SPARK 2018

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Contents

Making Childrens Theatre Work .......................................................................................... 3 Big Ideas From Little Theatre ............................................................................................... 7 Performances for Schools. Incursion and Excursion............................................................ 11 National ............................................................................................................................ 13 New South Wales & A.C.T. ................................................................................................ 16 Victoria ............................................................................................................................. 20 Queensland....................................................................................................................... 21 South Australia ................................................................................................................. 22 Western Australia .............................................................................................................. 22 Costuming, Make Up, Props and Sets................................................................................ 23 Where to find them. How to make them Shows For Schools ............................................................................................................ 35 Sound And Light ............................................................................................................... 49 Training ............................................................................................................................ 64 Welcome to Stage Whispers' annual School Performing Arts Resource Kit (SPARK). The aim is to provide school teachers with more tools to spark a love of theatre in their students. Please click through to the section that is relevant to you.

We welcome feedback on this edition and any suggestions you have for us to improve it in future years. Leave your comments here

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SPARK 2018

Making Children’s Theatre Work

Online extras!

See what Polyglot Theatre’s Separation Street is all about. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/z93R5u7fZRM permission to attend or rather, not allow the child any choice in the matter. During the work, even if the child enjoys the experience, the protective instinct of the adult often interprets for them: ‘You don’t like this, do you? Are you frightened? Do you Why do adults bring children to a King because they all know the film. Or want to stay?’ The child’s perceived performance? For many it’s to share the adult will bring the child because lack of judgement or experience makes their own love of theatre, the desire to they love a particular book and will go the role of the adult crucial. One bad share their experience with their own to see it on stage. experience for the adult can lead to a children. For some it’s because it’s part The adult offers the only way the continued disengagement for the child. of the child’s learning, part of their child can get to the performance and What is it that makes a children’s education. For others it’s because the their attendance comes with work for theatre? The arguments about content is familiar and they believe their responsibility. These parents and carers this definition are had at every festival child will relate to the performance; the may be reluctant to engage with works in every country, in every rehearsal big arena spectacular because the child that could be difficult, disturbing or room around the world. There is a is obsessed with Frozen; The Lion frightening. They may even refuse school of thought that says children’s

Sue Giles, the Artistic Director of Polyglot Theatre since 2000, argues that the dominant model for children’s theatre in Australia is not working. In a new Platform Paper published by Currency House, she calls for adults to listen to children and abandon outdated barriers to their exploration and risk-taking.

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theatre must have a particular aesthetic: colour and movement, slapstick, happy endings, simple story lines, engaging characters, costumes and songs. Blockbuster touring works like Disney on Ice, but also home grown works like Wiggles in Concert or High5, fulfil this brief and are considered purely entertainment for children and families.

Distraction is central to this form of entertainment and it’s for this reason that ‘entertainment’ is seen as distinct from Art. But entertainment is not a bad word. Respect for the audience as a discerning, sensitive, courageous and intelligent one, demands a high degree of rigour and thought in the construction of a work and you can certainly do this in entertaining ways.

The highly entertaining Australian company The Listies have conquered children’s comedy through deep

respect for their audience, with a focus on the subversion of the adult desire for control with hilarious results.

Entertainment is valuable in partnership with the development of strong concepts, interesting form, deep issues, exciting exploration and experimentation; and belongs, rightly, to the youngest of us.

Denmark’s Teatercentrum proudly announces: ‘No topics are taboo: from harassment, paedophilia, death and destruction to every-day-life, friendship, absurdities and pure comedies.’ Do we feel in Australia that we are barred from such confidence in content? In Denmark the culture of theatre-going is so well developed that the expectations have shifted accordingly. Their companies and artists attack ugly issues with flair and the population has (Continued on page 5) Sue Giles at ArtPlay during Polyglot Theatre’s Cerita Anak (Child’s Story).

Photo: Justin Batchelow.

Polyglot Theatre’s Separation Street.

Photo: Greta Costello.

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SPARK 2018

tough stuff played in ways that disturbed but held its audience with confidence in children to be able to compelling staging and the united receive strong works of theatre. hope that the girl in the story would In Cameroon I saw a play that prevail. portrayed child slavery - a real, living A discussion with theatre makers at problem in that country. The artists one international forum centred on the asked the child audience if they would ‘happy ending’. This is a highly shout, and if they would shout in real contentious issue across the world: life, in their own streets, if they saw this some German artists saw no reason for happening? The child audience happy endings, some Brazilian artists shouted, ‘YES’ and wanted to storm protested the opposite: that their outside immediately. The artists asked children led such troubled lives, why this, knowing that those with no power should they deal with sadness on the to stop the brutality of those stronger stage? than themselves, could still use their In many countries in Asia artists voices to attract attention. In South prefer cheerful, upbeat performance Africa a show for children played out that protects the child and offers the rape of a young girl on stage and beauty and the aesthetics around later the abuse of her baby. Really design and style, reflected in marketing (Continued from page 4)

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Sue Giles.

Photo: Theresa Harrison.

and merchandise. In Australia we definitely favour the happy ending.

We’re not afraid to explore some trouble along the way but we like things to end well. Hope is one of the qualities consistent in theatre for young audiences. Even that devastating play in South Africa, with all the pain and grief that never went away, ended with faith in the resilience of human capacity to be happy.

Much of the content for children in Australia currently centres round interpersonal relationships: ideas of friendship, bullying, confidence in self, difference and acceptance. The connection made between education and the arts over the years has had the added effect of pigeonholing the work created for children as having primarily an educative purpose.

One interesting direction many artists are exploring is the child’s authorship in works created for, with and by children themselves. There is more focus on collaboration, and in working with what they offer as a unique audience; but also as participants in the conceptual development, the testing of new work and in co-design.

At Polyglot both children and adults participate as elements in the design and narrative. We also create experiences that physically involve people in theatre works and in public space interactions. Works like Tangle, a public art spectacle created from kilometres of coloured elastic, only exist

This is an extract from the Platform Paper Young People And The Arts: An Agenda For Change.

It is now available for sale at www.currencyhouse.org.au because of the involvement of children and it is the task involved that cements the relationship participants have with the work. They make it, they play in it and they create drama from it. Works have been developed with more than one outcome, with ways of engaging that expand on the understanding of a performance.

The experimentation that places children at the centre of the work is where the most powerful and unusual explorations are occurring in the sector.

Working with children in collaborative process demands the acknowledgement of a new culture; respect and attention for the opportunities it gives us. It gives us new languages of performance and audience engagement. It also leads us into moments of chaos where anything might happen.

We must give over control and this is dangerous stuff for artists. It is dangerous stuff for any adult. In Maybe Together’s Future Postal Service, kids become the posties in a public space, writing postcards to the adult world and then delivering them to strangers.

The disruption this creates is on multiple levels: the adult is wrenched from their normal behaviour into a transaction that they must accept or not. They become aware of a game going on; they engage in a contract of sorts. The adult also becomes fearful for the child - should they be approaching strangers?

Participation is an accepted form in adult theatre; however, children’s participation takes a completely different tack. The experience of finding yourself involved, the new language that is discovered in this process, and witnessing the result of the creative energy that is unleashed, allow us adults to shift our perspectives of children in profound ways and to shift their perspectives of themselves.

Our Corka Bubs is a work created by choreographer Gina Rings based on Sally Chance’s dance project This (Baby) Life. In this work the participants are infants. The show is performed in the

expectation that the child becomes part of the movement before them, through their curiosity and desire to touch, get up close. By matching the child’s moves the performer expands in the moment the physical relationship between them.

At the 2017 Melbourne Fringe I found myself in a large room full of children and adults watching The Children’s Party (as in political party); a project drawn together by Fringe. This show was democracy in action as portrayed and pulled apart by children followed up with policy, discussion and dissention performed but authentically happening right in front of us in the manner of an ABC Q&A. Children in the audience were drawn into this debate effortlessly by the child protagonists and urged on by the voices and the action of the interacting audience, made clearly audible and heard loudly by adults in the room. It was a moving and eyeopening event that firmly placed kids as social actors and instigators and demonstrated independent thought in action.

During the six month development, The Children’s Party recorded a video in support of same-sex marriage, which was aired on Q & A and answered by Bill Shorten. This catapulted them into the adult world, where their ideas were

grilled online by anonymous trolls. On the Q & A Facebook page, the TCP clip had 70,000 views and 1600 comments.

The comments ranged from supportive (‘Equality seems much harder for adults to stomach than children. I hope these kids feel very proud of themselves and their hard work at putting together a statement of support.’) to full of anger (‘Disgraceful abuse of children to be groomed and used this way by ABC. Innocence of childhood hijacked for your salacious needs.’).

Most negative commenters related to children’s inability to have an informed say; to a loss of childhood; that the artists, Labor politicians or ABC were ‘brainwashing’, ‘indoctrinating’, ‘sexualising’ or ‘radicalising’ the children; or that the legal system is of ‘net benefit’ to those it excludes. The Children’s Party challenges democratic representation, and asks, ‘Who can stand up and have a say?

The dominant cultural assumption is that young people are ‘innocent’, they require adult authority, they need us.

To sit in a theatre and watch young people self-organising, radiating control and vulnerability, revealing their darker impulses, the spaces buried in between, we are captivated, confronted, disorientated. The theatre contract is altered, our perception shifted, as young people ask us to sit still and watch as they pull back the veil, and guide us into spaces into which only they can lead us.

Polyglot Theatre’s How High The Sky at The Arts Centre, Melbourne (2012).

Photo: Pia Johnson.

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Sydney-based independent theatre company Sport for Jove is punching way above its weight staging inventive and contemporary productions of both the classics and now new Australian plays for both the education and general theatre market.

Martin Portus reports.

Sport For Jove’s Macbeth.

Photo: Marnya Rothe.

Sport For Jove’s Cyrano de Bergerac.

Photo: Philip Erbacher.

Sport for Jove has come a long way since director Damien Ryan crossed the road from his house in Baulkham Hills, western Sydney and staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the local park.

The company has since enjoyed a decade of 7 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

applause for the energetic vision they’ve brought to Shakespeare and other classics, their physicality, relish for language, their irreverence. And all produced on the smell of an oily rag - but never looking like it.

Ryan though, since the start, was also dreaming of doing contemporary and new Australian writing, and for this 2018 season, this tenth anniversary year, Sport for Jove makes a major leap.

It premieres Caleb Lewis’ epic family drama, The River at the End of the Road, in Albury in March, inspired by the Murray River; and then a new play by Alana Valentine, Ear to the Edge of Time, in Sydney in October, about astronomy and the nature of collaborative discovery in science.

Also in Sydney, at the Seymour Centre’s Reginald Theatre where the company has long been resident, it’s staging the Orson Welles adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick.

Welles premiered it in London in 1955, on just a bare stage with minimal, improvised props and the actors in street clothes. It

began with the assembled players expecting to do King Lear, until a big, cigarmunching manager walks in brandishing his version of Moby Dick.

This 2018 retelling will be directed by Adam Cook.

Damien Ryan enthuses about the visceral, poetic nature of Welles’ language and the continuity for his family of actors getting their mouths around this just as they’ve done with Shakespeare.

“How else,” he says, “do you get a whale into the Reginald Theatre without conjuring it with a thigh and bare bones approach, with actors who spill the ocean out of their mouths onto that stage. This Moby Dick is very much in the dreamscape of our company.

“There is a balance about our work and Shakespeare the lifeblood of our company (Continued on page 9)

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(Continued from page 7)

and certainly in terms of our education and summer seasons - and finding a way to promote new writing and new directors.”

But the artistic director is still cautious. While Sport for Jove’s work with classics has built its reputation and its audiences in Leura in the Blue Mountains and venues across wider Sydney, this support doesn’t always translate to its contemporary work. An acclaimed, confronting production last year of Howard’s Barker’s political epic across the 20th Century, No End to Blame, lost “a bunch of money” at the box office. And without regular government support, the company has only what comes from audiences, as well as the SBW Foundation and an anonymous benefactor.

To commission Caleb Lewis’s new work about the Murray River, Sport for Jove joined forces with Albury’s Hothouse Theatre.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in western Sydney and my family came from Broken Hill,” says Ryan.

“Our dream was always to develop relationships with regional companies and tour widely. They often have more success generating funding for new work and particularly one for and about a community, an immersive work drawn from the country.”

Ryan describes Lewis’ new play as a vast adventure about life, death and river journeys out to the wide ocean, a very theatrical and poetic experience with music and movement. And although here contemporary, in many ways that’s a familiar signature for the company.

“For us, we’re unquestionably a theatre of language, of myth, of big ideas, journeys and transformation and a poetic level of language. And physical and ensemble based work is what we’re doing - not putting on two or three-handers in domestic situations. A big part of our theatricality is creating a sense of place, a world which makes sense to an audience and is immersive and transformative.”

Also this year, at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, Ryan will direct three Shakespeares in edited 90 minute versions - The Tempest, Macbeth and a 9 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Of Sport For Jove’s No End s. liam Wil e Kat Photo:

Blame.

Sport For Jove’s Cyrano de Bergerac.

