Puppets in Melbourne is offering two workshops!
January 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Builders and designers: over the course of six weeks, you’ll learn everything about making your own muppet-type puppet. Basic design, building with foam, methods of operation, you’ll learn everything to make your very own professional-looking puppet. Included in the classes are easy-to-follow worksheets, your very own puppet stand for display at home, and entrance to the Performance workshop (more below) at the end of the six weeks. You can choose to work from a pattern tested and produced by Puppets in Melbourne, or you can create your very own puppet from scratch. More about what each session teaches you can be found at the link below.
Performers: Want to learn how to work a muppet-type puppet? Come to the four hour class where you get to take part in a practical workshop using actual puppets! You’ll get to learn the basics of how the puppets work, understanding puppet eyelines, and lip synchronisation. We’ll play some fun games and at the end of it all, you’ll get some handy cheat sheets.
BUILD A MUPPET-STYLE PUPPET. Places are limited to 10, and those aged 16 and up: Saturdays 1.30pm – 5.30pm. 28th Feb, 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th Mar, 4th April (performance class date listed below inclusive). Fees: $327 (including materials, tools, patterns and entrance to the performance workshop). 10% discount for students.
PUPPET PERFORMANCE is in one session only. Places are limited to 10 (not including those in the building workshop), again only 16 and up. Sunday 5th April 2009, 1.30pm – 5.30pm. Fee: $20 per person.
All sessions held at: Carlton Library, 667 Rathdowne St, Nth Carlton.
For more info and to book online, please visit http://puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/courses.php and select the workshop that suits you. Alternatively, you can call Naomi on 0403 620 330.
GUY PEARCE STARRING IN WORLD PREMIERE POOR BOY
December 6, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
MTC’s new theatre – The Sumner Theatre – will have its long anticipated opening
with a new play by Matt Cameron and Tim Finn, starring Guy Pearce and directed
by Simon Phillips on Tuesday 27 January.
Poor Boy, which has been commissioned by MTC, is a play with songs about a boy
who announces on his seventh birthday that he is really a grown man who died
some years before.
Combining well-known and new songs by Tim Finn, Poor Boy is a supernatural
ghost story about loss, anguish and redemption.
Pearce plays the grown man Danny, with the other cast to include Matthew
Dyktynski, Sarah Peirse, Greg Stone and Sara Gleeson. Musical Director is Ian
McDonald, Designer Iain Aitken and Lighting Designer Nick Schlieper.
Poor Boy represents a return to the stage for Pearce who was last seen in MTC’s
production of Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth in 2002.
Pearce first came to international attention in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen
of the Desert (1994). He cemented a growing reputation in the noir thriller, LA
Confidential (1997) and then Memento (2000). His other film credits include
William Friedkin’s Rules of Engagement (2000), The Count of Monte Cristo (2001),
The Time Machine (2002), The Proposition (2005), Factory Girl (2006) and Death
Defying Acts (2007). His next screen appearance will be in the adaptation of
Cormac McCarthy’s best-seller The Road.
Presented by arrangement with Poor Boy Enterprises Pty Ltd and Llegup Pty Ltd.
Inspired by an original idea by Tim Finn.
A co-production with Sydney Theatre Company.
The Sumner Theatre
21 January to 8 March
Opening night: Tuesday 27 January at 8:00pm
Booking information: Subscriptions T 03 9684 4555 or www.mtc.com.au
Single tickets (from 1 December 2008):
Ticketmaster 1300 723 038 or www.mtc.com.au
Media source : Christy Hopwood “MTC”
CHICAGO to tour Australia
November 23, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
We had it coming…CHICAGO to tour Australia in 2009 with a stellar cast
Australia, prepare yourself for the razzle-dazzle of the hit musical Chicago, set to tour nationally throughout 2009 following a Gala Opening at Brisbane‟s Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Winner of six Tony Awards®, two Olivier Awards, a Grammy® and thousands of standing ovations, Chicago is Broadway‟s longest-running Musical Revival and the longest running American Musical every to play the West End.
It is nearly a decade since the “story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery” played in Australia. Known for its sizzling score and sensational choreography, Chicago is the story of a nightclub dancer, a smooth talking lawyer and a cell block of sin and merry murderesses.
Producer John Frost today announced his stellar cast: Caroline O’Connor as Velma Kelly, Sharon Millerchip as Roxie Hart, Craig McLachlan as Billy Flynn, and Gina Riley as Matron “Mama” Morton.
