Category: Guest Posts

Posted on

A Singer’s Warmup? There’s an app for that.

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 “A Singer’s Warmup? There’s an app for that.”

Posted on

When a dream becomes a reality – Zachary Denman (Interview 43)

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 “When a dream becomes a reality – Zachary Denman (Interview 43)”

Posted on

Review: Goodbye Miss Monroe – danceAtlas at Metro Arts

Image: Liam de Burca – Matt Young and Anna Burgess

In art and in life there are truths and there are ‘truths’. The former is a universal concept of pure objective fact – acceptable or otherwise -to all who cross its path. The latter is a more personal, subtle idea influenced by our individual subjective life experiences. Through Good-bye Miss Monroe, playwright Liam de Burca thoroughly examines both of these definitions of truth through the lens of American dance director, Jack Cole. Continue reading “Review: Goodbye Miss Monroe – danceAtlas at Metro Arts”

Posted on

Review: Miss Garland at Twilight: USQ Arts Theatre (Toowoomba)

Image: Cindy Laine, USQ Photography.

I’ve had a lot of chats with a lot of different grandmas over the course of my journalistic career.

Grandmas who sent husbands off to war, never to see them again. Grandmas who survived the Depression, grandmas forgotten by their children, grandmas befuddled by a rapidly changing world.

Some grandmas are funny, some are sad. But spend some time with grandmas – really give them your ear – and they all have a few things in common. They will talk of days gone by, they will reminisce about their childhood, they will tell stories of people you don’t know, they will show you the treasures accumulated over their lives, they will ponder the choices they made and the roads they travelled, they may even break into song.

Now just imagine “grandma” is the icon of long-ago Hollywood, the infamous Judy Garland. We’d all love to have a chat with her, right? Well, Bernadette Meenach gave audiences that chance in her self-devised show Ms Garland at Twilight at the University of Southern Queensland on Wednesday, September 4. Continue reading “Review: Miss Garland at Twilight: USQ Arts Theatre (Toowoomba)”

Posted on

Witness Relocation and Me

David Burton

I asked David Burton if he would write a piece for Greenroom on the recent experience he had with the Witness Relocation workshop held as part of QTC’s Greenhouse Program. Dave very generously agreed to do this and to share his thoughts on the writing process involved with the NY dance drama company.

On day four of a two week workshop experience I was getting itchy. I’d been brought in to write – but write what? Dan Safer, the artistic director of New York dance theatre company Witness Relocation, was anything but itchy. He was relaxed, at home and full of humour. But by the end of next week, we had to make something out of this group of fifteen strangers. I was the ‘writer’, Dan was the ‘director’, Kaz (also from the company) was in charge of tech design, and everyone else were ‘performers’. These labels were immensely slippery. It was really more like a messy pile of creativity, with Dan at the top, poking his head out and looking around. Continue reading “Witness Relocation and Me”