I follow a lot of people and organisations on Twitter and, a month or so ago, I noticed that an account for a cafe, @jamjarbrisbane was tweeting some verrry interesting lunchtime menus – worth following and checking out for myself, I thought, and so I did.
I met Jamie Simmons the Jam Jar’s co-proprietor that day – another face to face tweetup between total strangers – and, somewhat to my surprise, he shared his thoughts about opening up the café for live performance. The Jam Jar’s philosophy or modus operandi is ‘Food, Drink, Think,’ and Jamie wanted to pair the hospitality of food and drink with his love of performance – especially theatre – to create a venue where spoken word, slam poetry, short plays and performance in general could happen every couple of weeks. It turns out he went on to do just that, and so it seemed a good idea to catch up with Jamie and see how it was all going.
We sat down to have lunch and chat, and this is what we said … it’s a 5 minute audio interview with all the background details … enjoy! (Our lunch arrived just after I’d done the intro – hence the slight repeat. I can thoroughly recommend their burger, by the way.)
Their next Theatre night is August 16th, and the first Open Mic Slam Poetry session is on this coming Sunday afternoon August 14 at 3pm. All the details can be found on The Jam Jar’s website – http://www.jamjarwestend.com. That’s also where you can find out more about submitting work and taking part in their ambitious program of activities. PS Jamie is smart enough to have appointed an Artistic Director (Mariana Jocelyn aka ‘Rocket’) to handle that side of the business, so the prognosis is good!
I’ll be back. As well as the burgers, Jam Jar’s coffee is also very good.
Ta-daa! Greenroom’s first sound-bite via the delightfully simple app Audioboo, which I use a lot on my Posterous blog when travelling. You can record from your desktop or, as I usually do, via the free Audioboo iPhone app. You can record up to 5 minutes with a free account and add photos, tags and so on and on-post to Facebook, Twitter or, as I’ve done here, embed the code in a blog post.
I thought it might be appropriate from time to time here on Greenroom when there’s something to say that benefits from a sense of the environment. It’s a powerful tool – no slushy sybillants, and Audioboo also captures ambient sounds as you speak. Click on the link below to listen.
Background:
I was killing some time yesterday afternoon on South Bank and caught the theatre photography exhibition by Reiner Irmer at the Tony Gould Gallery. Reina has captured performance ‘on the fly’ from the sixth row of the stalls – hence the exhibition’s name. It’s black and white, and captures many of the productions that played QPAC during the 90s.
I would have enjoyed more large-format shots, but it’s well worth the visit. Ah, memories!
If you have half an hour to spare do see it. It closes in October.
Liesel Zink is in rehearsal right now for a new work coming to Metro Arts Allies; she has created, choreographed, and is performing in A Collection of Various Selves, an appropriate title, perhaps, for this multi-faceted artist.
I ask Liesel whether she thinks of herself predominantly as one or other of these roles? It’s flexible. ‘I have done a few movement rather than dance projects,’ there is a difference, ‘and I am now working more with actors as choreographer and beside them as performer.’ She continues, ‘I really enjoy shaping natural movement with actors, and I’m starting to combine the two in my own practice more and more.’ What also emerges as we chat for about an hour is her interest in psychology, research, body language, and the minutiae of daily human exchange as feeders for her own creativity.
A QUT graduate in Fine Arts (Dance), Liesel’s Honours research delved into body language. As she developed as a dancer she started to become interested in how we communicate in everyday ways through gesture and body-language. As far as story-telling is concerned, she examined the ways these are told through movement rather than words, and at how we abstract natural movement and the move from pedestrian into dance and heightened states. ‘It seemed quite natural to move into theatre – not high end virtuosic dance but messages through physical story-telling.’
Liesel grew up in Bowral in NSW where she learned ballet and thrived on its demands and the strict training regime. ‘I loved the challenge of ballet, never to be perfect, to stretch a bit more, try a bit harder. But I also enjoyed academic studies, and am fascinated by the body and psychology.’ She began contemporary dance training in second year at QUT and also branched out into choreography, which she likens to ‘a maths equation. Choreography engaged with my intellect in a different way and, all of a sudden, I was trying to find a balance between spatial patterns, shapes, spaces, and dynamics. That engaged me in a different, analytical way.’ She likes examining simple human behaviours, ‘how we organise our spaces, how we relate as human beings. When I procrastinate, for example, I clean.’ She confesses to loving studying the psychology and what she calls ‘the weight’ behind very simple situations. Continue reading “Liesel Zink (Interview 25)”
Sunday afternoon in the theatre with a friend … and musical theatre at that … a perfect way to end the weekend. Last weekend saw me at the Schonell Theatre for Blue Fish Theatrical Productions’ latest, the fabulous Guys and Dolls (music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows). It’s directed for the company by debutant-director Lindsay Fletcher.
Blue Fish is a relatively new, Brisbane-based company dedicated to musical theatre. It has professional aspirations, and is still establishing itself, so I was also keen to get a sense of the kind and quality of work they are doing. I was unable to see Spamalot or Jekyll and Hyde their two previous productions.
