Last night’s Victorian Drama League 14th Annual Awards Presentation Evening was held at Merrimu Receptions, Dandenong Rd, Murrumbeena. Throughout the year three adjudicators attended twenty-four productions around the state and bestowed awards by category as well as a number of individual adjudicator’s awards.
After 25 years as Australia’s most successful Music Theatre Producer, John Frost is taking a big leap in 2011, by producing two new musicals - Dr Zhivago and An Officer and a Gentleman. It is a big change from his reputation as a first class producer of established musicals such as Wicked and Fame. David Spicer spoke to him during a rare break in his activities.
DS: Max Bialystock (The Producers) said never ever put money into your own shows. Do you put money into your own shows?
He was the original Boy From Oz. Now Todd McKenney has picked up the maracas once again. A two-week Sydney season has now been announced at the Capitol Theatre from March 2, following the Production Company’s sell-out Melbourne season in August and a return Melbourne Summer season from January 5 to 16.
Melbourne based independent theatre company Red Stitch Actors Theatrecelebrates its 10th anniversary season in 2011. It is unique in its ensemble structure, managed and staffed largely by the actors, with a core team of dedicated technical and design crew.
The ensemble came together in late 2001, principally to create work for actors who weren’t getting opportunities elsewhere, and to produce exciting contemporary scripts that weren’t being performed on Australian stages.
Producers Howard Panter and John Frost announced on November 11, 2011 that the hit musical Legally Blonde will open at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre on 4 October, 2012. The Australian Premiere of this award-winning Broadway and West End sensation was secured for Sydney with the assistance of the NSW Government through Destination NSW and the City of Sydney.
The cast, originally scheduled to be officially announced at the launch by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell on February 27, 2011, has been delayed by a week due to a clash with the leadership spill in Canberra.
Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett officially ‘switched on’ the massive solar array on the roof-top of the Company’s home-base, The Wharf, on November 26. Comprised of 1906 Suntech plut0 solar panels covering the length of the roof (enough to power 46 average homes), it is Australia’s second-largest rooftop solar array and a major component of STC’s comprehensive Greening The Wharf program.
The Famous Spiegel Gardenwill transform the outside of the Arts Centre into a lush, tropical ex-pats club this summer, with an extraordinary cabaret line-up at the Famous Spiegeltent at its heart.
“We’re tipping our hat to the relaxed elegant atmosphere of Singapore’s famed Raffles Hotel and giving Melburnians a place to experience that,” explained Judith Isherwood, Chief Executive, the Arts Centre of The Famous Spiegel Garden theme.
Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image will premiere Snow On Mars, the aspirational story of a boy’s dream to be the first man to see snow on Mars, at the York Theatre, Seymour Theatre Centre in January.
Snow on Marsreunites the multi-award winning team of Richard Tulloch [writer] and Kim Carpenter [concept and design] (The Book of Everything, The Happy Prince, Stella & The Moon Man) to work with international Australian director, Gale Edwards (Sweeney Todd, The Boy From Oz).
Four new Australian music theatre projects in development will have their first airing at the Arts Centre, Melbourne in January.
With a mission to uncover and support bold, innovative thinking in contemporary music theatre across Australia, the Arts Centre in conjunction with the Australia Council called for new works in early 2010. Four of the most compelling were chosen and will be presented ‘in the raw’ during a showcase season from January 19 – 25 in the Fairfax Studio, the Arts Centre.
