MTC Scenes, Winter 2013

MTC

scenes Winter 2013

Anita Hegh The accused David Williamson The great man Chekhov at MTC ZEITGEIST ANNOUNCED: THE BEAST

Getting to know you Inside information It’s been a busy few months since I started as Associate Artistic Director in January. I went pretty much straight into rehearsal to direct Other Desert Cities.

And it seems like only a moment has passed between that show closing and starting rehearsal for The Crucible. In the meantime, we have been engaged in that deliciously exciting time of year that is programming. Naturally, I can’t give anything away, but what I can say is that Brett is lining up a 2014 Season that is just as striking, diverse and compelling as his first.

I am loving being at the MTC. This company has always held a special place in my heart: Neil Armfield’s 1995 production of Hamlet made me want to be a director; I devoured all the plays I could as a Youth Subscriber; and my main stage directing debut was here, working with the wonderful Noni Hazlehurst, Asher Keddie and Nicholas Bell on Madagascar.

that Melbourne audiences are the best in the country. Nowhere else is there the same quality of attention, the same engagement with a play’s ideas as well as its spectacle, the same almost tribal loyalty, and the same hunger for great stories that move you to laughter, tears or both. Theatre companies exist for, and because of, their audience and MTC are very lucky to have you.

In one audience of Other Desert Cities, I sat next to a mother and her teenage son. The son was interested in being an actor and so they had both started subscribing. As I sat there enjoying the remarkable consistency of Robyn Nevin’s virtuosic performance, I thought back to watching her in A Cheery Soul when I was about the same age as our aspiring actor.

I thought about how lucky I am to be involved in a pursuit that unifies people – artists and audiences alike – across generations.

I also thought how lucky I am to be able to personally welcome people to the Company and thank them for sharing in the work we create.

Whether you are joining us for your first show or are in your twentieth year of subscription, I’d like to thank you for letting MTC live in your heads (and hearts) and making up those unique Melbourne audiences.

I look forward to sharing more of my and the Company’s work with you over the next few years and to perhaps seeing you in the foyer.

Cheers,

Sam Strong Associate Artistic Director

If MTC is close to my heart, so is its home town. I’ve spent the last few years in Sydney, working (funnily enough with Neil Armfield) as Literary Associate at Belvoir, and more recently as Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre, a company specialising in new Australian playwriting. Moving back to Melbourne certainly feels like coming home. I’ve been relishing all those beautiful Melbourne idiosyncrasies – like a genuine autumn, footy that means AFL and not League, and what Sophie Cunningham, in her astute portrait of the city, describes as Melbourne’s quality of intimacy, of ‘living in its head’.

But perhaps the most welcome return of all has been to Melbourne audiences. Having directed plays around Australia, I can confidently say Cover: David Wenham stars in The Crucible 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.

Influential: Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in Hamlet (1995)

EDITOR Paul Galloway GRAPHIC DESIGN Helena Turinski COVER IMAGE Marcel Aucar MAIN PHOTOS Jeff Busby, David Parker, Newton & Talbot, Leveson Inquiry, Heidrun Löhr, Kate Tayler

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

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Journeying Anita Hegh takes a trip back in time for her next role To acquaint herself with the background to The Crucible, actor Anita Hegh has been reading Time Bends, Arthur Miller’s 1987 autobiography.

In particular, she’s dwelt on those sections about the early fifties, when the American theatre and film communities were riven by fear – for some, the fear of communism, for others, the fear of being accused of communism. In 1952, Miller wanted his first audiences to The Crucible to find a clear parallel between the seventeenth century witch trials in Salem and what was happening before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Hegh is fascinated by the double-layer of meaning Miller wrote into the drama, but doubts that such comparisons can carry as much weight for audiences now. After all, for most Australians the passing of sixty years has made HUAC and Senator Joe McCarthy seem almost as remotely historical as old Salem.

throughout a remarkable emotional courage.

‘The political history behind the play is really extraordinary,’ she says. ‘Though I don’t know if it can have the same potency that it did then, at least not where we are in our part of the world.

As an actor, the focus is less political for me anyway. I’m more interested in that love triangle, in that love relationship, and the marriage.’