Photo: Philip Erbacher.

new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ryan has already directed The Dream “six or seven times before, but not as much as I’ve done Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet” - so where does he find new inspiration?

“I tend to have too many ideas… but, yes, I’m not ready to go to the mainstage market with a new Dream.

Somebody would probably shoot me.”

His education versions of Shakespeare sport a similar irreverence as Ryan’s main productions but are shorter and more consistent with classroom approaches to the plays.

The company also opened 2018 with new productions of Measure for Measure and Goldoni’s The Servant of

Two Masters. This is classic fare for Sport for Jove and, says Ryan, keeps his actors in “match fitness” for the demands of good theatre-making beyond chasing their usual earners of commercials and telly.

Damien Ryan is also an actor but is keeping himself off the stage for 2018 at least. That’s a loss for those who remember the revival last year of his life -affirming production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and Ryan also outstanding in the lead as the scholar soldier with the unmentionably long nose. Whether as an actor, director or leading a celebrated theatre company for ten years, Ryan has impact whatever he does.

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Shows For Schools A taste of some of the best excursions available for High School and Primary School students in 2018.

For a full list including incursions - visit www.stagewhispers.com.au/spark after March 15.

Opera Australia Madame Butterfly Touring Victoria, NSW, ACT and Tasmania from July to September.

Hear Opera Australia’s wonderful singers and chamber orchestra in Puccini’s popular opera. Directed by John Bell with beautiful sets and costumes. Performed in English. http://bit.ly/2EZpslM CDP Productions The 78-Storey Treehouse A play by Richard Tulloch Adapted from the book by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Touring NSW, ACT, Victoria, Qeensland, SA, WA and NT .

The team behind The 13-, 26- and 52Storey Treehouses Live on Stage return with the newest, biggest, brightest blockbuster in the series! www.cdp.com.au Melbourne Theatre Company The MTC offers $28 student tickets to its mainstage season. For details visit. www.mtc.com.au/education 11 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Sydney Theatre Company School Day performances of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark The Long Forgotten Dream.

For details http://bit.ly/2F3B4En Sport for Jove (NSW) Macbeth A thrilling 100-minute Macbeth is back after playing to thousands of NSW students in 2015 and 2016.

Other school productions include The Tempest, Moby Dick and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. http://bit.ly/2EPuEJS Red Stitch Actors Theatre (Vic) Lovesong From youthful exuberance to the complexities of age, follow Margaret and William throughout the years of their relationship towards the solitude that follows. Lovesong features a live cello accompaniment. www.redstitch.net

Griffin Theatre Company (NSW) The Almighty Sometimes (Jul - Sep) Anna has been medicated for a range of mood and behavioural disorders for as long as she can remember. Now she wants to know what life would be like without pills and prescriptions.

The Feather in the Web (Oct - Nov) Kimberly is a character like no other.

She’s powerful, wicked, in control but she has no voice. So she sets out to find it, leaving a trail of car crashes and crying people in her wake. http://bit.ly/2EO1iLN State Theatre of South Australia Recommended productions offer student pricing and include post show discussions with cast and creatives.

Terrestrial Liddy, a teenage alien obsessive, and her mum arrive in a remote South Australian town seeking escape.

That Eye The Sky Adaptation of Tim Winton novel. Ort Flack is 12 years old and trying to make sense of life in a small country town in Western Australia.

Sense and Sensibility Adaptation of Jane Austen novel.

Brothers Wreck Follows a young man who has to make sense of his cousin’s suicide.

Melbourne French Theatre Le père Noël est une ordure [Santa Claus is a #&@!!]

In French with English surtitles. A black comedy, juggling high farce and grotesque black humour. The farce is filled with an assortment of eccentrics including a lonely Serbian with deadly chocolates, a cross-dressing chronic depressive and a suicidal gun-toting Santa Claus.

Black Swan Theatre (WA) Discount tickets and student performances to Summer of The Seventeenth Doll, Assassins, and Skylab. http://bit.ly/2ENlOvV School Performances School groups can also book for the following exclusive school performances: Summer of The Seventeenth Doll Friday May 11.

Assassins - Wednesday June 27.

Skylab - Thursday August 23.

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Bell Shakespeare’s 2015 production of Romeo And Juliet at Sydney Opera House.

Curriculum Area(s), The Arts - Drama, The Arts - Music, The Arts - Visual Arts, English, Mathematics, Science, Health And Physical Education, ICT, Design & Technology Years 1-6 Teacher Resource Kit available to schools who attend the production education@cdp.com.au

CDP THEATRE PRODUCTIONS www.cdp.com.au

The 78-Storey Treehouse A play by Richard Tulloch Adapted from the book by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Excursion CDP Kids NSW, ACT, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, NT Term 1, Term 2, Term 3 The team behind The 13-, 26- and 52-Storey Treehouses Live on Stage return with the newest play in the series!

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Billionaire Boy - Live on Stage A play by Maryam Master Based on the bestselling novel by David Walliams Excursions Various – Penrith, Parramatta, Shoalhaven, Sydney CDP Kids NSW Term 1 David Walliams' best-selling book comes to life on stage for 6-12 year olds and their adults! An Australian adaptation with songs, laughs & yes, that cat sick and sweet potato mash from the school canteen...

Curriculum Area(s), The Arts - Drama, The Arts - Dance, The Arts - Music, The Arts - Visual Arts, English, Mathematics, Science, Health And Physical Education, ICT, Design & Technology Years 1-6 Teacher Resource Kit available to schools who attend the production education@cdp.com.au

ALPHA SHOWS www.alphashows.com.au/shows/ Incursion All states except WA and NT Available all terms Relevant to all Subjects Years P-9 Q&A or study resources available.

ICONIC PERFORMANCES www.iconicperformances.com.au Colonial Show http://bit.ly/2G5Y6Lf Incursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama K -7 Q&A as stated on our website Colonial Experience http://bit.ly/2G4iht4 Incursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama K -7 Q&A as stated on our website Gold Rush http://bit.ly/2Gapzvw Incursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama, Geography K -7 Q&A as stated on our website Expedition to Colonial Australia http://bit.ly/2G7DT7L Excursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama, Geography K -7 Q&A as stated on our website Valley of Ancient Worlds http://bit.ly/2G6HeUD Incursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama, Geography, Ancient History 7-12 Q&A as stated on our website

ANZAC STORY http://bit.ly/2FLXyL7 Incursion and Excursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama, Geography 7-12 Q and A as stated on our website CSI – Forensic Science http://bit.ly/2FOxjnH Incursion Australia Wide All Terms Science, English, Drama Yrs 5 to Year 10 Q and A as stated on our website Colonial Classroom http://bit.ly/2FPSRQQ Incursion Australia Wide All Terms History, English, Drama, Ancient History Yr 3 to Yr 6 Q&A as stated on our website

OPERA AUSTRALIA www.opera.org.au

Madame Butterfly Excursion Touring VIC, NSW, ACT and TAS. https://opera.org.au/on-tour/regional-tour VIC, NSW, ACT and TAS 13 July - 18 September 2018 Hear Opera Australia's singers and chamber orchestra in Puccini's popular opera. Directed by John Bell. Performed in English.

Theatre Studies (On Unit 4 VCE Playlist), Drama, Music Suitable for Secondary Insights talks and workshops available by request The Magic Flute Incursion https://opera.org.au/on-tour/in-schools/new-south-wales NSW Terms 1, 2, 3 A mysterious and wonderful tale, following four young people’s journeys as they discover their own strengths and weaknesses and pass the tests of true love.

Relevant to Music, English Suitable for Foundation – Year 6 Curriculum-based Teachers Resource Material available

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By the Light of the Moon Incursion Opera Australia https://opera.org.au/on-tour/in-schools/victoria VIC, SA Terms Available 2 and 3 This fanciful all-ages opera explores the untold tales of Edward Lear’s beloved rhyme, The Owl and the Pussycat.

Relevant to Music, English Suitable for Foundation – Year 6 Curriculum-based Teachers Resource Material

BELL SHAKESPEARE www.bellshakespeare.com.au

Romeo and Juliet Excursion Sydney Opera House, and Arts Centre Melbourne Bell Shakespeare, presented in partnership with Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne www.bellshakespeare.com.au/learning/romeo-and-juliet NSW and VIC Term 3. At Sydney Opera House from 30 July – 22 August and playing at Arts Centre Melbourne from 28 – 31 August.

Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers in a 90-minute production for years 7-10. Don’t miss Romeo and Juliet.

Relevant to English: Language, Literature, Literacy; The Arts: Drama, Theatre Studies, Entertainment Industry.

Suitable for 7 – 10 A full suite of on-line resources will be available including videos, interviews, photo galleries, design images and classroom activities. Visit our website for more information: Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet “For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.”

Two teenagers, born into a world seething with hate, meet one fateful night and fall in love. Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-crossed lovers is electrified in this contemporary, highly physical production.

Designed for students at 90 minutes, this will be an intheatre experience for today’s teenagers. From high comedy and first love to tragedy, join the Montagues and Capulets in this hot Verona summer.

By William Shakespeare Directed by Janine Watson Recommended for Years 7-10 Running time 90 min, no interval

Opera Australia’s The Magic Flute.

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Melbourne Theatre Company’s Hungry For Ghosts.

MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY www.mtc.com.au Hungry Ghosts by Jean Tong Excursion Southbank Theatre, The Lawler; Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo; Mildura Arts Centre; The Potato Shed, Geelong; Launceston College, TAS; Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre; The Wedge, Sale VIC and TAS Southbank Theatre, The Lawler: 3-19 May (03 8688 0963) Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo: 22 May (03 5434 6100) Mildura Arts Centre: 25 May (03 5018 8330) The Potato Shed, Geelong: 29 May (03 5251 1998) Launceston College, TAS: 31 May & 1 June (03 6332 7722) Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre: 5 June (03 5722 8105) The Wedge, Sale: 7 June (03 5143 3200) Criss-crossing between storylines of the fate of MH370, corruption in Malaysia and the exploration of identity, Hungry Ghosts offers an unconventional take on the complexities and mystery of contemporary life. Directed by Petra Kalive (Melbourne Talam), this is the ideal introduction to non-naturalism, with an eclectic mix of performance styles, and innovative stage design.

Relevant to Performing Arts, English, Humanities, and Languages Year 10+ / Ages 15+ Free Education Packs will be available from mtc.com.au/ education.

SPORT FOR JOVE www.sportforjove.com.au

Macbeth Excursion Seymour Centre Cnr of City Road and Cleveland Street, Sydney NSW 2006 Ph: (02) 9351 7940 Riverside Theatres Cnr Church Street and Market Street, Sydney NSW 2150 Ph: (02) 8839 3308 www.sportforjove.com.au/education/2018-education-season-0 New South Wales June 20th – July 7th www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 16

vision of forgiveness, discovery and self-discovery – famous for its language, context, enchanting characters and breathtaking theatricality.

Stage 6 : Area of Study - Discovery Years 8 – 12 Q&A after performance A Midsummer Night's Dream Excursion Seymour Centre Cnr of City Road and Cleveland Street, Sydney NSW 2006 Ph: (02) 9351 7940 Riverside Theatres Cnr Church Street and Market Street, Sydney NSW 2150 Ph: (02) 8839 3308 www.sportforjove.com.au/education/2018-education-season-0 New South Wales June 6th – June 16th Damien Ryan’s brand new 100 minute vision of Shakespeare’s astonishing classic, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Syllabus links Stages 4 and 5 Years 7-11 Q&A after performance HSC Symposium Series Excursion Seymour Centre Cnr of City Road and Cleveland Street, Sydney NSW 2006 Ph: (02) 9351 7940 Riverside Theatres Cnr Church Street and Market Street, Sydney NSW 2150 Ph: (02) 8839 3308 www.sportforjove.com.au/education/2018-education-season-0 New South Wales May 17th – July 3rd Sport For Jove’s Macbeth.

HSC Symposiums, a combination of critical analysis and theatrical experience is the essence of the NSW HSC Syllabus, this year covering Hamlet, The Tempest, Julius Sport for Jove’s 100-minute Macbeth is back after playing Caesar, Richard III, Henry IV and The Crucible. to thousands of NSW students in 2015 and 2016. An atmospheric, faithful introduction to HSC English and Drama areas of study.

Years 10 – 12 the play for young audiences.

Q&A during performance Syllabus links Stages 4 and 5 Years 7 – 12 Moby Dick Q&A after performance Excursion Seymour Centre The Tempest Cnr of City Road and Cleveland Street, Sydney NSW 2006 Excursion Ph: (02) 9351 7940 Seymour Centre www.sportforjove.com.au/theatre-play/moby-dick Cnr of City Road and Cleveland Street, Sydney NSW 2006 New South Wales Ph: (02) 9351 7940 August 9th – August 25th Riverside Theatres Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby Dick, an introduction Cnr Church Street and Market Street, Sydney NSW 2150 to what theatre can be for young audiences, to great Ph: (02) 8839 3308 www.sportforjove.com.au/education/2018-education-season-0 literature and to ambition and madness of the human spirit.

