Sunday Arts Magazine

Footscray Community Arts presents BOLDER – an interdimensional art exhibition exploring Augmented Reality (AR) and expanded sensory experiences from ArtLife Artist-in-Residence, Steven Tran.

ArtLife is a program platforming artists with disability through residencies, creative development, presentation and workshops.

“My life is creating all of this artwork from my imagination… My exhibition is all about becoming more sensitive, more visible,” explains Steven, who has been with the ArtLife program since 2013.

His exhibition, BOLDER is a celebration of visibility and individuality, an encouragement of contrast and daring. Using pencil and paint enhanced by AR, each work shares with the viewer a different, more intimate part of the artist’s inner world.

Steven’s artistic practice derives inspiration from music, patterns and the architecture of buildings. In his second solo show, Steven maintains a fascination with colour, form and patterns – highlights seen in his first solo exhibition BOLD in 2021.

While his first show was grounded in the present, BOLDER takes Steven’s work to new realms with expanded sensory experiences. He invites each and everyone to step into his imagination and take a visual and digital journey through it via spooky staircases and witness structures evolve and explode.

“ArtLife is core to what we do here at Footscray Community Arts. As one of the only mainstream art organisations registered as a NDIS provider in Australia, we champion artists with disability to be recognised and platformed in the arts industry. The ArtLife program has supported Steven to present his work in exhibitions at Footscray Community Arts as well as in local festivals such as West Projections and Due West,” said Louisa Carter, Footscray Community Arts ArtLife Manager.

Hot on the heels of sell out performances at the 2021 Melbourne Fringe Festival and 2022 Midsumma

Festival, “SEAMAN! THE SEA SHANTY SPECTACULAR” is back by popular demand! This multi-award-

winning show debuted digitally at the 2021 Melbourne Fringe Festival before the streamin’ seaman took it

live to Midsumma. Now the gangs all back together with another performance featuring ten of

Melbourne’s finest indie choir performers!

The show which has performed to sell out shows at The Curtin Hotel and was also a featured act at the

2022 Gaytimes Festival puts a modern spin on the humble sea shanty. Inspired by the #1 viral TikTok trend

of 2021 the group came together during the 2021 lockdowns and didn’t perform in person until the start of

this year! The ensemble puts a modern spin on this traditional sea song with performances of well-known

tunes including “Wellerman” (which reached #1 in 11 countries) and the “Drunken Sailor”. The choir will

also present a diverse range of traditional seafaring songs from Europe, North America, New Zealand, and

Australia.

Maestro Alex Morris will once again lead the “SEAMAN! THE SEA SHANTY SPECTACULAR”. Morris, a leader

in the choral and queer communities is known for his work as Music Director of the award-winning Vocal

Evolution, cult choir sensation Shania Choir, Geelong Harmony Chorus, and shOUT Youth Chorus (MGLC).

Musical direction and arrangement feature original remixes from Will Hannagan (WILLING).

The chorus represents all corners of society and is culturally diverse with First Nations and LGBTIQA+

representation. The show also includes a tribute number to First Nation seafarers sung in Yanyuwa

language with the blessing of Yanyuwa elders.

After being away Stephen is back with all the film gossip.

THE LOST CITY OF MELBOURNE. Directed Gus Berger | Australia | 2022 | 80mins.

Synopsis:

Melbourne in the 1850s was the fastest growing city in the world. They dreamt

big, they built big and as historian Robyn Annear observes, “it was a city jumping

out of its skin”.

As Melbourne grew, it became an epicentre of film culture and its hotels,

restaurants and cafes became world renowned. Coupled with the city’s grand

Victorian architecture, it was a first-class destination for travellers.

But, in the 1950s, with the impending Queen’s visit and then the ‘56 Olympic

Games, Melburnians felt a deep-seated feeling of embarrassment that they

might be perceived as backward on the world’s stage. Our buildings were

deemed too Victorian, too old fashioned and the demolition blitz began.

‘Whelan The Wrecker’ was brought in to demolish the old city and over the next

twenty years we lost many treasured buildings. With the introduction of

television, the same year as the Olympic Games, the audiences for our cinemas

were decimated and they too were felled by the wrecker’s ball. When

Melbourne was primed to lose the Regent Theatre to make way for a city square,

the population was galvanised into saving what they still had left. This is a story

of Melbourne. The Lost City of Melbourne.

2022 Recipient – Angela Bailey

Curator and photographic artist, Angela Bailey’s fellowship will result in The GLAD Project, an exploration into the often secreted queer lives of performance artists. Bailey notes that there are queer stories and queer icons across the full breadth of the Australian Performing Arts Collection; “This project is an opportunity to further bring out and highlight these queer lives and connections, and to open up the Collection for broader discovery”. The project will result in a multi-faceted creative work with an online exhibition, physical installation as well as a performative element. The work is expected to be presented around June 2023

2021 Recipient – Cathy Pryor

The Frank Van Straten Research Fellowship for 2021 was awarded to Ms Cathy Pryor. Cathy’s project Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies – women and magic in mid-20th century Australia, focuses on the careers of three female magicians; Esme Levante, Myrtle Roberts and Loretta “Moi-Yo” Miller Montes. Often hired as attractive assistants to be sawn in half or to be the foil for other tricks, Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies demonstrates that women played a pivotal role both on stage and behind the scenes through telling the stories of their fascinating careers.