Hegh doesn’t necessarily find such information useful to her performance.

‘It is easy to see her as very rigid and very judgemental. She is a product of a repressed time, though she might not see it that way. She’s a good person in a society that sets the bar very high, so it is always a struggle for her. You can see from the first scene in the second act, the confrontation in the kitchen with her husband. This is something everybody understands: how she’s trying to find a way to forgive her husband [for his adultery]. It is so perceptively written, about being hurt and wanting to punish, but having to go on.’

‘It’s funny,’ she says, ‘because a lot of the feedback I get when people hear I’m taking on this role is: “She’s such a victim, isn’t she?” But I don’t see her that way at all. Of course, the accused are all victims of the situation they find themselves in, but I think she shows

So what are her early impressions of Elizabeth Proctor’s journey? ‘I think she’s someone who starts out as quite a selfrighteous woman. I don’t think she sees that she has any fault. So the journey for her is to arrive at a place where she can say to her husband that she has some responsibility for what happened. That’s a very tough and, in a way, beautiful realisation.’

The Crucible draws heavily on historical record – all the major characters were real people – with Miller always finding parallels to his time and within his own strained relationship to his wife, Mary.

The director Sam Strong has gathered The Crucible by Arthur Miller together a great deal of background runs from 22 June to 3 August at research on the play, which he will make Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. available to all the actors. Despite her interest in the period and her reading of the Miller autobiography, Anita Hegh in Top Girls (2012)

I like to have her journey mapped ‘out in my mind. A sense of a beginning and an ending. ’

We last saw Hegh on an MTC stage last year in Top Girls, playing Marlene, the emotionally frosty career woman.

In The Crucible she plays another character who keeps her feelings on a tight rein, Elizabeth Proctor, the pious wife of an unfaithful husband, who is accused of witchcraft by the rejected mistress.

‘I always feel strange talking about the role before I start rehearsing it,’ she adds later. ‘I never know what’s going to happen in rehearsal. But I like to have her journey mapped out in my mind.

A sense of a beginning and an ending, from there to there, which may change.

I like to start with a sense of who the character is, a feel for her and an understanding of how she relates to her world and the other characters.’

‘I’m by no means intellectual in my approach to work,’ she admits. ‘I think I’m more of a visceral kind of actor. Armouring myself with knowledge has never really helped me.

Now, I’ve got to have some idea, obviously.

I need to understand the context of what I’m exploring. But I suppose that’s the reason why I’m an actor and not a director; I don’t necessarily want the big picture. Part of the journey of rehearsal for me is to learn things as we go, and take on what I feel I need.

Witch hunt over Prompt corner Brian Lipson and Luke Watts in Tribes (2012)

whom we have an e-mail address. If you think we might not have your email address, just log on to MTC’s website (mtc.com.au) and update your details.

It’s very easy to do. Subscribers who have no email address will receive an invitation by post.

Knowing what you are up for

A recent survey of MTC Subscribers who go regularly to our Briefings revealed, as surveys tend to do, a good deal of what we already knew. We already knew, for instance, that for some Subscribers being fully briefed enriches their theatregoing experience.

If you have never been to a Subscriber Briefing before, it might be time to see why many Subscribers swear by them.

There are three coming up. Come along and listen to the director and members of the cast and creative team discuss the play and the production, with a Q&A session afterwards. These events are free and open to all.

The Crucible

by Arthur Miller Southbank Theatre, The Sumner Monday 17 June, 6pm The Cherry Orchard

by Simon Stone, after Chekhov Southbank Theatre, The Sumner Monday 5 August, 6pm Finding the god-fearing citizens of Salem, Massachusetts has been a long process for director Sam Strong, and our Casting Department but The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s 1953 play about supposed witches and their righteous accusers, is now completely cast.

Simon Stone – will feature Pamela Rabe as Ranevskaya and Robert Menzies as Gayev. As the younger generation, Eloise Mignon (Return to Earth) and Zahra Newman (Clybourne Park) will return to the Company.

