A se

lec

t gu

ide

to A

ustra

lian

mu

sic th

ea

tre

In Repertoire

2

I

Dear Reader

This guide takes you on a journey through contemporary Australian music theatre works that arecurrently available for touring. These and additional works in repertoire can all be found in the database on pages 24 - 25 with contact addresses and other information.

A few significant works no longer in repertoire are mentioned in the overview essay on pages 22-23.Many more are documented in Arias, Recent Australian Music Theatre (Red House Editions, 1997). A sample listing of works in progress is reported on page 26. On the same page a basic set ofreferences can be found. A longer list is available on the Australian Music Centre websitehttp://www.amcoz.com.au/amc

The Editor

Editor Keith GallaschAssistant Editors Kirsten Krauth, Virginia BaxterDesign i2i design, Sydney

Cover photographsLeft Arena Theatre Company, Eat Your Young, photo Jeff BusbyRight Top Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, The Ghost Wife, photo Jeff BusbyRight Bottom Queensland Theatre Company, The Sunshine Club, photo Rob MacColl All other photography credits page 27

Produced by RealTime for the Australia Council, the Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory body

Australia CouncilPO Box 788 Strawberry Hills NSW Australia 201261 2 9215 9000 fax 61 2 9215 9111mail@ozco.gov.auhttp://www.ozco.gov.au

RealTime PO Box A2246 Sydney South NSW, Australia 123561 2 9283 2723 fax 61 2 9283 2724opencity@rtimearts.comhttp://www.rtimearts.com.au/~opencity/

February 2000 ISBN 0 642 47222 X

With the assistance of the Australian Music Centre

the

mus

ical

Introduction

The remarkable growth of Australian music theatre as we enter the newmillennium appears to be exponential, manifesting itself in many different andsurprising ways - as chamber opera, as the musical, as installation or sitespecific performance, and as pervasive musical scores and sound design inan increasing number of plays. Apart from live performance, music theatreworks can now be heard on radio and television (including the forthcomingmdTV project), on CD, and experienced as part of the ‘new media’ on CD-ROM and via the internet.

The proliferation of innovative, flexible and eminently tourable music theatrehas been the creation of Australian composers, writers, directors andperformers over some 30 years. Their sustained efforts are now flowering,generating new audiences - young, old, urban and regional, in and outsidethe concert hall, working across art forms, cultures and musical genres. In turn this activity offers new opportunities for a wide range of artists, not least composers and performers.

The widely travelled Artistic Director of the 1998 and 2000 Telstra AdelaideFestivals, Robyn Archer, herself a music theatre practitioner, sees the scaleand character of this surge of activity as distinctly Australian: “I think whenoverseas producers start to look at this they will see a quintessentialAustralian-ness. There are so many productions; some of the most inventiveartists are investing their energies in this form.” She predicts “(music theatre)could well become the most important art form in Australia in the next tenyears” (The Age, November 24, 1999). Appropriately music theatre is centralto Archer’s Telstra Adelaide Festival 2000 program.

Federal and state arts funding bodies too have played a role in thisphenomenon, encouraging activity over many years and now supportingnational and international touring.

As this guide indicates, there is a wealth of music theatre in Australia, a very moveable and tourable feast.

Jennifer BottGeneral Manager Australia Council

3

opera

music theatre

perfo

rman

ce+

soun

d c

ham

ber

oper

a

music+installation+performance

The Burrow

Incorporating highly original use ofvisual theatre techniques, the operais a monologue for Kafka in whichother characters, both real andfictional, materialise as if from thewriter’s imagination. In one of the

company's most acclaimed works Alison Croggan has created a richly imagistic libretto, while Michael Smetanin’s music is characterisedby a forceful, sometimes abrasive,hyper-energetic rhythmic drive withroots as diverse as Stravinsky, ‘funk’,Russian folk, hard rock and Xenakis.

The dynamic performancecompany Chamber Made Operawas established in 1988 by itspresent Artistic Director, DouglasHorton, to investigate and extendthe musical and theatricalpossibilities of contemporary musictheatre. Chamber Made is nowinternationally renowned, havingcommissioned and producedthirteen new Australian works, aswell as works by non-Australianartists, with over forty seasonsperformed across four continents.Its touring repertoire for 2000 willinclude works in commission:Motherland of the Foreign Son, a Vietnamese/French/Australiancollaboration composed byFrance’s Dominique Probst withtext by Le Quy Duong; andWalkabout (based on the NicholasRoeg film of the same name)written by Wesley Enoch.

The Two Executioners

Placed somewhere between the aesthetics of dadaism,existentialism, and film noir, The Two Executioners (libretto by Douglas Horton after the one act play by Fernando Arrabal)is an extremely black comedy of family life, reverberating withpolitical meaning. DavidChesworth’s compositional stylesweeps aside preconceivedexpectations as he creates auralpalettes, in turn minimalist, vibrant,mesmerising and even industrial.

4

I don’t recall being soimpressed since (the firsttime I saw) Pina Bausch’sWupperthaler Tanztheater…(The Burrow)The Australian

Chamber Made Opera

5

Easily the mostimpressive andmemorable piece of music theatre in1994…(The TwoExecutioners) is aproduction in which all the elements...werefused into a deeplysatisfying whole.The IndependentMonthly

In this lyrical fantasia upon the moral history of Australia,NORPA has commissioned a considerable and powerful new piece of music theatre,sophisticated yet confiding.(The Mercenary)The Australian

NORPANorthern Rivers Performing Arts Inc.

The Mercenary

In 19th century Italy, a murder paysthe way for a man to set out with hisfamily for a tropical utopia just northof Australia. At the end of his life themurderer reflects on the killing, theloss of his baby, the disastrousutopia, prosperity in New Italy innorthern New South Wales, and hisslaughter of Aboriginals. LibrettistJanis Balodis says that the opera"acknowledges the courage anddetermination of migrants to triumphin the face of hardships and that ourhistory is one of dispossession bythe dispossessed."

The opera stars baritone LyndonTerracini whose international careerincludes the Peter Greenaway-Louis Andriessen ROSA - A HorseDrama. His powerful soloperformance is directed by Teresa Crea, with the composerPaul Grabowsky conducting hisdynamic score. The striking setdesign is by Eamon D'Arcy.

Based in Lismore in northern NSW,NORPA provides regional audienceswith an international arts programas well as commissioning newworks.The Mercenary embarks on an Australian tour in 2000.

The story is told through 16 solo monologues exploitingTerracini’s towering ability to command a stage.Sydney Morning Herald

Nigel Jamieson

The Theft of Sita

Conceived and directed byacclaimed director Nigel Jamieson,this international collaborationbrings together a remarkable group of artists working on imageprojection and computer animation,including a shadow puppet masterfrom Bali, Javanese photojournalists and Mambo's RegMombassa. Members of theinnovative Australian Art Orchestraperform with virtuoso Balinesegamelan players to realise Paul Grabowksy's explosivemusical score.

