QPAC Story Act 2 2015 by Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Story Act 2, 2015

Published by Queensland Performing Arts Centre

QPAC.COM.AU

Feature

Prelude

Behind the scenes

Digital

David Malouf on the delight of art

Conductor Maxim Vengerov as UNICEF Ambassador

Getting green â&#x20AC;&#x201C; WICKED and the Emerald City

Scan pages for additional online content

Front Yard Music, QPAC Photography Alisha Musil

Contents Features

Opinions

Questions on the way to an exhibition p16 Renowned author, David Malouf, asks what connects us to particular works of art

Future of work p34 How not to be dull and other musings p38 Five minutes with … Richard Tognetti p66

On the lighter side A day in the life p32

The long table p46 Food writer and stylist leader, David Prior, on the links between food and culture

Contents

Intervals Clancestry p14 I Musici p30 Front Yard Music p44 Out of the Box p58

Preludes American legend p12 Marking time p24 When music changes the world p26 Across the lines p42

Out of the closet p52 Dance off p54 A moment of … happy p64

Short stories Briefly p10 CABaret p22 Lyrebird Restaurant p50 Watercooler chats p56 Musical magic p60

What’s on Competition p41 Event calendar p62

Chair

Executive Staff

Story Team

Chris Freeman AM

John Kotzas, Chief Executive Jackie Branch, Director, Patron Services Ross Cunningham, Director, Presenter Services Roxanne Hopkins, Director, Marketing Kieron Roost, Director, Corporate Services

Editor Rebecca Lamoin Editorial Team Jennifer Cahill, Professor Judith McLean, Roxanne Hopkins, Emily Philip, Eleanor Price Digital Team Jasmine Ellem, Kim Harper, Asiya Muldabayeva Design map creative

Story: Act 2, 2015

Deputy Chair

Rhonda White AO Trustees Kylie Blucher, Simon Gallaher, Sophie Mitchell, Mick Power AM

Contents

‘To feel as if you belong is one of the great triumphs of human existence – and especially to sustain a life of belonging and to invite others into that – has always been acknowledged as one of the great achievements of human existence.’ – David Whyte, poet and philosopher

Interact

Les Misérables Australia Performer Chris Durling Photography Daniel Boud

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Story: Act 2, 2015

Cover

In this edition

Story: Act 2, 2015

Editor’s note

Words John Kotzas, Chief Executive, QPAC

Sometimes, on some days, things make sense. A moment when complexities dissolve and the universe lines up, a flight of fancy where you inhabit your life, your community, your skin in a way that just seems to feel right, or even fated. For most of us I suspect these moments are the exception rather than the rule and, at least in my case, they are often precipitated by an interaction with works of art. In this issue of Story we feature a piece from Australian writer David Malouf whose recent book Being There, dives into this space between artist and audience and the things that happen to us as a consequence. Being There is a collection of essays and occasional pieces, a kind of meandering in its most poetic sense, through theatre, music, opera and visual arts. In his piece Questions on the way to an exhibition, Malouf achieves something we as arts managers strive to do every day but rarely accomplish. With great eloquence he leaps the divide between the creation of art (and all the attending complexities) and the human compulsion to seek it out. He asks: “What is it in us – what urge to lose ourselves in the otherness of things – that leads us so insistently to seek out encounters with paintings, plays, poems, novels, works of sculpture, dance and music?” A desire to live submerged in art and music was one of the many things American lyricist Cole Porter was famous for. In a piece, honouring his fellow countryman, United States Ambassador John Berry suggests this compulsion towards art is something to do with the way it appeals to both our intellect and our emotions. Certainly that’s one of the reasons behind the enduring legacy of Cole Porter’s music. Later this year the extraordinarily accomplished Maxim Vengerov joins the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for a once only concert. He is one of those intriguing individuals who seems to excel at most everything he turns his hand to – violinist, conductor, Professor and all round music advocate. Norman Gillespie looks at his role as the first classical musician appointed as a UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador. Closer to home, we take a look at the much discussed issue of the future of work as two of our own staff expose some of the complexities and surprises of their roles in QPAC’s Staging Department and the impact they predict technology will have on theatre in the future. We pay tribute to the long history of the dance off (my favourite being David Brent’s contribution to the form in Season 2 of The Office) as we line up some of the favourite elements of Dirty Dancing and Strictly Ballroom. If you can’t decide on a winner, you’re not alone. Our staff continue to battle it out in corridors and meeting rooms. Nothing says welcome to Monday morning in a performing arts centre quite like a raging debate about carrying a watermelon … or a pineapple.

Three decades of storytelling

carnival of the animals a production by circa and qpacâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s out of the box festival. photo by damien bredberg.

David Malouf

Leigh Buchanan

David Malouf is the internationally acclaimed author of novels including Ransom, The Great World (winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ prize and the Prix Femina Etranger), Remembering Babylon (winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), An Imaginary Life, Conversations at Curlow Creek, Dream Stuff, Every Move You Make and his autobiographical classic 12 Edmondstone Street. His Collected Stories won the 2008 Australia-Asia Literary Award. His most recent books are A First Place and The Writing Life. David was born in 1934 and was brought up in Brisbane.

Leigh Buchanan is a designer, stylist, costumier, cabaret performer and artist. Runner-up of Project Runway Australia’s inaugural season, Leigh spent 20 years in the fashion industry with houses such as Easton Pearson, and dressed names such as Tina Arena and Penelope Cruz, before moving into theatre wardrobe. Film credits include costumes for Emmanuelle Beart in My Mistress with Angus Strathie and work on Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. Leigh received a Best Costume Design nomination for Oscar Theatre Company’s 2011 production of Spring Awakening. He made his stage debut in his sold out cabaret show The Devil Wears Leigh Buchanan in December 2014.

Norman Gillespie

Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Norman Gillespie is Chief Executive of UNICEF Australia and a vocal advocate for child rights. He has seen UNICEF’s work on the frontline in many of the world’s most challenging regions. He brings experience from the commercial, arts and philanthropic public sectors, having held major public roles as CFO and Deputy CEO of Optus, CEO of the Sydney Opera House, Director of Finance and Planning for BP Exploration in North America, and Head of the Chairman’s Private Office at BP HQ. In May 2013 Norman was appointed to UNICEF’s worldwide Executive Standing Group of National Committees, and in September 2014 he was elected Chair of the Standing Group.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied, the 2015 Queensland Young Australian of the Year, is a mechanical engineer, social advocate, writer and petrol head. Yassmin is passionate about diversifying public voices, connecting people and catalysing change. At 16, she founded Youth Without Borders, an organisation focused on enabling young people to work for positive change in their communities. In 2012 she was named Young Leader in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac’s inaugural 100 Women of Influence Awards. Born in Sudan and moving to Australia at the age of two, she has served on various state and federal councils and currently sits on three NGO Boards as a nonexecutive director. Yassmin works as a FIFO engineer on oil and gas rigs.

About QPAC

Our Venues

Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) is one of Australia’s leading centres for live performance. Welcoming over 1.2million visitors to more than 1200 performances each year, we embrace the best in live performance – the world renowned alongside the emerging, local and new – and connect to the stories and ideas at the heart of each production. Through the warmth and expertise of our staff we have become a trusted curator, presenter and host; a place to come together to relax, reflect, share stories and celebrate.

QPAC has four theatres suitable for a range of performance styles: Lyric Theatre (2,000 seats) is designed primarily for opera, ballet and large-scale theatre events such as musicals; Concert Hall (1,600 seats) is a versatile space, designed primarily for orchestral performances and also used for contemporary music, stand-up comedy and presentations; Playhouse (850 seats) is primarily designed for theatre and dance; and Cremorne Theatre (312 seats) is an intimate and versatile black box theatre space.

p52 Out of the closet

Contributors

p16 Questions on the way to an exhibition

Story:Act 2 / 2015

p26 When music changes the world

p42 Across the lines

Judith McLean

John Berry

p38 How not to be dull and other musings

p12 American legend

Professor Judith McLean is the Chair in Arts Education, a joint appointment between Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) where she holds the role of Scholar in Residence. Judith’s career is distinguished by her breadth and diversity of experience as an arts educator, artist and cultural leader across Australia. She is currently a Director on the Board of Tourism and Events Queensland and along with Professors Brad Haseman and Paul Makeham she co-leads executive education programs using arts based practices in the corporate and government sectors.