Discover more about these female magicians in the online exhibition – Rare Flowers and Golden Butterflies

Listen to the outcome of Cathy’s research, an audio documentary – The Illusory world of Esme Levante for Radio National’s The History Listen

2020 Recipient – Kate Rice

Dr Rice used her fellowship opportunity to research a number of historical theatrical performances documented in the Australian Performing Arts Collection and produce a series of performative podcasts that bring these forgotten stories of the Australian stage to life. Dr Rice explored a range of subjects including the 1919 Influenza Pandemic, child performers and a fight for copyright in the early twentieth century.

Read more about Dr Rice’s research:

Theatre and the Influenza Pandemic of 1919

Researching the Performing Arts Collection Without Leaving Home

Listen to the creative docu-drama podcast about what happened to Melbourne theatre during the 1919 pandemic in Performing the Past

Opera Australia will embark on its 26th annual National Tour with a new production by director

Priscilla Jackman of Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, opening 15 July at the Drum Theatre,

Dandenong.

The opening marks the beginning of a three-month tour that will visit 22 metropolitan and regional

theatres throughout Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and in Canberra.

In a contemporary Australian reimagining of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, award-winning director

Jackman brings a hipster aesthetic to the famous barber Figaro and presents leading lady Rosina

as more than just a pretty face. The story has been set in the real-life Victorian town of Seville,

nestled amongst the renowned Yarra Valley wine region.

Opera Australia began its National Tour in 1996 and over the years it has presented many of the

country’s finest singers and musicians to more than 30,000 people across 117 metropolitan and

regional locations.

Opera Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini has impressed the ongoing value the National

Tour has in increasing audience access to world-class performances.

“The National Tour remains a key opportunity and a great pleasure for Opera Australia to bring

exceptional talent to a broad range of audiences, particularly those living in regional areas. Many of

this cast are coming directly from acclaimed seasons at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre

Melbourne to perform in a premiere production for audiences right in their hometowns.”

“We are particularly thrilled to be working with a director of Priscilla Jackman’s calibre, who has

created this wonderful production that brings forth the fun and frivolity of Rossini’s music.” he said.

In a role debut for both, sopranos Esther Song and Cathy-Di Zhang will share the role of Rosina.

Two of Australia’s finest young tenors, Nicholas Jones and John Longmuir, will share the role of

Count Almaviva and baritones Haotian Qi and Andrew Williams will share the role of Figaro.

The Regional Children’s Chorus program continues as a mainstay of the National Tour where, under

the direction of Children’s Chorus Master Kate Stuart, children are selected by their local choir

leaders to join the professional cast in rehearsal and performance. This year over 400 children will

experience the excitement of performing onstage alongside the outstanding cast, to an audience of

family, friends and their broader communities.

This July, Theatre Works and Burning House bring

Ancient Rome to life in CALIGULA, a wild cross

between MIDSOMMAR and AMERICAN PSYCHO in

this massive play. Twelve actors bring this anarchic,

volatile world to life in Melbourne’s professional

premiere, by a company that has been making a name for delivering high octane, intense adaptations of

classic plays.

“We work hard to get to the heart of the play – bringing the author’s intent to life for a contemporary

audience,” says director Robert Johnson. “This gives access to two and a half thousand years of imagery

and story-telling – our plays are dialogues between the living and the dead.”

The mad Emperor Caligula rules over Rome. People are murdered, robbed and hanged on a whim.

Caligula’s horse is the leader of government. Rome’s future is held hostage, reality itself is up for grabs and

there are ears everywhere. And Caligula is dressing up as the goddess of Love and singing about it.

On what drew Burning House to this work, Robert Johnson says, “CALIGULA was attractive because of

its sheer size and ambition – Caligula burns with such energy and life. He infected his whole world with a

crazy desire to live fully. Underneath the drag and the blood and the insanity, he was also a traumatised

child, and finding ways to realise this anarchic pageant of tyranny whilst honouring his trauma has been

deeply fulfilling – and it makes for very rich theatre.”

CALIGULA is an epic showdown between stoicism and nihilism in a play bursting with poetry, violence,

sadness and love. There will be blood. And glitter.

Recalled and reimagined from the fantastical minds of her slain

children, Medea: Out of the Mouths of Babes is Theatre Works’

latest premiere production, drawn from Euripides’ famous tale.

Developed with children and performed by adults, this new Aus-

tralian work is a seriously playful tragedy.