Projecting Indonesian shadowtheatre onto giant screens, The Theft of Sita transposes the Ramayana to contemporaryIndonesia. It mirrors the classicalstory of the abduction of Sita withthe pillage of modern Indonesia,and the great battle at the end ofthe Ramayana with the eventsleading to the overthrow ofSoeharto. Produced by PerformingLines for the Adelaide Festival.Premieres Telstra Adelaide Festival2000. Melbourne InternationalFestival of the Arts 2001.

A Green Room Music Production

Laquiem

An amplified oratorio for spokenvoice, operatic voice, pop voice,violin, clarinets, saxophones, cello,percussion, harp, lighting and audiodesign. Kathleen Mary Fallon’spoignant and pungent texts yieldsongs and stories of pain,dislocation and grief, chilling in theirhonesty. Andrée Greenwell hasplaced these lamentations inmusical settings traversingexpansive timbral and emotionalterritory in a wry and dexterousapproach to the human voice.

…Laquiem has the feel ofmaturity and completeness…The pairing of the sung voicesworks powerfully...and theorchestrations are a joy…worthy of return seasons. RealTime

7

ELISION contemporary music ensemble

transmisi

transmisi is an installation-concertperformance with live electronicsand Wayang Kulit puppetry. It's about the transmission ofinformation, ideas, traditions(between cultures, but also withinthem), and the distortions andmisinterpretations which accompanyit. Wayang Kulit and music forelectro-acoustic ensemble could be the strangest of bedfellows, but their interweavings are ramifiedby video, by oblique approaches tothe sound and structure of gamelan,and by a sound-performance/imageinstallation.

Yuè Lìng Jié

This ritual opera, with itsparticipatory South-East Asian streetfestival atmosphere - Chinese opera,puppets, riddles and song contests,a karaoke session and a Daoist sexmanual scene - presents the legendof the Moon Goddess in the contextof the Chinese Hungry GhostFestival. The libretto is in English,Mandarin and Cantonese. LeadingAustralian composer Liza Lim hascreated the score with a libretto by prominent novelist Beth Yahp.Telstra Adelaide Festival 2000program.

Led by Artistic Director DarylBuckley, the ELISION contemporarymusic ensemble has developedinnovative projects in contemporaryopera, site-specific installation,chamber performance,improvisation and electronic music.An extensive repertoire of workscombining instruments from variousWestern and Asian traditions nowexists and over a hundred andtwenty new works have beenpremiered. ELISION has beenextremely active internationally,mounting tours to Italy, Germany,the United Kingdom, theNetherlands, Norway, Austria,Belgium and South Korea.

Inferno

Composed by John Rodgers,Inferno is scored for thirteenvirtuoso musicians from theELISION ensemble and involves an extensive use of electronicallymanipulated sound - an 'auralcartography' of Dante's vision.Members of the ensemble take on the personalities of variousdenizens of hell and a visuallandscape evokes the hellishimages of Hieronymous Bosch with invented instruments such as the 'ice-flute' and 'water-crotales'. Telstra Adelaide Festival2000 program.

8

transmisi is aconfronting anddisturbing work,

elusively successful in its conjunction

of elements.The Australian

(Inferno is) a kind ofchamber symphonyturned inside out andthen melted likeSalvador Dali's clocks. Courier Mail

Gannon Fox Productions

The Boy from Oz

This highly successful musical isbased on the life of singer-songwriter Peter Allen and hisjourney from a country pub inTenterfield, Australia to New York'sRadio City Music Hall. It featuresstate of the art design and a cast of thirty three. The Boy from Oz isco-produced by Australian BenGannon and London and Broadway producer Robert Fox. The libretto isby Nick Enright, songs and lyrics byPeter Allen, the music supervised

by Max Lambert. The production is directed by Gale Edwards and features an outstandingperformance in the lead role byTodd McKenney. The workpremiered in Sydney in 1997 and isstill performing to rave reviews andstanding ovations around Australia.

The Boy from Oz is a truemusical in spirit and flesh ...leaves audiences gasping forbreath on a wondrous high.Sydney Morning Herald

Deborah Cheetham

White Baptist Abba Fan

This is the story of a gay, Aboriginalopera singer, Deborah Cheetham,and her journey towards identityand fulfilment in the face ofenormous personal challenges.Before she became an opera singershe was a 'white Baptist Abba fan'.Taken as an infant from her mother,she was raised in a religious, white,middle class home. Accompaniedonstage by four musicians,Cheetham sings classic opera ariasas her intimate story unfolds withirony and wit. Commisioned by the Olympics Arts Festival for The Festival of the Dreaming, 1997,and produced by Performing Lines,its many seasons have included theChristchurch Arts Festival and theEdge, Auckland (New Zealand), and sellout houses for the ZuercherTheater Spektakel, Zurich in 1999.

...with bitter irony, seldomsentimental, her witty torrent ofwords fascinate the audience. Solothurner Zeitung, Zurich

Queensland Theatre Company

The Sunshine Club

Frank, an Aboriginal serviceman,comes home from World War II tofind that although the wider worldmay have changed, not much isdifferent for him. Harassed bypolice, barred from pubs andforbidden from dancing with hischildhood friend, Rose - the whiteminister's daughter - Frank decidesto take action. With his friends andfamily he sets up The Sunshine

Club, a place where white and blackcan meet and above all dance.

Commissioned by the QueenslandTheatre Company, book, lyrics and direction are by Wesley Enoch,music by John Rodgers. Thepremiere season included Cairns,Townsville, Mackay and Brisbane,and subsequently the launching ofthe Sydney Theatre Company's2000 season.

9

…with a heart and a brain, a compelling,important take on the musical. Sydney Morning Herald

theaterMalpertuis & Mob Productions

Slow Love

In hundreds of tiny, fragmentedvignettes, bordered by rapid fireblackouts, the relationshipsbetween two men and two womenare played out within a perspexhouse. In a new multimediaproduction directed by Boris Kelly,

Richard Murphet's acclaimed1988 play breaks down theidealised image of romantic love.The music, composed andperformed by Stevie Wishart,combines French medieval lovesongs, torch song fragments and dub grooves swimming in a cinematic mix.

Slow Love is an Australian-Belgianco-production. Director, writer,composer, audio designer and one

of the four actors are Australian, the remaining cast and crew beingBelgian. Produced in Belgium in1999, Slow Love toured for sixweeks through the Low Countries.Telstra Adelaide Festival 2000.

The live soundscape from Stevie Wishart guides you,seduces you, and deceives you.Slow Love is addictive. De Morgen, Brussels

Music Theatre Sydney

Night and Dreams - The Death of Sigmund Freud

From award-winning composerAndrew Ford and librettist MargaretMorgan comes a music theatrework for tenor voice and multi-tracktape at once dark and funny,focussing on the exiled Freud as he contemplates his death. Theaudience is invited to become thegreat man's psychoanalyst. Nightand Dreams has been written forGerald English, one of the greatcontributors to the development ofAustralian music theatre. PremieresTelstra Adelaide Festival 2000.

Iphis

An opera in six scenes looselybased on Ovid’s Metamorphoses,Iphis is a tale of a dysfunctionalfamily, blind faith, control, rebellionand transformation. With the vibrantand eclectic music of composerElena Kats-Chernin and the wittylibretto of Richard Toop, Iphis is atestimony to laughter as a survivalmechanism for our times.

