Art Smitten

Christian chats with director Robbie Carmellotti and cast member Jordon Mahar from Chapel off Chapel's production of Spring Awakening: The Musical, running until June 10.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Action Hero arrives in Melbourne bringing a light Americana teeny boppy show

"Whatever it takes" the banner read on the gym decorated theatre.

Lines like these that seemingly belonged in a Degrassi High after school special were particularly prevalent in the UK groups show. It relied on the underdog team standing up against great grief and overcoming it all.

The plot relied on spectacle and capturing this culture of teen movies. This was hard at first for many of the more elite theatre goers who joked later that this "was the closest they got to a sport game in their life".

Action Hero, created by Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse, is a company that focuses on theatre, performance and live art. The company has been particularly noted for their ability to involve the audience continuously. Hoke's Bluff was no different. The audience had to walk on the stage in order to get to their seats and whilst doing so the actors invited them to collect popcorn. As soon as you sat down there was a flag and the Hoke's Bluff team mascot encouraged all to cheer and get involved. Minor characters like Tyler were played by the audience.

At first it was hard to follow the characters in the play. There were only 3 performers on stage and the scene changes were quite abrupt but as the play furthered it became clearer.

It was both a story on teen triumph in sport and all the knitty gritty of growing up including the awkward teen romance. The cheerleader Connie and the sport star Conor were the protagonists of this show.

Music was a big part of the show. Songs like Flashdance were expected at any time as the show went from Minaj to some generic 80s Power Ballad.

The show ended, the team had won.

Written by Maria Dunne

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christian reviews Boutique Theatre's production of The Fairytale Russian Girls (running at St Martin's Youth Theatre until May 27) for Host Adalya and Assistant Producer Thierry.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Art Smitten's special Mother's Day episode, Host Maria, Executive Producer Christian Producer and Christian's mum, Helen, chat with Tegan Jones, Producer, Co-Founder and Company Manager of Boutique Theatre, about The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, on at St Martin's Youth Theatre until May 27.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Smithers interviews double bass player from the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, performing in Unfinished Romance – Rossini & Schubert on Monday 22 May, 7.30pm at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christian, Jack and Ellie chat with actor Faran Martin from North of Eight's production of Gardner McKay's Toyer, running at The Courthouse Hotel (86-90 Errol St, North Melbourne) until May 13.

Click here for Christian's review

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christian, Jack and Ellie chat to artists Ali MC and Rushdi about their exhibitions from the 2017 Human Rights Festival - Rohingya: Refugee Crisis in Colour (on display until May 25 at the Fitzroy Library) and Reframe “Home” with Patterns of Displacement (on display from May 9-14 at the No Vancancy Gallery in QV).

Click here to listen to our interview with festival director Lauren Valmadre

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack, Ellie and Christian chat with Lauren Valmadre, Director of this year's Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, running until May 14.

Click here to listen to our interview with HRAFF artists Ali MC and Rushdi

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Federation Uni Graduating Class of 2017

I’m going to start by saying that my parents saw RENT on Broadway twice during its run from 1996 to 2008 and gushed about it to me as soon as I was old enough to understand. It’s the 11th longest running musical on Broadway when it finished and has won 4 Tony’s, 6 Drama Desk awards and The Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

So, as you can tell, going in I had pretty high expectations for this production.

Long story short, it blew me away.

The cast, the music, the choreography, costumes, set, everything worked so well together, it’s hard to believe that the cast are University students when they have so much talent.

RENT is a musical about impoverished and starving artists in New York City in 1990’s (what’s changed?) it deals with the major issues of the 90’s, like the AIDS epidemic and the lack of jobs, and shows the story of Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, his musician friend Roger, who are struggling to pay last year’s rent on their shared apartment amongst other problems that arise in their love lives, with friends and their careers.

As I walked in, I commented on the small performance space, saying that I thought that RENT was one of those musicals that would work well in an intimate area, and I was right, sitting second row from the front, I had an amazing view of the cast, which heightened the experience all together. I was seeing the intricate details of their facial expressions that succeeded in portraying the right amount of feeling in each song, in each scene, I was so close that it seemed like I was on stage with the characters, like I was a part of the show. This was mainly to do with the amazing way that the actors worked, they drew you in and took you on a journey, keeping you enchanted by the story as it moved forward and showed the lives of the young characters.

The music was the other part of feeling like I was involved, each new song was peformed with incredible passion and so much talent. I found myself laughing, crying and laughing again, like an emotional rollercoaster. The musicians were excellent and the choreography only added to the songs, each member of the cast was building off each other’s energy and it was transferring into the audience as well.

As I walked out, I looked over to my dad, who was smiling like he’d just seen the Broadway production.

Written by Ellie Carter, image by Jodie Hutchinson

Click here to listen to our interview with cast members Laura Morrisby and Jonathan Reeves

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack and Ellie chat to Laura Morrisby and Jonathan Reeves from the FedUni Arts Academy Ballarat production of RENT, running until May 6 at the Athenaeum 2 (188 Collins Street).

Click here to listen to Ellie's review

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.