David Wenham and Anita Hegh, who had signed up from the start to play John and Elizabeth Proctor, are now joined by well-known MTC faces Grant Cartwright, Julia Blake (both seen last year in National Interest), Greg Stone (Queen Lear), Heather Bolton (The Gift), Paul English (Music), Brian Lipson (main photo, Tribes), James Wardlaw (pictured above left, The Hypocrite) and John McTernan (centre left, Boy Gets Girl). The production sees Sarah Ogden return after her recent MTC debut in Top Girls and a coven of MTC newcomers: Elizabeth Nabben (centre right), Amanda McGregor, Edwina Samuels and Naomi Rukavina (right).

With MTC only a few shows into Season 2013, it might seem strange to be talking about next year, yet, within the Company, Season 2014 is not on the horizon, it’s steaming into the harbour. One by one, shows for next year are slotting into place, and, by the time you read this, Artistic Director Brett Sheehy will be close to completing his line-up. It’s already looking exciting, but we must remain tight-lipped about the details, except the date and venue of the Season Launch for Subscribers. An invitation will go out to you in due course, but for now you can pencil in the evening of Monday 16 September and Hamer Hall as the venue.

Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, the other upcoming classic – though given a fresh twist from director and adaptor

Not 2014 already!

Reminder

The invitation to the launch will be sent by a special email to all those for

Rupert

by David Williamson Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse Monday 19 August, 6pm

Come in, the door’s open

Along with most of the significant buildings in Melbourne, MTC’s Southbank Theatre will be part of Melbourne Open House this year.

If you are not familiar with this event, it’s a weekend where organisations open their doors to visitors, showing them around buildings of architectural, cultural and engineering interest.

In our case, much of the interest for many visitors will be a rare look backstage – the dressing rooms, the greenroom, the wardrobe and dock areas, and a look at the set of The Crucible from the actor’s perspective.

However, because there will be matinee and evening performances in both theatres on Saturday, there can be no tour that day. But everyone is welcome on Sunday 28 July from 10am to 4pm to have a peek inside our house.

The bigger they are In Rupert, David Williamson’s satirical swipes get personal Rupert Murdoch and David Williamson. The names come together with high expectation, like the two sides of a longdelayed heavyweight bout. In the blue corner, the eighty-two year-old media mogul, the undefeated champion, jowly as a bulldog, the destroyer of print unions and the Fleet Street scourge, a puncher of prodigious power and unparalleled reach. In the red corner, David Williamson, the challenger, Australia’s great southpaw playwright, stepping up a weight division or two for this bout, able to undercut from the left and batter with short satirical jabs. Two champions of their respective divisions finally meet head-to-head in August at the Playhouse.

As David Williamson spoke of Rupert, his new satire of Murdoch’s unstoppable rise, the pugilistic metaphors rolled out naturally. As did the military metaphors.

Murdoch seems to look for and relish confrontation, so such comparisons seem apt. But the comparison I didn’t expect – it took me aback when Williamson made it in the first minutes of our discussion – was with Shakespeare’s darkest-dyed villain.

‘The similarities between Richard III and Rupert are striking, I think,’ Williamson says. ‘Both of them began as offstage characters who were ridiculed and ignored by everyone. But, by a combination of intelligence, boldness, total ruthlessness, charm and ambition, both rose to eminence. In fact, I think Rupert is even more remarkable, in that Richard III came to a grizzly end at the battle of Bosworth Field, whereas Rupert has weathered everything and marches on triumphantly. He shrugged off the Leverson Inquiry, a big risk to his career which people thought might see the end of him, but, in fact, since then his share prices have soared. He’s come out of that fight without a scratch.’

In Williamson’s eyes, Murdoch stands as vivid as a devil in an old morality play, the perfect theatrical villain. ‘Rupert’s often characterised as a dull figure, someone who doesn’t leap off the page,’ he says, ‘but the more you examine his life, in fact, he’s a very dramatic character. When he went to

war with the print unions in London in the eighties, he was actually described by his staff as ‘Rambo Rupert’. He personally took charge of the ‘war room’, so to speak, and would prowl up and down the Wapping plant barking out orders, whipping people into line.

