Student Theatre Australia --Nida 2009 Productions--

A Journey Through the World of Moliere At the end of A Journey Through The World Of Molière the audience will decide: does Molière stand up today, or is it off with his head? Devised and directed by French director Jean-Luc Prevost. Join our third year actors and NIDA’s French Guest Director Jean-Luc Prevost in this fabulous interactive promenade through the world of Molière’s theatre. There are lots of surprises along the way as you judge this physical and farcical playwright. Wear your comfortable shoes as you won’t be sitting still at this once in a lifetime experience. Date - 27 March - 4 April, 2009 Location - Nancy Fairfox Foyer, Parade Theatres Devised by - Jean-Luc Prevost Performed by - 3rd year graduating students Directed by - Jean-Luc Prevost The Popular Mechanicals If you’ve never seen this play then you should. It is an Australian classic full of larrikin style humour. Where else can you see a bunch of medieval tradesmen try to be Shakespearian actors? This is an actor’s worst nightmare but an audience’s voyeuristic dream as we identify and laugh Idol style, as ordinary people, with their fear and desperation. Director Darren Gilshenan feels privileged to bring this show to you. Date - 31 March - 4 April, 2009 Location - Parade Playhouse Written by - Keith Robinson, William Shakespeare, & Tony Taylor Performed by - 3rd year graduating students Directed by - Darren Gilshenan The Importance of Being Earnest Take a delicious dip into the verbal acrobatics of Oscar Wilde. This story is still as valid today as it was in 1895. It twists and turns in that typically period way heightened by the presentation of each actor like a jewel in a box by director Kevin Jackson. Every person should see The Importance of Being Earnest several times in their lifetime. Date - 31 March - 4 April, 2009 Location - Parade Theatre Written by - Oscar Wilde Performed by - 3rd year graduating students Directed by - Kevin Jackson Out of Reach (Bodyline) Out of Reach is about aspiration. The human condition that drives us to achieve our goals and ambitions. This piece explores what keeps us going to achieve them, how we feel when we do and how we feel if we don't quite hit the mark. This is a movement piece we can all identify with as we experience it with spectacular movement, sets, costumes and sound design in our Parade Theatre. "There is only one language in the world that doesn't require an interpreter, and that's body language. Through this universal language we ask ourselves: are our aspirations 'Out of Reach'?  I dont know. But if you could not fail, would they be worth pursuing? It's on our journey towards our aspirations that we often find what we really need. The question of how we pursued those aspirations is a great insight into our world, our country, our people...us today!" - Marko Jovanovic, Third Year Actor Date - 3-6 June, 2009 Location - Parade Theatre Chorographed by - Julia Cotton Performed by - 3rd year graduating students Directed by - Julia Cotton Trace (Bodyline) Inspired by the true stories of families who experience the loss of a missing person – the graduating work looks to explore that which is left behind – the trace of hope we hold on to – and how we manage to keep our heads above water and continue on.  Date - 3-6 June, 2009 Location - Parade Theatre Choreographed by - Samantha Chester Performed by - 3rd year graduating students Directed by - Samantha Chester Hamlet Hamlet is Shakespeare's largest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the english language. It is a deep and frightening look at Human Nature. Set in a world full of sinister threats, the play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness - from overwhelming grief to seething rage - and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, poison and nature gone wrong.  Corruption spreads just below the surface, threatening to consume all. In the middle of it stands Hamlet himself, brilliant, brave, charismatic, funny, fatally attractive, romantically doomed and one of the most fascinating and best loved heroes in the history of theatre. Date - 6-11 July, 2009 Location - Parade Studio Written by - William Shakespeare Performed by - 2nd year students Directed by - John Sheedy Bookings - Ticketek A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairies, warring lovers, and amateur dramatics – these are all parts of Shakespeare’s most magical play. First performed in 1595, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has long fascinated and delighted audiences around the world. Very often, it is the first play one sees as a child. The theme of children and independence is very much a matter for