New South Wales English and Drama areas of study May 16th – May 26th After a season in 2017, Sport For Jove’s production of The Tempest returns to the stage. The Tempest is a symphonic 17 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Years 9 - 12 Q&A after matinee performances Ear To The Edge of Time Excursion Seymour Centre Cnr of City Road and Cleveland Street, Sydney NSW 2006 Ph: (02) 9351 7940 www.sportforjove.com.au/theatre-play/ear-to-the-edge-of-time New South Wales October 11th – October 27th A World Premiere, Ear to the Edge of Time by Alana Valentine.

English and Drama areas of study Years 9 - 12 Q&A after matinee performances

GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY

The Feather in the Web Excursion SBW Stables, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross Presented by Griffin Theatre Company www.griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/the-feather-in-the-web 5 October – 17 November Kimberly is powerful, wicked, in control—but she has no voice. So she sets out to find it, leaving a trail of car crashes and crying people in her wake. Then she meets Miles. And she’ll do anything he says. Nick Coyle has written a playful, disturbing and yet surprisingly hopeful coming-of-age story.

It’s part picaresque, part fable—a journey from silence to a full-throated ROAR. Skewering our obsession with couples and careers, it asks just how much we’re willing to give (and lose) for love.

Relevant to: HSC English and Drama Suitable for Years 10-12

www.griffintheatre.com.au

Griffin for Teachers: www.griffintheatre.com.au/artistic/for-teachers The Almighty Sometimes Griffin offers great value tickets to school groups for high Excursion quality drama at the SBW Stables Theatre. Performances are SBW Stables, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross at the student-friendly time of 7pm with 2pm matinees on Presented by Griffin Theatre Company Saturday. School group bookings are only $30 per student www.griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/the-almighty-sometimes (Main Season) and $25 (ATYP @ Griffin), with one free 27 July – 8 September teacher’s ticket for every 10 students.

Anna has been medicated for a range of mood and Griffin offers a complimentary preview ticket to teachers behavioural disorders for as long as she can remember. who are bringing a school group to a later performance, Now she wants to know what life would be like without providing an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the pills and prescriptions. Winner of the Judges’ Award in the play and prepare class material to enhance your students’ Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting (UK), Kendall Feaver’s play experience. is a study of a young woman trying to discover where her For further information or to make a booking, call Griffin illness ends and her identity begins. on (02) 9332 1052 or email info@griffintheatre.com.au Relevant to HSC English and Drama Suitable for Years 10-12 Griffin Theatre Company’s The Almighty Sometimes.

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Monkey Baa Theatre Company’s The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer

MONKEY BAA THEATRE COMPANY

Monday 9 April at 6:30pm SCHOOLS READINGS www.monkeybaa.com.au Monday 9 April at 6:30pm Tuesday 10 April at 10am & 12:30pm The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer A significant text on the HSC curriculum, Mirra Todd’s Excursion Fearless (nominated for Western Australia Premier’s Literacy Lendlease Darling Quarter Theatre (Home of Monkey Baa Award 2013) delves into the issue of loneliness and Theatre Company) isolation.

NSW Performed by a number of cast members from Milk Crate 13-14 September, 10.30am and 12.30pm Meet Alvin Sputnik – a solitary explorer with a heart as big Theatre’s original production (2015) and accompanied by the original composer and music director Daryl Wallis on as a whale. Alvin has lost his great love, and will travel to the very bottom of the ocean – and confront environmental the piano, students will gain insights and greater understanding through this rehearsed reading of the text. disaster – to find her.

Relevant to HSC Drama ‘Contemporary Australian Theatre English, Drama, Music and Science Practice’ Years 6, 7, 8, 9 Years 11 - 12 Q&A available Q&A resources available

MILK CRATE THEATRE www.milkcratetheatre.com Fearless Playreading Excursion Riverside Theatres in Parramatta Milk Crate Theatre (in partnership with Riverside Theatres) https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/fearless-2018 GENERAL PUBLIC READINGS Milk Crate Theatre’s 2017 Fearless Seminar.

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On The Edge Excursion Riverside Theatres in Parramatta Milk Crate Theatre https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/on-the-edge SCHOOLS SHOWS Tuesday 6 November at 12:30pm Wednesday 7 November 12:30pm & 6:30pm SCHOOLS WORKSHOPS Tuesday 6 November at 10am Wednesday 7 November at 10am What are the things that make us anxious? What does anxiety feel like? How does anxiety show up in our everyday, and what are the measures we can take to look after ourselves and those around us?

On The Edge delves into the experience of anxiety, and how it manifests in our contemporary world. Through its reimagining of Forum Theatre, Milk Crate Theatre presents this interactive performance.

Milk Crate Theatre will also be offering students and teachers a workshop with an interactive theatre facilitator.

This gives your group an opportunity to learn some of the activities and skills artists use to create a Milk Crate Theatre

patented performance, before they get to see those skills in action in On The Edge.

This work is their third in a trilogy of shows dealing with mental health issues, linking this show not only to the Drama syllabus (Augusto Boal and Political Theatre) but to the PDHPE syllabus as it’s dealing with personal and community health.

Suitable for Years 9 – 12

of insanity. The time is now. The location is every city.

Specifically, a lifeline agency, a place of refuge for those lost and without hope. It is Christmas Eve ... and the mayhem begins [c’est 99 mots] French and Drama as it is in French with English surtitles Years 8 to 12 Resume available free

RED STITCH ACTORS’ THEATRE www.redstitch.net Lovesong by Abi Morgan Excursion Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East, VIC 3183 21 August - 23 September, Wed - Sat 8:00pm, Sun 6:30pm. 3:00pm Matinee on 15 September, 1:00pm Matinee on 12 September.

From youthful exuberance to the complexities of age, follow Margaret and William throughout the years of their relationship towards the solitude that follows. Lovesong features a live cello accompaniment.

Relevant to VCE Drama and Theatre Studies, English, English Literature, Theatre, Drama, Music.

9-12 *script available on request Q&A Session following performance on Thursday 6 MELBOURNE FRENCH THEATRE INC September, Study Guide to be released early July. www.melbournefrenchtheatre.org.au/current-production-may Advice to Schools: This play deals with themes of old age, illness and assisted suicide. Teachers are advised to read the Le Pere Noel Est Une Ordure (Santa Claus Is A #&@!!) script and consult with school leadership regarding

By Josiane Balasko, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Clavier, potential impacts of studying this work on students in their Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte, Bruno Moynot class."

In French with English surtitles Excursion EPR PRODUCTIONS Library at the Dock, 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, www.eprproductions.com Docklands 3008 (NEW!) Melways 2E F6 Term 2 Ciao Italy - A celebration of Immigration Le Père Noel est une ordure is a black comedy, juggling Incursion and Excursion high farce and grotesque black humour. The farce is filled with an assortment of eccentrics including a lonely Serbian Ela Rose Studios, 20 Chingford st Fairfield vic 3078 with deadly chocolates, a cross-dressing chronic depressive Available Terms 1,2,3,4 Excursions available as of July 2018 and a suicidal gun-toting Santa Claus. The play is a wild, A Celebration of Immigration! An educational portrayal of a aggressive, furiously paced and absolutely hilarious beast, dealing with loneliness, heart-ache, and people on the edge true story based on an Italian man's journey to Australia from his home Italy. An interactive presentation with a man and his suitcase as he shares his story. Celebrating culture EPR Productions’ Ciao! Italy. and its influence on the Australian way of life including food! - triggering discussion around obstacles he faced in a new country, highlighting cultural differences in all formats.

A great Multicultural Experience Relevant to The Arts - Dance, Drama, Visual Arts, English, History, Languages, Health And Physical Education Prep to Year 10 Q&A or study resources Available on request

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Queensland Theatre Company’s Twelfth Night.

The Longest Minute Excursion Cremorne Theatre, QPAC www.queenslandtheatre.com.au/Shows/18-The-Longest-Minute 26 May – 23 Jun Fuses the competition and drama of sport with the classic family tale of acceptance and belonging. Premiering in Cairns, The Longest Minute will then tour regionally to Townsville and Rockhampton in addition to its mainstage season at the Cremorne Theatre.

Drama, HPE, Indigenous Studies Years 10-12 Education Resources available, post show Q&A

QUEENSLAND THEATRE COMPANY www.queenslandtheatre.com.au Twelfth Night Excursion Playhouse Theatre, QPAC www.queenslandtheatre.com.au/Shows/18-Twelfth-Night 28 April – 19 May One of Shakespeare’s most loved comedies follows tales of mistaken identity and love gone wrong, with new songs by Tim Finn, performed live on stage..

Drama, English, Music Years 9-12 Education Resources available, post show Q&A 21 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Jasper Jones Excursion Playhouse Theatre, QPAC www.queenslandtheatre.com.au/Shows/18-Jasper-Jones 28 Jul – 18 Aug A contemporary Australian, coming-of-age classic featuring teenage heroes. Adapted from Craig Silvey’s award winning novel, this play explores family, family history, race and adolescence.

Drama, English, Film Television and New Media Years 10-12 Education resources available, post show Q&A

An unlikely pair share their personal histories, including a first-hand account of a 12-year-old boy who’s travelled alone, thousands of kilometres across land and sea, for a better life.

Australian Curriculum: English, Health and Physical Education, and The Arts: Drama Years 5 to 9 Study Guides provided for free to all teachers that book.

SPLASH THEATRE COMPANY

www.splashtheatreco.net THE BOOK SHOW 2018 Find Your Treasure Incursion Term 3 Splash Theatre creates stories and performances relating to the Book Week theme "Find Your Treasure". A fully physical and energetic bundle of performances from three actors known for wowing primary school audiences across Australia.

Drama, Literacy R-7 Q&A or study resources available

WINDMILL THEATRE www.windmill.org.au/education Grug and the Rainbow Excursion Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre www.windmill.org.au/education 10 – 13 April.

Grug began life as the top of a Burrawang tree that fell to the ground. Grug embarks on an epic journey to reach the rainbow that’s always just beyond his grasp.

Early Years Learning Framework, Australian Curriculum: English, Health and Physical Education, and The Arts: Drama Early Learning Centres, Kindergarten, Preschool, Playgroup and Foundation to Year 1 Study Guides provided for free to all teachers that book

SPARE PARTS PUPPET THEATRE www.sppt.asn.au The Farmers Daughter Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, 1 Short Street, Fremantle WA Term 3 16 July – 20 July The Farmers Daughter explores the bond between a girl and her grandfather in a visual celebration of the powerful relationship of people and the environment.

Arts, English, HASS, Technology, Science, Literacy, Critical and creative thinking, Personal and social capability, Ethical understanding, Intercultural understanding, Sustainability Suitable for year 3+ 10 min Q&A after performance. Study resources available (check website for download).

Amphibian Excursion Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre 5 – 14 September. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 22

Costuming, Make Up, Props & Sets

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Jennifer McKenzie from Stage School Australia draws on her experience in major TV, film and global sporting events to help costume large cast youth productions. Following Stage School’s most recent production of Wicked, she shared her costuming tips.

Where do you begin when you build a wardrobe for a cast of characters that is cohesive with the overall feel of the production?

I start with tone and direction outlined in the director’s notes.

With Wicked, Robert (Coates, Director) approached me with details of the set. It had been designed with a ‘steam-punk’ tone, so we needed our costumes to complement that. Next I’ll break down the script, scene by scene, to determine what’s needed. Additionally, I will always consider casting when designing, to look at both the actor and the character to create something suitable for both, in terms of personality and movement requirements of the performer.

How does designing for musical theatre differ from designing for fashion?

Functionality! I’ll always talk to the production’s choreographer to get an understanding of what the performers will be doing. Characters that require prosthetics will have limitations to their choreography. It’s a conversation between the creative teams to make sure our performers look great but are also comfortable and their costumes are functional.

Having worked on so many productions, how much room do you have for your personal style to influence the designs?

Personal style doesn’t come into my designs. You’re designing for a character’s style and visual representation of their personality.

Sometimes you’ll work on something that you just don’t like stylistically; it’s about ensuring that the costumes always serve the character.

When it comes to the ensemble costumes, how do you make each individual costume appear nuanced and unique, despite the constraints of style and colour?

Having constraints of colour and style actually helps costuming an ensemble

The ensemble case of Wicked.

Photo: Kit Haselden.

Costuming A School Musical group. Variation is often as simple as mixing up textiles, patterns and accessories.

What are your favourite pieces from the Wicked set?

Glinda’s gown! Probably the best time I’ve had designing a costume, ever! You’re juggling elements that everyone knows and expects while tailoring it to the personality of the production. For example, it still had to feel like a princess dress; I wanted it to be magical but the character required the dress to have a bit more sass than your standard princess dress. I designed spiky off-the-shoulder straps and

reduced the impact of traditional elements like layered tiers.

For schools and theatre companies what sets The Costume Dept of Stage School Australia apart from other costume hire companies?

Our costumes are made for young people and with children in mind.

They’re easy to work with and hold up to a lot of wear and tear. We provide entire ensembles for a multitude of characters in a range of sizes. In recent years too, opening up entire sets, and even technical equipment at really quite cheap rates; it’s a one-stop-shop for everything production related. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 24

Theatre Star

or blocking light, adding depth, concealing and revealing scene changes, not to mention painted backdrops, projection surfaces and fancy front velvet drapes.