He did behave through that period as a battlefield general, most colourful and determined. Which is not the usual image you get of him on a television interview, which is as a cool and canny sort of character. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. In real life, if we accept the testimony of his staff, he’s very colourful, very aggressive, very intimidating.’

If pressed, Williamson will accede a little grudging respect. ‘Murdoch’s obviously got a lot of steel in his character, and part of his inexorable rise has him facing formidable problems and overcoming them one by one. Some would say, by fair means or foul.’

Murdoch must be one of the most exhaustively examined figures in history.

Without arriving at a sense of an end to the possible research, Williamson has read a shelf-load of biographies and examinations of his business empire, and collected countless magazine profiles and online articles in a stack of doorstep-sized folders. Yet, despite all the information being freely available, Williamson believes that Murdoch remains an enigma to most people.

Rupert Murdoch before the Leveson Inquiry

‘I don’t think most people know Rupert,’ says Williamson. ‘Most people know fragments. He’s a fleeting figure for most. Certain incidents will occasionally bring him into the public eye. But Rupert’s power exerts itself behind the scenes. There’s a whole backstory to the man, which is quite a tale. There is a long journey that has led him to being the world’s most powerful right wing voice.’

I ask about the form of the play, which in the early draft I read had Murdoch explaining himself before some heavenly tribunal, but Williamson’s long moved on from that. ‘That must have been a very early draft. I’m on draft thirty-nine now, and now it’s in the form of Rupert stage managing a performance of his life and times.’

It sounds like one of those knockabout biographical treatments of the early seventies, such as The Legend of King O’Malley or The Feet of Daniel Mannix.

‘That’s what Kirsten [Willaimson’s wife] said in the car the other day: “This takes you back to your Carlton days.” And, yes, there is a lot of Brecht in it. I went back and read [Brecht’s Resistible Rise of ] Arturo Ui. And the rise of a gangster fits well with the story of Murdoch, I think.’

Rupert by David Williamson runs at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse from 24 August to 28 September.

Chekhov list MTC goes back to the farm MTC came round to Anton Chekhov surprisingly slowly. The Company went fifteen years and one-hundred-andseventy mainstage productions before staging its first Chekhov, Three Sisters in September 1968. Still, we have made up for it since. The forthcoming production of The Cherry Orchard will be our ninth Chekhov production since then. We have produced Three Sisters three times, and The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya twice each. Our lone production of The Seagull, under Simon

Phillips’s direction in 2001, was also our last trip to old provincial Russia and makes Simon Stone’s sharp new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard feel slightly overdue.

In August, Pamela Rabe plays the part of the heart-sick actress Ranyevskaya, a part previously played at MTC by British film star Googie Withers (1972) and Robyn Nevin (1989). It will be Rabe’s second appearance in The Cherry Orchard at MTC. She played

(Clockwise from top left) Pamela Rabe, The Cherry Orchard (1989); David Roberts, Nicki Wendt and Philip Holden, The Cherry Orchard (1989); Googie Withers in rehearsal, The Cherry Orchard (1972); Sharyn Oppy, The Seagull (2001); Marta Dusseldorp and Mandy McElhinney, Three Sisters (1997); Rhys McConnochie and Asher Keddie, The Seagull (2001).

a completely different role, Ranyevskaya’s dour adopted daughter Varya, in the 1989 production. But that’s not unusual. Chekhov’s plays possess the rare quality of having relishable roles far down the character list, providing rich, complex parts for established actors as well as the up-and-coming.

The Cherry Orchard will play at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner from 10 August to 25 September.

Spirit of the times MTC announces Eddie Perfect’s The Beast The wait for those thousands of daring Subscribers who took a leap of faith by placing Zeitgeist in their subscription is over. On Friday 10 May, MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy announced that The Beast, the first play by the multi-talented Eddie Perfect, will take up the Zeitgeist slot.

Creating an innovation in programming last year, Sheehy announced that a space in the 2013 Season would be left open. Zeitgeist, as it was called, would only be filled when the right show came along, a play or a performance that could not wait until 2014. To strike while the show was hot.