John Berry presented his credentials to Governor General Quentin Bryce on 25 September, 2013, becoming the 25th US Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia. Ambassador Berry’s distinguished public service career spans more than 30 years. Prior to his nomination, he served as the Director of the US Office of Personnel Management – the federal government’s ‘chief people person’ – where he directed a workforce of nearly two million – from April 2009 to April 2013. Hiring of veterans and people with disabilities reached record highs under his leadership. In this role, Ambassador Berry was the highest ranking openly LGBT executive in US history.

Contributors

David Prior p46 The long table

Whistling Wolf p22 CABaret

David Prior is an internationally published writer, a creative director and stylist. He is a Contributing Editor at Vogue Living, contributes to T: The New York Times Style Magazine, NOWNESS, Monocle, and Modern Farmer. He has been featured in British Vogue and writes ‘postcards’ for a popular monthly recipe column in delicious magazine. David has also worked closely with US restaurateur, author and activist Alice Waters.

Whistling Wolf tells tales, tall and true. From concept through to production and delivery they create must-watch content for digital and broadcast channels. Whistling Wolf are ideas folk. From these ideas grow elegant stories, unique formats, words and pictures.

Connect

Acknowledgment

atQPAC @QPAC qpactv

@atqpac atqpac +QpacAu

PO Box 3567, South Bank, Qld 4101 (07) 3840 7444 | qpac.com.au/story ABN: 13 967 571 1218

Illustrations throughout

Julia Gonski was awarded with highly regarded in typography and visual arts in 2013. Her work entwines hand-generated detailing with the digital. Whilst studying abroad in London at the University of Westminster Julia found her passion for illustration and textile design. Currently freelance illustrating from Indonesia and India, where she is practicing batik and block printing design.

Story is published by QPAC. Printed in Brisbane, Australia. Contents of Story are subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publication of editorial does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of views or opinions expressed. The publisher does not accept responsibility for statements made by advertisers. Story welcomes editorial contributions or comments. They should be sent by email to story@ qpac.com.au. Printed July 2015.

Story:Act 2 / 2015

Contact

The Queensland Performing Arts Trust is a statutory body of the State of Queensland and is partially funded by the Queensland Government: The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for the Arts; Director-General, Department of Premier and Cabinet: David Stewart.

Julia Gonski

Short story Story: Act 2, 2015

How comedians became public intellectuals

On creativity: The differences between being artistic and being creative

Humour has long been used as a mirror for society and many comedians have a reputation as subversive artists causing creative destruction. More recently, it’s been comedians who have stepped forward to ask the hard questions and provoke responses on traditionally taboo topics. Today, they’re the ones who frequently spark office conversations and debates between friends and family. Part of this has been the changing way we watch comedy – short snippets on YouTube from last night’s episode that are easily shared and viewed. Have comedians, using humour not as the game but as a vehicle for making a point, become the vanguard of cultural criticism?

Creativity is a popular buzzword in many workplaces and learning institutions. To be creative is to set yourself apart from the majority but is it still relevant…after all, aren’t we all just a bit creative? Creativity as a skill is a concept from the 1960s and one which Don Draper would applaud us for. We have creative industries that encompass anything from art to design to gaming but is it time to go back to when being creative was something we all could ‘do’ and being an artist or working in an industry were skills and outputs. Actor, writer and director Humphrey Bower investigates.

Words Megan Garber | Published in The Atlantic, 28 June 2015 For more … qpac.com.au/story

Pictured Installation view of Olafur Eliasson The cubic structural evolution project 2004 in the exhibition 21st Century: Art in the First Decade | Photography Mark Sherwood Image courtesy QAGOMA | Words Humphrey Bower | Published in Crikey, 19 January 2015 For more … qpac.com.au/story

Grown-ups get out their crayons Remember whiling the day away with nothing more than a piece of paper and a couple of pencils? A colouring book for adults Secret Garden by Johanna Basford has been a surprising best seller on Amazon knocking off literary heavyweights Harper Lee and Anthony Doerr. Adults seem to be in a renaissance of rediscovering sitting down and creating something beautiful. Adults who have been colouring in have reported that the activity is relaxing and similar to meditation. A new trend set to stay? Words Alexandra Alter | Published in New York Times, March 2015 For more … qpac.com.au/story

Short story

Protecting cultural heritage amidst an unfolding crisis Advice from strangers: the craft of community

Words Shaya Lyon | Published in New Music Box, 21 May 2015 For more … qpac.com.au/story

Pictured Nepal-Quake | Photography SAFEI – Sanjeep Maharjan | Words Stacy D. Bowe | Published in International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, 6 June 2015 For more … qpac.com.au/story

Story: Act 2, 2015

Art is not created in isolation. But experiencing it can be a solitary undertaking. In the case of a novel, the audience may be an audience of one. Even when you attend live performance in a theatre, the experience is a personal connection between you and what you see on stage. Sometimes, we talk about our audience in the same way we talk about our community…but are they the same? In a series of opinion pieces for New Music Box, Shaya Lyon discusses how artists consider the needs of their audience in building a community of followers, a connected group that is open to new works and experiences rather than simply those that attend a performance.

The recent earthquake in Nepal measured 7.8 magnitude and is reported to have affected upwards of eight million people. Alongside humanitarian efforts, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property led a collaborative response to recover and salvage Nepal’s cultural heritage. In the short term, cultural heritage may not seem as important as new buildings, but the long term benefits of rebuilding culture and ensuring resilience in the future is gaining traction as being of importance to societies in medium and long term recovery.

American legend Widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, Cole Porter’s name conjures a bygone era of art, music and Upper East Side cocktail parties.

Story: Act 2, 2015

Prelude

Words US Ambassador John Berry

Cole Porter is known worldwide as one of our finest composers and lyricists. His contributions to musical theatre have inspired generations of performers, from Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga. He also embodied the satirical essence of the musical with his signature style of sophistication and acerbic wit. Over the course of his career he composed more than 1,200 songs for stage and screen, including classics such as Night and Day, Anything Goes, I Get a Kick Out of You, and It’s De-Lovely. And unlike Rogers and Hammerstein or the Gershwin brothers – Porter wrote solo, without a partner. Porter appreciated the magical relationship between words and music at an early age. He was fond of quoting from his earliest lessons: ‘Words and music must be so inseparably wedded to each other that they are like one.’ Porter understood that songs can give us insights into the private thoughts of characters that words alone cannot convey. The New York Times music editor Howard Taubman wrote that ‘the sophistication in his lines represented the point of view many of us wished to achieve.’ Cole Porter’s songs remain timeless, with a universal touch that appeals to both our intellect and our emotions. While the ingenuity of Porter’s lyrics is entertaining, it is his ability to capture the sweet sadness of love that makes his songs so compelling. The journey of love from courtship to conflict to resolution is the essence of the American

Cole Porter was an American original, but his songs belong to the world.

musical. It is the reason we get excited to go to the theatre – and why we can’t stop talking about it when leave. We connect with Porter’s works because regardless of who we are, we recognise the emotional sincerity he poured into his characters. Cole Porter left us in 1964, but we continue to honour the man and his work. In 2007, his star was dedicated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; in 2010, his portrait was added to the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the Indiana Governor’s office; and in 2014, a plaque in his honour was placed on the Legacy Walk in Chicago, which celebrates LGBT achievers. Cole Porter was an American original, but his songs belong to the world. Anything Goes From 25 July 2015 Lyric Theatre, QPAC

Prelude Story: Act 2, 2015

Pictured Cole Porter, NYC NY 1939 working on the score for the Broadway musical DuBarry was a Lady | Photography Michael Ochs Archives

‘This is an important gathering of clan groups from across the state to exchange and celebrate our culture.’

