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The Australian Ballet: 2014 Season

The White Stripes, a flying goose and a touch of exotic India

The Australian Ballet launched its 2014 season in Melbourne today (September 3) at its Production Centre in Altona, recreating the moment from The Nutcracker where Clara is transported to the Land of the Sweets by a giant flying goose!

The Nutcracker is just one of the productions featured in the 2014 season, alongside three more full-length ballets, a classical double bill and a contemporary triple bill.

Griffin Theatre Company Season 2014

Artistic Director Lee Lewis announced her inaugural season for Griffin Theatre Company tonight (September 2, 2013), including three world premieres of new Australian writing, revisiting an Australian classic, and several new adventures.

“Our 2014 season is a shameless celebration of the depth and breadth of Australian playwriting culture,” says Lewis. “Breadth in terms of the diversity of voices and stories, combined with remarkable depth of quality.”

No Room for Errors on Tour

You’ve got a cast of ten, a set full of doors, complex lights, and it all has to fit into a van as you tour to 32 wildly different venues across Australia. It sounds like a recipe for a comedy of errors. And as Frank Hatherley has discovered, this national tour of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors turns day into night.

The Director

When rising young director Imara Savage was offered the daunting and exhilarating job of directing a tour of The Comedy of Errors she knew she had big problems to solve.

The Non-stop Lucy Maunder Show

She’s Rizzo by day, Gertie by night, and she’s doing a rave-reviewed cabaret show that’s aimed at London and New York. Rocketing young star Lucy Maunder tells Frank Hatherley about her non-stop life.

Touring Australia as Gertrude Lawrence in the sophisticated entertainment Noel and Gertie, Lucy Maunder does what she calls “some really cute Fred and Ginger dancing” with her co-star James Millar. But as she glides around the various stages she conceals a far wilder dancer inside.

MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY CELEBRATES 60 YEARS

The Melbourne Theatre Company celebrates sixty years of theatre-making on 31 August 2013.

This marks the opening date the company’s first ever production – Colombe by Jean Anouilh in 1953 under MTC’s founder, John Sumner, who passed away in May this year.

Bell Shakespeare Season 2014

Bell Shakespeare has announced its 2014 Season, adding a fourth mainstage show to the programme, including its first production of Moliere’s Tartuffe, new exclusive behind-the-scenes access and online dialogue for students, continued work with refugee students and juvenile justice programme, and celebrations aplenty for Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.

Opera Australia in 2014

Opera Australia unveiled its 2014 program on August 23, with seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, a third Handa Opera on the Harbour, the premiere of Opera on the Beach on the Gold Coast and another musical theatre collaboration with producer John Frost.

The company is set to première five new productions across their Melbourne and Sydney seasons in 2014.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE: 2014 SEASON

Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre has announced its 2014 season, which will include not just one David Williamson play, but four.

The Lion King: Cast Announced

After a hotly competitive audition process, the cast for the new Australian production Disney’s The Lion King, opening at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre on December 12, 2013 has been announced.

The cast features bright emerging Australian and New Zealand talent, along with a number of seasoned performers.

The call for talent drew 4,000 submissions with a total of 1,860 performers auditioning for the musical, which combines puppetry and masks, ceremony and dance, and a music score of soul-stirring songs.

2013 MELBOURNE FESTIVAL

Melbourne Festival Creative Director Josephine Ridge’s first Festival program invites Melburnians and visitors to experience 105 events and activities, including contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, visual arts, film, forums, conversations and encounters, with over a third of the events free of charge.

With 19 world premieres and 13 Australian premieres, the Festival runs for 17 days from 11 October 2013.

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