As to their vision for themselves, Blue Fish have a manifesto expressed in a programme message and online from the Producer – they don’t appear to have an Artistic Director – at least there is no credit for one. What does come shining through are their pride in Brisbane and its talent and their ambition – they aim to be ‘Brisbane’s answer to The Production Company in Melbourne.’
As the note puts it, Blue Fish are aiming ‘to open up pathways for excellence in the production and the quality of musical theatre works.’ They seek to do this by focussing on ‘intense rehearsal periods for short seasons of highly-regarded Broadway Book Musicals,’ and in doing so want to contribute to ‘the professional and independent theatrical landscape within Brisbane.’ Good on them, say I.
Guys and Dolls, based on short stories by Damon Runyon, is an almost comic-book romance which focusses on two unlikely couples seeking love: Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson are a couple of gamblers, and Miss Adelaide (a night-club singer) and Sarah Brown (a missionary) are the respective objects of their affection. A slew of street types from a mythical post-WWII New York make their appearances throughout the show. It’s an almost perfect musical and an example of some of Broadway’s best music and lyrics. Guys and Dolls has been revived on Broadway several times and has taken out 10 Tony Awards over the years, since its first production in 1951. It’s also been filmed. TIME magazine called it, ‘the perfect American musical.’ It’s a favourite, for sure, and why not? The music is gorgeous and the lyrics witty, snappy, and delightful.
The musical direction for this production and the action in the pit was most impressive: Julie Whiting (Musical Director) gets a great sound from her musicians and singers. It’s always hard to pick a favourite, but in this production I very much enjoyed the gem, ‘Sue Me’ sung and played with spot-on gusto by Miranda Selwood (Miss Adelaide) and Jason Lawson (Nathan Detroit). Coming a very close second was the lovely ‘More I Cannot Wish You’ sung by Doug Rumble (Arvide Abernathy).
When it came to performance, the female company of actors and dancers were, on the whole, stronger than the males. Ms Selwood and Melissa Scheele (Sarah Brown) are talents to follow; I look forward to seeing their work in the future. Please, though, Mr Sound Guy, can you turn the volume down a tad when these girls sing; the can belt with the best of them! We’re used to vocal enhancement in musical theatre, but their songs didn’t need the amount you gave them and, at times, this verged on distortion.
Set mostly in NYC with a quick flight down and back to Havana, Cuba for some nightclub action and romancing Guys and Dolls‘ action is played out across a number of interior and exterior locations: streets on and off-Broadway; Sarah’s Save a Soul Mission; nightclubs, and so on. With 17 individual scenes chock full of musical numbers the challenge for the design team is to create a flexible set with the capacity to move location and cast quickly and easily from one to another.
Blue Fish’s production clocked in at 3 hours; this is just too long. I know these Golden Oldie musicals generally run much longer than contemporary shows, but I couldn’t help but feel the pace of this production slowed things down. A few more cross fades from one scene to another, shortening some of the crowd scenes or dance sequences would have made things much sharper – anything that doesn’t move the action along should always get the chop first, imho. Within individual scenes, lighting was a problem from time to time. Those which worked the best were well lit and isolated on the stage – in other words – were focussed. Ones that didn’t sprawled across the stage, were under-lit or hit the wrong targets.
As a period piece, the production’s overall look is critical to the success of the design. Set, costumes, hairstyles, and props don’t need to be elaborate, but they should be consistent and of the era. Whilst the design of this production went a good way towards achieving an overall look for the piece, some of details were lost; haircuts for the men, hairstyles for the women. The devil’s in the detail, and a sharper eye could have fixed it. Did men wear hats inside back then? Just asking …
Blue Fish notes that they value professionalism and artists ‘who have attained international exposure,’ as well as the wealth of local talent in the city and throughout the state. If they are prepared to commit to the independent, pro-am theatre road and remunerate artists and creatives, then I would strongly suggest that they give consideration to hiring experience and mentoring in key roles for future productions, and especially in the roles of Direction and Design. Learning on the job under the direction of an experienced professional and one who understands the brief is a recipe for success.
This new company are to be congratulated for their aspirations and for galvanizing their ‘people power … passion and respect for musical theatre.’ It has driven them thus far through two ‘high-budget and large-scale musical theatre productions’ during the past 12 months. This is no small achievement, but they have a way to go before they will be Brisbane’s answer to The Production Company in Melbourne. It has to do not with passion or ambition or talent – which they have – but with a commitment to development and to raising the bar. Forget Melbourne’s Production Company; they should aim to be the best Blue Fish can be.
Guys and Dolls is directed by Lindsay Fletcher, with musical direction by Julie Whiting for Blue Fish Theatrical Productions. The season continues at the Schonell Theatre, Brisbane until August 6th. Details from the company website.
You may like to Like Blue Fish Theatrical Productions of their Facebook page. I see they are holding open auditions soon for their next production, The Producers.
It’s been a while since I’d last seen one of David Williamson‘s best plays, The Removalists – 36 years, in fact, in an opening night performance of a production by QTC at the old La Boite Theatre in Hale Street. I took the opportunity this week to see a matinee performance once again at Queensland Theatre Company. I was surrounded by kids, and seniors like me; weekday matinees tend to be like that.
