It’s tempting to discuss the plethora of socio-cultural themes and talking points that always seem to emerge whenever George Orwell’s, 1984 is rediscovered. However, and in the spirit of sparing our Greenroom readers an exhaustive and exhausting deconstruction of the source material, I want to focus more specifically on shake & stir’s interpretation, appropriation and ultimately adaptation of the classic novel first published in 1948. Continue reading
Ed: Thanks to Queensland Conservatorium final year Musical Theatre major Connor Sweeney who has road-tested a couple of popular vocal warmup apps for Greenroom. Connor has indicated the pros and cons of each in the article below. By the way, there are lots and lots out there. Check the link at the end of the article. Thanks, Connor.
A performer’s warm up should leave him or her in a focused, optimistic emotional state, with awareness of the body’s strengths and weaknesses to work on for the day. A good warmup needs to be more than a hasty throat clearing after the first cappuccino of the day. Continue reading
Ed: Zach Denman is a young man just beginning his career in one of the most challenging of all for a performing artist – the musical theatre. Like many of those ‘triple threats’ - singer, actor, dancers - he has his eye firmly set on Broadway. Recently, he had the opportunity to get a brief taste of what that life could be like. I asked Zach if he would write a piece for Greenroom. He graciously agreed. Here he is, in his own words.
“Many say that life is all about going after what you want most in this world. However, the problem most have is that, when they finally discover what it is they really want, they think it’s far too extraordinary thus unachievable and so it remains an illusion, a dream. Well my dream was to sing, act and dance on Broadway and over the last month that dream has become a reality. Continue reading
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of going to the theatre and hearing stories told about your own folk and your own place and in the voices and the vernacular that belong to your own sense of belonging. I’m not a Cribbie (Cribb Islander) kid from the play of the same name by Michael and Margery Forde. I’m from Sandgate – one of the lot from another of the bayside suburbs – the furthest northerly on Brisbane’s Moreton Bay.
My place Sandgate survived – although I see it’s gone all gentrified in parts. The tidal mudflats in all their gooey, fragrant glory and the protection of Moreton island meant that it would never have the glamour of the surf beaches far to its north and south. Cribb Island, though, went under the tarmac at Brisbane Airport sacrificed, because of its proximity in the name of progress. Stories of the Cribbies and their life in the old, outrageous ruin that was Jackson’s Estate remain in the Forde’s gentle love-poem/play to its memory. Continue reading
Image: cinemagia
A few months ago, on a misty, cool morning here on the hill, thoughts turned to a time when the (then) third and final year acting majors at USQ were preparing for a big outdoor production of Macbeth as part of the (then) Shakespeare in Queen’s Park Festival in Toowoomba. Seven years on I was thinking that way probably because the (then) Producer in me would be anxiously scanning the skies for signs of rain during the lead up to and performance season.
I’m sure it’s a scientific furphy, but ‘they’ say that in seven years all the cells in our body have reconstituted themselves, so that means we are all different – but the same! Seven like three, is a special number … but I digress. That was (then); this is (now). Continue reading
I was able to catch up with Vivien Emsworth who is appearing in The Australian Opera’s production of THE KING AND I which has just finished its Brisbane season at QPAC on the first leg of a national tour. As a first-year-out-of-drama school graduate from the Queensland Conservatorium’s Musical Theatre Program, Vivien is still coming to terms with being cast in such a big production – she is covering for the role of Tuptim and appearing in the ensemble. We did a little stocktake of her background before covering some of the questions I like to use to spark conversation with artists. We got started. Continue reading