Theatre Star carry a large range of Despite the decline of local manufacturing and heavy reliance on specialised fabrics in widths up to 12 imported goods, one small corner of the theatre supply industry metres wide. They also provide an continues to provide quality locally manufactured products. important resource to local designers who are looking to source exotic or Theatre Star P/L are a specialist sourcing of specialised fabrics for that ‘special use’ fabrics. manufacturer of stage drapery. Their purpose.

The staff at Theatre Star have Melbourne based factory has been “We don’t sell theatre lighting, many decades of experience between specially fitted out for this purpose audio or other related equipment. them and have worked on countless with a large clean floorspace, huge This allows us to focus solely on our major productions and have dressed cutting tables and a motorised bar for sewn product.” many theatres. test hanging drapes. These drapes are The importance of stage cloths in “The staff and I have a real regularly shipped out to theatres all a production is often underestimated. passion for this type of work and I around Australia.

Layer after layer of various specialty believe that this is evident in the Owner and Manager Rod Paton cloths are often used for various quality of our finished product.” has many years of experience in purposes such as filtering, reflecting manufacturing theatrical curtains.

“People not involved in the industry are surprised to hear that there is enough demand to support a business of this nature,” says Rod, “but when you consider that we manufacture for theatre productions, events, films, television studios, schools, universities, churches, festivals etc., it becomes more apparent.”

The Theatre Star business is totally dedicated to the manufacture of stage curtains and backdrops and the

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Stage School Costume Department Costumes bring a performance to life, which is why the Costume Department at Stage School Australia goes to extraordinary lengths to create and design costumes that dazzle.

Jakarta, Indonesia, is a mecca for fabric, with streets lined with patterns and markets four stories high filled with fabric, trims and buttons. So, you can imagine the paradise Jennifer McKenzie, the Head of Costume at Stage School, was in last month when she went to visit.

Jennifer found amazing laces that will update the Titanic costume set, as well as incredible trims that will spruce up the period drama costumes. She has also taken inspiration from an Indonesian fabric dying technique.

“The technique is called Batik,” Jennifer said.

“They use wax to prevent the dye from penetrating the cloth, leaving some areas blank to create patterns.”

With the Young Australian Broadway Chorus production of Wicked in the works, there will be no shortage of designs to put all of these new fabrics and patterns to use.

But the costumes won’t all be new. The Costume Department recycle and upcycle old costumes, making sure nothing with a little bit of soul left is wasted. Wardrobe Assistant, Sean Rentaro, said “we have pieces that have lived countless lives.”

“We are constantly styling strange objects to resemble things like under the sea creatures. I even turned a tent into an elephant for the school holiday production of Aladdin.”

“We had this very, very old hand-made lace donated to us years ago,” said Sean. “But it had been lying in wait until we did The Secret Garden, when we decided to use it in the dresses made for the lead girls.”

To access one of the most extensive wardrobes of costumes in Victoria, contact the Costume Department on (03) 8199 8345 or visit stageschool.com.au/costume-hire CLOC’s Wicked.

Photo: Ben Fon.

COSTUME, EFFECTS

CLOC’s Costume Cavalcade Walking through the aisles of CLOC Musical Theatre Company’s Costume Resource Centre (CRC) is a stroll through centuries of style, fashion, colours, history and memories. This collection has well over 12,000 items from 107 productions over 53 years stored, catalogued and managed. It includes dresses, coats, suits, shirts, bowties, shoes, hats, bags, gloves, scarves, jewellery, wigs and everything in between.

Leading the dedicated CLOC costume team of loyal sewers and milliners is a formidable duo - Costume Designer/Co-ordinator Victoria Horne and her off-sider Melinda Peebles. They have worked together on 14 CLOC shows. Highlights include CLOC’s 100th production, 42nd Street, the very green Wicked, Mary Poppins (where Vicky won a Music Theatre Guild award for costume design), and then the dystopian designs of last year’s Guild Production of the Year Jesus Christ Superstar, followed by the historical accuracy and splendour of Les Misérables this year.

Vicky and Melinda are working on CLOC’s current production, A Chorus Line. After that, Vicky cannot wait to let rip with her love of sequins, feathers, taffeta and tuille when CLOC produces Strictly Ballroom.

Anyone who has seen a CLOC show in recent years will attest to the success of Vicky’s vision and her team’s artistry, skill, talents and commitment to excellence.

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New Plymouth Operatic

Masquerade.

New Plymouth Operatic have a collection of sets, props and/or costumes for 23 of the biggest and best musicals around, available for hire across Australia and New Zealand. Recent additions include Sister Act, Mamma Mia! and Wicked, and more new exciting titles will be added soon.

All products are professionally designed, and done with touring in mind.

Full catalogue including photos is available online at http://npos.co.nz/show-rentals

PROP & SPECIAL MARKETPLACE Ballarat Lyric Theatre The Ballarat Lyric Theatre Inc has been supplying theatrical costumes to private individuals and other companies since 1963. Of particular note is that whole show sets are available to complement or complete another company’s needs for shows such as Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Les Misérables, Phantom, Rock of Ages and Cats.

Last year Ballarat Lyric was one of very few companies to produce Rock of Ages, so it is currently ‘swamped’ with double-denim, neon, animal prints, leather, plus mullet wigs!

Visit the Costume Hire Department on Tuesdays & Thursdays between 4pm and 5.30pm or by appointment. Contact Marie on 0439 700 219 or email ballaratlyrictheatre@gmail.com www.ballaratlyrictheatre.com.au

Costumes Without Drama The Lion King is finally available for school productions, and Costumes Without Drama has a complete range of animal outfits and interpretive creations to suit. The base for the main characters of Simba, Mufasa and Scar are printed chiffon ‘African Pants’ which are worn with lion ears and gauntlets. The lionesses have metres of taupe chiffon linked with ‘tribal’ patterned bodices.

Teamed with hand-painted giraffes and gazelles and of course the personality plus of Rafiki and Zazu, The Lion King has never been so accessible to schools.

Call (03) 8838 2616 or email info@costumeswithoutdrama.com.au www.costumeswithoutdrama.com.au

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A report into how students at a New Zealand High School had their throats accidentally cut during a performance of Sweeney Todd presents valuable lessons for all involved in live theatre. Tim Cramsie reports.

Some years ago I wrote an article for Stage Whispers with the headline When to Stop a Show.

This prompted me to discuss the pressures we all feel when mounting a stage production or live event, to ensure the show “goes on”.

I contrasted the emotive and international pressure to do just that, generated by one of the greatest opening nights of all - an Olympic Games opening ceremony. In this case the Sydney Games of 2000, and the decision by Rick Birch and his team to hold the world (and Cathy Freeman) waiting for what seemed like an eternity when something mechanical went astray, as she stood in the centre of the flaming Olympic Cauldron waiting for it to rise into its final position.

Birch described the procedure his team followed - not to run the mechanism without knowing it was safely engaged, even if the world is watching and waiting.

His team stuck to their guns (and their duty of care) while a crew member climbed into position to carry out a visual check - in effect “stopping the show” - to check that everything was OK, before carrying on.

That “duty of care”, to ensure a safe workplace, is enshrined in Australian Law under the WHS Act 2011. All events require a production risk assessment.

The Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd poses a number of challenges for the Production / 29 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Technical Design Team. A major one might be how to stage and illustrate the Demon Barber’s murderous practice operating above a pie shop.

Here, the unfortunate victims of the lead character, instead of a shave, have their throats cut and their organs involuntarily incorporated into the pies of the adjoining bakery.

Let us turn our Risk Management focus to the question of the Sweeney Todd’s tool of trade - his aptly named cut-throat razor. Would this figure strongly in a list of potential hazards to be identified - as did Rick Birch “before the final design”? “Of course not!” I hear you answer. They would be props.

In 2016, during an Auckland high school production of Sweeney Todd, not one but two unfortunate student actors had their throats accidentally slashed during the opening-night performance. It caused potentially lifethreatening injuries requiring

Risk Management Process  Identify the Hazards (ask “what could go wrong”)  Assess the Risks (ask “how likely is it for hazards to occur”)  Control the Risks (reduce the likelihood of those hazards occurring to an acceptable level)  Review your Control Measures (test and evaluate your plans during rehearsals).

emergency surgery and the closure of the remaining performances.

The first and most important point to make here is that even though this was a High School musical production, the resulting injuries were investigated

by WorkSafe New Zealand. This is the same regulatory body who would investigate a construction site or other workplace accident or fatality.

The penalties available to the courts to impose in Australia under Section 31 of the Act are $300,000 or 5 years imprisonment or both.

Did the teachers ask “what could go wrong?”

The principle of all Risk Management - and this applies to both Financial and all other types of risk - is to follow a basic process (see box below).

In my original article, I referenced Rick Birch in the planning phase of the Sydney Olympics as displaying exactly this process.

“Before we did the final design, I asked the tech director, “what happens if the cauldron does have to stop somewhere along its journey?”

In the case of our High School production, we have to ask if those in control (the management of the group as well as the technical and design team) had identified a key element of the show as a hazard.

To some extent they had. They had real razors and had attempted to “blunt” the blades and then tape over them with various materials. But, having identified the hazard, the second phase was implementing an effective control. Risk Management principles comprise a hierarchy of controls ranked from most effective to least effective in controlling any hazard. These are: 1. Elimination 2. Substitution 3. Engineering Controls 4. Administrative Controls 5. Personal Protective Equipment.

In this case, eliminating a cut-throat razor entirely would have rendered a rather large hole in the plotline of the story. The next most effective control over the hazard presented by the need to have a razor would be to substitute a prop version made of plastic, rubber,

Manly Musical Society’s 2017 production of Sweeney Todd.

Photo: Jim Muir.

foam or other material for the real razor.

Not only did the production team “skip” the level 2 control during the performance, their level 3 attempt (attempted blunting of the blade, covering it with foam etc) clearly failed.

What Rick Birch had put in place was a protocol that said, at a critical point in the production, if something goes wrong, we will have someone physically able to check on the status of a critical system and intervene if necessary - even if it means stopping the performance. At the school there was no plan in place to check on the health status of the first stage victim after contact with the (still dangerous) razor. This then allowed a second student to also be injured in the same way.

To cap off a roundly disappointing WHS tally for the evening, the performance continued - without stopping, even though an ambulance had to be called at the time. If the teachers at this school were setting about providing a text book case of how not to properly evaluate and manage a hazardous practice, it would be hard to imagine a better one.

For most of us, if we are presented with an activity which provides more than an average skill-level challenge, one of the first things we would do is to call in an expert. In the case of a complex musical dance sequence, most of us would not dream of controlling the risk of a mid-stage collision without calling in a choreographer.

To not request the expertise of either an armourer or other professional with demonstrated skills in martial arts to advise on the correct use, handling and storage of dangerous blades in a theatrical performance is asking for trouble.

Meanwhile it has emerged that a prop supplier had told staff from the college’s production team not to use real razor blades “weeks before” their performance. The anonymous supplier told NZ website “Stuff” they had refused to let the college rent out the blades for their performance of Sweeney Todd because they “don’t let school productions have those”.

The Safework NZ report does specify that a person did “send an email to the other teachers involved in the performance that included a risk assessment which had been undertaken by Auckland Music Theatre for their performance of Sweeney

and the actors in the performance.”

The students themselves were told that the razors had been blunted and were safe to use for the performance.

The entire running of the school and its health and safety processes were audited in the investigation.

Responsibility for deciding to produce Sweeney Todd was called into question, and whether the management of the school properly exercised its duty of care in understanding the risks involved before the production had even started.

In this case, the Safework NZ report clearly indicates that “even the controls in the risk assessment were not fully implemented. While checks were undertaken, the straight razors were not dulled in accordance with the risk assessment. Rather they were covered.

This meant that the coverings were always at risk of being cut through by the sharp blade under them.”

Cathy Freeman at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games.

Photo: Kevin Frayer.

Todd. Sometime after this, and before the first performance the next night, the risk assessment was slightly amended by [a person] who was in charge of technical aspects of the performance (for example lighting and sound).

The report quotes from a person responsible for the use of the razors explaining, “we knew that using real razors to act out slitting throats posed a real risk, so we mitigated that by ensuring that the only people allowed to handle them were teaching staff

The message for boards and committees of all musical theatre groups is quite clear. They must ensure that they consider the hazards involved in a show at the selection phase and at least seek advice on how those hazards are typically controlled. They must also ensure that those responsible for the technical aspects of their shows follow the agreed procedures to the letter.

Failure to do so may not only stop an individual performance, but, given the legal & financial ramifications, may put a stop to future productions. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 30

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A Revolution In Pyrotechnics Is Here Geelong Fireworks introduce Sparkular, the world’s first firework machine.

Many venues do not allow indoor pyrotechnics for productions, citing fire risk, smoke or smell. However, recent advances in technology have produced a non-firework machine that gives the same effect as indoor pyrotechnics.

It is not classified as a dangerous good, it uses no gun powder and produces no heat.

If your actors get too close to the Sparkular silver fountains it is not a problem, as the operator can immediately stop and restart it.