And The Beast fulfils all the criteria for a hot show. Certainly, Eddie Perfect’s career couldn’t be hotter. The writer and composer of Shane Warne – The Musical and a busy and accomplished musical comedy writer and performer, Perfect recently went ‘legit’ by acting in the television drama Offspring to great acclaim. Now, he has written his first non-musical work, The Beast, a brutally black social satire – a true zeitgeist buster.

The story comes out of a particular dinner Perfect attended when he lived in the Yarra Valley a few years ago. ‘A dinner held with five couples from the area involved consuming a terrifyingly large proportion of a 450 kilogram, fourteen month-old, female Angus calf.

I’m pleased to say that this dinner, named ‘Feast of the Beast’, was a far

more civilized affair than the one that appears in the play.’

Beginning with this convivial event, Perfect has created a carnivorous bacchanal, ‘a dark and twisted Australian story’, Perfect has in his satirical sights, not organic farmers as such, but those for whom organic farming is wrapped up in an elevated sense of their self-worth.

The Beast is a hilarious ‘and grotesque reminder to keep our righteousness and judgementalism in check as we collectively hurtle into an uncertain environmental future.

He sensed that Perfect, who had no playwriting credits to his name, had nevertheless the theatrical smarts to create a sharp and witty play from his strong idea. And Sheehy is pleased his instinct has been vindicated.

‘Social satire is a wake-up call to us all,’ Sheehy says. The Beast is a hilarious and grotesque reminder to keep our righteousness and judgementalism in check as we collectively hurtle into an uncertain environmental future.’

In another first for the Company, MTC will be partnering both the Melbourne Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival to bring The Beast to life. Extending our productive partnerships with other arts organisations has been a key element of Brett Sheehy’s vision for the Company.

‘This play does not set out to mock the good intentions of globally aware citizens,’ Perfect says, ‘but to take a firm swipe at anyone that uses a cause as a banner to advertise their innate goodness. Being seen to be good is often more important than actually doing good. There’s also a disconnect between the person we are, and the person we’d like to be. I love to write about that particular gap.’

Although it was an untried and daring concept, Zeitgeist has proved to be very popular with Subscribers.

Thousands revealed their own daring by signing up to the show and getting the best seats in the house. Of course, if you now regret not subscribing to Zeitgeist, you can still buy additional tickets for The Beast at special subscriber rates. Tickets are on sale now from the MTC Box Office. Further announcements about The Beast will be made in due course on our website (mtc.com.au), including details of its cast and creative team. We will report further on on the production in the Spring edition of Scenes, in which we hope to have a full interview with Eddie Perfect.

The Beast is the result of the first playwriting commission Brett Sheehy handed out when he joined the Company at the beginning of 2012.

The Beast, by Eddie Perfect will play at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner from 3 October to 9 November.

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Featuring

Cassandra Wilson — USA

melbournejazz.com

The school of arts Patrons ‘I’ve been going to the theatre all my life,’ she says. ‘My whole family loves it.

I was taken by my grandmother, mother and aunties and attended my first opera when I was ten years old.’

Therefore, she is committed to providing better access for young people whose families cannot afford theatre tickets. Therefore, she is committed to providing better access for young people whose families cannot afford theatre tickets – and not just old-style theatre excursions, but to experience how diverse theatre can be and to build new relationships.

Geraldine Lazarus with MTC’s Adrienne Conway

MTC Leading Patron and Supporter of Education Geraldine Lazarus has had a fascinating professional life which has seen her engage in social research on a diverse range of topics from early Australian car makers and indigenous education to theatregoing! Geraldine is a former board member of Playbox and her partner Greig Gailey is currently on the board of Victorian Opera, so they have seen a lot of live theatre.

When they decided to set up a charitable foundation, Geraldine wanted to give to things she felt passionate about and could feel a personal connection with. That included education, particularly a broader cultural education. Her research into theatregoers convinced her of the importance of being introduced to theatre early in life by an experienced audience member. It was certainly a vital ingredient in creating her own theatregoing habits.