Story: Act 2, 2015

Interval

– Clancestry Curator, Fred Leone, Garawa and Badjtala Tribal Groups

Photography Mick Richards

Interval Story: Act 2, 2015

Clancestry â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A Celebration of Country November 2015, QPAC

Feature Story: Act 2, 2015

Photography Conrad del Villar

Words David Malouf | BEING THERE, Knopf 2015

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including our experience of other works of art; or, to choose among many other elements, the series of complex exchanges between our sensory apparatus and the controlling intelligence that influences not only what we hear or see in each case but how we read it. And this is to ignore, since they can scarcely be determined, all those purely personal and idiosyncratic factors that must shape an encounter between some fragment of the world ‘out there’ and the individual whose attention has been caught and challenged. Faced with so many shades and possibilities, we might decide that the mystery is after all unfathomable, and had best be left alone. But suppose we were to set complexity aside for a moment and ask ourselves something simple. What is it in us – what urge to lose ourselves in the otherness of things – that leads us so insistently to seek out encounters with paintings, plays, poems, novels, works of sculpture, dance, music? What is it in them that so enlivens us, brings us so much satisfaction; and what is the nature of our satisfaction? What is the ground of that capacity for simple delight in us on which so much complexity can be built? Twice now I have evoked the idea of attention, and this business of attending might be as good a place as any to begin. What any work of art demands of us if we are fully to take it in is the gathering of all our powers of looking and listening, of recording, understanding, feeling. But in … continued next page this intense concentration on the

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Why some of us make works of art, why so many of us turn to them as a source of delight, wonder, spiritual refreshment is a mystery, but one so ordinary that the roots of it must lie in what is simple – in something as close to us as our own body, in blood-beat and breath. Of course a work of art, a made thing that detaches itself from the mass and flow of phenomena in such a way as to catch our attention, may be extraordinarily complex in the elements that comprise it: so too in the responses it evokes. Think of Bach’s Mass in B minor, Wagner’s Ring cycle, a Mahler symphony, or even a work as relatively small in scale as a Debussy prelude. Behind each of these very different ventures lies a long history: of technical development in the shape and tuning of the instruments and in the perfection of a style of playing; of harmony, of the musical structures that characterise each of the forms – liturgical occasion, sixteen-hour-long music drama, fourmovement symphony, freestyle fantasia. The same is true of course for writing, painting and any other art. Then, on the other side – the side of response – there is all the complex business of our psychological makeup: the effect on our nervous system of certain intervals and combinations of sound that from Pythagoras on has been the source of so much speculation about the way our souls might be tuned to the laws, in particular the numerical laws, of the universe; or the dramatic interplay between immediate sensation and the calling up, through memory or by association, of previous experience,

Feature Story: Act 2, 2015

object we also experience, paradoxically it might seem, a heightened awareness of our own energy and presence. One of the secondary meanings of ‘attending’ is, in fact, just that – to be present, as when we speak of ‘attending’ a performance. To give our whole being to an event or object outside us is to be ourselves most fully present, most fully there. The seventeenth-century French philosopher Nicolas Malebranche spoke of attention as the natural prayer of the soul, and St Ignatius Loyola, in his spiritual exercises, recommended just such a form of absolute concentration, such a focusing of the mind on a single aspect of the Christian mystery, as a way to spiritual enlightenment, in much the same way that some forms of yoga use the repetition of a mantra. Any activity that demands our complete attention – absorption in a task, looking hard at a painting or piece of sculpture, losing ourselves in the reading of a story or in a play or film; doing anything, as we say, that ‘takes us out of ourselves’ – is restorative, and in a particular way. We are there, fully there, in the most complete exercise of our consciousness and being; but, since we are also outside ourselves in the object of attention, we are relieved for a time of the heavy consciousness of being; and, in that strange suspension of time we experience on such occasions, we are free as well of the even heavier consciousness of Time. This is doubly healing, and we recognise the fact when we speak of such forms of activity as recreation, as re-creation. Freed for a moment from the self and its preoccupations, lost in the object of our attention, we are paradoxically both fully present and at the same time dissolved in what is outside us. On the whole, modern living is not very conducive to this sort of activity: to the concentrated long-looking a painting demands, if we are fully to take it in, or the kind of intense listening we need to give to music. The sheer size of gallery collections and exhibitions makes browsing almost inevitable. We move on through, pausing only when something catches our eye. Radio and CDs encourage us to eavesdrop on music while we go about other business rather than give our whole attention to it, as we do when we attend a performance. Paintings can too easily become wallpaper; music aspires to the condition of muzak. If we take seriously that secondary meaning of ‘attend’, we are allowing our attention to become thin and spasmodic. When we give up ‘attending’, it is not the painting or musical work that grows dim and disappears, it is us. Every encounter of the kind I have been describing, with a painting or piece of sculpture, a poem, play or novel, a music or dance performance, involves a human agency, and on both sides. It is the fact that it is a human

body like our own that is taking Nijinsky’s leaps, a voice fuelled with ordinary breath that we hear soaring so breathtakingly (as we say) in the Allegri Miserere, that so deeply moves us. What we experience is an immediate and very physical sense of the body’s power and energy, both the performer’s and our own, but the revelation is of the body’s capacity to break free. Our spirit soars. We are enlightened, made lighter. The old distinction between body and spirit is resolved in us, and at the same time, in losing ourselves so completely in what is outside us, we feel the resolving of a second distinction – between subject and object, I and the world. In musical performance and dance the presence of a human agency is clear, the performer is there in the flesh. What we engage with in the majority of the arts is not a present performer but one who was there and is now invisible, or so it might seem. But if we are properly alert we will be aware of his traces – on the canvas, on the page – and might even think of ourselves as occupying, as we engage with the work, the spaces in which he once moved. With poetry, for example (and the same is true, if to a lesser degree, of prose) we experience this in the extent to which we fall under the spell of the writer’s ‘voice’, and through the relationship that exists between the rhythms of the work – its pace, the length of its phrases – and breath, both the writer’s and our own. In painting we are most keenly aware of the painter as performer, most directly in contact with his ‘hand’, through the brushstrokes that are the essential and very individual mark of his presence, and no less now than at the moment when he made them; but more subtly when, in shifting our position with regard to the canvas – in approaching, stepping away again, testing this view and that – we track the shadow of his presence by seeking out a place where he might have stood, either in fact or in imagination, when he conceived the work: the viewpoint from which, in his mind and eye, the painting took shape and became what it is. This extended play with the painting, in which we dramatise the space between ourselves and the canvas – ourselves always in motion while the painting sits still; this physical activity on our part as we investigate relationships, read rhythms, get in close to concentrate on abstract passages of paint that we delight in for their own sake, independently of what they ‘represent’; all this movement of the limbs, exercise of the mind and eye, keeps our own body clearly in view but is also a way of inhabiting the body of the once present and active, now invisible, creator. In occupying the spaces he once moved in, we give body once again to the shadow of his presence as performer. We begin to identify, if only in a ghostly way, the miracle of the creative act itself, the

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of as their levels of seriousness. Easy enough, for example, to regard what we feel when we listen to the ‘Agnus Dei’ from the B minor Mass or Mozart’s ‘Ave verum corpus’ as a ‘spiritual’ experience. There is, in the music itself, a clear religious content – though we might need to explain why people who have no religious feeling, or are hostile to religion, experience the same lifting of their spirit as those who do. But don’t we take a similar delight, find the same sense of joyful lightness and release, in the great ensembles in Act I of Figaro, which are in no way religious – are in fact comic, frivolous, ‘immoral’ even? Or, to go a step further, in the inspired nonsense of the quartet at the end of Act I of Rossini’s Italian Girl, whose bubbling lightness makes the spirit dance in a way that the same composer’s Stabat Mater does not? Or to go further … continued next page

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miraculous transfer of energy and vision from an actual individual to an object through which we can make it, however briefly, our own. Delight, a lightening of the spirit, enlightenment: lightness, in the double sense of a lifting of the shades and a release from the body – this is the essence of the thing. When this happens we are all spirit, though if we are to call the experience ‘spiritual’ we may need to take the word in its widest sense: spirit as ‘mettle’, as spunk, intrinsic being, the individual spark of Promethean fire, or in the French sense as witty. This wider connotation of the work, from an enlarging sense of our own and the world’s energy to a sprightly play of mind, would explain why we feel something like the same elation, the same lightening release from self, on occasions that are on the surface so unlike what we might think

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again, when Fred Astaire floats his breath, fragile, all too human, lighter than air, in a number like Cheek to Cheek? Music is non-representational. Even when it does have a verbal content, our response to it, as the examples above suggest, is independent of any idea or phenomenon the words might point to. But what of the visual arts, which, until very recently, always set out to re-create, or ‘imitate’ as Aristotle put it, a visible, tangible world of real objects and events? The question is why we feel driven to do this, why we need – and have done, it seems, since the earliest times – to reproduce in another form, in scratches or dabs of paint on a wall, in modelled clay, a world we already know, and can see and feel in its real form. Why is it that this version of the world that we make, that we re-create, seems so much more moving to us – so much more vividly present, in all its energy and uniqueness – than the one that comes to us in nature? Is this only because it has been isolated in such a way as to command our attention? Composed and presented so as to strike more acutely on our senses? Set in a light and context that allows us to grasp, in an immediate way, its inner life and spirit? All these, no doubt. But isn’t there something more? Some sense we have, even at this late date, that in embarking on the business of ‘imitation’ we are

dealing with a powerful and perhaps dangerous magic? That in translating things – not just living creatures but even what we might think of as inanimate objects – out of the realm of time and nature, the soft and fluid world of change, into a secondary world of our own creation, we are encroaching on what is sacred and maybe even, as some religions have seen it, forbidden? That we are appropriating both the knowledge and the role of the gods? Is this why there hovers about even the humblest objects in a painting – a bundle of asparagus on a dish, a row of nondescript bottles – some essence of the ineffable? Powerfully, even poignantly themselves as these objects may be – utterly present as phenomena of a known world – they seem endowed at the same time with the status of emissaries from another and more ‘real’ one, which we recognise but could not name. It is in this sense that they might be said to approach the sublime. But to put it in those terms we must intend by ‘sublime’ what lies mysteriously beyond the limits, beyond the threshold of what we can grasp, of where we have actually been – though not where, in moments of delight and enlightenment, the awakened spirit may take us. Essay for Sublime: 25 Years of the Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, 2002

‘Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.’