Even if they do get too close, it is not an issue, as Sparkular is uniquely safe!

Demonstrators have held sheets of paper, arms, styrofoam, cellophane, a feather duster, and even a smoke alarm over the middle of the silver fountain effect. Sparkular has zero impact on these items.

Geelong Fireworks is one of a select few companies to offer Sparkular - the next generation of indoor fireworks - to its customers.

To see the revolutionary Sparkular in action visit www.geelongfireworks.com.au/sparkular.php

Masks And Puppets Plus

Images of masks by Melbourne artist Tessa Wallis were chosen by the Classics Theatre of Rochester New York for the promotion of The Theban Plays of Sophocles in August.

Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone were presented in a modern translation by Canadian scholar, Ian Johnson.

“These three plays of the ancient Greek master lie at the very root of western drama and were adapted here in condensed form as a cohesive trilogy,” artistic director James Landers said.

Classics Theatre of Rochester is an educationally-based theatre dedicated to reviving great works of dramatic literature. “I was delighted my masks were chosen to appear on its promotion,” said Tessa Wallis.

“I have worked hard for many years to supply masks to clients everywhere, both in Australia and internationally.

Tessa Wallis mask designs are versatile, comfortable and durable. They are made to order and hand crafted from quality materials. Masks include; Commedia dell’Arte masks, masks for Greek or Roman mythology, Japanese Kabuki masks, masks of domestic and wild animals and witches or fantasy masks.

Email your orders to Tessa at Masks & Puppets Plus at tessa@masksandpuppets.com.au “Greek” masks by Tessa Wallis chosen by the Classics Theatre, Rochester, New York for its promotion of The Theban Plays of Sophocles.

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School Performance Services www.schoolperformanceservices.com.au School Performance Services is a complete solution to all your school entertainment needs, from large scale musicals and concerts to intimate drama. We can use your existing facilities, or transform your school hall or space into a performance venue. Our services include lighting design and realisation, set design and construction, equipment hire, sound and staging, and providing technical crews. We use the latest in entertainment technology to wow your audience. By specialising in school productions, we offer a supportive and personal relationship that larger event companies can’t provide, and at very affordable rates.

Scenic Studios www.scenicstudios.com.au Scenic Studios specialises in Scenic Painting, Scenic Paints and Backdrop Scenic Hire. Currently we are painting backdrops and scenery for Australian Ballet’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and starting to paint sets for Beautiful the Musical. We were also lucky enough to do scenic painting on The Book of Mormon musical earlier this year.

In our scenic hire range we have over 200 backdrops which are professionally painted and give depth to the scene and allow for lighting tricks and ambience. We have standardised the size, 12m wide x 6m drop, fitting most theatres and school auditoriums. A good backdrop will set the scene or create the atmosphere you desire for your performance. So many different themes are available from traditional production such as Oliver, The Lion King, Seussical, Beauty and the Beast to ballrooms, circuses, forests & gardens. All can be found on our website www.scenicstudios.com.au under backdrop hire. We also have sequin drapes, slash curtains, lame curtains and crush velvet drapes to give your theatre production that something extra.

We also manufacture Scenic Paints which are especially designed to paint backdrops and scenery. There are 28 colours to choose from with special paints such as texture, canvas / surface primers and stage black to paint your stage with our durable paint. If you are creating or painting a backdrop and scenery yourself give us a call, we ship Australia wide. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 34

Shows For Schools

35 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Read scripts, listen to music and order free catalogue at: www.davidspicer.com.au david@davidspicer.com (02) 9371 8458

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Includes an AC/DC song.

Hot 50’s score

Wonderful dance “Our most successful opportunities. musical.”

Burnie High www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 36

Choosing a Show School Releases ORiGiN™ Theatrical www.origintheatrical.com.au The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera is available for performance by Australasian schools, colleges and universities in 2018 and 2019, on their own premises. The musical is a perfect way to introduce young people to the pleasures and mysteries of a live theatre experience.

The Phantom of the Opera evokes ideas and concepts that run through history and literature: the outcast, the mythology of beauty and the beast, the use of the mask, women in Victorian society and the power of music.

School Editions with performance tracks are now available for the following Broadway and Off Broadway shows: Heathers, Rock of Ages, Monty Python’s Spamalot, The Addams Family, Curtains, All Shook Up, A Chorus

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Line, The Wizard of Oz, Anything Goes, Big Fish, Grease, Crazy for You, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cats.

Music Theatre International www.mtishows.com.au 60-Minute Versions adapted for young performers up to 18 years old.

Shrek the Musical Junior “Everyone’s favourite ogre is back in the hilarious stag spectacle based on the Oscar-winning film.”

Peter Pan Junior Broadway’s timeless classic musical whisks you away to a place where dreams are born and no one ever grows up!

Singin in the Rain Junior Tap your toes and sing along in this splashy adaptation of the world’s most celebrated movie musical.

Lion King Experience Junior

Introduce theatre to your classroom today! Explore, create and share the arts with this easy-to-use, multi-media program.

Dominie Drama www.dominie.com.au/drama Representing Nick Hern Books www.nickhernbooks.co.uk Brainstorm by Ned Glasier and Emily Lim (modern drama) Inside every adolescent brain, 86 billion neurons connect and collide to produce the most frustrating, chaotic and exhilarating changes that will ever happen to us.

The play is designed to be created and performed by a company of teenagers, drawing directly on their personal experiences.

Girls Like That by Evan Placey (modern drama) Cast: 6-24f / 0-6m An urgent and explosive play that explores of the pressures on young people today in the wake of advancing technology.Grimm Tales by Philip Pullman, adapted by Philip Wilson.

Rediscover the magic and wonder of the original Grimm Tales, retold by Philip Pullman. In this stage version by Philip Wilson, you’ll meet the familiar characters and some unexpected ones too.

the love between a parent and a child.

Kate Mulvany’s adaptation with music

by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen and Pip Branson now has a superb backing track and orchestration.

Representing Pioneer Drama www.pioneerdrama.com A Mother Goose Comedy Cast: Flexible cast of 7 to 34.

Time: About 45 minutes Mother Goose is now retired and living in a Resort Spa where she has time to pursue sports and fitness! She gets tweets and texts from children all over the world who want to know how she got the ideas for her nursery rhymes, and uses comedy sketches and audience participation to show how all of her nursery rhymes and characters came about.

Musicals News

David Spicer Productions www.davidspicer.com.au Our most popular new release in schools is Masquerade, a gorgeous musical adventure based on Kit Williams’ children’s classic. It’s a magical adventure that is, at its heart, about

David Spicer Productions is thrilled to announce that more than a dozen community theatres and schools will stage the Queen and Ben Elton hit musical We Will Rock You in 2018. The World Community Theatre Premiere will be staged by the Townsville Choral Society in January at the Townsville Entertainment Centre.

Music Theatre International (MTI) now represents the secondary stage performance rights to five musicals by the legendary writing team of Lerner & Loewe, including their masterpiece My Fair Lady, the beloved classics Camelot, Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, and their newly-restored early work, The Day Before Spring.

ORiGiN™ Theatrical has announced the representation of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical in Australia and New Zealand.

Strictly Ballroom The Musical is the story of a championship ballroom dancer who defies all the rules to follow his heart. This uplifting and courageous tale originated as a stage play that Baz Luhrmann created as a student at NIDA back in 1984.

Cast: 7 Female, 9 Male, 2 children (1 female & 1 male) + Ensemble.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 38

Stage On Disc

By Peter Pinne

Galavant - The Complete Collection (Alan Menken/ Glenn Slater) (Hollywood Studios). The two seasons of the medieval musicalcomedy TV series Galavant proved the idea is just waiting to be put on stage.

Alan Menken (music) and Glenn Slater (lyrics) re-

Online extras!

Julie’s Greenroom (Ryan Shore) (Varese Sarabande).

Good lyrics are also a feature of the soundtrack from Julie’s Greenroom, a Netflix series that stars Julie Andrews and Guillian Yao Gioiello, and the Greenies, a group of puppets built by the Jim Hensen

Online extras!

Listen to Julie Andrews and the Greenies.

Scan the QR code or visit http://apple.co/2iRztow

Company. The pre-school series was created by Andrews, her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton and Judy Rothman Rofe. Ryan Shore’s songs have a Sesame Street style and sound and all relate to the theatre. Andrews speak-sings with guest artists Alec Baldwin (“When You Act”), David teamed after their Tangled success and came up with the Hyde Pierce (“Take a Leap”) but her turn with her former TV most satirical, most inventive and campest musical the small partner from the sixties Carol Burnett is probably the best (“Anything Can Happen in the Theatre”). There are a lot of -box has delivered in years. Full of songs that brilliantly short instrumental tracks plus a “Mash-Up: The Musical”. parody classic musicals, the score is a tongue-in-cheek joy.

The series’ first season spawned a 14 track soundtrack. This It’s pleasant listening and brings an occasional smile.  complete 2 disc set features extra material from the first series plus the entire song-stack and incidental music from Freaky Friday (Tom Kitt/Brian Yorkey) (Disney). Heidi the second. The standout tune in the first series is still Blickenstaff (Something “Comedy Gold” with “Hey, Hey, We’re the Monks”, featuring ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, running a close second, but Rotten) and Emma Hunton the second series throws up some absolute gems. Kylie (Next to Normal) reprise Minogue’s “Off with the Shirt” is a spot-on send-up of her their Signature Theatre, dance-tracks, Sheridan Smith scores with the QueenArlington, performances of sounding “A Different Kind of Princess”, whilst Reece mother and daughter Shearsmith’s “Time is of the Essence” is a hearty nod to Katherine and Ellie Blake on Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs. Best of all, however, is this studio cast recording of “Dwarves Vs Giants”, a clever take-off of West Side Story’s the musical version of Mary “Cool”. Luke Youngblood leads the company in a staunch “Today We Rise”, which mirrors “One More Day” from Les Online extras!

Miz, Eddie Marsden’s infectious “Goodbye” is a close cousin Pick up the soundtrack of Freaky Friday: to “One” from A Chorus Line, while “Finally” is a Grease A New Musical. Scan the QR code or visit send-up that parodies “Summer Nights”. The cook (Darren http://apple.co/2iQoDPD Evans) and maid (Sophie McShera) are priceless on “As Good As It Gets”, Timothy Omundson’s King Richard is delicously droll on “If I Were a Jolly Blacksmith”, screen Rodgers’ popular 1972 novel Freaky Friday. The updated-toheavy Vinnie Jones (Gareth) eats up the song and dance today story, about an overworked mother and her teenage “Let’s Agree To Disagree” with Mallory Jansen (Magdalena), daughter who magically swap places for a day, has been whilst the leads Joshua Sasse (Galavant) and Karen David furnished with a tuneful pop-rock score by Next to Normal (Princess Isabella) get the funny lovers’ duet “World’s Best writers Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Naturally Blickenstaff and Kiss”. Slater’s lyrics are insanely clever (just listen to “A New Hunton have the bulk of the songs. “Just One Day” is a Season”, the opening of the second series), and Menken’s good opener (if a little close in melody to Wicked’s “One tunes are witty rips-offs of the originals. Both series have Short Day”), “Bring my Baby (Brother) Home” pushes the also been released on DVD. Highly recommended  country button, while “I Got This” is an all-stops-out Latin production number. Jason Gotay as Adam and Jake Heston Miller as Fletcher have great fun with the doo-wop “Women Rating and Sandwiches”, which compares chicks to food (‘some  Only for the enthusiast  Borderline  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it are cold, some are hot’), “Busted” (‘busted, busted, I’m a Get yourself a copy of Galavant on iTunes. Simply scan the QR code or visit http://apple.co/2iQf5nu

39 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

little bit disgusted’) is a mother and daughter song in which they discover secret things about each other like a tattoo on the butt or smoking pot, and Blikenstaff gets a nice tender solo moment with “Parents Lie” (‘sad but true, mine lied to me, I lied to you’) which hits the mark. Disney has developed the show for regional and community theatres and this album is sure to whet the appetite of potential producers. 

nicely builds to a full-on chorus. Later, in a gesture to modern gender politics, he has a cross-dressing song where he proclaims ‘I’m taking pride in my feminine side’ in “To Be a Woman”. Mather also scores with the melancholic “A Place to Come Back To” but “We’re Taking Over the Hall”, sung by Neil McDermott leading the Wild Wooders, just sounds like dated 70s rock. 

On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan LIVE (Emilio & Gloria Estefan/Miami Sound Machine) (Crescent Moon Records). Everything the world loves about Latin music is on display in this jukebox musical that traverses the lives of Latin superstars Emilio and Gloria Estefan. To say it throbs with rhythm is an understatement. It’s an immigrant experience story with parents who came to Miami following the Cuban Revolution, followed by Latin recording success and eventual cross-over success, to selling in excess of 100 million units. Few recording artists can claim to have achieved a truly global level of fame but the Estefans did.

Their story is seeded, courtesy of book writer Alexander Dinelaris (The Bodyguard), in between slabs of brass and percussion hits - everything from “Conga” and “Rhythm Is Online extras!

Gonna Get You” to “Don’t Want to Lose You”.