Iphis tweaked the nose of itsaudience. It is unmissable. The Australian

Since the restructuring of thecompany in 1997 Music TheatreSydney has forged its way tobecome a leader in the production,presentation and promotion ofcontemporary chamber opera and music theatre.

Condanza

Barbara/O

Combining the music of BarbaraStrozzi, a contemporary ofMonteverdi, and Elena Kats-Chernin, with the choreography of Michaela Isabel Fünfhausen, this German-Australiancollaboration tracks Strozzi’s lifeand work, drawing a line fromRenaissance Venice to today and allowing us to discover the great

beauty of a passionate life and of baroque music within acontemporary context. Telstra Adelaide Festival 2000.

Elena Kats-Chernin is one ofAustralia’s most successfulcomposers and has alreadypremiered two music theatre works,Matricide: The Musical (ChamberMade Opera) and Iphis (MusicTheatre Sydney). Barbara/O isdirected by Ann-Christin Rommen.

11

The opera Project

The Romantic Trilogy

Three related operas in a singleepic evening:The Berlioz - OurVampires Ourselves, an outrageousouting of operatic sensationalism,vampiric obsession and explicithomoeroticism; Tristan, thetransgressive heroine (Isolde) in anunexpectedly hysterical rehearsalwith the ‘feminized’ hero (Tristan);and The Terror of Tosca, theexhilaration of fear, the wild,speeding events of an opera withinan opera, jealousy, passion,dishonesty and song. Music fromBerlioz, Wagner and Puccini, PeterWells and Nigel Kellaway, scripts byNigel Kellaway and Keith Gallasch.

Founded in 1997, The opera Projectis committed to the development ofa powerful ensemble of experiencedartists. It pursues a contemporarytheatrical practice that examines a breadth of cultural heritage intheatre, music, literature and dance- unashamedly focusing on thebody of the performer, the voice andall its fleshy representations. Touringrepertoire also includes ChouxChoux Baguette Remembers andThis Most Wicked Body (TelstraAdelaide Festival 1998 ).

How triumphant! Informed,provocative, funny, oozing withexquisite music and unorthodoxsexuality. The purity of this work,its intelligence and physicaldaring set it apart. (The Berlioz) Sydney Morning Herald

12

REM Theatre

toteMMusic

A young city dweller is introducedto the spirit and dances of herpeople by the visit of the KangarooMan. toteMMusic explores thebalance between traditional andcontemporary Australian society.The work premiered at the LucerneInternational Music Festival followedby performances at the FlandersFestival, Ghent and the ZuiderpersHuis, Antwerp. Spotlight Program,4th Australian Performing ArtsMarket.

The performers are drawn from theTorres Strait in the north, throughTennant Creek in the Central Desert,to Western Australia. REM integratesthe performing arts into a vibrantcross-cultural, cross-artform theatre,dealing simply with concepts andattitudes that both children andadults relate to and understand.

It's richly textured theatre: anintegration of gesture,movement, image and music,sometimes melodic, oftenstrange, raw and compelling. Sydney Morning Herald

deckchair theatre

Kate ‘n' Shiner

Ernest ‘Shiner’ Ryan was a wellloved figure in Fremantle, WesternAustralia. There wasn’t a lock hecouldn’t open. His lover, Kate Leigh,nicknamed the Snow Queen for hercocaine dealings, was a legendarycrime figure of the 20s and 30s. Inthis play with music, Shiner isreleased from jail in 1944, an oldman and all for leading the quiet lifeuntil Kate turns up again and theydecide to tie the knot. But can thebent go straight? Written by leadingAustralian playwright John Romerilwith through-written music byaward winning composer Irine Vela.

The Fremantle-based deckchairtheatre is a leader in thecommissioning of widely-performedinnovative works which accuratelyreflect the cultural diversity of theAustralian people. Music has playeda key role in many of deckchair'sworks, including Emma, SapphoSings the Blues, Waterfront Womenand in their association withKavisah Mazzella and the ItalianWomen's Choir.

deckchair’s production does notsimply breathe life into history. It spits in its eye and laughs.The Gazette

Arena Theatre Company

Eat Your Young

Eat Your Young is a futuristic actionadventure where kids certifieduncontrollable are fitted with neuralimplants and their good behaviourrewarded with simulated reality – alush dreamscape in a music-drivenshow realised with giant roboticscreens, stop frame animation and surround sound installation.

From 1996 to 1998, Arenaunleashed a series of multimediaperformances entitled TheanthroPOP Trilogy. Under the artisticdirectorship of Rosemary Myers, the productions Autopsy, Mass andPanacea explored the intersectionbetween performance and popularculture. Autopsy toured extensivelythroughout North America. In 1999Arena was the first Australiancompany to be awarded theprestigous ASSITEJ InternationalHonorary President's Award. TelstraAdelaide Festival 2000.

(Autopsy is) intensely sensualand packed with urgency andideas. The Georgia Straight (Canada)

13

Melbourne International Festival of the Arts

The Ghost Wife

The Ghost Wife is a brutal story ofa woman living in the outback latelast century. Left alone for weekson end in a tiny slab hut with herinfant child, she is forced toconfront her own fears and the realdangers lurking in the Australianbush. A terrifying tale of rape andmurder and a poignant reminder of the complete strangeness of theAustralian landscape to Europeansettlers late last century.

Composed by Jonathan Mills and directed by Adam Cook, this chamber opera features a librettoby one of Australia's most

acclaimed poets, Dorothy Porter,based on the turn-of-the-centuryshort story The Chosen Vessel byBarbara Baynton. Set designerStephen Curtis and sound designerNeil McLachlan collaborated tocreate the unique instruments builtinto the set to be played by singersand musicians conducted byRichard Gill. Commissioned by the Melbourne International Festivalof the Arts for a world premiereseason in Melbourne 1999. TelstraAdelaide Festival 2000 programand Sydney Festival 2001 program.

doppio-para//elo

The Last Child(Flight of the Swallows)

In an intimate journal a womanattempts to communicate all that sheknows to the last child of themillennium. This mixed-genreperformance is a fusion of dialogue,song, music and visual imagery, froma text by Linda Marie Walker, directedby Teresa Crea, in an installation byJames Coulter and with sounddesign by Claudio Pompili, featuring

Julian Ferraretto and vocalist LibbyO'Donovan from Adelaide's acid funkband Brewed. Premieres TelstraAdelaide Festival 2000.

doppio-parallelo is a nationallyrecognised contemporaryperformance company with a 16-year track record for quality andinnovation, and an acknowledgedleader for its work in the area ofcultural diversity.

14

Despite its brevity, The Ghost Wife is one of the mostimportant additions to Australian opera in years. The whole enterprise is a model of its kind. Sydney Morning Herald

...edgy contemporary score... a dramatic tour de force... London Financial Times

Maximum Legroom

Acceptable Behaviour

Contrasting the formality of Corelli'sLa Folia with the physical andmental forms of delay thatconstitute work avoidance,Acceptable Behaviour heightensand transforms the everyday into a physical and acoustic score.