Having given generously to the Education cause in the 2012 Annual Appeal, Geraldine was invited to a performance of the Youth Scholarship Course participants last July. Each year twenty-five students, all from disadvantaged backgrounds, are brought to Melbourne from throughout Victoria to experience a week’s intensive drama workshop. Over the years, it has proved to be life-changing for many of the young people, something Geraldine could see for herself.

‘You could see the transformative effect by the time they performed their production. It was terrific. Yet, I wondered why I was the only one outside of family members who saw the production?’

Following Geraldine’s feedback, we will be offering Patrons the opportunity to attend the Youth Scholarship Course performance this September. If you share Geraldine’s passion, please put Friday 27 September in your diaries to join us for this very uplifting and rewarding experience.

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Another crucial program is the MTC Ambassadors, a group of Year 11 theatre-lovers who meet each month to attend shows, listen to guest speakers and exchange views on theatre.

Recently Patrons, including Supporters of Education, met the latest group of Ambassadors, along with the cast and creative team from Beached, at a postshow supper. Patrons and Ambassadors alike were thrilled to talk with the artistic team, and the Patrons’ enjoyment of Beached proved that age is no barrier when it comes to the theatre. We heard directly from 2012 Ambassadors Bethany Walraven and Joshua McFarland about their MTC experience.

Their passionate and articulate speeches inspired us all – thank you!

You can see more about MTC’s Education Program, Youth Scholarship Course and MTC Ambassadors at www.mtc.com.au/education.

Please call Adrienne Conway on (03) 8688 0959 if you are interested in becoming a Supporter of Education, just one of the areas you can support with a Leading Patron gift.

Adrienne Conway Major Donor and Foundations Manager

Dazzling bright NEON Festival The NEON Festival is well underway. MTC’s celebration of Melbourne’s Independent Theatre sector kicked off on 16 May with Daniel Schlusser Ensemble’s brilliantly conceived Menagerie. Fraught Outfit’s On the Bodily Education of Young Girls is currently playing at the Lawler, with three more shows and three great cutting-edge companies to follow. All tickets are $25.

Patrons Jo a about MTC n and George Lefr oy Suzie Tho Education program hearing mas s from

rs Youth Ambassado and the cast of Beached

And don’t forget NEON Extra, a series of free conversations and debates with leading theatre makers, commentators and arts industry experts.

By Their Own Hands by The Hayloft Project 13 June to 23 June 2013 Forum: Wednesday 19 June Story of O by THE RABBLE 27 June to 7 July 2013 Forum: Wednesday 3 July The Sovereign Wife by Sisters Grimm 11 July to 21 July 2013 Forum: Wednesday 17 July Southbank Theatre, The Lawler All tickets $25

NEON Extra

Free and open to all at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner.

Leading the Way What can other art forms offer our stages?

Sunday 2 June, 1.30pm Open Up An expert panel answer as many of questions about the Melbourne theatre scene in sixty minutes.

Sunday 7 July 1.30pm

Susie Dee with Youth Ambassado rs

The Art of Adaptation Is adapting the easy way out?

Sunday 21 July, 1.30pm For bookings and more information visit mtc.com.au

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WHETHER IT’S PRE-SHOW, INTERVAL, OR THE AFTER SHOW BREAKDOWN, Genovese is perfect for any conversation. www.genovese.com.au

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MTC’s next generation CentreStage We recently met up with perhaps our youngest CentreStage Member, Jay Carmichael, to find out about his CentreStage experience. Aged nineteen, Jay has been a Supporting Member since 2012 and is a budding playwright studying Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. CentreStage Membership is an ideal way for him to see a wide range of productions and playwriting styles.

that CentreStage Members receive from time to time.

Jay Carmichael

‘I enjoy learning about what’s going on at MTC through CentreStage. It’s really good the way it opens up the world of theatre to people. I think the package is pretty good for younger members – I don’t think many young people actually know that. There are students in my course that have said that it’s too expensive to go to the theatre, so I’ve suggested they join CentreStage because it’s so much cheaper.’