Pick up your copy of The Wind In The Ana Villafane channels Willows on iTunes. Scan or visit Gloria and almost makes http://apple.co/2iQGHcu you believe you’re listening to the real thing, although adaptation by Julian Fellows (Downton Abbey), and George her voice doesn’t have Stiles and Anthony Drewe (additional songs for Mary Estefan’s rich lower register Poppins/Half a Sixpence) would be a winner. What they’ve (who does), whilst Josh come up with is perfectly proficient, but unfortunately Segarra’s vocals as Emilio tediously twee. Yes, it has whimsy, eccentricity and it’s well- are mostly fine but become made, there’s just nothing in it to make you want to play it a bit rough at the edges again, let alone often. The score, which is heavily influenced towards the end of the

by Britain’s musical heritage, nods to Gilbert and Sullivan, Flanders and Swan, chorale, folk and Brit pop. Craig Mather Online extras! as Mole opens the show with a company ode to “Spring,” Get up On Your Feet! with this dancehe, Simon Lipkin (Rat) and the cast follow with the jaunty along album. Scan or visit “Messing About in a Boat”, while Rufus Hound as Toad has http://apple.co/2iPm00v the one true hummable number in “The Open Road”, which The Wind in the Willows (George Stiles/Anthny Drewe) (Masterworks Broadway). Kenneth Grahame’s quintessential 1908 English tale of the bucolic river-life of Ratty, Badger, Mole and Toad has been loved by generations, so it’s not unreasonable to expect a family musical

show. Their best moment comes with the lovely duet “Here We Are”, whilst the newly penned “I Never Got To Tell You” brings some nice emotion late in the second act. Recorded live, with an on-stage band that includes some unlisted members of the original Miami Sound Machine, the sound has marvellous presence and, with the mix of salsa and other Latin beats, continually evokes a feeling of fiesta.

On Your Feet! ends with a mega-mix of hits which include “Turn the Beat Around” and “Everlasting Love”, but it’s so infectious I expect you’ll be up and dancing long before it finishes.  www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 40

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Shrek The Musical had a $25 million budget on Broadway. Now community theatres are staging it in Australia. The creatives from Packemin Productions in Sydney, who staged the musical in February, describe how they dressed the stage.

“I saw the Broadway production in 2009 and while I loved the show, I felt it was over-produced by DreamWorks,” says Co-Director Craig Stewart. “They obviously wanted a large expensive spectacle, but, for me, that got in the way of the storytelling. Bold lines and bold colours would define the fairy-tale world of our Shrek.

“An example of this character driven design is in The Dragon. In the Broadway production it was a large animatronic head that lip synced poorly to mostly unseen voices, and was rolled around the stage without any presence of its own.

“We decided early on that we would have the actress singing the

role. Her attitude and attributes sell the Dragon in a way a puppet alone cannot and also allows us to ground the character for the audience. Brilliant dancers puppeteered the separate pieces of The Dragon, injecting vibrancy into the character.”

Co-Director Jessica Fallico says, “Our costume and make-up departments went above and beyond to put this show onto the stage. We have thirtythree fairy tale creatures alone in our ensemble, all with unique and beautifully crafted costumes and makeup that define these characters at a glance.

“Our ‘Shrek’ makeup had four trials until it settled into a beautiful likeness

to the animated Shrek we all know and love for the stage. The make-up takes over an hour and consists of a cowl, four latex moulds for Jay’s forehead, cheeks and nose, and of course lots of green face paint.

Set Designer Josh McIntosh says, “I wanted to give the whole set an illustrated cartoon feel, influenced by pop-up books, rather than replicate realistic castles and forests.

“The face of Lord Farquaad was digitally printed onto banners. The big mug of his face on fabric represented his narcissism, to decorate the town with images of himself.”

Stage Whispers’ David Spicer thinks the most inventive scene in this production was a set piece where Shrek, Fiona and Donkey are travelling.

“I was inspired by Hanna Barbera’s Flintstones cartoon, where you see the same landscape scrolling in the background. In this scene they travel

Packemin Productions Shrek The Musical.

All photos: Grant Leslie.

43 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Packemin Productions Shrek The Musical.

Photo: Grant Leslie.

through forests and deserts. Rather than have some massive set piece I thought it would be fun to have this scrolling in the background.

“I drew the landscape, coloured it on photo shop then had this printed onto a 20 metre curtain that rotated.”

An extra touch was LED lights at the base of the set piece.

“When they get to a bridge, or talk about love, the light punches through when they get to that moment.”

However the effect that got the best response from the audience was as old as the hills. To miniaturise Lord Farquaad, he walked around on his knees and had mock legs pinned to the top of his pins.

“It’s an old vaudeville trick.”

Packemin Productions’ set of Shrek the Musical is available for hire. For more info visit www.packemin.com.au

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 44

45 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

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The Smitten Scientist Paper Cuts - a new collection of thirty-six contemporary, characterdriven monologues for actors aged eighteen to eighty - has recently been published by Blemish Books. This monologue provides a taste of Kirsty Budding’s comedy and quirky insight into love, relationships and other idiosyncrasies of modern life.

Playwright’s suggestion: choose a woman in the audience and address the monologue to her.

I have to tell you! I’ve run all this way to tell you that I’m so in love with you. I can’t stop thinking about you.

It’s awful. I can’t get any research done. The lab’s a mess. Nothing’s growing in the petri dishes. I was fine before I met you and now I’m just… incomplete.

So, marry me? No. Too soon. We should probably go on a date first. My research indicated that several dates are customary prior to discussing a long-term relationship. I don’t mean to assume that you would say yes; in fact, I’m aware my odds are roughly equivalent to the odds of discovering alien life within the next ten years, but I’ve planned for every eventuality.

I may be misreading your nonverbal cues, but you seem confused.

I’m sorry; I swear I did everything I could to avoid this moment. I tried giving up coffee and walking a different way to work and throwing myself into my research but god… your face. The way you wipe steam off

your forehead when you’re frothing milk. The way you shake chocolate onto my mocha. The way you say, “Mocha for John” even though my name’s Ron. And your smile; you smile with your eyes even when you’re not smiling.

Every night I lie in bed staring up at the ceiling and I see your smile. Sometimes you wave down at me, like this (waves). And I keep imagining the scene of us getting together; we make out right over there next to the napkin dispenser.

I shouldn’t have told you that. It’s not just physical. You’re perfect in my eyes, both biologically and in the sense that you have a beautiful soul. The soul isn’t real, biologically; I just mean that you’re a good person. I’m trying to be romantic because, according to the internet, women like that.

Helen - I hope your name badge is accurate - Helen, when I first saw you, I finally appreciated the wonders of science. Evolution took place just so that one day, someone as beautiful as you could exist. The laws of physics; gravity itself seems to have been

Paper Cuts: Comedic and satirical monologues for audition or performance by Kirsty Budding, is published by Blemish Books, Canberra. Order online at www.blemishbooks.com.au About the Playwright Kirsty Budding works in Canberra as a theatre producer and teacher. A graduate of the Australian National University, Kirsty has won several local playwriting awards and was a semi-finalist in the 2017 ScreenCraft Short Screenplay Contest, Los Angeles.

Kirsty has previously had work published in The Voices Project anthology by Currency Press. For updates on her work, head to www.kirstybudding.com.au 47 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Kirsty Budding.

Photo: Greg Gould.

John Lombard performs The Smitten Scientist.

designed with the sole aim that you might one day fall into my arms. And penicillin wasn’t discovered by accident: Alexander Fleming wanted to make sure I wouldn’t lose you to a bacterial infection.

But over the past few weeks, I’ve also felt the limits of science. Because I can’t rationalise this. I can’t quantify or measure it. And I’ll never be able to talk about my feelings for you in cold, objective language. I’m biased and it feels amazing, and I’ll gladly produce skewed results for the rest of my life if it means I can spend it with you. The controlled variable, the thing that will never change, is my love for you. But without you, I’m just a hypothesis.

I’m trying to be romantic. Is it working? I assume so as you seem to have been rendered speechless, (noticing the audience) along with all your patrons.

I don’t really know what to say now… dating etiquette baffles me and the advice I got on Reddit was very confusing, but here goes: Helen, would you like to have a coffee with me?

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 48

Sound & Light

49 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

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Most of the time you know how much you have to spend before you have even chosen the show. All shows have different pressures on the budget. It is a constant battle to choose a show that is popular and one that is tried and tested but not as known to students. As much as you want to do a particular show for artistic reasons, you have a responsibility to the budget to aim for a break- even outcome.

Remember there are many reasons why shows flop on Broadway or in the West End, but mostly it’s because Mark McDowell from YourShow has some handy hints to help stretch your they are not very good. One show budget further. song does not make a musical. Also, there is a limit to Budgets for school musi- sales can be added to reach of food, drink and programs. how many ‘artistically succals are usually set in stone, the maximum budget, Some schools see musicals as cessful’ productions a school i.e. “the same as last year”. whereas others will give you promotion of the school and board will accept. My motto The bean counters will tell a figure and the school will are therefore generous in is whenever possible try to you the maximum you can recoup as much of this as financial support and less break even and they will spend and that is that. they can with ticket sales. concerned about balancing leave you alone. If you make Some schools give an Front of house sales can also the books. a profit, spend it on someallocated figure and ticket be factored in with the sales

51 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

thing that will save you money on your next show.

If you have a Principal or accountant who will try to help relieve the pressure by investing some capital money, spend it wisely. They may look at the big ticket hire items from last year’s show and inevitably instruct you to go and buy 20 radio mics.

This is not a good idea and will come back to bite both of you in the short term.

Unless you have a trained ‘Theatre Tech’ to maintain them, they will let you down and you will end up hiring them anyway. Also, you only use this number of mics once a year; the rest of the time they sit in the cupboard deteriorating. I’m not saying don’t buy radio mics, I’m just saying cap it at six. If its lights you want to buy, then first make sure that your infrastructure can support them. Moving lights are very similar to radio mics, they

require someone to maintain them. There is no use buying moving lights if your lighting console can’t drive them.

Budgets are flexible. I don’t mean the overall amount, but the breakdown between disciplines in every show. Budget wise, look at each show that you are considering and check out the following details: How many scenes? By this I mean locations. Can this be done with a basic set and more lighting or props?

Can I hire the set?

Wardrobe? How many different sets of costumes does each cast member require? Does much need to be made or can it be hired?

Can it be purchased from Op shops?

How many radio mics?

Can this be reduced by using corded mics with careful choreography? Will this suit the show? Can the number

of radio mics be reduced by more swaps?

Can more students be put into the orchestra? Can money can be saved on hiring professionals?

Do you need moving lights, as they require extensive programing. Most schools have lots of students keen to be involved, but not on stage. This is fantastic more follow spots - you have the operators. They don’t replace moving lights but can help the lighting be less reliant on them.

Every spoken line or sung lyric in a professional musical has a follow spot on the actor. Remember follow spots don’t need to look like a hard edge circle of light following an actor around the stage. They also don’t need to be at 100% intensity.

Once these types of questions are answered you can adjust department budgets to suit the chosen show.

Most people involved with school shows expect that their department will have the same amount of money to spend as they did last year, but that is not the case.

Some departments will have more and some will have less. They should all be show dependent.

Don’t worry about doing a show that has been done before at your school. As long as it’s over six years ago, you will have a different cohort and may in fact get the old cohort buying tickets to compare productions.

You may also find that you have some resources lying around from the last time you produced it, therefore allowing budget monies to be re-allocated.

Choose wisely and remember, ‘If it breaks even or makes money, it will continue to happen.’

Need help with your show budget?

For more information, contact Mark McDowell at YourShow on 0412 580 977 or via email mark@yourshow.net.au www.yourshow.net.au

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 52

Designing The Light In The Piazza

Tom Willis explains how he designed the lighting and set for the stunning production of The Light in Piazza staged by the Life Like Company last December in the Melbourne Arts Centre.

The Light in the Piazza.

Photo: Ben Fon.

53 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

I try to start each design process, regardless of the show, with the idea that my primary responsibility as a designer is to support the performer and the text (and in the case of a musical or opera, the score). It’s not so much about imposing ideas as it is about framing them, and often elevating them or providing clarity and context.

In the case of The Light in the Piazza, a musical by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas based on the novella by Elizabeth Spencer, the story is deceptively simple. A young American girl meets an Italian boy while on holiday with her mother. The two fall quickly and madly in love, and whilst circumstances beyond their control threaten to derail the relationship, the strength of their devotion to each other prevails. The final scene takes place on the steps of the church within which they will marry.

One of the first steps in the design process is to read the script and meet with the director. It’s in these early conversations that we start to talk about the world we intend to create and the rules and conventions that govern both the look and feel of the show and how the characters interact within it.

Theresa Borg, our director, gave me some very clear parameters. “I want to take our audience to Florence,” she said. “I want to feel that ‘light’ that you feel when you’re walking down the street early in the morning.” For Tess, Florence wasn’t simply a setting

The Light in the Piazza.

Photo: Ben Fon.

for this piece. It was a character. “And remember,” she said, “everything has to be beautiful.”