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– Nicolas Malebranche, 17th century philosopher

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Pictured (above) Nijinsky by John Neumeier, The Hamburg Ballet Dancer Alexandre Raibko Photography Holger Badekow Pictured (left) A visitor to Sam Fullbrook: Delicate Beauty at the Queensland Art Gallery, April 2014 Photography Brad Wagner Image courtesy QAGOMA

Story: Act 2, 2015

Short story

Jump in the back seat for three minutes with a star â&#x20AC;Ś On his way to rehearsal, stage and screen star Tom Burlinson gives us a glimpse into his lifelong love of Sinatra.

Story: Act 2, 2015

La Soiree artists the sexual gentleman (Asher Treleaven) and Ula (performed by AndrĂŠ-Anne LeBlanc) travel home after a late night at the theatre.

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QPAC and Brisbane based digital storytellers Whistling Wolf have teamed up to produce a suite of back seat chats and performances with artists from all over the world while they make their way to and from our stages. No two are the same. Visit qpac.com.au/story for more CABaret.

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Prelude

Marking time

Story: Act 2, 2015

Between 2014 and 2018 Australia commemorates the Anzac Centenary, marking 100 years since Australia’s involvement in the First World War.

An essential part of Australia’s involvement in the First World War was the landing of troops at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and the eight month Gallipoli campaign. The story of Gallipoli is woven into the fabric of three countries – Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. For the creation of The Gallipoli Symphony, 11 internationally respected composers from the three nations were each commissioned to create a 6-10 minute work themed around an element of the campaign. One movement of the Symphony has been presented at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli every year since 2006. Ten years in the making, The Gallipoli Symphony will now be performed in its entirety in two premiere performances in Istanbul and Brisbane.

The Gallipoli Symphony creates an important legacy. It tells the story of the Gallipoli campaign through music, reminding us of the horror and the heartache of war and carries a message of hope, peace, friendship and collaboration between nations. The Gallipoli Symphony 4 August 2015, Hagia Irene, Istanbul (invitation only) 24 November 2015, Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane (premiere public performance) The Gallipoli Symphony is proudly supported by the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism, New Zealand Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Queensland Government, Qantas and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. A proportion of proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Legacy.

Contributing composers

Photography Ernest Brooks Australian War Memorial

Omar Faruk Tekbilek (Turkey) Gareth Farr and Richard Nunns (New Zealand) Graeme Koehne AO (Australia) Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE (Australia) Elena Kats-Chernin (Australia) Kamran Ince (Turkey) Ross Harris (New Zealand) Andrew Schultz (Australia) Ross Edwards (Australia) Demir Demirkan (Turkey) Graeme Koehne AO (Australia)

Prelude

Pictured A British soldier visits a comradeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grave overlooking the Dardanelles at Gallipoli, 1915

Gelibolu He Poroporaoki (Farewell) The Voyage Thoughts of Home The Landing Invasion God Pity Us Poor Soldiers The August Offensive The Trenches Are Empty Now Hope of the Higher Heart Future

Story: Act 2, 2015

When music changes the world Musician and conductor Maxim Vengerov touches audiences from the stages of the world’s great concert halls, and also from the centre of the some of the world’s most contentious conflict zones.

Story: Act 2, 2015

Prelude

Words Norman Gillespie

The music world knows Maxim Vengerov as one of the world’s finest musicians, who has attained a lifetime of achievement at the top of his profession as a violinist, sought after by the foremost orchestras and boasting awardwinning recordings, and more recently as a conductor, all at an astonishingly young age. Perhaps less celebrated is that Maxim is an International Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, whose mission is to promote the rights and wellbeing of children everywhere, and particularly in reaching the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. It is a cause which he has been a committed advocate for, and passionately engaged with, since 1997, when he was the first classical musician to be appointed as a UNICEF ambassador. It was in 1954 that the then Executive Director of UNICEF, Maurice Pate, had the groundbreaking idea of bringing the plight and needs of the world’s children to the attention of a global audience through

what we would today label ‘celebrities’. He turned first to Hollywood and to the fame of Danny Kaye, who pioneered the role of ambassador-at-large in 1954 followed by Audrey Hepburn and Peter Ustinov. Today not only UNICEF but all leading causes benefit from the work of distinguished international ambassadors from all walks of life. The right to an education is a fundamental one for children. UNICEF promotes quality education, and especially the education of girls as key in countering the disadvantages of poverty, exploitation and to provide the opportunity for children to thrive and fulfil their potential. Increasingly there are other more traumatic causes of children being denied their right to this opportunity, none more tragic than the result of conflict and yet here we witness the unique and restorative power of music. Music is a universal language and has remarkable powers in the healing process for children traumatised by events outside of their control. Today there are an unprecedented number of emergencies impacting children, mostly the result of conflict. The continuing tragic

Prelude

Pictured Maxim Vengerov | Photography © UNICEF Romania/Radu Badoiu

is a powerful demonstration of how necessary art is to a healthy society. Governments and educators should never underestimate the importance of music, dance, art as meeting fundamental needs of expression and connection in children’s lives. It is not ‘a nice to have’, but an essential part of any curriculum, and of children’s development more broadly. The power of fame has many benefits, not least to attract the attention of media and those in positions of influence to both raise awareness of the special needs of children, and to encourage policy changes that will have a positive impact on the lives of countless children. The key to such outcomes lies in the personal commitment and impact of our ambassadors. Maxim Vengerov has demonstrated an extraordinary impact through not only the force of his personal passion and his many special gala performances on behalf of UNICEF’s, … continued next page

Story: Act 2, 2015

conflict in Syria has created millions of refugees, half of them children. Often these children arrive at camps such as the huge Za’atari camp in Jordan in ‘survival mode’, unable to speak and without awareness of themselves or their surroundings. In situations of profound stress, children’s bodies can remain in a biological stress response, where they are detached from their lived experience, emotions and their family and community based connections. With quality care from trained psychosocial professionals, it is possible to bring these children back from the brink and restore healthy social and emotional development. Music and music making has its own neuro-chemistry. Remarkably music can re-engage children’s emotions, healthy attachments and learning where words and traditional interventions may fail. Music has the power to express the inexpressible. This

Prelude Story: Act 2, 2015

but through his personal interactions with children and the unique power of music to both inspire and heal. A beautiful example of this was his visit to Romania in November of 2014 where his appearance at a fundraising gala in support of an ‘end violence against children’ campaign attracted ministers and parliamentarians, the heads of corporations and other key influencers. As well as enthralling his audience as soloist, he also spoke from the heart about the need to recognise and end verbal violence against children, a key campaign theme. Because of his appearance and endorsement there was unprecedented wide media coverage across Romania, which succeeded in strengthening political commitment towards child protection. But just as important was a visit Maxim made to a pilot school for disadvantaged children the next day. Here he swapped the concert platform for a classroom, his formal clothes for a UNICEF hoody, and concertos for folk dances as he entranced the very young children with his violin. His spontaneity, warmth and connection with the children caused one UNICEF child protection worker to

describe the visit as ‘one of the best days of her life’. She related how the children innately responded to the music and expressed a sense of the childhood joy which we take for granted but is sadly lacking in the lives of so many. In another visit Maxim made to Turkey in 2013, he helped UNICEF campaign for an increase in the enrolment and attendance of disadvantaged children to pre-school education and day care. In Istanbul his recital raised substantial funds to support the project, and he again visited a pre-school where he played to the children and answered their questions about music and UNICEF. Not only does Maxim continue to enhance the lives of audiences privileged to experience his performances in the world’s great concert halls, but he also enhances the lives of countless children through his unstinting work as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

QSO and Maxim Vengerov 28 November 2015 Concert Hall, QPAC

Prelude Story: Act 2, 2015

Music and music making has its own neuro-chemistry. Remarkably music can re-engage childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotions, healthy attachments and learning where words and traditional interventions may fail.

