March Newsletter |
| Posted on 3rd March, 2010 |
Productions for 2010
Not Now Darling directed by Lawrence Hinwood, production manager Malcolm Wills.
Lawrence says that his play is ready for audiences. There will be a dress rehearsal on Sunday 7th March at 3pm, and an audience would be much appreciated - especially people with a hearty laugh! This gives the cast practice with pauses and so on. He also requested that members encourage their friends to attend the Champagne Opening, which is now on Friday March 12th.
There is no performance on Saturday March 13th. The Front-of-House roster is full. Thank you to all who offered to help with this most important part of any production.
The Peach Season,by Debra Oswald, directed by Chris Neale, production manager Bob Harnwell
PERFORMANCES 5th to 19th June (Saturday, then Wednesdays to Saturdays)
Chris reported that at the first audition on Sunday last, there was a good roll-up of young women. He is hoping for young men to turn up this Tuesday, and has put an ad in the paper for an extra audition to be held on Wednesday 10th March. Lesley Crump has offered to do Front-of-House. A rehearsal prompt, and a publicity officer are needed.
✫SOS✫ Chris needs rusty galvanised iron for the set. If you can help ring Bob (4421 0829) or bring to Tim Tams on Thursday mornings.
Aladdin directed by Lyn Harnwell, production manager Jim Bieler
This will be a children’s production in the July school holidays. Lyn has sent posters to Drama classes and High schools. Cath Cartledge has agreed to train the singing, Marion Hatter has done a wonderful job organising the music, and Selena Timms will do the choreography. Click on the ‘Productions’ page at www.nowraplayers.com.au for more details.
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Kathryn Hudson, production manager Debbi Szota
This will be the fourth production for the year. A reading was held after the March meeting.
Arcadia begins in the stately home of Sidley Park in 1809. Lady Croom’s brilliant daughter Thomasina is being tutored by the handsome young Septimus Hodge whilst around them the grounds of Sidley Park are being transformed into the picturesque, landscape fashion of the time. From here we are transported to the present day where a corresponding collection of characters try to answer questions about the events of 1809. Considered to be one of Tom Stoppard’s best plays, Arcadia is an historical “who dunit” with a blend of literary history, chaos theory, and landscape gardening all woven together by Stoppard’s brilliantly clever, witty dialogue delivered by a group of very human characters. The play shifts effortlessly between the two time frames keeping the audience on their toes trying to keep up with the unfolding puzzle. Did Lord Byron kill Mr Chater in a duel? Who was the hermit of Sidley Park? Did Thomasina formulate Chaos Theory nearly two hundred years ago? These are some of the questions being asked when some modern day academics try to discover the truth with spectacularly wrong results. Stoppard manages to ask these and other questions in his usual style through witty and intelligent humour. See next month’s newsletter for details of characters and audition times. I’ll be looking for a range of ages in males and females from 14 up. Kathy Hudson
✫ Bob reported that at the Working Bee held on Sunday February 21st: “a lot was achieved by a few.” Another working bee will be held in the future to organise the paint and clear out the small shed. Thank you to those willing helpers who came along.
✫ Lyn thanked the ladies who have been helping with the wardrobe, which is looking very neat and tidy.
✫A book called The Lost Recipe for Happiness has been found in the green room. Collect on Thursdays.
Two Plays at IPAC
Our subscription series began in February with two plays. Perhaps co-incidentally, both performances featured wonderful acts of impersonation. At the beginning of the month a very small contingent - (only 4 people!) enjoyed a one-man production, Machomer, billed as 85% Shakespeare’s Macbeth and 100% The Simpsons. This funny, clever and very energetic production was created and performed by Rick Miller, dressed in “medieval Scottish” kilt, fake chain mail, and leather jerkin. As the title suggests, each character in the potted Shakespeare play was interpreted
as a character from the classic TV cartoon series. While many people tend to dismiss this satire of our times, it has survived for many years because it is excellent, often dealing with serious issues.
I have only watched an occasional episode, but enough to know of the main characters. While Ray was somewhat handicapped by never having seen a single episode, he found it great fun. A review in The Sydney Morning Herald Metro,
from 8-14 February explained how the performance works: “Miller rips through a condensed version of Macbeth at breakneck speed (in just 70 minutes) using camera feeds, smoke and fog effects, hand puppets, video images, dance and musical numbers.”