Maximum Legroom is a musictheatre performance companycreating original performance worksby exploring the physicality ofsound and the musical quality ofmovement and text. It grew out of music theatre works created in1998 for both the Adelaide Festivaland the Barossa Music Festival.

Jo Dudley and Cathy Adamek'screative inventiveness are aconstant and unpredictabledelight...they and theirteam...create a rhythmiclandscape infused with wit and humour. Adelaide Advertiser

Vitalstatistix

My Vicious Angel

A trapeze artist hospitalised with a broken back is visited by herdemonic twin who died in a housefire when they were children. Livepiano accordion and baritonesaxophone evoke the circus, fire,the creaking of ships, heartbeats,sea shanties and tangos in aseductive and haunting entwining of soundscape, music and words,written and composed by ChristineEvans and directed by RosalbeClemente. Revived for the TelstraAdelaide Festival 2000 aftercritically applauded 1998-99Adelaide and Sydney seasons.Spotlight program, 4th AustralianPerforming Arts Market.

Vitalstatistix National Women'sTheatre is based at Port Adelaide,South Australia. The 16 year-oldcompany's creation and productionof exciting new work by Australianwomen playwrights and artists placesit at the forefront of contemporaryAustralian theatre practice.

...(r)anging from free-form newjazz riffs to melancholy seashanties, from frenetic tangos to Napoleonic ballads, the musicinfuses the production with acurrent of feeling that isindivisible from the text. The Adelaide Review

15

The Song Company

Quito

Focussing on the life and death of ayoung East Timorese man sufferingfrom schizophrenia, Quito is a workfor six singers, tape and CD-ROM-driven projections. FranciscoBaptista Pires, nicknamed ‘Quito’,fled Dili prior to the 1975Indonesian invasion and was foundhanging in 1990 at Royal DarwinHospital. Quito's brief life stands asa metaphor for the tragedy of hishomeland. Book and music byMartin Wesley-Smith, book andlyrics by Peter Wesley-Smith.

The Song Company, directed byRoland Peelman, is one of the mostoriginal and stylistically versatilevocal ensembles in the world. This international touring companyperforms vocal music from the 12thcentury to the present day, has animpressive list of commissions hereand overseas, and a commitmentto innovative contemporary musictheatre, including in its repertoireThe Sinking of the Rainbow Warriorby Colin Bright and Amanda Stewart.

The kind of committed or engaged art so rarelyencountered.Sydney Morning Herald

16

a tour de force of contemporaryaudio art…A masterpiece.

The Alberta New Music & ArtsReview (Canada)

17

Graeme Leak

The Art of Noises

A collection of polished gems fromLeak's repertoire of solo works, with comic and serious elements,composed and improvised music,movement, intelligent text and worldrhythm influences, all delivered withaplomb, even when he's swalloweda microphone. Somewhere betweena show and a concert, with musicfor amplified office worker, marimba,string cans, voice and feet. SpotlightProgram, 4th Australian PerformingArts Market.

With a background in percussion,Graeme Leak has a unique stylewhich brings together unlikely anddisparate elements (such asinvented, found and traditionalinstruments, voice and text,movement and audio technology)to make surprising music which ischaracterised by a sense of humourand joy.

Graeme Leak has toured his solopieces to the USA, Japan andaround Australia.

Leak is a fine, laconic comedian,and his music theatre creationsare founded on the music in hisenvironment... The Australian

Stella

Liquid Days & Dark Nights

Exploring an intense and sustainedworld of hovering, suspendedpassions interleaved with momentsof visual and emotional reflection,this work for voices, flutes, tinwhistle, piano, harmonium, handbells, body percussion and dancefeatures the music of Taverner,Glass, Gubaidulina, Gorecki,Australian composer Ross Edwardsand the choreography of CsabaBuday. Premiered at the BarossaMusic Festival and toured to theSouth Pacific in 1999, the worktours nationally in 2000.

Stella was formed in early 1999 as a performance vehicle for a group of Adelaide-based independentwomen artists: soprano Tessa Miller,flautist Louise Dellit, pianist FionaCorston, and dancer Simi Roche.

Linsey Pollak

The Art of Food

A solo music theatre work devised,composed and performed byLinsey Pollak. In the hands of theeccentric and hilarious Ivaneverything becomes musical -carrots, potatoes, satay sticks,meat cleavers and even an electricdrill that transforms a carrot into aclarinet. This is a world of depth,beauty and energy, non-verbal anddigitally layered on the spot fromthe sounds of food and utensils.

Spotlight Program, 4th AustralianPerforming Arts Market. AdelaideFringe 2000.

Linsey Pollak is an instrumentmaker, recording artist, culturalcommunity coordinator, andfrequent musician-in-residenceacross Australia.

...one of Australia's most brilliant and underratedcomposer/musicians. He is wildly innovative... Courier Mail, Brisbane

Theatre of ImageOpera Australia

Grandma’s Shoes

A musical adventure suitable forchildren 5 - 12 years and familyaudiences. Based on LibbyHathorn’s book, a little girl stepsinto Grandma’s shoes and embarkson a fantastical journey to find hergrandmother, keeper of wonderfulstories. Puppetry and computer-aided animation combine to createillusions of fantastic travel.Performed by six singers, threedancer-puppeteers and a twelvepiece orchestra. Produced incollaboration with Opera Australia.Premiered in Sydney, January 2000.

Director-designer Kim Carpenter'sTheatre of Image is a companynoted for its cross-art formcreations, superb design and its appeal to young and adultaudiences. The composer isGraeme Koehne who created thescore for 1914 for The AustralianBallet, and composed the operaLove Burns. The librettist is popular children’s fiction writerLibby Hathorn (Way Home, Kate Greenaway Medal).

a genuine feeling of specialnessand enchantment … essential forchildren’s theatre The Australian

Aphids

Ricefields

Already performed in Australia,Japan and France, Ricefields is an installation/performance curatedby composer and Artistic DirectorDavid Young with visual artistsSarah Pirrie and Rosemary Joy.Reflecting on the landscapes andsoundscapes of contemporary ruraland urban Japan, Ricefields is asensory encounter that blurs theboundaries between notation andimprovisation, electro-acousticsound and lighting design, musicand visual art.

...memorable imagery and sounds...Brisbane Courier Mail

...a seductively reflectiveexperience. RealTime

The Melbourne-based Aphidsproduces projects and events incontemporary music performance,cross-artform collaboration andcommunity arts.

Raffaele Marcellino

The Remedy

This Commedia dell'Arte inspiredopera was composed by RaffaeleMarcellino to a libretto byMarguerite Bunce from a story inBoccacio's Decameron. Giallo, anidiot, inherits $500 and his friendsdecide to trick him out of hismoney. With the collaboration of acorrupt doctor, Giallo is convincedthat he is pregnant. He blames hiswife because 'she likes to be ontop', uses his money to buy aremedy prepared by the corruptdoctor and chaos ensues.

Marcellino's innovative worksinclude the score for The SydneyFront's provocative Don Juan(1992). The Remedy was premieredin Sydney in 1989 by the SydneyMetropolitan Opera (now MusicTheatre Sydney) and produced bythe Tasmanian Conservatorium ofMusic in 1999.