‘Italy’s I Musici … achieve the most delicate nuances of shading, of balance, of phrasing. Never does the rhythmic impulse falter, never is a note out of place.’

Story: Act 2, 2015

Interval

– Robert Sherman, The New York Times

Interval Story: Act 2, 2015

I Musici â&#x20AC;&#x201C; An Italian Odyssey 18 July 2015, Concert Hall, QPAC

On the lighter side Story: Act 2, 2015

Not all of the magic in WICKED happens on stage. Behind the scenes, a team of backstage wizards spend hours sewing, lifting, lighting and making-up to produce a magical performance every time. Here are some moments from the recent production at QPAC.

Photography Michael Andrew Dare

On the lighter side

Story: Act 2, 2015

Opinion

Future of work Methods of work and workplaces are constantly evolving to meet the needs of the society in which they operate. Two key members of the QPAC Staging team discuss the future of their work and some of the likely changes. Photography Emily Clasby | Artwork Grant DeVolson Wood, American Gothic, 1930. Painting housed in the Art Institute of Chicago. From the Studio Volume 118. [The Studio Ltd. London & New York, 1939]

How would you describe high performance in your job? TM: High performance is what show business is all about. The pursuit of excellence by everyone involved goes from the artist to the cleaner who mops the stage. If a stage is not mopped properly, it could mean the end of a performance or a career. We work in a potentially dangerous environment where we break all the rules, so to minimise the risk, we need to be at the top of our game in everything we do. CH: Being able to problem solve quickly is a great indicator. If a gig goes well and nothing goes wrong, it’s a great thing. But if something does go wrong, the performance may not be able to go ahead or be delayed if not fixed quickly. The test of true high performance and excellence comes from solving these problems quickly or having the foresight to solve the problem before it does become an issue … continued next page

Story: Act 2, 2015

How would you describe your job? TM: Manage and lead the Staging Department (encompassing staging operations, system maintenance and wardrobe) within Production Services to provide professional, client focused and cost-efficient services to venue hirers and other departments in QPAC. CH: I work in the Staging Department as a Senior Technician. We work with all staging, scenery, props, flying or automation. Basically anything to do with a show that isn’t lighting, sound or audio visual. It requires many different skills such as construction, rigging, working at heights, scaffolding to name a few…basically being a Jack of all Trades.

What’s something about your job that people wouldn’t expect? TM: The need for lateral thinking. Adapting design concepts into safe, workable, aesthetically pleasing and cost-efficient outcomes that meet tight deadlines requires an arsenal of solutions that have to be drawn on constantly in an ever-changing environment. CH: You have to be good at sleeping! Your work week may never be the same and can contain anything up to 100 hours, so once you put your head on the pillow, make sure you rest well for another 14 hour day tomorrow. You also get very good at adjusting your body clock quickly.

Opinion

Every five years, the Australian Government produces an Intergenerational Report that assesses how changes to Australia’s population size and age profile may impact economic growth, workforce and public finances over the next 40 years. The most recent report indicates that Australians today produce twice as many goods and services per hour of work than they did in the early 1970s. Given the aging population and predicted declining workforce participation rates, this increased productivity will play an even more critical role as a driver of growth in the future. Story asked QPAC Manager – Staging, Tony Maher and Senior Technician – Staging, Chris Horne to think about how their work will change in the future and their responses to the changes.

‘… overexposure to any gimmick will eventually fail to impress …’

Story: Act 2, 2015

Opinion

– Tony Maher

What place does technology play now and into the future? TM: In my working life I have seen the evolution of low tech lighting and rigging practices gain momentum to a level where the art of simplicity has been lost. Less is more? Not these days where audiences expect to passively sit and be wowed by ever increasing special effects. Fine if it contributes to the experience as we have seen in many of the spectacular musicals but overexposure to any gimmick will eventually fail to impress; rather stick to the subtle devices that activate people’s imaginations. Hence the expression ‘over designed and under directed’. Advances in audio technology have helped provide a more even distribution in what was always a subjective field of individual appreciation, but will we all be deaf in the future due to headphone misuse! CH: I believe technology, in relation to staging in particular, plays a huge part in allowing bigger elements and effects becoming safer and easier to deliver. We see automation becoming an integral part in many major productions. Effects such as flying people (eg Elphaba in WICKED, defying gravity – oh yes, I went there ...) is made possible by this technology. This effect would not have been achieved so easily in the last decade. I can only see that as technology becomes more sophisticated, we will see our major productions utilising these ideas and mechanisms to create some spectacular live performance. A prediction for the future of work – personally and globally? TM: Technical Specialist was what was stamped on my passport when I went to Singapore in 2002 to help open the Esplanade. It still helps to be an all rounder, and have as many disciplines under your belt as possible but it is a sign of the times that points to the need to specialise in a field. CH: I am going to contradict myself from the above. I actually see some of the most creative and best-selling productions involving some really simple concepts and

having a single (or couple of) big ticket actors. I see the industry being supported in this move by the public, and I really hope more of these theatrical pieces can be presented. Think along the lines of The Last Confession, Driving Miss Daisy, QTC’s Brisbane or even War Horse. Personally, I want to be involved in some really well developed and beautiful pieces of live performance. I get most of my job satisfaction in knowing I was there to assist and facilitate phenomenal events. Describe an innovation that you’ve been responsible for or involved with – who, or what did it improve at QPAC? TM: I helped design a way of converting the Concert Hall stage into a proscenium arch theatre so that we could increase the utilisation of the venue by presenting Lyric Theatre style productions in between concert style productions. CH: One large part of my job over the last couple of years has been writing workplace health and safety (WH&S) procedures for the department. This sounds boring BUT becoming WH&S compliant means that our staff are trained and competent in these procedures. The result is a visible increase in productivity and the time dedicated to managing crew on particular jobs decreased. What would your ideal job be? TM: As I approach retirement age, I would consider some part-time theatre consultancy work. CH: Like Tony, I wish to retire soon ... (only if I win the Lotto). I have worked on many different productions and festivals over my career. For my personal development I want to be more involved in facilitating and managing these live performance events in larger capacities. I couldn’t honestly tell you a specific event or show, because the best ones can, more often than not, be the ones you didn’t expect to produce beautiful pieces of work.

STRATEGIC PARTNER

www.worldsciencefestival.com.au World Science Festival Brisbane

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How not to be dull and other musings Recently I’ve been reading about the idea of people with ‘normotic illness’, a sickness I hadn’t come across before, even my spell check wouldn’t recognise the word.

Story: Act 2, 2015

Opinion

Words Professor Judith McLean

I found a definition explaining ‘normotic personality’ or ‘normopathy’ as ‘conforming excessively to the social norms of behaviour, without coming to express one’s own subjectivity’. It’s an idea proposed by psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas whose work I was looking at to help my thinking in writing a chapter for a new publication on babies and art by dance and theatre maker Sally Chance. QPAC premiered Sally’s wonderful work Nursery at last year’s Out of the Box Festival (2014) and I was lucky enough to see it again this year at Adelaide’s Come Out Festival. Specially commissioned for babies and their carers from 3 to 18 months, Nursery combines dance, theatre, play, song and music. It’s hard to imagine you could bring together 30 babies and their helicopter carers and ’real’ art could happen. Believe me it does and in the most glorious, indescribable way – complete with rocking, pulling, clapping, jumping, dancing and even acting, by the babies as well as the performers, in the most gentle and calm way. This is not your normal meaningless colour and movement performance for young audiences but carefully orchestrated choreography by Chance with the artists, every action and movement rehearsed and deliberately conceived to elicit particular reactions and emotions. It’s participative performance at its finest co-created by the performers and the babies, working together to make meaning with each other. But I digress, well sort of ! Seeing Nursery started me thinking about the word ‘curiosity’: a word the artists used throughout the performance repeating it over and over, almost willing it into the babies’ subconscious.