‘I joined CentreStage mostly because I thought it was a really good package to be able to see as many plays as I wanted, plus the opportunity to be able

To find out more about CentreStage membership or to sign up a young member, please contact Mandy Jones, Fundraising and Events Manager on 8688 0958 or m.jones@mtc.com.au

CentreStage Members Lounge Thanks to all the dedicated Dress Rehearsal fans who joined us for afternoon tea for Other Desert Cities and True Minds in the function rooms at Southbank Theatre. We and our friends at Genovese Coffee certainly enjoyed being hosts and getting to know you a little better. From the positive response we received, Members enjoyed the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. The Members Lounge will be offered prior to each Dress Rehearsal in the Sumner this year. We’ll see you there!

Upcoming Dress Rehearsals

Solomon and Marion by Lara Foot 2pm, Friday 7 June Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio

Members’ Lounge

to go to Dress Rehearsals, because I think that gives a really interesting insight,’ Jay explains.

Discussing recent productions he has seen, Jay says Queen Lear and Constellations were stand-outs. ‘I actually saw Queen Lear twice because I thought it was so fantastic. I liked that it was a woman; I’ve always had an issue with King Lear. I thought the emotion that Lear experiences was more realistic coming from a woman. And I really liked the way they did it – the staging was great,’ says Jay. Describing Constellations as ‘arresting’, Jay says he was particularly impressed with how the writing and the direction captured glimpses into multiple

universes. ‘It’s very clever writing,’ he says. It took me a little while to work out what was happening, but the lighting and sound really helped to show the changes. They were very subtle changes, a tiny sound or a flicker of light. And I really liked the sign language. I thought it was quite powerful that they had taken away all the words and were using sign language, and we still understood it.’

Having drawn inspiration from Chekhov’s naturalistic writing style for his own writing, Jay says he is looking forward to Simon Stone’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard. He enjoys receiving information from MTC, especially the invitations to special events and complimentary film passes

The Crucible by Arthur Miller 2pm, Saturday 22 June Southbank Theatre, The Sumner The Cherry Orchard by Simon Stone after Anton Chekhov 2pm, Saturday 10 August Southbank Theatre, The Sumner Rupert by David Williamson 2pm, Saturday 24 August Arts Centre Melbourne, The Playhouse To book for Dress Rehearsals, please phone Ryan Nicolussi on 8688 0953 or email membership@mtc.com.au specifying number of members and guests attending. Remember, bookings are essential and Dress Rehearsals are subject to change or cancellation.

Mandy Jones Fundraising and Events Manager

The envelope please MTC actors came to the fore at the recent Green Room Awards ceremony, taking away both the Best Female and Best Male Actor Awards in the

Eryn Jean Norvill in Top Girls (2012)

Companies section. Having made her MTC debut in 2011 as a delicate Ophelia in Hamlet, Eryn Jean Norvill received Best Female Actor for her performance as Angie, the troubled teenager in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. A little later in the ceremony, Colin Friels received the Best Male Actor award as for his portrayal of irascible abstractimpressionist Mark Rothko in Red. It was also heartening to see that Production of the Year went to Top Girls, directed

by Jenny Kemp, lushly designed by Dale Ferguson and lit by Richard Vabre, and with a beautiful sound design composed by Elizabeth Drake.

All of their creative energies were brilliantly served by the skill of our production, workshop, wardrobe and technical departments. Congratulations to all.

And congratulations to those who were deservedly nominated. Our 2012 Season was strong on fine performances with Alison Bell (Tribes), Helen Thomson (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) and

Darren Gilshenan (Elling) all receiving nominations. In technical categories, the nominations honoured lighting designers Damien Cooper (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) and Matt Scott (Red), set and costume designers Andrew Bailey (On the Production of Monsters, The Golden Dragon, and Happy Ending), Dale Ferguson (Top Girls) and Christina Smith (Elling), and sound designers Paul Charlier and Alan John (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) and Elizabeth Drake (Top Girls).

The greatly-acclaimed revival of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll came originally from Belvoir in Sydney and was directed by Neil Armfield, who received a nomination for his work, while the show as a whole was recognized in the Best Production category. Finally, it was heartening to see that the hard-working troupe in The Golden Dragon received a nomination for Best Ensemble, a sign that our work in the Lawler Studio has been gaining notice.