As each Shakespeare character was performed, the channeled Simpsons character appeared on the large video screen. The audience consisted largely of young(ish) to middle-aged women, (and some men), who greeted each Simpsons’ character with a roar of approval. It really is a show for those generations. Miller says that he came to love the show because: “...it’s one dysfunctional family doing another dysfunctional family...”
The way Miller is able to change from one voice to another in a trice, is amazing, and was emphasised at the end of the show, when he “throws in a musical performance of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody featuring 25 of the most annoying voices
in the music industry for fun.” (SMH article again). It was a most satisfying afternoon’s entertainment.
Later in the month, a very large contingent went to Wollongong to see what will probably turn out to be one of the highlights of our year’s subscription series - Pennies from Kevin, the current Wharf Revue, starring the hugely talented team of
Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott, who also wrote and created the production. These three, well-known to theatre audiences, are masters of impersonation. The rubbery-faced Drew Forsythe is one of the funniest men you will ever see on stage. Biggins is tall, rather aloof looking, but able to adapt himself to play many parts, while Phil Scott, perhaps the most “straight” actor of the three, is a marvel on the piano. Nearly everyone I have spoken to, has expressed admiration for the way he can not only act, but play the piano so wonderfully. The three were very ably supported by Virginia Gay, making her Sydney Theatre Company’s debut. Her CV is considerably shorter than the three men, but since training at WAAPA,
she has appeared in All Saints, Good News Week and It takes Two.
I have talked to several people who saw the show, and everyone seems to have a different favourite sketch. There are no sacred cows. Many people in the public eye are lampooned. Of course the opening number, and show title: Pennies from
Kevin, was a clever way to satirise the Government’s response to the GFC; Kevin Potter and the Chamber of Secrets impersonated some notable characters. Drew Forsythe as Godwin Grech was hilarious, and Jonathan Biggins made a
wonderful Dumbledore/Gough Whitlam. A parade of notables appeared: The Democrats are in Heaven; Indian students; Michelle Obama; Bob Brown singing a boring, repetitive song; Possession, to Fiddler on the Roof’s Tradition very cleverly
pointed up the dilemma of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict; and a song sung to Old Man River highlighted the problems of the Murray-Darling river system. “Penny Wong” appeared singing KD Lang songs.
The final two sketches, with Virginia Gay as Amanda Vanstone, rather cruelly satirised the Ambassador to Italy’s girth and Australian accent, but was very funny. Some of our non-Catholic audience felt that our Catholic members may have been
offended by the final sketch, where the creation of Mary McKillop as a saint was seen as having been achieved by bribing the Pope, played by Biggins on his knees, but a good Catholic in our midst assured us that members of her church have a good sense of humour and that she thought it was very funny indeed.
A quote from the Sydney Theatre Company’s website summed up the production nicely: “...a glorious mixture of the witty, the savage and the inane, as we have come to expect from this great team. The sketches and lyrics are clever and cutting, the songs beautifully apt, the impersonations spot on, and there are some new gems....
rude, offensive, unfair, vicious and deliciously funny.” The Australian.
Robyn Dalleywater
✫CAN YOU H ELP? Wendy Moffat has tickets D12 and F16 for the IPAC performance of TOY SYMPHONY on Saturday 27th March. Could you please check your tickets. If you have similarly separated seats could you ring Wendy on 44214 742 to arrange a swap if possible.
✫COLIN ANDREWS’ 90th birthday party was a great success, and he was overwhelmed by the kindness of the Players who organised this lovely occasion. Thank you to all those who contributed, and who came along to
help him celebrate this wonderful milestone.
✫A PLEA FROM THE PRESIDENT - When you are locking the theatre, please assume that all doors have been opened, and check them thoroughly.
✫CHARITY FOR THE YEAR No suggestions were forthcoming at the March meeting, for the local charity to support this year. We will need to vote at the April meeting, so please give this some thought and come along with ideas on 5th April.
✫PLAY READING will be held, as usual on the second Monday, March 8th at 7.30 in the Theatre. We will be reading the second half of A Woman in Mind by Alan Aykbourne, which we enjoyed very much last month. Next month will be When The Rain Stops Falling, by Andrew Bovell, the award winning play of last year that
began at the Adelaide festival and was hit at the Sydney Theatre Company. An intriguing and well written Australian drama.
Last changed: 3rd March, 2010 at 12:02 PM
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