While the babies simply did what babies do – explore everything and everyone present in the circle – nothing was off limits with the only barrier being the babies’ safety. The space was open for their subjectivity to be freely expressed, offering them the antithesis of Bollas’ idea of normotic behaviour So, this is what set me wondering about what happens to us as grown-ups? Why do we stop being curious and not be able to express our subjectivity? And, if the ‘normotic personality’ is an illness, how do you cure it? I think perhaps a clue to why, as adults, we lose our curiosity, is because we don’t use ‘our imaginative muscle’ often enough. Today’s world has become preoccupied with flexing the rational muscle. Bollas makes this point, that western society is overly impressed with the rational, the objective, and whilst there’s no denial about the importance of objectivity, when overused people become ‘blank selves’, what we would call dull, boring or lacking in personality. Taking part in or watching the arts offers endless opportunities to develop the imaginative muscle and by doing so creates new brain cells through the process known as neurogenesis, literally birthing new neurons to avoid the ‘blank self ’, or being a bore. Just how this happens will be the subject of my next article in Story. In the meantime come and see a show at QPAC or take part in creative activity to cure yourself of the normotic illness. Professor Judith McLean is QPAC’s Scholar in Residence. She is Chair in Arts Education, a joint appointment of QPAC and Queensland University of Technology.

‘Curiosity is a muscle – use it or lose it. It’s something that we consciously have to nurture in ourselves … Intellectually-curious people are the people who are going to do better.’ Ian Leslie, Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It, Basic Books 2014 Opinion Story: Act 2, 2015

Photography Emily Clasby

Story: Act 2, 2015

What’s on

‘The audience attentively absorbed every word as Geoffrey Robertson imparted his views and observations on many of the relevant issues of our time and of recent history. So glad I didn’t miss this informative and thoroughly entertaining evening.’ – Carolyn Whytcross, audience member, An Evening with Geoffrey Robertson: Dreaming Too Loud, QPAC Concert Hall, 12 May 2015

What’s on

Were you there? Geoffrey Robertson and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (pictured left) performed to a sold out audience at QPAC. Don’t miss any of these outstanding events, subscribe to QPAC eNews at qpac.com.au WIN TICKETS QPAC eNews subscribers and Story readers can win a double pass to the event of their choice* at QPAC. Simply tell us in 50 words or less what stories you would like to see in future editions of Story and the best entry received each month will win! Send your entries to story@qpac.com.au and make sure you use the same email address that your QPAC eNews is delivered to each fortnight. Not a subscriber to QPAC eNews? Subscription is easy at qpac.com.au * Subject

to availability; prize must be claimed within six months of notification. Winners will be drawn 31 August, 30 September, 31 October, 30 November and 31 December 2015, and will be notified by email. See website for full terms and conditions.

Photography Garry Schlatter Atmosphere Photography

Story: Act 2, 2015

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Across the lines Media and contemporary politics are filled with talk and images of protest, extremism, radicalisation. But as we take up arms in defence of democracy, where is the place for dissent, collective voice and genuinely diverse and counter views?

Story: Act 2, 2015

Prelude

Words Yassmin Abdel Magied | Photography Emma Espejo

We live in times of great change, or so it’s been said. In many ways, that is true. The last few years have seen unprecedented uprisings across the Middle East and North African region, although it has also demonstrated the very real consequences that are part and parcel of daring to defy entrenched and oppressive regimes. At the other side of the globe, the global financial crisis has given birth to the ‘Occupy’ movement; ironic in a nation that regards itself as a world leader in progress and civilisation. Exponential levels of development in technology have allowed the Internet to bring true globalisation to a planet previously divided by distance. The ease of travel and migration has only served to aid this; of course, the ability to access travel so freely only applies to some. In some ways it serves only to emphasise the difference between the haves and the have-nots. Alas! Clearly, times are a-changing, driven by individual and collective action and protest. Yet revolution, revolt and rebellion are not new concepts to society. In some ways, the methods of public actions have not changed much either. Human history is riddled with craters and killing fields; enormous events of change that we use as signposts and turning points in the timeline of our existence. One could argue that at every point in time, there have been

‘Across the lines, / Who would dare to go? / Under the bridge, / Over the tracks, / That separate whites from blacks, / Choose sides, / Or run for your life … / Tonight the riots begin.’ – Tracy Chapman, Across the Lines

different groups around the globe struggling against the same forms of oppression and subsequently, expressing themselves through similar forms of protest. Often this includes music, song and poetry. ‘Don’t you know, they’re talking about a revolution / It sounds, like a whisper’ Tracy Chapman’s softly spoken words of protest were the soundtrack to my upbringing. As a 1991-baby, my father had acquired the 1988 album Tracy Chapman and played the CD on repeat. We had just left my family’s home country of Sudan and the events at the time: a military coup, an oppressive government and the gradual but forceful elimination of human rights meant the lyrics of her songs were painfully relevant and close to home.

Prelude

There is more to sharing the stories of conflict, triumph and hope through song than simply venting anger and frustration. The power to share one’s own story is empowering. To have an audience gives legitimacy to an emotion that can often be forced to the fringes and to realise one is not alone creates a community and a sense of belonging that every human craves. Ultimately, it enables people to be part of a legacy of protest through music, song and poetry. It allows stories to become timeless and in doing so, forces us all to remember the events of the past. Real change, history has shown us, takes lifetimes. Many of us will not be around to see the changes that we strive so very hard for. However, experiencing stories from the past through song and adding to that volume of work reminds us that although change is incremental, it is also inevitable. It also shows us that we are not alone: these battles have been fought and won before and stories of protest became songs of celebration. Until then, settle in and let me spin you a yarn … Les Misérables From 10 November 2015 Lyric Theatre, QPAC

Story: Act 2, 2015

‘Why do the babies starve / When there is enough food to feed the world? Why when they’re so many of us are there people still alone? / Why are the missiles called peacekeepers / When their aim’s to kill / Why is a woman still not safe, when she’s in her home?’ Unfortunately, in some ways Chapman’s lyrics are timeless as the inequalities she refers to continue to exist. Her music is an example of protest prose, the art of highlighting what is wrong through a form that is pleasing to the ear. It is the Trojan horse of change: beautiful enough to let through the doors but a whole lot more than you bargained for once you have welcomed it in. Today, the art of protest prose has kept its value and its power as a mode of change. Travel to Sydney’s western suburbs and you will come across the Bankstown Poetry Slam, the largest spoken word slam in the southern hemisphere. Here, hundreds of young people from various backgrounds come together to spin soulful stories, share their dreams and express their ire over inequalities they feel powerless to change, all through poetry and prose. It makes for a powerful scene. Musical to the ear, it’s only when one pays closer attention to what is being said, does the true meaning come to light.

‘The open air under the fairy lights and the night sky … a welcome escape from the hustle of the day.’

Story: Act 2, 2015

Interval

– Sally Lawrence, The Seed Project (Front Yard Music series) 2014

Photography Alisha Musil

Interval Story: Act 2, 2015

Front Yard Music Until 25 September 2015, QPAC

Story: Act 2, 2015

Feature

The long table Feature

We increasingly recognise artistry in the act of cooking and preparing food. Indeed, the process could be considered a performance art. And now, our traditional temples of culture, the world’s major cultural institutions, have begun to embrace eating as an integral part of the visitor experience. Words David Prior

deliberate and demonstrative example but it is one that highlights the missed opportunity in the arts to engage all the senses. The suggestion is not that cooking becomes the reason we go to the theatre or that food takes primacy to art but instead that the restaurants, catering operation and food offerings tied to theatres, galleries and great public buildings could become an extension of the experience and mission of each. Typically, the most forgettable element of a visit to any cultural institution has been the food. A utilitarian cafeteria hidden away in the basement, a snack bar serving junk in the corner, or even a neon-lit, fast food outlet are the options that have been most widely available. Not limited to one particular institution, city or country, it is standard worldwide. Ironically, in the places that celebrate the beauty and diversity of our culture, food is often, at best, a mediocre afterthought, and at worst, a cynical, fast food cash cow. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why this has occurred. Is it that some cultural institutions have a public mandate that they should aim to please all (in reality pleasing no one)? Or perhaps cash-strapped arts organisations see the promise of high returns from … continued next page

Story: Act 2, 2015

There is a moment in the current Tony Award-winning production of Skylight on Broadway where the actors make spaghetti. Set in a kitchen, much of the action in David Hare’s modern classic revolves around cooking dinner on stage. However this production is different to those that have gone before and when it comes to the act, the actors aren’t studiously pretending to stir the pot, they are in a functioning kitchen and actually cooking. As the gas burns on the stage and the water begins to boil, so too the temperature in the drama rises. As they each slice the onions, the eyes of both the performers and audience water. When the garlic and the chilli is sautéed in the oil it perfumes the entire theatre and the audience is transported and memories of taste are evoked. The stage truly becomes a kitchen and the characters, relatable and deeply human. It is an aspect of the production so unusual for a theatre performance that it is striking. And it is one that reminds us of the power of food to prompt emotion, reveal identity and provoke thought. In our minds we often separate food and art and while we now find artistry in restaurants and the work of chefs, it is rare that their contribution is considered part of a cultural discussion or experience. Skylight might be a very