Finding their voice Education ‘What we want is their voice and the way they see the world,’ is how Literary Director Chris Mead sums up the aims of MTC Education’s latest project, currently taking place in Bendigo.

Throughout terms one and two, playwright and former teacher Ned Manning, teacher-artist Meg Upton and Mead are travelling up to Bendigo to have regular playwriting sessions with Year 11 students from Bendigo Senior Secondary College.

The project is aptly called Finding Your Voice and assumes that these students – all of them living varied lives in regional Victoria, some from disadvantaged backgrounds, others from refugee families – have plenty of fascinating stories to tell, if only they had a means of telling them. This is where playwriting and performance comes in, although, up to now, many of the students have had very little exposure to theatre. So the project starts with fundamentals.

‘We are concentrating on giving them the basic tools of playwriting,’ says Mead. ‘We focus each session on a

couple of things and get them to write in small groups. They might want to write individually – that’s okay. Already, there are a few students who are wide-eyed and want to get into it themselves.

It’s terrific.’

The collaboration between MTC and the secondary college is part of a new initiative in which a number Beached director Petra Kalive, with Ned Manning, of Victorian arts speaking to the Bendigo students companies, rather than just delivering performances to Meg Upton, who is also documenting student audiences, make a more the process and its outcomes as part of lasting mark by passing on the skills of her PhD research, accepts that such their trade. The final product will be collaborations are untried and carry performances of the students’ work risks, but expects it to be a success. in Bendigo and in Melbourne at the ‘This type of partnership project offers Lawler Studio, but the most desired enormous opportunities for mutual outcomes are less tangible, an teaching, learning, artistic practice improvement of the students’ and engagement. It offers enormous creativity, literacy, collaboration and potential as a model for future MTC communication skills, a boost in selfeducation and outreach programs. esteem and self-knowledge.

It’s pretty exciting.’

Special offers Winter 2013 Ticket Offer

DVD Offer

The Audience

2 July

Helen Mirren reprises her Academy Awardwinning role as Queen Elizabeth II in the critically acclaimed West End production of The Audience, captured live in HD from London’s Gielgud Theatre as part of National Theatre Live. A new play written by Peter Morgan (The Queen and Frost/Nixon) and directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours), Mirren recently won her first Olivier Award for her performance.

For your chance to win one of fifty double passes to a special preview screening of The Audience at Cinema Nova on Tuesday 2 July at 6:30pm, email your name and Subscriber details to offers@mtc.com.au with AUDIENCE in the subject line.

Amour Cultivated, retired music teachers, Georges and Anne are in their eighties. One day, Anne has an attack, severely testing the couple’s bond of love. Receiving critical acclaim around the world (including five-star reviews from both Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton), Michael Haneke’s Amour has been honoured with numerous awards, including the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2013.

DVD Offer

Movie Offer

For your chance to win one of twenty DVD copies of Amour courtesy of Transmission Home Entertainment, email your name and Subscriber details to offers@mtc.com. au with AMOUR in the subject line, or call (03) 8688 0900.

Silver Linings Playbook After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his exwife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own. Starring Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook has been touted as the perfect twenty-first century rom-com.

For your chance to win one of twenty-five DVD copies of Silver Linings Playbook courtesy of Roadshow Entertainment, email your name and Subscriber details to offers@mtc.com.au with SILVER in the subject line.

Satellite Boy

From 20 June

Catriona McKenzie’s directorial debut, Satellite Boy is a heartfelt examination of a world torn between tradition and progress.

Twelve year-old Aboriginal boy, Pete, lives with his grandfather (David Gulpilil) in an abandoned outback cinema. When a mining corporation earmarks the cinema for demolition, Pete sets off on a life changing journey through stunning Kimberley country to try and stop them.

Hopscotch eOne are offering MTC Subscribers a two for one ticket deal for Satellite Boy. Simply present this coupon at any participating cinema to receive one free ticket with the purchase of one fullpriced adult ticket. Valid from 20 June 2013 until the end of the film’s theatrical season at all participating cinemas (excludes public holidays, discount days or after 5pm on Saturday).