...an extroverted work

...brightly modern and apt. The Mercury, Hobart

18

Opera Australia

The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

In this adaptation of Ray Lawler'sclassic Australian play from the 50s,librettist Peter Goldsworthy,composer Richard Mills anddirector Richard Wherrett capturethe pathos and frustration ofBarney and Roo, two ageing sugarcane cutters trying to make senseof their lives and their relationshipswith Olive and Pearl, the womenthey regularly stay with each year in the city. Premiered in 1996 andrevived in 1999, the work has beenbroadcast nationally on ABC-TV.

The Eighth Wonder

Few stories have stirred theAustralian psyche as much as thedramas surrounding the design andbuilding of the Sydney OperaHouse. For some it representedcolossal creation against all odds;for others, bitter failure as artistictemperament collided withbureaucracy. At the metaphoricalheart of this large scale work byDennis Watkins (librettist) and AlanJohn (composer) is the sacrifice ofa hero in order that a society mayachieve its ends. The aspirations ofan emerging society struggling todiscover its identity are alsoexplored. The triumph of Utzon'sOpera House is that it exists. Thetragedy is that it wasn't allowed tobe true to itself. Commissioned byThe Australian Opera with theassistance of the Sydney OperaHouse, directed by Neil Armfield,the work premiered in 1995, wasshown nationally on ABC-TV andwill be revived in 2000.

Not since John Adams' Nixon in China have I seen a modernopera that connected so stronglywith its audience. Sydney Morning Herald

Opera Australia is Australia'sflagship opera company, presentingmajor works of the opera repertoireand commissioning new Australianworks. Based in Sydney andMelbourne, the company tours toother capital cities, with selectedworks available on CD and video.

OzOpera

Love Burns

Written by playwright and novelistLouis Nowra, composed byGraeme Koehne, and directed by Neil Armfield, the work waspremiered in 1992 by the SeymourGroup for the Adelaide Festival. A new production by Armfield wasmounted in 1998 by OzOpera forthe Melbourne International Festivalof the Arts. Effectively employingdeadpan texts and dance hall

rhythms, the opera follows themurderous career of an Americankiller couple on their way to theelectric chair.

The OzOpera wing of OperaAustralia tours classic works tourban and regional areas, developsworks commissioned by OperaAustralia, and is a key partner in the innovative mdTV music theatreproject.

19

IHOS Opera

Days and Nights with Christ

A large-scale work dealing with the imagery associated with theschizophrenic condition.

…provocative…exhilarating…atruly memorable coup de théâtre. Opera Opera

To Traverse Water

Depicts a Greek woman’s journeyto her new homeland, Australia,exploring the immigrant’s culturaldisplacement.

MIKROVION

Seeks to develop a broader socialcontext for current HIV/AIDS researchand examine the microscopic worldof the virus in relation to thetechnology and perception of thehuman body and illness.

The Divine Kiss

Uses images associated with theSeven Saving Virtues to explore the concept of perfection and isspecifically designed to showcase thetalents of performers with disabilities.

IHOS is dedicated to creating large scale innovative works and installations that challengeconventional definitions of opera.Founded in Hobart, Tasmania in1990 by Constantine Koukias and Werner Ihlenfeld, IHOS Operapresents contemporary operawhich blends voice, dance andsound with visual design,installation art and technology,producing unique multicultural,multilingual, multi-artform musictheatre. With his collaborators,Constantine Koukias conceives,composes and directs.

Calculated Risks OperaProductions

The Last Supper

Explores the hidden myths andrituals associated with the commondinner table. A cook sings, tellsstories about working in chickenfactories, cooks a meal for heraudience accompanied by a pianoaccordion dance band and a threepart choir acting as waiters. Thework combines original music withtangos, polkas, baroque,renaissance and circus music,arrangements of Jerome Kernsongs and African pop music into asmorgasbord of music, food, danceand comedy.

Formed in 1990, Calculated RisksOpera Productions (Artistic Director,the composer Richard Vella) blursthe boundaries between opera,cabaret and popular performancestyles. Relying on collaborationbetween the creators, each work isa new exploration of the dynamicsbetween music, performers, thetheatrical space and audience. Also in repertoire is Bodysongs:The Fatman Tour.

The atmosphere is intimate, even enchanting with the castsometimes moving through theaudience, whispering a specialmessage to a lucky few...It is amost pleasant evening of musictheatre. Herald Sun

20

(To Traverse Water) must be seen to be believed…it demands yoursurrender and deserves it. The Australian

Crying in Public Places

Skin

All that you are, all you haveachieved, suffered, enjoyed,avoided, consumed, endured orovercome is recorded in your body,transcribed on your flesh. Skinuncovers the terrible vulnerabilitieswhich determine the choicesdirecting a life, with irreverent andexuberant physicality. PremieresTelstra Adelaide Festival 2000.Spotlight program, 4th AustralianPerforming Arts Market.

Crying in Public Places is JaneBayly, Anni Davey, Maude Daveyand Karen Hadfield, four ofVictoria’s most respectedperformers and theatre makers.Also in repertoire is the a capella-driven JUMP! which premiered inMelbourne in 1995 and has beenacclaimed wherever it has played,receiving 5 star reviews at theEdinburgh Fringe Festival, 1997,and selling out in Madrid in 1999.

21

…passionate, intelligent and extremely entertaining…Triple F Magazine, UK

Australian music theatre: an introduction

There is an explosion of musictheatre activity in Australia. Theworks take many forms and occurin sometimes surprising locations.Contemporary music theatre takeschamber opera in new directions,engages with new media and thevisual arts in installations, includesinnovative musicals and through-scored stage plays for adults andyoung people, theatricalises theconcert, transforms grand opera,and looks set to reach a growingaudience through television, radio,national and international touring.

As well, music theatre has becomean attractive site not just forcomposers and librettists, but for artists of all kinds intrigued by its expressive and collaborativepossibilities. While composerscontinue to play a central role,choreographers, visual artists,designers and others have become key collaborators in theconceptualising and execution of the works rather than playingillustrative or supportive roles. This means that the role of librettistis not always as significant as itonce was. However, notableAustralian writers continue toparticipate actively in music theatre,now with greater opportunities forexperimentation. As for composers,there are few in Australia who havenot tried their hand at music theatreand there are many with works inrepertoire and in progress.

What I casually term an ‘explosion’is, of course, the product ofinspiration and hard work fromAustralian artists over thirty yearsbuilding towards this moment when music theatre has ‘suddenly’become highly visible, the subjectof conferences and newspaperarticles, histories, arts festival andcorporate commissionings, andcritical acclaim. For many years

there has been strong competitionfor funds, and, until recently, limitedcritical acknowledgment, raredocumentation and very few workstouring nationally. Even so, theoutput has been considerable. A key supporting role has been and continues to be played by theAustralia Council and the stategovernment arts bodies in providingfunds for commissions andproductions. From 1989-91 theAustralian Music Centrecommissioned a set of significantone act operas still in variousrepertoires. The Rio TintoCorporation has recently beguncommissioning music theatreworks. Arts festivals are turningtheir attention to the form. Now theprophets are talking up Australianmusic theatre as the next greatexport to the world after thesuccesses of Australian Indigenousart, Australian novels and films, and circus and physical theatre.