Story: Act 2, 2015

Feature

In most vibrant neighbourhoods in almost every city globally, the focus of social life is now engaged around little restaurants, markets, coffee carts and small bars. However it is a phenomenon that has been bypassing our great public spaces.

large, generic outfits as a way to bolster their coffers? Either way, the lack of curation when it comes to catering has, however obliquely, sent the message that food is entirely removed from their artistic aspirations and striving for excellence. Crucially, it now also has the effect of driving people away from spending more time in the spaces, as well as, more damagingly, telling us that food is unimportant to culture. This is a topic rarely considered, but it is one worth contemplating and one that is only now beginning to be recognized as a problem and challenge for cultural institutions around the world. We only need to look below the Louvre to witness how drastic the contradiction can be. Right there at the historic nexus of art and gastronomy, where once there could have been a food offering that celebrated the richness of French culture – perhaps a range from haute cuisine to democratic crepes – there is instead Starbucks and McDonald’s. This contradiction means that visitors don’t take the time to enjoy the space and communicate with one another but are instead turnstiled through a food experience that is fast, generic and artless. The very values of the institution eroded from within. ‘I wanted to plant a vegetable garden in the Tuileries,’ says Alice Waters of her ill-fated proposal in the ’90s to open a restaurant at the Louvre. It is little known, but Waters, of California’s seminal Chez Panisse Restaurant, was invited to propose a restaurant in the most iconic of all iconic institutions. Her expansive vision was to create ‘a platform, an exhibit, a conservatory and a laboratory that would connect visitors to real, simple food’. It would be an installation in the form of a restaurant that breathed new life into the underutilised public space and provided a venue for patrons from all walks of life to continue the cultural conversation around the table. Put simply, she hoped the restaurant would

‘curate food like the gallery curated art’. It was never to be, and Waters is not alone among chefs and restaurateurs whose ambitions to revolutionise food in a cultural institution have been stymied. Many have either been defeated by restrictions or seen their projects fail before they even began. ‘Arts administrators have been historically unwilling to take the same calculated risks with food that they take on their stages and on their walls’ says Waters. While their main responsibility should always be to support their art and artists first, cultural institutions are missing a powerful opportunity for a deeper, more meaningful engagement by not integrating food offerings that are complementary to their spaces and programming. Eating out has been democratized and is newly important to our culture. Particularly in many western cultures, this generation now go out for a meal like the generation before them went to the movies. It is how people connect, congregate and where they spend an increasing number of dollars. In most vibrant neighbourhoods in almost every city globally, the focus of social life is now engaged around little restaurants, markets, coffee carts and small bars. However it is a phenomenon that has been bypassing our great public spaces. Our cultural institutions are places that allow for people to gather to meet, linger, contemplate, argue and dream. Prompted by this very idea QPAC has embarked on implementing a re-envisioning of the role that its restaurants, bars and cafes play. The ambition is to create harmony and consistency between what occurs in the kitchen and is presented on the plate and what happens backstage and under the proscenium. A cultural conversation begun in the theatre will be continued at the table and everyone is welcome. David Prior is working with QPAC in 2015 on a reimagining of food as culture across the Centre.

Feature

Story: Act 2, 2015

Photography Toby Scott

Story: Act 2, 2015

Short story

Photography FireWorks Gallery

Story: Act 2, 2015

Gloria Petyarre (b. c1945) Black and white leaves (detail), 2003 Acrylic on linen Lyrebird Restaurant, QPAC

On the lighter side Story: Act 2, 2015

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If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then perhaps itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also true that if we open our closet to a fresh set of eyes, something entirely different might be seen. Testing the theory, one afternoon Story sent designer and costumier Leigh Buchanan into a strangerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s closet. His task was to reimagine what he found there. The stranger was Elise, and together they matched, clashed, layered and accessorised their way to three very different looks. The favourite made it all the way to the red carpet on the opening night of Dirty Dancing. Meet Leigh and Elise. See more at qpac.com.au/story.

Pictured (above) Elise Osmand and Brent Staker at Dirty Dancing opening night, QPAC

When Tuesday afternoon, 2pm Location Elise’s house, Cannon Hill Stylist Leigh Buchanan Subject Elise Osmand Photographer Morgan Roberts Shoes and clothing Elise’s own

On the lighter side Story: Act 2, 2015

Two classic dance movies. Two energetic musicals.

Story: Act 2, 2015

On the lighter side

Both on stage at QPAC this year.

So, if the tenacity of the Dirty Dancing chorus and the vivaciousness of the Strictly Ballroom cast went head to head, who would win the dance off? You decide.

Best line DD: Nobody puts Baby in a corner SB: I want Ken Railings to walk in here right now and say, ‘Pam Short’s broken both her legs and I wanna dance with you!’

Best song DD: (I’ve Had) the Time of My Life SB: Love is the Air

Coolest jacket DD: Johnny’s leather SB: Scott’s bolero

Best dance number DD: Johnny and Baby’s last night at Kellerman’s SB: Scott and Fran at the Pan Pacific Grand Prix

Sexiest leading man DD: Patrick Swayze SB: Paul Mercurio

Most annoying character DD: Baby’s sister, Lisa Houseman SB: Scott’s former partner, Liz Holt

Costume with the most impressive muscle display DD: Johnny’s black singlet SB: Scott’s white singlet

Greatest character transformation DD: Baby SB: Fran

Character with the best real life dance cred DD: Patrick Swayze – Eliot Feld’s Ballet Company SB: Paul Mercurio – Sydney Dance Company

On the lighter side

Best signature dance move DD: The lift SB: Flamenco slide

Dirty Dancing 27 May – 19 July 2015, QPAC Strictly Ballroom 9 September – 18 October 2015, QPAC

DD: 6-8 Points You’ve been known to sing Lover Boy while crawling on the floor.

SB: 6-8 Points At times you feel compelled to wear diamantes on your eyelashes.

DD: 9-10 Points Nobody puts you in a corner.

SB: 9-10 Points Go forth and Flamenco!

Story: Act 2, 2015

DD/SB: 5 Points You’re undecided … it’s a draw!

Short story

Is Beyoncé a contradictory feminist? Has art become too ‘nice’, should it return to its role as disturber? Will the massive increase in streaming movies and TV impact live arts? Is it the responsibility of the artist to create morally and ethically sound works? Is digital audience tracking just part of ‘the internet of things’?

Twice a month QPAC staff gather around the metaphorical watercooler for a 30 minute chat about news and issues relating to arts and culture – new thinking, sponsorship, popular culture, digital innovations, venue management, festivals, technology and more.

Story: Act 2, 2015

Join in or follow the conversation on Twitter #QPACchat

‘We need a pedagogy free from fear and focused on the magic of children’s innate quest for information and understanding.’

Story: Act 2, 2015

Interval

– Professor Sugata Mitra, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, England

Photography Darren Thomas

Interval Story: Act 2, 2015

Out of the Box Festival for 8 years and under 21-28 June 2016, QPAC

Short story

Something magical happens when individuals sing together as a group. The QPAC Choir includes singers of all musical abilities and from all walks of life. A contemporary adult community choir, members are united by the joy of singing. Auditions are held annually in a friendly, supportive environment. Register interest at choir@qpac.com.au.

Story: Act 2, 2015

Photography Emily Clasby

Women in Leadership Symposium

Unlocking Your Future Monday 19 & Tuesday 20 October 2015 For more information and to book, go to: www.qut.edu.au/business/women-in-leadership Phone (07) 3138 7733

Ana Bran, QUT Executive MBA Graduate General Manager Heavy Maintenance, Aurizon

Story: Act 2, 2015

What’s on

August

Aug Aug Aug Until 1 Aug Until 8 Aug Until 16 Aug 1 Aug 2 Aug 4 – 20 Aug 5 Aug 6 Aug 7 – 15 Aug 8 Aug 9 Aug 10 Aug 11 Aug 13 Aug 13 Aug – 5 Sep 14 Aug 15 Aug 17 Aug 21 Aug 21 – 29 Aug 22 Aug 27 Aug 28 Aug 29 Aug 30 Aug

