Stage Briefs

2013 Sidney Myer Creative Fellows Announced

As this busy 2013 year winds to a close it brings mixed blessings to artists in all forms of our industry. For many young artists, some practical recognition of their work is necessary in order to keep improving and sometimes just surviving. That’s where scholarships and grants come into play. But there is another section of our industry that is often in danger of being overlooked.

Mike Walsh Fellowships Announced

The Mike Walsh Fellowships enable young theatre practitioners to travel overseas to further their knowledge and experience in their chosen fields of the performing arts, before returning to Australia to pursue their careers.

In 2013 eight fellowships have been awarded to Graduate Theatre practitioners from the three major Drama schools – the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), and the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Will King Kong take over Spiderman’s Haunt?

The New York Times is reporting that the Australian production of King Kong might land in the  Foxwoods Theater  on Broadway which will soon be vacated by Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Investors and executives with Spiderman said on Tuesday that the show will have historic losses of up to $60 million when it closes on Jan. 4. The closing follows a sharp decline in sales because of competition from hotter musicals and a lack of star attractions in the cast.

Barry Humphries Artistic Director for Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2015

Adelaide Festival Centre's CEO and Artistic Director, Douglas Gautier announced today that Artistic Director for Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2015 will be Barry Humphries. Barry Humphries needs no introduction: he is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most loved comedians, satirists, artists, and authors. Best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, he is also a respected film producer and script writer, a star of London's West End musical theatre, an award-winning writer and an accomplished landscape painter.

News Flash : Strictly Ballroom the Musical Lead announced.

Director Baz Luhrmann has announced that the search for the ideal ‘triple threat’ to play the pivotal lead role of Scott Hastings in STRICTLY BALLROOM THE MUSICAL is over.

The ‘role of a lifetime’ has been given to 20-year-old Thomas Lacey, best known as Ben Tickle in the ABC TV hit dance show Dance Academy. 

Isabella Rossellini to tour in Green Porno

Screen icon Isabella Rossellini is coming to Australia in 2014 to perform her new stage show Green Porno, a one-woman comedy about mating in the natural world.

In Green Porno, Rossellini takes us on anunusual and fascinating journey into the sex life and mating habits of a number of land and marine animals – the snail, the worm, the fly, the shrimp, the deadly spider, the praying mantis, the anchovy and the bi-phallic snake.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Extends

Ater initially only announcing a short four week season, due to "popular demand” and great reviews, producer George Youakim from James Anthony Productions have announced that the Sydney season of musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has been extended to December 8 2013 at Sydney’s Theatre Royal. New performances go on sale on Friday.

Ewen Leslie to step in for Toby Schmitz as Hamlet

Belvoir issued this statement today (October 25, 2013).

We are always delighted when artists we work with enjoy international success, so we are very pleased that Toby Schmitz will be shooting the second season of Black Sails, a blockbuster TV series directed by Michael Bay. Unfortunately  and unexpectedly shooting begins in South Africa just before the end of the season of Hamlet. Schmitz will give his last performance on Sunday 17 November.

Beckettian Waiting Game for STC Waiting For Godot Cast

Life has mirrored art almost too closely for comfort during the first seven days of rehearsals for Sydney Theatre Company’s Waiting for Godot, with the cast of Richard Roxburgh, Hugo Weaving, Luke Mullins and Philip Quast engaged in an unexpected, yet somehow strangely appropriate, waiting game of their own. They’ve been waiting for a man who will never turn up. They’ve been waiting for director Tamás Ascher.

ATOMIC: World Premiere Musical

Dreamingful Productions present the world premiere of ATOMIC, promising ‘an explosive high-energy musical that throws open the doors on a pivotal moment in history – the creation of the atom bomb’.

Written by Danny Ginges (Australia) and Gregory Bonsignore (USA) with music by Philip Foxman, the show will be directed by Damien Gray (USA) and presented at the NIDA Parade Theatres from 16 – 30 November 2013.