International collaborations are alsoopening up new possibilities forAustralian music theatre, asillustrated by the German companyCondanza’s Barbara/O for theTelstra Adelaide Festival 2000, a work scored by Australiancomposer Elena Kats-Chernin.Chamber Made Opera have touredoverseas extensively and theirartistic director, Douglas Horton,has been working with theAntwerp-based Transparentchamber opera company. Belgium’stheaterMalpertuis have collaboratedwith Australia’s Mob Productions topresent Melbourne writer RichardMurphet’s Slow Love with music byStevie Wishart (already a wellknown artist in Europe) in Belgiumand at the Adelaide Festival. Add tothis the fact that a number ofcompanies—The Song Company,Arena Theatre Company, ELISIONand Aphids—already tourinternationally and the potential forthe export of Australian musictheatre looks even greater. In 2000

Aphids are embarking on anAustralian-Danish collaboration in their new work, Maps.

Although the written history ofcontemporary Australian musictheatre has barely been embarkedon, it is clear that there has been a steady and intensive growth ofactivity in the form since the earlyseventies. Arias (Red House, 1997),John Jenkins and Rainer Linz’invaluable guide to companies andthe works created since the mid80s, is a history of struggle, ofstrong entrances and brisk exits,but, most of all, tenaciouscommitment. There are otherhistories to be addressed, like thatof New Opera South Australia(1972-77), one of the earlier startingpoints for Australian music theatre,under the direction of itsadministrator Justin Macdonnell(see Elizabeth Silsbury, “FromThree’s Company to Der Ring DesNibelungen”, program, Wagner, The Ring Cycle, State Opera ofSouth Australia, 1998). In a brief,rich period, alongside Janacek,Brecht-Weill and Stravinsky, thecompany performed works byAustralians Larry Sitsky, JamesPemberthy and MargaretSutherland, and commissionedworks from Sitsky and GeorgeDreyfus.

Because this publication detailsworks currently in repertoire, and isnot a history, many composers whohave contributed to this rich andchallenging history don’t appear onthese pages. A few will be found inWorks in Progress (page 26) or inthe data base which includes moreworks in repertoire (pages 24-5).With only a few exceptions, most ofthese notable Australian composersare still active in music theatre,indicating the widespreadcommitment to the form: LarrySitsky, Peter Sculthorpe, MoyaHenderson, Barry Conyngham,Ross Edwards, Brenton

Broadstock, Martin Friedel, RichardMeale, Gordon Kerry, GillianWhitehead, Brian Howard, MichaelWhiticker, Andrew Schultz andJulian Yu.

Another important and sustainingstrain in Australian music theatreculture is exemplified in the work ofRobyn Archer, a concert artist, artsfestival director and collaborator onmusic theatre projects reachingback 30 years in Australia andoverseas. Her work has includedperformances in The Seven DeadlySins (1974) and The ThreepennyOpera (1975, 1999); solo works like A Star is Torn (1979); the CafeFledermaus cabaret (1990); andcollaborations like See Ya NextCentury (1993) with composers,choreographers and designers.Archer’s high profile and widelytravelled productions have meantthat a line of musical theatrepossibilities, often with a strongpolitical dimension, has been kept open.

The musical in Australia has had aninteresting and particular history,one similar to the struggle for musictheatre to make its mark, but withgreater popular expectations. Justas it had been argued in the 60sthat Australians were best atdocumentaries and should leavefeature filmmaking alone, so has the musical been repeatedlydeclared as not indigenous toAustralian culture. How ironic thenthat best known and most widelyseen Australian musicals have beenJimmy Chi’s Bran Nue Dae (1990)and Corrugation Road (1996) with their Indigenous creators and performers—and whitecollaborators from Perth’s BlackSwan Theatre Company. Thencame The Boy from Oz, a musicalbiography of the life of Australiansinger-songwriter Peter Allen.Premiered in 1995, it is now touringcapital cities. The latest musical towin widespread approval, writer-

22

director Wesley Enoch andcomposer John Rodgers’ TheSunshine Club (1999), is anothercollaboration on an Indigenoussubject. Commissioned andproduced by the Queensland Theatre Company it seemsdestined for a long life.

The effort to develop the Australianmusical for over a decade has beenconsiderable, involving NIDA (theNational Institute of Dramatic Art)and musical, opera and theatredirector Jim Sharman; CameronMacintosh and The Sydney TheatreCompany; and various individualsincluding Dennis Watkins and theplaywright Nick Enright (innumerous ventures and roles,including script writer for The Boyfrom Oz and script adviser on TheSunshine Club). WAAPA (WesternAustralian Academy of thePerforming Arts) has contributed by consistently producing skilledperformers for the musical. TheAustralian musical now seems areal possibility.

A large number of works detailedon these pages are chamberoperas, but more as a matter of scale than of convention. The influence of contemporaryperformance modes on musictheatre and the opening out of theterm opera since the 70s is evidentin new approaches to narrative, to stage imagery, to performancetechniques and audience-performerrelationships. Since its inception in1988, Chamber Made Opera’s stylehas been rigorously adventurousand non-realist, as has NigelKellaway’s provocative The operaProject in Sydney (since 1996).Tasmania’s IHOS Opera (formed in1990) stages large scale operaticmulti-media works often onwharves and in warehouses wherehuge depth of perspective andprojections can engage largeaudiences. Director Barrie Kosky’sGilgul Jewish Theatre Company

(The Dybbuk, Es Brent, Levad,1991-93) briefly invigorated musictheatre with a complex interplay ofmusical and theatrical forms andKosky went on to direct LarrySitsky and Gwen Harwood’s threeand a half hour The Golem (1995)for Opera Australia. Conductors likeRoland Peelman, Mark Summerbelland Richard Gill, and singers, likeGerald English, Lyndon Terracini,Annette Tesoriero and HelenNoonan have also played key rolesin their willingness to test the limitsof the form.

Paralleling developments in thevisual arts, site has become anincreasingly important element in a range of music theatre works.Among other sites, the ELISIONEnsemble have mounted works in a deserted Brisbane Powerhouse(transmisi, 1999) and a Perthrailway yard (Opening of the Mouth,1997). Chamber Made Opera’s TheCars That Ate Paris (1992, inspiredby the Australian film by Peter Weir)was performed in a motor vehiclerepair shop. Directed by NigelKellaway for The Song Company,The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior(1997) was viewed from theforecourt-wharf of Sydney’sNational Maritime Museum, withperformers appearing on hugenaval vessels—and in and out of the water. In Ricefields (1999),Aphids used sculptural objects that created the performing space,as well as doubling as scores andinstruments.