QPAC 30 Anniversary Exhibition Front Yard Music Lunchtime Live Opera Queensland Candide Queensland Theatre Company Country Song Opera Australia Anything Goes Mondo Rock with Special Guests Gurrumul The Gospel Songs Tour Dylan Moran Off The Hook Musica Viva I Fagiolini Grimethorpe Colliery Band Bangarra Dance Theatre lore The Laughing Samoans Fink About It Queensland Symphony Orchestra Music on Sundays 3 Maestro’s Choice The Mabo Oration 2015 Tommy Emmanuel Queensland Symphony Orchestra Masterworks 4 QSO & Pinchas Zukerman shake & stir theatre co Dracula Elvis I’ll Remember You Queensland Symphony Orchestra Maestro 7 QSO & Pinchas Zukerman Australian Chamber Orchestra Brahms 3 Roy Orbison & The Everly Brothers Expressions Dance Company 7 Deadly Sins Queensland Youth Orchestra Masterpiece 3 The Firebird Julia Morris ‘I Don’t Want Your Honest Feedback’ Songs of Hope and Healing QLD Pops Come Swing Again Brisbane Sings 2015

Tony Gould Gallery Melbourne Street Green Various Playhouse Cremorne Theatre Lyric Theatre Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall

September Sep Until 5 Sep Until 25 Sep Until 26 Sep 2 Sep 3 – 4 Sep 5 Sep 5 – 8 Sep 6 Sep 7 Sep 8 Sep 9 Sep 9 Sep 9 Sep – 15 Oct 10 Sep 11 – 13 Sep 12 Sep 13 Sep 14 Sep 15 – 19 Sep 16 Sep 16 – 19 Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 23 – 26 Sep 23 – 26 Sep 25 – 26 Sep

Lunchtime Live shake & stir theatre co Dracula Front Yard Music QPAC 30 Anniversary Exhibition From Broadway to La Scala Imperial Russian Ballet Swan Lake Brisbane Festival Rise for the Oceans Brisbane Festival Coup Fatal Queensland Symphony Orchestra Music on Sundays 4 Mighty Imperial Russia! Renée Fleming Brisbane Festival Made In France Paul Lewis Brisbane Festival Cabinet of Curiosities Strictly Ballroom The Musical Brisbane Festival Paul Lewis Masterclass Brisbane Festival The Impor tance of Being Earnest Queensland Symphony Orchestra Maestro 8 QSO & Simone Young Brisbane Festival Reading of Gross Indecency Toni Braxton Live Brisbane Festival Macbeth Frank Sinatra a Celebration 100th Anniversary Concer t Brisbane Festival Le Cargo Brisbane Festival Thum Prints Brisbane Festival Symphony For Me Brisbane Festival Beautiful One Day Brisbane Festival FLEXN Brisbane Festival A State of Grace The Music of Tim and Jeff Buckley

Various Cremorne Theatre Melbourne Street Green Tony Gould Gallery Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Lyric Theatre Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Playhouse Concer t Hall

29 Sep – 3 Oct 30 Sep – 2 Oct

The Gruffalo’s Child Lah-Lah Live in Concer t

Playhouse Cremorne Theatre

October Lunchtime Live Lah-Lah Live in Concer t The Gruffalo’s Child Strictly Ballroom The Musical Harvest Rain Into The Woods Thank You for Being a Friend Les Misérables From Page to Stage Exhibition Joan Baez Ashgrove Dance You Should Be Dancing Absolutely Everybody Loves Broadway Brisbane Open House QLD Pops A Celtic Celebration Shatner’s World Australian Chamber Orchestra Mozar t’s Last Symphonies with Richard Tognetti Lord of the Dance Dangerous Games Queensland Symphony Orchestra Maestro 9 QSO & Shlomo Mintz Queensland Theatre Company The Odd Couple UQ School of Music Kakadu An Audience with Smoky & Herb Dennis Locorriere presents Dr Hook Queensland Ballet The Sleeping Beauty RocKwiz Live Salutes the ARIA Hall of Fame Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Riccardo Minasi, Italian Baroque Violin Dance Extravaganza 2015 Queensland Youth Orchestra 2015 Finale Concer t

Various Cremorne Theatre Playhouse Lyric Theatre Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Tony Gould Gallery Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Various Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Playhouse Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Concer t Hall Lyric Theatre Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall

November Nov Nov 1 Nov 5 – 7 Nov Until 8 Nov 11 Nov Until 13 Nov 6 & 7 Nov 10 Nov – 13 Dec 14 Nov – 6 Dec 15 Nov 21 Nov 22 Nov 24 Nov 25 Nov 28 Nov 30 Nov – 1 Dec

Les Misérables From Page to Stage Exhibition Clancestry a Celebration of Country The Voices of Birralee ACPA Showcase 2015 Queensland Theatre Company The Odd Couple Brendan Grace Lunchtime Live Queensland Symphony Orchestra Masterworks 5 QSO Plays Bolero Les Misérables Queensland Theatre Company Ladies in Black Queensland Symphony Orchestra Music on Sundays 5 Miracles and Magic Queensland Symphony Orchestra Maestro 11 Messiah Southern Cross Soloists Great Legends The Gallipoly Symphony Australian Chamber Orchestra Basel Chamber Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra Season Finale QSO & Maxim Vengerov Chris Cornell

Tony Gould Gallery Various Concer t Hall Cremorne Theatre Playhouse Concer t Hall Various Concer t Hall Lyric Theatre Playhouse Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall

What’s on

Oct Until 2 Oct Until 3 Oct Until 15 Oct 1 – 4 Oct 6 – 17 Oct 6 Oct – 23 Jan 7 Oct 8 – 10 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 10 Oct 11 Oct 12 Oct 13 – 16 Oct 17 Oct 17 Oct – 8 Nov 18 Oct 20 – 31 Oct 21 Oct 23 – 31 Oct 24 Oct 26 Oct 30 Oct 31 Oct

December Les Misérables From Page to Stage Exhibition Chris Cornell Queensland Theatre Company Ladies in Black Les Misérables Queensland Ballet The Nutcracker Camerata of St John’s Bright Stars Shone Upon Us Spirit of Christmas QLD Pops New Year’s Eve Gala

Visit qpac.com.au or call 136 246 for bookings or more information. Information correct at time of printing.

Tony Gould Gallery Concer t Hall Playhouse Lyric Theatre Playhouse Concer t Hall Concer t Hall Concer t Hall

Story: Act 2, 2015

Dec Until 1 Dec Until 6 Dec Until 13 Dec 11 – 23 Dec 13 Dec 18 – 19 Dec 31 Dec

Story: Act 2, 2015

On the lighter side

SCAN THIS PAGE WITH LAYAR APP

Story: Act 2, 2015

A close encounter with live performance can evoke many emotions in an audience. Story put a call out for images that portray one of these moments of emotion: A moment of … happy. We got some very happy responses. My moment of happy by Clare Anderson (left) was one of our favourites. Clare said of this moment that ‘the look of wonder and amazement on this little girl’s face nearly matched my own happiness when chasing giant bubbles through Central Park, New York. ’ You can view all the images we received at qpac.com.au. For our next issue, we’re looking for A moment of … surprise. Share or email your moment of surprise – whatever that means to you – along with a couple of sentences to set the scene for us. Share with us on Instagram by tagging #QPACmoment or email story@qpac.com.au by 2 November 2015. A selected photo and comments will be published in the next issue of Story as well as at qpac.com.au, so you will need to have the permission of anyone in your photo for it to be published in these ways. See the QPAC website for terms and conditions.

On the lighter side

A moment of …

Five minutes with Richard Tognetti Richard Tognetti AO is an Australian violinist, composer and conductor. He is currently Artistic Director and Leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Maribor Festival in Maribor, Slovenia.

Story: Act 2, 2015

Opinion

Photography Christopher Ireland

Three words that best describe Australia to me are … open, middle, down. My favourite season is … autumn. My word-for-the-day is … transmogrify. If my life was a song, the title would be … Milk It. The first performance I remember as a child … Tchaikovsky 5. A piece of art that I can lose myself in … a Rembrandt portrait. A person (dead or alive) who I would love to have coffee with … Thomas Jefferson for all the reasons in the world – he was an architect of enlightenment America; a violinist; he was born in 1743, the year my violin was made; he was the first wine connoisseur and to say nothing of him being the third President of the USA.

My ideal holiday destination … King Island in winter. I can’t leave the house without … my marbles. The first thing I do in the morning is … coffee addicts need their coffee. The toughest negotiation I have ever been involved with was … HR issues. If I could go back in time, the thing I would do differently is … pay more attention in mathematics classes. My formula for success is … don’t think about it. If I were a woman, I think my career would have been … not much different. I hope. A book that changed my perspective about life is … Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse. A TV show I grew up watching was … Flipper. My all-time favourite movie is … The Party. My motto in life is … don’t have one. A person who I find inspiring is … Betsy, who dared take on the sociopathic, greedy, guileful Lance Armstrong.

Photography Emily Clasby

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