The current production, directed by Michelle Miall for the Studio program, was a bit of a nostalgia trip in many ways, and I wondered how the high school students around me would react to a period piece – for such it is. The first production of the play in Melbourne in 1971 featured David Williamson as the removalist, and his wife to be, Kristin. This production marks the play’s 40th anniversary. Still hard to believe …
Back in the early 1970s Australian drama was going through its heady nationalist phase. The Ocker figure made his appearance over and over, the women’s liberation movement was getting an exploratory nod (here and there) on stages, and more than a fair sprinkling of vulgarity and violence was the norm. Lots of beer cans were popped on stage and the male vernacular ruled. They were exciting theatrical times and it was all exhilarating stuff, although female characters tended to be short-changed in what was an overwhelmingly masculinist world on stage. More often than not, these productions shocked the socks off seniors at matinee performances back then. These plays hadn’t made the schools’ syllabus list – these too were awaiting liberation.
Williamson’s text is tight, entertaining realism in the service of a good yarn; this much hasn’t changed at all. The twin protagonists – Sgt Dan Simmonds played by Chris Betts and Kenny Carter by Steven Rooke – are terrific, layered characters which remain a challenge and, I imagine, a delight to play for any actor. They are two of the great roles in modern Australian drama. Both Betts and Rooke are well matched here and in good form as they spar verbally and physically.
As I watched, I was reminded of something that was obvious in a lot of Australian plays from the 1970s: Williamson wrote awful roles for women. Until later on, when complex, central characters like Frances (Travelling North) or Barbara (The Perfectionist) appeared in his works, this lack of meaty roles for women in his plays was a bone of contention amongst female actors. In this production of The Removalists (one of those plays) two fine actorsEmmaline Carroll (Fiona Carter) and Natasha Yantsch (her sister, Kate) are constrained by roles which are as slight as the male roles are rich; they are almost entirely satellites and supports to the males. Peter Cook as Rob, the Removalist, and Anthony Standish who plays Simmonds’ foil, the new cop on the job, Const Neville Ross round out the cast.
Michelle Miall’s production keeps the pace up – 1 hr 44 mins with no interval – and she lets more of the comedy show. Chris Betts’ Simmonds is less the sinister, terrifying thug than comic, lecherous braggart circling Kate in hopes of some overtime fun. Steven Rooke is excellent as Kenny; it’s some of his best work, and he’s always good. Anthony Standish is terrific too as Ross; he’s the embodiment of a boofhead – all nervous, try-hard precision. In a weird way, even after you know he’s committed an appalling crime, you just can’t help feeling sorry for the guy. Kenny’s the same. He’s unlikeable but sufficiently complex to grab our interest and our sympathy. ‘I’m unpredictable. It’s part of me charm,’ he notes cannily of himself. Williamson may well have written the role of Rob knowing he was going to play it himself in that original production. It was a smart move either way; it’s an unforgettable little pearler of a role. Once heard, you never forget that defining mantra from the guy who knows he’s the real man in charge, ‘I’ve got $10 000 worth of machinery ticking over out there in the drive.’ Peter Cook fills this smartypants Everyman role with relish – and a smirk.
In the post-show Q&A session the kids asked about the props: ‘Were they real?’ they asked. There’s a television audience for you! It turns out that the labels and packaging, uniforms and set dressing were all of period in which the play is set. Lit by Jason Glenwright, Simone Romaniuk‘s wonderfully-awful-70s (you can still get that wallpaper?) set design works well for police station (Act 1) and Kenny and Fiona’s living room (Act 2.) I’m a sucker for those soundscape atmospheric mixes of music and popular culture from a period. Here, Sound Designer Tony Brumpton gathers snatches of television and news broadcasts from the early 1970s and gets the sound of the times spot on as well. By the bye, hasn’t the style of VO announcers changed?
Whilst the student audience asked about the police corruption portrayed in the play, no one talked about how the actors had worked on the violence which made The Removalists such a shocking piece when it was first produced on Australian stages; there’s that television audience again. Whilst I recall squirming during the onstage violence – choreographed by Scott Witt – I found even more revolting the perverted mateship that plays out over a beer and a cigarette. Kenny drags himself back from the kitchen where Ross has beaten and kicked him to a bloody mess, and, in the scene that follows, Williamson sets up one of the most violent and disturbing endings in Australian drama. Beer can in hand Kenny dies from a massive cerebral haemorrhage and, in what the stage directions describe as ‘a frenzied ritual of exorcism,’ both police officers beat each other senseless over his body. It’s truly brilliant, ghastly stuff.
When it first appeared to great acclaim, the black comedy and the horror of TheRemovalists was undeniably shocking. Whilst it may not have the visceral impact of the original productions in their own time, there is no doubting its dramatic power.
The Removalists by David Williamson Directed by Michelle Miall for Queensland Theatre Company plays at the Bille Brown Studio, 78 Merivale Street, S Brisbane until 6 August. Check the Company website for details.