The topics embraced by Australianmusic theatre are richly varied,however certain themes andconcerns are recurrent. Despiteoccasional backlashes in favour ofa mono-dimensional Anglo-Celticculture, Australians increasinglyacknowledge the complexities of amulticultural society coexisting withan Indigenous one. Music theatrereflects and drives theseconcerns—Black River (1989) is

about aboriginal deaths in custody,The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrioris about imperialism and nuclearweaponry in our region, Bran NueDae and The Sunshine Club areabout the trials and hopes ofAboriginal people. In 1995, a groupof young artists of non-Englishspeaking background created thecommunity-based spectacleHipHopera in Sydney’s westernsuburbs. A popular, commercialmusical, The Boy from Oz,celebrates the life of a gayperformer.

Classic plays and novels areadapted as music theatre works,famous people’s lives aredramatised, and there is anavoidance of conventionalhistoricising; writer and librettistLouis Nowra once famouslydeclared himself “not interested inthe flyblown carcass of schoolbookAustralian history of famous eventsand persons.” Recent works, likeJulian Yu’s Fresh Ghosts, Liza Limand Beth Yahp’s Yue Jing Lie, andDominique Probst and Le QuyDuong’s forthcoming Motherland of the Foreign Son are indicative of an Australia engaging culturallywith Asia. Indigenous artists andcommunities are also celebratingthis relationship. One of thehighlights of the 1999 DarwinFestival was Trepang, anIndigenous opera celebrating thethree hundred years of trade andcultural exchange betweenMacassan seafarers and the Yolgnupeople of Arnhemland in northernAustralia.

An explosion of activity and a burstof enthusiasm are not alwayssignals of real success. Giving theworks long lives and sustaining thecompanies and artists that createthem are big challenges. Writing inBritain in Modern Music and After(Oxford, 1995), Paul Griffiths wasnot optimistic about the longevity of most new music theatre works.

He declared, with not a little ironythat “(w)hat was not realised untilthe late 70s was that there couldbe a living operatic culture basedon rapid obsolescence.” Griffithsbemoaned the phenomenon whereworks were only revived by thecompany that commissioned andpremiered them, and that “thenotion of making a permanentaddition to the repertory hasbecome so unthinkable as nolonger to be a matter of attention.”The result: “the almost unavoidablefutility of opera - the hopelessnessof creating lasting value...” Until the mid-90s this was not anuncommon sentiment in Australia,among composers in particular.However, the increasing number of artists committed to working inmusic theatre, the diversification ofthe form, the determination to keepworks in repertoire (as evident inthese pages), the greateropportunities for national andinternational touring, and forinternational collaboration, are all cause for optimism.

Keith Gallasch

23

24

company/artist work premiere composer writer producer contact tel +61 fax + 61 email/website post documentationof this a archival production p promotional

c commercial

Aphids Ricefields 9/98 David Young Aphids David Young 3 9593 6363 3 9593 6363 aphids@bigfoot.com 26 Acland St Video ap, CD ap, Score a,www.bigfoot.com/~aphids St Kilda VIC 3182 Photos ap

Arena Theatre Company Autopsy 6/96 Hugh Covill, Julianne O’Brien, Arena Theatre Company Katherine Crawford-Gray 3 9329 6266 3 9329 0366 arenatc@vicnet.net.au PO Box 179 Video p, CD c, Score aRosemary Myer, Rosemary Myer North Melbourne VIC 3051 Script a, Photos pBruce Gladwin

Arena Theatre Company Schnorky the 10/96 Frank Wood Sue-Ann Post, Arena Theatre Company Katherine Crawford-Gray 3 9329 6266 3 9329 0366 arenatc@vicnet.net.au PO Box 179 Video p, CD p, Score a Wave Puncher (after Jeff Raglus) North Melbourne VIC 3051 Script a, Photos p

Arena Theatre Company Mass 8/97 Hugh Covill, Julianne O’Brien, Arena Theatre Company Katherine Crawford-Gray 3 9329 6266 3 9329 0366 arenatc@vicnet.net.au PO Box 179 Video ap, CD p, Score aRosemary Myer, Rosemary Myer, North Melbourne VIC 3051 Script a, Photos pBruce Gladwin Bruce Gladwin

Arena Theatre Company Panacea 10/98 Hugh Covill Julianne O’Brien, Arena Theatre Company Katherine Crawford-Gray 3 9329 6266 3 9329 0366 arenatc@vicnet.net.au PO Box 179 Video pc, CD pc, Score aDavid Carlin North Melbourne VIC 3051 Script a, Photos p

Arena Theatre Company Oblong 4/99 Hugh Covill, Bruce Gladwin, Arena Theatre Company Katherine Crawford-Gray 3 9329 6266 3 9329 0366 arenatc@vicnet.net.au PO Box 179 Video p, CD pc, Score aBruce Gladwin, Rosemary Myer North Melbourne VIC 3051 Script a, Photos pRosemary Myer

Arena Theatre Company Eat Your Young 3/00 Hugh Covill Julianne O’Brien, Arena Theatre Company Katherine Crawford-Gray 3 9329 6266 3 9329 0366 arenatc@vicnet.net.au PO Box 179 Video p, Score a, Script a,(after Rosemary Myer) North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos p

Calculated Risks Tales of Love 6/90 Richard Vella John Baylis, Calculated Risks Richard Vella 2 95693069 2 9569 6668 rjv@magna.com.au PO Box N83 Video p, CD p, Score pOpera Productions Nigel Kellaway, Grosvenor Place Sydney 2000 Script p, Photos p

Annette Tesoriero,Richard Vella

Calculated Risks Volcano and Vision 10/90 Rainer Linz Paul Green Calculated Risks Richard Vella 2 95693069 2 9569 6668 rjv@magna.com.au PO Box N83 Video a, CD a, Score aOpera Productions Grosvenor Place Sydney 2000 Script a, Photos a

Calculated Risks The Last Supper 12/93 Richard Vella Richard Vella, Calculated Risks Richard Vella 2 95693069 2 9569 6668 rjv@magna.com.au PO Box N83 Video p, CD p, Score pOpera Productions Mary Sitarenos, Grosvenor Place Sydney 2000 Script p, Photos p

Robert Draffin

Calculated Risks Bodysongs: 9/98 Richard Vella Humphrey Bower Calculated Risks Richard Vella 2 95693069 2 9569 6668 rjv@magna.com.au PO Box N83 Video c, CD c, Score cOpera Productions The Fatman Tour Grosvenor Place Sydney 2000 Script c, Photos c

Chamber Made Opera The Fall of the 8/90 Philip Glass Arthur Yorinks Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,House of Usher Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera Greek 6/91 Mark-Anthony Steven Berkoff Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,Turnage Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera Sweet Death 10/91 Andrée Greenwell Abe Pogos Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera The Cars That 7/92 Ensemble Devised Ensemble Devised Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,Ate Paris (after Peter Weir) Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera Lacuna 10/92 David Chesworth Douglas Horton Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Script a, Photos apVivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051

Chamber Made Opera Medea 4/93 Gordon Kerry Justin Macdonnell Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Script a, Photos ap(after Seneca) Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051

Chamber Made Opera Improvement: 9/93 Robert Ashley Robert Ashley Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Script a, Photos apDon Leaves Linda Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051

Chamber Made Opera The Two Executioners 8/94 David Chesworth Douglas Horton Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,(after Fernando Arrabal) Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera The Burrow 8/95 Michael Smetanin Alison Croggan Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Script a, Photos apVivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051

