Shakespeare Globe Centre Australia Youth Festival, ACT Final. Murranji Theatre, Hawker College, Friday August 20, 1999. ACT and North Side Coordinator, Stephen Brown (Hawker College); South Side Coordinator, Helen Parker (CCEGGS).
The goodwill of an estimated 50-60 teachers who voluntarily support this Festival representing government and non-government secondary schools has once again produced an excellent standard in the ACT finals. This year students from all the finalists - Telopea Park School, Marist College, St Clare's College, and Merici College - received commendations from judges Maureen Bettle (University of Canberra), Tina van Raay (Chief Minister's Office - Community Liaison) and myself - for the high quality of their work.
Awards went to Telopea Park for music composed for Much Ado About Nothing and duologues from Henry V; and to St Clare's College for costume designs for Macbeth. Commended scene and duologue presentations from Marist, Merici and St Clare's from As You Like It and Twelfth Night kept the audience laughing as they have for 400 years, while St Clare's movement/dance group showed us the Macbeth story from the witches' perspective as they take control of human ambitions and as a struggle between elemental positives and negatives after Macbeth's death.
Four special personal awards are given, not necessarily chosen only from award winning presentations but rather for individuals who the judges believe are ready for a taste of professional training. These young people, in company with those selected in the other states, go on to attend a week of intensive work with theatre professionals, here in Canberra, leading to two performances on October 1 and 2 at Theatre 3. One of these performers will be selected as Young Shakespearean Artist of the Year, and will visit and study at Stratford-upon-Avon and The Globe Theatre in London.
Composer Tessa Keenan, designer Sarah la Brooy, and actors Caroline Pryor and Leah Kimball were the chosen four, though the judges had a difficult task distinguishing among the best 6 or 7.
Difficulties with administering the Festival and maintaining corporate sponsorships will not make the Shakespeare Globe Centre's task any easier in the future, but standards are rising if this year's performances are any guide.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Saturday 21 August 1999
Friday 13 August 1999
1999: Six Actors in a Room by Lachlan Abrahams, Rohini Sharma, Estelle Muspratt
Six Actors in a Room. Written by Lachlan Abrahams, Rohini Sharma, Estelle Muspratt. The Acting Company directed by Estelle Muspratt. Currong Theatre Wed - Sat until August 2, 1999. 8pm.
Jean-Louis Barrault famously said "Theatre is Illusion". Estelle Muspratt et al say "Theatre is Bullshit". Though one experienced director on opening night laughed throughout this satire - in company with the many other doyens of theatre present - she was overheard expressing heartfelt nervousness about how she might be greeted in her next rehearsal. Could she even say "Please find your own space" without a howl of merriment!
An admitted first draft, Six Actors shows promise. It is certainly very funny, except for the finale on video which would have been better done live. It is a confident piece written by Canberra's theatrical young turks - and theatre in our town will only mature through such satirical self-examination. It is very well acted by the whole ensemble, though I think I should give special mention to Tim Wood's Earnest Mutton, born and bred in Albury and afraid his father will send him back - maybe to (pause) Wodonga. When Earnest takes control, sparks really fly.
But there's lots more to do with this script. It's been written and workshopped by a committee, and the humps show. The references to Pirandello, Brecht, Stanislawski, Bell Shakespeare, and rehearsal techniques like finding the lion within yourself, need development - satirical, of course - to a point where the absurdity of theatrical hypocrisy turns to face us with the stark quality of the child's death in Six Characters in Search of an Author, or the horror of Mother Courage's final song.
The fictional Barely Coping Theatre Company is forced to work without funding, just like the real Acting Company (though Muspratt's residency at The Currong and the support especially of The Jigsaw Company must not be forgotten). Exposing the black quality of this situation - of the ridiculous position in which professional theatre, and the arts in general, are left dangling on jangled nerve strings by socially immature governments - is what needs fuller development in this script. Then, ironically, the Australia Council might come to the party and we can all celebrate.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Jean-Louis Barrault famously said "Theatre is Illusion". Estelle Muspratt et al say "Theatre is Bullshit". Though one experienced director on opening night laughed throughout this satire - in company with the many other doyens of theatre present - she was overheard expressing heartfelt nervousness about how she might be greeted in her next rehearsal. Could she even say "Please find your own space" without a howl of merriment!
An admitted first draft, Six Actors shows promise. It is certainly very funny, except for the finale on video which would have been better done live. It is a confident piece written by Canberra's theatrical young turks - and theatre in our town will only mature through such satirical self-examination. It is very well acted by the whole ensemble, though I think I should give special mention to Tim Wood's Earnest Mutton, born and bred in Albury and afraid his father will send him back - maybe to (pause) Wodonga. When Earnest takes control, sparks really fly.
But there's lots more to do with this script. It's been written and workshopped by a committee, and the humps show. The references to Pirandello, Brecht, Stanislawski, Bell Shakespeare, and rehearsal techniques like finding the lion within yourself, need development - satirical, of course - to a point where the absurdity of theatrical hypocrisy turns to face us with the stark quality of the child's death in Six Characters in Search of an Author, or the horror of Mother Courage's final song.
The fictional Barely Coping Theatre Company is forced to work without funding, just like the real Acting Company (though Muspratt's residency at The Currong and the support especially of The Jigsaw Company must not be forgotten). Exposing the black quality of this situation - of the ridiculous position in which professional theatre, and the arts in general, are left dangling on jangled nerve strings by socially immature governments - is what needs fuller development in this script. Then, ironically, the Australia Council might come to the party and we can all celebrate.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
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