all the characters, desperately in search of some form of love, appreciation, and approval. I would my father looked but with my eyes, says the condemned Hermia, before she and her lover, Lysander flee to the relative safety of the woods. But the woods are not safe; they are the domain of the fairies, whose King and Queen, Oberon and Titania, are also at war. Add the rustic Mechanicals, amateur actors determined to put on a wonderful play, and the mischievous sprite, Puck, and the scene is set for hysterical mayhem - by the end all a transformed by the potency of the woods. This is a play for all the family, and especially for those whom have never experienced the magic of the theatre. Date - 7-11 July, 2009 Location - Parade Playhouse Written by - William Shakespeare Performed by - 2nd year students Directed by - Tony Knight Bookings - Ticketek The Threepenny Opera The Threepenny Opera is Brecht’s most popular and successful play. It is over 90 years old but nevertheless still contemporary. Brecht’s play is a satiric parable of the capitalist system. It asks the question, "How can someone who merely robs a bank compete with someone who founds a bank?" At the centre of the story is the relationship between money, power and morality: „First comes the feeding then the moral code.“ Brecht paints with wit and keen observation a cynical world of selfishness, power politics and hardship, corruption and disingenuousness. Beyond Mack the Knife, Kurt Weill’s music holds many more surprises in this opera for actors with its catchy and complex music. Running time 2 hours 30 minutes including one 20 minute interval. Date - 22-26 September, 2009 @ 7:30 pm Location - Parade Theatre Written by - Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht Trans. by - Michael Feingold Directed by - Peter Kleinert & Juergen Beyer Musical Director - Thomas Beyer Bookings - Ticketek East is East EAST IS EAST by Ayub Khan Din was a landmark when it was first produced in 1996. The production pioneered the cross over of British Asian theatre into the mainstream and the original production was remounted several times finally finding its way to the Duke of Yorks in London's West End. Set in Salford in the 1970's this hilarious yet emotionally tender and politically inflamed family drama explores the lives of the Khan children caught between their Pakistani father's insistence on tradition and their Mancunian mother's laissez- faire attitude to parenting. When the two older sons are faced with the prospect of arranged marriages George Khan, their father finally has to face the fact that his kids may not be the obedient Pakistani children he wants them to be. Date - 8-20 October, 2009 Location - Parade Space Written by - Ayub Khan-Din Performed by - 3rd year graduating students Directed by - Kristine Landon-Smith Bookings - Ticketek (Warning : This production contains strong language and smoking. Suitable for ages 15 years and older.) Rabbit Hole Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as numerous other awards, Rabbit Hole is a moving, touching, and often very funny play, dealing with grief. As Ben Brantley stated in The New York Times, "the play taps into a reservoir of feelings common to anyone who has experienced the landscape-shifting vacuum left by a death in the family". Howard Shapiro in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, "You feel vaguely guilty for laughing, even as your laughter relieves you…This is one smart play". Date - 7-17 October, 2009 @ 7:30pm Location - Parade Studio Written by - David Lindsay-Abaire Directed by - Tony Knight Bookings - Ticketek (Warning : This production contains strong language. Not recommended for people under 15 years of age.) Women Beware Women This is a thrilling exposé of the workings of power:  the old corrupt the young, the rich buy the poor, and even the highest power in the land is suscepible to youth and  beauty. Sometimes described as "Romeo and Juliet grow up", Women Beware Women dissects the notion  that young lovers can stay happy in the romantic idyll of being in love.  A working man can't stay in bed all day he has to go to work, a bored wife wants sex and if her husband can't give it she will get it some where else, a Duke only wants what is utterly unattainable, a woman seemingly for little reason other than than boredom wreaks havoc on the younger women who surround her.  The young women take to their corruption with a swiftness that suggests they thrive in it. Date - 10-20 October, 2009 @ 7:30pm Location - Parade Playhouse Written by - Middleton and Barker Directed by - Kate Cherry Bookings - Ticketek (Warning : This production contains strong language and nudity. Suitable for ages 15 years and older.)