The original Broadway production made highly effective use of Florentine architecture to expand and contract the stage. The design was substantial, a combination of sky and stone, pillars and plinths.would have been a great mistake for us to try and replicate this highly elaborate (and very costly) production. We didn’t have the budget to build large physical set pieces. Also, we had the added complication of having to design a show that would ultimately end up sharing the space with another production (a children’s pantomime). This meant that we needed to design something that could be effectively bumped in and out of the theatre each day.

My first concept for the scenic design was based around a number of large square shaped columns that could be rearranged around the space to create the various locations and scales required to tell the story. While we’ll never know for sure, I think it was a good concept that presented great potential for the interplay of set and light, while also playing with scale and height. Unfortunately for me, one of the many challenges of scenic design is trying to work out how much

everything will end up costing. For the columns to be effective, they had to be big (approximately 5m in height) and while we fought hard to find a way to make them a reality, it was ultimately deemed too expensive to do properly.

A big mistake is not to realise an idea fully. Sometimes it’s better to go back to the drawing board and start again, as daunting as that might sound.

My final design consisted of three key elements. The first was a floor, a giant wedge constructed of timber but scenic painted (by the remarkable Mattea Davies) to resemble stone or concrete, inlaid with lines of bronze that divided the wide surface into smaller sections.

The second element was a series of paintings, suspended over several fly lines, that could be flown in to various heights to create multiple arrangements and configurations.

Embedded into these arrangements were silhouettes of the Florentine skyline, including the clocktower of the Palazzo Vecchio and the great dome of the Florence Cathedral.

The third and final element of the design was, of course, the light.

Initially I had intended for the rear of the stage to be adorned with a massive painted cloth of a romantic cloudstrewn sky. We would use this surface

effectively as a cyclorama, bouncing masses of light off its textured imagery to frame our stage.

For a whole bunch of technical and practical reasons, I ended up moving away from this concept and settled on the idea of placing the floor in a black void, and then used backlight and haze to draw the space up out of the ground. I didn’t just want the light to be cloth at the back of the stage. I wanted it to be something three dimensional that the actors could move through and around.

I wanted light to extend from doorways in sharp corridors, or to cascade from above in giant slabs, as if sunlight bursting through clouds.

I also wanted to be able to focus right down, and at certain times divide the stage to provide smaller concurrent spaces that could juxtapose different locations side by side. I always wanted the actors and the art to be the dominant elements in the space, to make sure they never got lost or overwhelmed by the design.

We installed and teched the show over the last week of October 2016, opening on a Friday night to positive reviews and heartfelt applause. A cast of extraordinary performers brought (Continued on page 55) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 54

(Continued from page 54)

their characters to life and imbued them with warmth and emotion. The music was staggeringly beautiful, realised by a chamber orchestra rich in strings that soared through Guettel’s magnificent score.

Sometimes all I think a good designer needs to do is get out of the way and let the performers and musicians do their thing. I’m always in awe of what these talented human beings are capable of.

If I had to pick one moment in the show as a favourite, it would be at the end of the first act as the two lovers finally embrace for the first time. Tess often talked of the show’s narrative as a fable; a simple story through which we could explore the ideas of love and

dependency. Our two young leads, Clara and Fabrizio, are real enough, their actions and feelings entirely relatable, and yet they are also mythical characters in a sense, the embodiment of a story told again and again throughout history.

While some scenes in Piazza required a great deal of thought and problem solving to realise, the Act I finale had always been really clear in my head. The two lovers come together in silhouette, their small bed an island in a great void of darkness that transcends the boundaries of Clara’s humble hotel room.

High above, half in shadow, the faces of gods, kings and muses look on knowingly. These painted characters embody the very soul of the city, its beauty and history. In this moment,

The Light in the Piazza was performed at The Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne from October 28th to November 6th, 2016.

Tom Willis is a lighting designer based in Melbourne. He works across a diverse range of theatre and performance projects including musicals, dance, drama, puppetry, circus and cabaret. www.willislighting.com

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these images shift and re-align to frame the young couple at the centre of a tableau, like a star surrounded by planets. The young couple at the centre of an ancient city, their embrace its beating heart.

The Light in the Piazza.

Photo: Ben Fon.

tungsten spotlight. The low maintenance and reduced power bills also combine to make the F500 a winner.

Beam design has been redefined with the F500 employing a sharper and crisper edge to the beam (5° - 50°) than Theatrelight NZ’s new F500 LED Fresnel is a traditional diffuse edged Fresnel. This proving a hit with theatres, schools and museums. allows the light to be used not only Designers enjoy the way the 1200w tungsten Fresnel from another over the stage but in front-of-house tungsten colour of the light blends well manufacturer has an output of positions where the rotatable four-leaf with existing traditional theatre 2,300lm and their LED version also only barn-door produces clean cut-offs to lanterns. In fact telling the difference reached 2,600 lumens. ensure little spill on the proscenium can be a challenge with both light An intelligent cooling system arch. sources measuring close to 3200K. ensures the long life LED light engine Theatrelight can supply diffuser gels The cool beam from the LED source (20,000 hours) is kept cool yet quiet at for a softer beam, or you can simply also ensures faded gels become a thing the same time - quiet enough for drop a piece of Rosco 119 Hamburg of the past. television studios where programs such frost in the colour frame.

F500s can be rigged in hard-toas New Zealand’s TV3 program The The F500 can be set to mimic the reach places while an optional integral Project sees them light up the studios thermal inertia of incandescent wireless DMX receiver is available, every night. filaments from 500w to 5kw, and has a helping to reduce data cabling.

Schools have found the cool number of effects including Fire Flicker Theatrelight has pursued excellence operating surfaces of the F500 far safer and Strobe. Coupled with its in the design and specifications of the around children. The case temperature surprisingly low cost the F500 is LED light engine at the heart of the reaches only 35-40°C compared to the suitable for almost any job from the F500. Their engineers have produced scorching 160° plus of an equivalent foyer to the stage. colour rendering reaching an impressive CRI of 96.9, while achieving a high Talk to Theatrelight or your nearest Theatrelight agent for a average lumen output of over 3,000 demonstration. Check out the details at www.theatrelight.co.nz lumens. By comparison, a typical

New Theatrelight LED Shines

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The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper, a production recently staged by Bachelor of Fine Arts students at NIDA, integrated extensive video and stage automation technology.

Written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilmann, it depicts the fate of a woman who does not meet the expectations society imposes on her.

What begins as an attempt for peace and order soon becomes a nightmare of decay and unrest.

Students were challenged to deliver an evocative design where the technical elements worked in unison rather than conflict.

The set, designed by then third year Design for Performance student Charlotte Mungomery, incorporated a revolving stage that had three partitioned rooms upon it. The Technical Theatre and Stage Management students needed to collaborate closely to realise the technical and artistic ambitions of the production.

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First year video designer Cecilia Nelson allowed each room to retain a distinct lighting “character” that translated both for the eye of the audience in the physical space and the lens of the camera that was capturing a live feed of the action.

Aron Murray, first year video designer, combined pre-generated video content with the mixing of live feeds from multiple cameras.

First year sound designer Mattison Tabone underscored the action and

transitions on stage with a perfectly timed, emotionally powerful soundtrack that supported and punctuated the visual choreography of the piece.

Felix Hauge’s diligent operation of the stage machinery ensured that all of the technical movements and changes occurred in a synchronous manner.

At once visually striking, emotionally powerful, technically brilliant and artistically successful, The Yellow Wallpaper was not only a demonstration of the technical and artistic dexterity of NIDA’s students, but was a testament to the transformative power of artistic collaboration.

Directed by Master of Fine Arts (Directing) student Madeleine

Toi Whakaari’s Exploding Stage

Caucus, Caucus, Harvest, Dawn.

Photos: Philip Merry.

Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School’s final production for 2016 was their most ambitious in years Caucus, Caucus, Harvest Dawn.

Inspired by the dark children’s books of Maurice Sendak and Shaun Tan, this original work was described as “a post-modern fable about humanity partying while the world falls apart around us.”

The explosion effect, pictured, was created with traditional ‘manual’ methods - utilising stage crew, actors, smoke, light and sound, all coordinated to create the explosion spectacle. No pyros or other stage effects (apart from smoke and light) were used to create the effect.

The tower was constructed to building code to give the feel of a real semiconstructed building. Pipe, wiring and insulation was used to set dress it.

Lighting design (by Nathan McKendry) consisted of many practicals (lamp shades) as well as a core generic rig with a handful of intelligent lights supplementing the overall design.

Sound (designed by Chris Winter) featured multi-layered surround sound, utilising a DB Technologies T4 line array for front-of-house, Electro-Voice SX300s for directional sound and multiple subs under the seating block to rumble the audience.

AV design and content (created by Charley Draper) utilised a Hitachi 4000 lumen data projector, with

mapped content, onto the front of the tower. A simple CD tray shutter was used to block light when not in use.

The production was devised and codirected by graduate Patrick Carroll, senior tutor Aaron Cortesi, school director Christian Penny and Jonathan Price, with support from second year acting students who played (almost all) the roles. The show was designed by performance design student Ivo Deliyski with audio-visual design from graduate Charley Draper and graphic design from Owen McCarthy.

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Riedel Communications has launched what it describes as a “game changing” new wireless intercom solution.

Called Bolero, it offers a wide range of features and connectivity that can be applied as a feature rich wireless beltpack, as a wireless keypanel, and in an industry first - as a walkie-talkie radio.

“When we designed Bolero, we wanted to make life as easy for the use as possible,” said Jake Dodson, Director of Product Management at Riedel Communications.

“With existing products in the market, registration of beltpacks can be laborious, requiring a user to go into the menu and apply a pin code so the beltpack can be registered to the antennas. This can easily take two minutes each. Imagine doing that for 25 beltpacks?

“Bolero incorporates Near Field Communication technology. The user needs only to touch the beltpack to the antenna to complete the registration process.”

Boleros also support Bluetooth 4.1, allowing either a Bluetooth headset or a Smartphone to be connected.

When a Smartphone is connected, the beltpack can act like a car’s “hands free” setup so the user can receive calls on their phone and talk and listen via their headset. Users can also make calls and then connect that person into the intercom matrix, eliminating the need for a telephone hybrid.

The beltpacks have been designed using a combination of premium materials, including high-impact plastics and rubber overmolds, to create a tough device that provides easy use and handling. The display can be inverted so that it is readable in any orientation.

The beltpacks have six buttons for each of the six intercom channels, plus a separate “Reply” button that easily facilitates a reply to the last channel that called.

Finally, in an industry first, the beltpack can be used

Features • Next-generation, digital, globally License-free, 1.9GHz DECT band • Riedel-exclusive ADR receiver technology overcomes multipath issues • Fully integrated with Artist for point-to-point comms and ease of use • Touch & Go registration • IP-65 environmental sealing • Up to six full-duplex channels plus convenient REPLY to last caller button 59 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Online extras!

See how Bolero could improve comms for you. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/yah89mmOzCw without a headset like a walkie-talkie radio, utilizing an integrated mic and speaker.

Specifications It operates in an expandable, full-roaming, DECT-based intercom system, in the license-free 1.9GHz frequency range.

Bolero runs over an AES67 IP network. Decentralized antennas connect to an AES67 network then to Artist frames equipped with AES67 client cards, providing a fully integrated point-to-point intercom ecosystem with seamless roaming capabilities.

Bolero features Riedel-exclusive ADR (Advanced DECT Receiver) technology, a diversity receiver technology specifically designed to reduce sensitivity to multipath RF reflections, allowing the system to operate in the most challenging RF environments where other systems often fail.

The Bolero high-clarity voice codec provides both higher speech intelligibility and more efficient use of RF spectrum supporting twice the number of beltpacks per antenna for the same audio bandwidth as other DECT-based systems.

The codec has exceptional latency characteristics while having a low FPGA footprint, providing excellent beltpack battery life and maximising DSP processing power for other functions.

Bolero will be available in Australia in the second half of 2017.

Dazzling Club Lights

Souths Juniors’ Leagues Club was rocking to Hot Boogie Nights recently, blending Disco-Burlesque and Circus artistry with dazzling disco songs.

18 XMLite 915Z matrix LED moving heads were supplied by Phantos Lighting for their outstanding color blending, 10-50° zoom, pixel mappable LED cells, and fast infinite Pan/Tilt.

Lighting designer Paul Kirk has been using them a lot and he loves them.

“The pixel mapping really helps me to create various effects efficiently. I could just run a video across the fixtures. The lights are quiet, fast and very powerful for their size. I am only running them at 70% output”.

For more details visit www.phantos.com.au

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channel. Headsets are Beyer, Clearcom and Ezicom; single or dual earpiece.

Radio Microphone Systems are Sennheiser 100, 300 and 500 series in bands A, G, B and 1.8GHz. “This variety allows integration with existing systems in any location in Australia. Shure systems are UR J5E band and ULXD H51 band. Budget microphones are available for both brands.

Additional lapel and headset microphones are from Countryman, DPA, Rode and ROM.” Andrew Bowen said in his opinion LED stage lighting has Clear Systems has been supplying sound, vision, communications reached a standard where it can and stage lighting to the theatre industry for over 30 years. equal (and surpass) conventional Based in Mount Waverley in “These have the best audio fixtures.