“I‟m thrilled to bring back to the Australian stage this wonderful musical, especially with the extraordinary cast we have assembled. Velma Kelly is the role which took Caroline O‟Connor to Broadway for the first time, and her legion of fans will, I‟m sure, be overjoyed to see her perform it once again. Sharon Millerchip has previously played Velma in Chicago ten years ago, and since has won awards for her many musical theatre roles. She will be an astonishing Roxie. Craig McLachlan blew us all away with his incredible audition, and he‟s going to astound people with his talent as a musical theatre performer. And I am very excited to welcome Gina Riley back to the stage. Her strength, her presence and her powerhouse voice will make her a staggering Mama Morton. This truly is the perfect cast.
“Sassy, sinful and seductive, Chicago is a musical that thrills and chills which is why it continues to tour the world after so many years and has been seen by more than 15 million people. And there‟s a whole new audience who loved the Oscar® winning film, and now will have the chance to experience Chicago live.”
The multi-award winning musical will be the first production to take centre stage in QPAC‟s newly refurbished Lyric Theatre when it begins on 19 March 2009. Following the Brisbane season, Chicago will tour to the Lyric Theatre, Star City in Sydney, from 14 May, with other cities to follow. Tickets are already on sale for the Brisbane season, and tickets for the Sydney season go on sale on Monday 17 November 2008.
Media source www.chicagothemusical.com.au
Perth Theatre Company -The Haunting
November 9, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
The Haunting of Daniel Gartrell
New Theatre – Little Shop of Horrors
November 9, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
“I’m a mean, green mother from outer space!”
new theatre is ending the year with a production of one of the longest-running
Off-Broadway shows of all time: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.
Shy and insecure Seymour Krelborn has a dead-end job in a rundown flower shop on
Skid Row, and an unrequited crush on his co-worker Audrey.
When Seymour acquires a strange and exotic plant, he names it ‘Audrey II’ in honour
of his secret love. But gradually the harmless-looking succulent morphs into a badtempered,
foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivorous monster from outer space with
an insatiable appetite for flesh and blood. As the mean, green mother’s hungry
demands increase, its sinister agenda for global domination is revealed and Seymour
must choose between the promise of fame and fortune and saving everything he
holds most dear.
Featuring a score by the song writing team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
(Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin), this hilarious
tongue-in-cheek homage to B-grade sci-fi movies, Dr Faustus and 1950s pop is a
perennial favourite of musical theatre splendidly irreverent and heaps of fun. The
perfect show to end the year!
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS marks the first production at new theatre by
acclaimed director and choreographer Stephen Colyer (Hello Again). He has brought
together a stunning cast and production team, including Musical Director Mark
Chamberlain; Andrew Threlfall as ‘Seymour’; Sam Haft as the voice of ‘Audrey II’ and
Australian stage legend Tony Taylor as ‘Mr Mushnik’.
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman Music by Alan Menken
Directed and Choreographed by Stephen Colyer
Musical Director: Mark Chamberlain Assistant Director: John Calvi
Set and Costumes: Rita Carmody Lighting: Gavan Swift and Hugh Hamilton
Cast: Stephen Anderson, Brionny Fagan, Ellissa Fry, Sam Haft, Vanessa Raspa,
Jeremy Rosenstrauss, Andrew Threlfall, Tony Taylor and Sophie Webb
13 /OVEMBER – 13 DECEMBER 2008
Thursday – Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets: $30 / $25 conc / $22 groups (10+) / $10 preview Wed 12 /ovember
Bookings: 1300 306 776 / www.mca-tix.com.au
Backstage Tour
November 9, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
BSJ Recommends Sydney Opera House Backstage Tour
Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at one of the world’s busiest performing arts centres? Sydney Opera House’s Backstage Tour lifts the lid on what really happens before the curtain rises.
This intimate tour grants exclusive access to areas normally reserved for the stars and crew, revealing areas which even Sydney Opera House staff have never seen.
How about following in the footsteps of superstars such as Dame Joan Sutherland and Pavarotti by singing on the stage of the world-famous Concert Hall, or striding into the Opera Theatre orchestra pit before stepping up onto the conductor’s podium?
Or maybe you’d like to relax in the dressing rooms and tinkle the ivories on the Steinway Grand piano in the Conductor’s Suite?
Visitors will also visit the less glamorous parts of the House, normally the domain of the stagehands and crew, such as the scenery docks and fly towers. At the end of the tour visitors head to the Green Room, the private domain of stars, performers and staff, to enjoy breakfast with their tour guide.
The 90 minute tours are conducted by experienced guides who share some of the secrets of the House and the real-life dramas that have more twist and turns than the average opera.
Backstage Tours operate daily, beginning at 7am. The early start ensures visitors can access the areas which are restricted later in the day when performers are rehearsing or technical crew are at work.
Bookings can be made online at sydneyoperahouse.com, by calling +61 2 9250 7250 or in person at the Guided Tours Desk in the Sydney Opera House Box Office Foyer