With most presentations of the Medea myths, the framework posi-

tions Medea and Jason as those who sacrificed and lost the most.

But this consistent oversight ignores the very obvious fact that it

was the children who suffered the greatest. They lost their parents,

their futures, and their lives.

Medea: Out of the Mouths of Babes doesn’t erase the experience of the adult characters but it does shift the fo-

cus onto the experience of the young ones – those who are all too often weaponised in adult arguments and left

without a voice of their own.

Arguably one of the darkest tales in the Western theatrical canon, this age-old story is given a fresh and surpris-

ingly playful rebirth. Developed by a council of five children (aged 6-10) and Theatre Works’ award-winning crea-

tive team, Medea: Out of the Mouths of Babes is a compelling new Australian work told from the point of view of

two of its undoubtedly most important characters; Medea’s children.

“Choosing to frame this particular retelling from the perspective of the children came about initially from not

wanting to demonise, justify or vilify either Medea or Jason in one particular light”, explains Director Steven

Mitchell Wright.

“I think in the current political climate, with the kind of media and social media cycles that we have, it would be

very easy to tell a reductive version of this story, which is why I wanted to include real children in the development

of the work. Their minds work in ways that are so different from ours. Their politics are different, their hearts are

less shielded, and their imaginations are simply wild.

What we are doing is focussing on myth and story-telling through a highly child-like lens, and allowing the themes

of the work to sit within that. Purists will still have enough there for them to enjoy the work, but there are new ele-

ments that the children discovered which we’d simply never think of.”

Stephen returns to talk to the Sunday Arts Magazine team about films.

Dolly Parton’s smash-hit West End musical, 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL, is wowing audiences and critics

alike during its Australian premiere. The Australian tour is about to open at Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre,

QPAC, from 22 May, and then transfers to the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne from 10 July,

and at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide from 8 October. Internationally acclaimed and loved by

audiences and critics alike, 9 TO 5 is pure gold carat fun!

The producers have assembled a top line cast to inhabit these iconic and much loved roles. Marina

Prior will play Violet Newstead, a smart, sassy and efficient woman who has worked all her life at

Consolidated Industries. She has all it takes to run the company but there is one small issue … her

boss! Marina gained prominence as Cosette in the Australian premiere of Les Misérables and

Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera, and has grown to become one of Australia’s most

accomplished leading ladies, playing lead roles in The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Secret

Garden and countless other productions.

Casey Donovan will be Judy Bernly, a newly separated, never worked before young woman who

finds more than just a job at Consolidated Industries. Casey shot to stardom after winning Australian

Idol as a 16 year old in 2004, and has since become an audience favourite in concert and in musical

theatre. Most recently she played Matron Mama Morton in the smash hit musical Chicago, and has

performed in The Flower Children, The Sapphires, Rent and We Will Rock You.

Erin Clare will play Doralee Rhodes, a ‘don’t mess with me’ well-brought-up, bright and beautiful

country gal. She may look like a push over but is anything but! Following her first starring role as

Scaramouche in The Gordon Frost Organisation’s national tour of We Will Rock You, she has featured

in Heathers the Musical, American Psycho, High Fidelity, American Idiot and Merrily We Roll Along.

Caroline O’Connor plays busy-body Roz Keith, the administration assistant who is fiercely – and

unrequitedly – in love with her boss Franklin Hart Jnr. Most recently seen in Melbourne Theatre

Company’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Caroline has played lead roles on Broadway, in the West End,

France and across Australia, including Chicago, Anything Goes, West Side Story, On The Town, Man

of La Mancha, Bombshells, A Christmas Story and Anastasia to name just a few. Caroline also created

the role of tango dancing Nini Legs in the Air in Baz Luhrmann’s Academy Award winning film Moulin

Rouge.

Eddie Perfect will play the controlling boss Franklin Hart Jnr. One of Australia’s most respected and

prolific writers and performers, Eddie is perhaps best known as all-round nice guy Mick Holland on

Channel 10’s hit series Offspring, and has been seen in Kath and Kim, Spicks And Specks and

numerous comedy shows including ABC TV’s Stand Up, The Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala and

Good News Week. On stage Eddie performed in Keating! The Musical, Misanthropology, The

Threepenny Opera and Shane Warne The Musical, which he wrote himself. In 2019, Eddie wrote the

music and lyrics for the Broadway premiere of Beetlejuice, for which he was nominated for Best

Original Score at the 2019 Tony Awards.

Completing the cast are Lily Baulderstone, Ana Maria Belo, Zoe Coppinger, Mia Dabkowski-

Chandler, Ben Gillespie, Emma Hawthorne, James Haxby, Emma Johns, Jay Johns, Ethan Jones,

Antonia Marr, Josh Mulheran, Tom New, Jake O’Brien, Matthew Prime, Jackson Reedman, Jordan

Tomljenovic and Jessica Vellucci.