MOTHER’S DAY Let your loved ones know what you really want this Mother’s Day! MTC Gift Vouchers are the gift that keeps on giving.

Vouchers can be redeemed for additional tickets, so you can bring your friends and family to the next MTC show.

Vouchers can even be put towards your 2015 subscription renewal in September.

Go to mtc.com.au or call 8688 0800 for more info.

13 April 2014 Hopscotch eOne invites MTC Subscribers to an exclusive preview screening of The Invisible Woman at 11am on Sunday 13 April at Palace Cinema Como. For your chance to win one of a hundred double passes to this screening, email your name and subscriber details to offers@mtc.com. au with INVISIBLE in the subject line

by Friday 4 April 2014.

Now available For your chance to win one of twenty-five copies of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints on DVD, email your name and subscriber details to offers@mtc.com.au with SAINTS in the subject line, or call 8688 0900 by Friday 11 April 2014.