Melbourne’s south-east, the quality we have experienced.

“ETC Lustre II have seven company is continually adding to Versatile and extensive links to different coloured LED elements. its impressive hire inventory. wired systems, Ethernet, and two Rich deep colours and pale pastels “We test and evaluate, using our way radio systems are possible,” he are all possible from the one experience and technical said. fixture. Zoom and fixed angle knowledge to choose appropriate Other wireless comms are the profiles, Fresnel and CYC variants equipment for any application, for Telex BTR range, available in A2, B4 are all available for hire or a sales hire, sales and installations,” said and C3 bands, single and dual demo.” manager Andrew Bowen.

For more details and a competitive quote get in touch with Recent additions include the Clear Systems at 2 Expo Court Mount Waverley, Victoria 3149, email Clearcom FreeSpeak II wireless andrew@clearsystems.tv or call (03) 9562 7999. intercom systems.

Clear Systems

Theatre Tech Specialists

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Women Not In Black

In February more than 2500 people attended the ENTECH (Sound, Light and Staging) Roadshow around Australia, yet just 4.5% were women. CX Magazine asked its readers why there are “such a ridiculously low” number of women who want to be techies.

Kat Grandquist, who is studying tech production at WAAPA: “It is a very obvious trend in the technical production community.

“I don’t think the idea of participating in creative technical trades is accessible to most women.

They are encouraged to be singers or actors but don’t get shown other creative opportunities available in the industry.”

Harry Parker: “I’ve been around the theatre and corporate AV industry for over 30 years and, yes, there are very few females in technical roles and I wish that wasn’t the case. The women I’ve had the privilege of working with were always excellent and I have never had cause to think that they were in any way inferior to their male counterparts.”

CX reader Erica: “I believe Tech production is perceived by women the same way as any trade - it’s a tough physical job that requires a certain skill set. How many women become plumbers or chippies? This type of work is not attractive to women (or men) who want to wear nice clothes and work in air conditioning.”

Bronwyn Pringle from Melbourne: “I see loads of women start out in technical fields and then many go off to other fields, often because they get sick of being surrounded by the blokey attitude.

“It’s even there in the language we use. ‘Old Boys’ and ‘Soundgirls’. The bulk of women in technical areas are young. It’s also a problem across the world. I went to the trade show alongside the Live Design Broadway Masterclass in New York and the situation was exactly the same.”

Camille Symmons: “The long hours and low pay is certainly not for everyone, especially women who will eventually want to have children and settle down. But I do know a lot of women (for whom) motherhood is totally out of the question and all they want to do is work in this industry and they have their heads screwed on really well. These women are few and far between.”

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Training

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From A Coffee Table To Broadway

Joel Houwen in performance.

Brent Street graduate Joel Houwen is dancing with Opera Australia and just won a scholarship to study in New York. He reflects on his journey.

When were you first bitten by the performing arts bug?

When I was little I used to get up and dance on our coffee table in front of the TV. I’d always wanted to be an actor as a kid, and participated in classes with a local theatre group, and then the same year watched my sister’s first dance concert and asked my (parents for lessons). I began (at nine) with Jazz, however over the years picked up Ballet, Tap, Acro, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Lyrical which I did every week right up until moving to Sydney from Western Australia to attend Brent Street.

Why did you choose to train at Brent Street?

I did a lot of research on the staff and the past students, watched videos online from some of their performances, and read the course outline information at the age of 14. I knew that it was exactly where I 65 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

wanted to go and worked on reaching it over the next three years.

Tell us about your journey from the Diploma of Performing Arts to the Diploma of Musical Theatre?

The PA course was a year of hard work and a lot of fun! Being able to study and train in what you love alongside great friends who all want the same thing is awesome. However, looking back on it I didn’t necessarily know what my purpose in the industry was, which is why I’m forever grateful to have been pushed into the direction of Musical Theatre. Doing a second year focusing on exactly what I wanted to do was amazing. I was surrounded by people who each had different strengths and weaknesses and pushed me to work on mine.

How have your teachers at Brent Street encouraged you as a performer?

They push you to work hard and encourage you to be the best

performer you can be. But what I truly love is that they care about you; they won’t tell you something is right or good if they know you can do better and they won’t let you give any less than 100%.

Brent Street has opened many doors for you in the professional performing arts industry, can you tell us a bit about this?

I was accepted into the Brent Street’s agency Focus Talent Management through which I’ve danced at corporate events, featured in a music video, starred in a TIC TAC TV commercial, and I am currently in the rehearsal process for Opera Australia’s production of The Nose.

Working for such a great company, dancing weird, wacky and wonderful choreography with my now great friends has been so amazing. I consider myself very lucky to have scored this job straight out of full time.

What advice would you give to someone who is looking to pursue a career in the performing arts and how

do you think Brent Street can help them?

Believe in yourself! And I mean really believe in yourself, don’t be afraid to dream big. Love criticism, take it all in, listen to it, take all the “No’s” and the rejection and love it. Turn it into the fuel that keeps you going, use it as motivation to be better. DO YOUR RESEARCH! Know what’s happening in the industry now, but more importantly, know about who came before you, and before them etc.

Congratulations on winning the Brent Street X Broadway Dance Centre NYC Scholarship (Australia’s exclusive partnership with BDC). What does the scholarship entail?

I was lucky enough to win the Broadway Dance Centre Scholarship,

the biggest performing arts scholarship in the Southern Hemisphere. My brain goes crazy when I talk about it; I still can’t believe it’s happening, but I will be flying to, and living in New York for four

had incredible long-lasting careers, while others are still working now, heavily contributes to that. As well as the amazing past students that are out in the world doing incredible things.

months this July to attend Broadway Dance Centre, with all costs covered. It really is the experience of a lifetime.

Brent Street has been a part of your growth as a performer. What, according to you, gives it the great reputation it has?

The fact that you’re learning from all these amazing teachers and choreographers, some whom have

What advice would you give to someone who is auditioning for Brent Street 2019?

Go for it. You’ll be nervous but that’s great; let those nerves ignite your love for it while you perform.

Show the teachers how much you love what you’re doing and give it your absolute all.

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role in a TV series. A musical theatre performer may even win a contract in a production that runs for many months or even years. But still - it’s a gig-to-gig life.

“Actors need to be well-trained to secure work in a competitive marketplace,” said Elizabeth Avery Ever heard of the ‘gig economy’? More Australians have a gig-to-gig Scott, managing director of approach to their working lives - they are moving out of traditional models of employment into freelance work, self-employment and online Canberra Academy of Dramatic Art. “At Canberra Academy of businesses, getting paid for each job they complete; think Uber drivers, Dramatic Art, we’re not only dog walkers, designers, bloggers, digital entrepreneurs, and so on. training actors, we’re training small Actors have always been part of There are small jobs for actors - businesspeople, who, quite frankly, the gig economy, even before it the day-long TV commercial shoot, rent their skills to others. became ‘a thing’. An actor’s life is the voiceover recording (which may “When those skills are topproject to project - and if you want just take a few minutes), a guest notch, the likelihood of securing to be a professional performer, spot on a soap, or the night as MC the next gig increases.” you’re going to have to adapt to for a function. There are larger Ms Scott said a recent survey this lifestyle, and the way it pays. jobs, too - a season in a theatre showed that only about 14% of show, a tour, a film, or a recurring drama schools train their students in business skills. Canberra CADA students perform in a production Academy of Dramatic Art, she of John Concannon’s Anzacurio. points out, is one of them.

“Those wanting to train to be actors need to consider carefully whether they are willing to embrace a future life of this kind,” Ms Scott said.

“It’s a life which includes approaching your career in a business-like way.”

Many actors, she said, do other work to support their acting careers. This may be in the form of a part-time job, full-time employment with a boss who’s willing to be flexible, or freelance work in a secondary field of endeavour.

“I would recommend all aspiring actors undertake suitable training that will connect them up with industry professionals and networks, to help advance their project-by-project lives.

“In an ideal world, you want to be working on one project while lining up the next.”

The Actor’s Life In A Gig Economy

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CADA students perform in a contemporary version of the traditional Greek classic Antigone.

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Australian National Theatre Live with a grant from a Seniors organisation.

Around the same time that Britain’s National Theatre Live was being established, he thought “we’ve got the technology, lets capture live theatre” in Australia.

With a number of partners he established Australian National Theatre Live. Now the company has an impressive list of filmed plays under its belt.

By the end of year the company will have completed filming eight Australian plays from a variety of companies, featuring playwrights David Williamson, Louis Nowra and Katherine Thompson. Its most popular film so far has been the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Revue.

Stars of the revue have attended some of the sessions in regional centres.

“Most people say, I thought I was going to see a film, but I felt like I was Away.

Photo: Pia Johnson. at the theatre. When the Wharf Revue screens, everyone applauds and hoots Live theatre is being seen by more people than ever in the cinema. after each song.

Actor/Producer Grant Dodwell is leading the way through his company “When you see a film musical like Australian National Theatre Live. Remote country towns and big city art La La Land no-one applauds after a song; when you screen a captured live house cinemas are introducing new audiences to the stage. performance they do it.

David Spicer reports.

“When the actors come out at the Grant Dodwell is best known to the theatre roles and TV cameos were end, the cinema audience applauds.” audiences (above a certain age) as the not regular enough to support his Grant believes that part of the beloved character of Dr Simon Bowen family. So “out of necessity” Grant reason for this is that the audience in the TV soap A Country Practice. The Dodwell turned to making corporate reaction is also filmed. clean-cut Doctor had a nice red sports theatre and videos.

“They have a sensation of being in a car, a pet wombat called Fatso and a “It was still acting, but not on the theatre. They see the audience as we crush on the local vet played by Penny mainstage. I was still acting with actors mix in some of the audience laughs.”

Cook. He rode the TV wave in the early that I’d shared the stage with at the The films have high production 1980’s, winning three Logies and Sydney Theatre Company but I was just values. gracing the cover of TV Week. putting on a different hat,” he said.

“We use six drama camera “When my hair gets long people do One of his clients is the Australian operators and two fixed cameras. We a double take. I get ardent fans (aged Defence Force, which still gives him an film one production with an audience above 30) who were allowed to stay annual gig playing five different and don’t stop.” up in pyjamas to watch the show,” he characters in a role-playing exercise.

Radio microphones are weaved into said.

His expertise in corporate theatre the actors’ hair and make-up. In a After A Country Practice he and videos soon made a few light cinema, the audience enjoys surround resumed his highly successful theatre bulbs go off. sound.

It began when he made a film of a career, including a national tour of Noises Off, and appeared with Hugh live performance of the play Codgers (Continued on page 74) Jackman in Sunset Boulevard. But soon 71 Stage Whispers SPARK 2018

Upcoming Screenings www.antlive.com.au/screenings Rumpelstiltskin Windmill Theatre Co. and State Theatre Company South Australia.

The Dapto Chaser Apocalypse Theatre and Griffin Independent.

Away Malthouse Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company.

David Williamson’s Emerald City Griffin Theatre Company.

Liberty Equality Fraternity Ensemble Theatre.

This Much Is True Red Line Productions.

Diving For Pearls Griffin Theatre Company.

The Wharf Revue Sydney Theatre Company

Online extras!

See how Rumpelstiltskin went in Burra by scanning the QR code or visiting https://vimeo.com/226699853

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Red Line Production’s This Much Is True.

Photos: John Marmaras.

The Wharf Revue.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Diving For Pearls.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

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(Continued from page 71)

Grant believes that filmed live theatre is creating new audiences for the performing arts and does not cannibalise theatre sales.

“For the drama The Dapto Chaser we went to towns which the live performance could not get to.

“We recently toured a production of Rumpelstiltskin (Windmill Theatre Company and State Theatre South Australia) with Country Arts SA to towns with no theatre and no cinema.”

In the town of Tintinara (population 350) they had 100 primary school students watch the film in a “pop up cinema” in a community hall and 95 percent of them had never seen live theatre before.

Grant loves quoting a statistic from the UK’s National Theatre Live, that

many “people who have never been to the theatre see a live captured film production and 25% who have never seen theatre will later go and see live theatre production.”

However, he says, “we don’t just see ourselves as saviours of poor art starved regional areas.”

markets are switching to high quality drama on streaming services?”

Turning Australian National Theatre Live into a profitable venture, though, is a long term project. Pre-production for each film often costs above $100,000.

“It has taken National Theatre Live

Larger populated regional and suburban art house cinemas are booking the films.

“Internationally it is a billion-dollar industry. We have had inquiries from Dubai, which has a 22 cinema complex and wants alternative content.

“Audiences are dropping mainstream cinema. Why see a mediocre film from America when the

seven or eight years to go into profit and they had 21 million pounds thrown at them.”

The local venture receives no Government funding. Grant is also passionate about touring indigenous plays to remote areas.

“Hopefully we’ll get aboriginal actors to tour with their plays.”

Online extras!

Watch the trailer for The Dapto Chaser by scanning the QR code or visiting https://vimeo.com/224617858

The Dapto Chaser.

Photo: Robert Catto.

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