Chamber Made Opera Fresh Ghosts 11/97 Julian Yu Glen Perry Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,(after Lu Xun) Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera Dr Ferris Will 11/98 Stephen Ingham Douglas Horton Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,See You Now Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera The Heiress 11/98 Donald Hollier Donald Hollier Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera Matricide the Musical 11/98 Elena Kats-Chernin Kathleen Mary Fallon Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Video a, Score a, Script a,Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051 Photos ap

Chamber Made Opera Eight Songs for 11/99 Peter Maxwell- Randolph Stow Chamber Made Opera Gabrielle Baker, 3 9329 7422 3 9329 7434 cmo@netspace.net.au PO Box 302 Score a, Script a, Photos apa Mad King Davies Vivia Hickman North Melbourne VIC 3051

Deborah Cheetham White Baptist 9/97 Various Deborah Cheetham Performing Lines Wendy Blacklock 2 9319 0066 2 9318 2186 perfline@ozemail.com.au 6/245 Chalmers St, Redfern 2016 Video a, Photos apAbba Fan

Condanza (Germany) Barbara/O 3/00 Barbara Strozzi, Condanza Ann-Christin Rommen 49 221 321883 rommen@attglobal.net c/o Art & Stage Photos pElena Kats-Chernin mob info@Art-Stage.de Sedanstrasse 8 D-79089

49172 2442655 Freiburg Germany

Crying in Public Places JUMP! 3/95 Crying in Public Crying in Public Crying in Public Maude Davey 3 9417 4570 3 9417 4570 mcrying@vicnet.net.au PO Box 267 Video ap, CD pc, Script apPlaces Places Places http://home.vicnet.net.au/ Northcote VIC 3070

~kcrying/

Crying in Public Places Skin 3/00 Crying in Public Crying in Public Crying in Public Maude Davey 3 9417 4570 3 9417 4570 mcrying@vicnet.net.au PO Box 267 Video a, CD pc, Script a,Places Places Places http://home.vicnet.net.au/ Northcote VIC 3070 Photos p

~kcrying/

deckchair theatre Kate ‘n’ Shiner 2/98 Irine Vela John Romeril deckchair theatre David Gerrand 8 9430 4771 8 9335 4210 deckchair@iinet.net.au PO Box 130 Video ap, Tape a, Score aFremantle WA 6959 Script a, Photos p

Doppio-Para//elo The Last Child 3/00 Claudio Pompili Linda Marie Walker Doppio-Para//elo Serafina Maria Maiorano 8 8231 0070 8 8211 7323 hub@doppio-parallelo.on.net PO Box 8077 Script a, Photos pwww.doppio-parallelo.on.net Station Arcade SA 5000

ELISION transmisi 9/99 Richard Barrett ELISION Daryl Buckley 7 3365 7314 7 3365 7491 d.buckley@elision.org.au ELISION CD-ROM p, Photos pcontemporary music www.elision.org.au School of Musicensemble University of Queensland

QLD 4072

25

ELISION Inferno 2/00 John Rodgers ELISION Daryl Buckley 7 3365 7314 7 3365 7491 d.buckley@elision.org.au ELISION CD p, Score p, Photos pcontemporary music www.elision.org.au School of Musicensemble University of Queensland

QLD 4072

ELISION Yuè Lìng Jié 3/00 Liza Lim Beth Yahp ELISION Daryl Buckley 7 3365 7314 7 3365 7491 d.buckley@elision.org.au ELISION Score pccontemporary music www.elision.org.au School of Musicensemble University of Queensland

QLD 4072

Gannon-Fox Productions The Boy from Oz 3/95 Peter Allen Nick Enright Gannon-Fox Productions Ben Gannon - - - PO Box 3320 Photos pTamarama NSW 2026

Green Room Music Laquiem 5/99 Andrée Greenwell Kathleen Mary Fallon Green Room Music Andrée Greenwell 2 9358 4647 green.man@bigpond.com 1/96 Elizabeth Bay Rd Video p, CD c, Score aProductions Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011 Script a, Photos a

IHOS Opera Days and Nights 9/90 Constantine Koukias Various texts IHOS Opera Constantine Koukias 3 6231 2219 3 6231 2219 ihosopra@southcom.com.au GPO Box 629 Video ap, Score a, Script a,with Christ Hobart TAS 7001 Photos ap

IHOS Opera To Traverse Water 11/92 Constantine Koukias Various texts IHOS Opera Constantine Koukias 3 6231 2219 3 6231 2219 ihosopra@southcom.com.au GPO Box 629 Video ap, CD apc, Score aHobart TAS 7001 Script a, Photos ap

IHOS Opera MIKROVION 11/94 Constantine Koukias Various texts IHOS Opera Constantine Koukias 3 6231 2219 3 6231 2219 ihosopra@southcom.com.au GPO Box 629 Video ap, Score a, Script a,Hobart TAS 7001 Photos ap

IHOS Opera The Divine Kiss 9/98 Constantine Koukias Various texts Access Arts Queensland, Constantine Koukias 3 6231 2219 3 6231 2219 ihosopra@southcom.com.au GPO Box 629 Video ap, Score a, Script a,The Brisbane Festival, Hobart TAS 7001 Photos apIHOS Opera

Graeme Leak The Art of Noises 12/93 Graeme Leak Graeme Leak Graeme Leak Graeme Leak 3 9486 6150 3 9486 6150 G.Leak@latrobe.edu.au 5 Westfield St Northcote VIC 3070 Video p, Photos a

Raffaele Marcellino The Remedy 9/99 Raffaele Marcellino Marguerite Bunce Tasmanian Raffaele Marcellino 3 6244 4694 3 6226 7333 raf@utas.edu.au 43 Carawa St., Video p, CD p, Score cConservatorium of Music Mornington TAS 7018

Maximum Legroom Acceptable Behaviour 9/99 Corelli, de Mey, Reckless Moments Barry Plews 8 8232 3990 8 8232 1886 producers@reckless.on.net PO Box 7162 Hutt St Video ap, CD c, Script a,Kern, Revel & 0412 484 430 www.reckless.on.net Adelaide SA 5000 Photos apGordon

Melbourne International The Ghost Wife 10/99 Jonathan Mills Dorothy Porter Melbourne International Kay Jamieson 3 9662 4242 3 9663 4141 k.jamieson@melbourne PO Box 10 Photos pFestival of the Arts Festival of the Arts festival.com.au Flinders Lane

www.melbournefestival. Melbourne VIC 8009com.au

Mob Productions (Australia) Slow Love 9/99 Stevie Wishart Richard Murphet Sam Bogaerts Boris Kelly (0)418 475 675 (0)418 475 675 mob@intercoast.com.au PO Box 801 Video a, CD c, Script a,theaterMalpertuis (Belgium) Narrabeen NSW 2101 Photos ap

Music Theatre Sydney Iphis 12/97 Elena Kats-Chernin Richard Toop Music Theatre Sydney Macdonnell Promotions 2 9310 3716 2 9699 9099 macprom@tradesrv.com.au 9 Telopea St Video apc, Tape ap,www.nmn.org.au Redfern NSW 2016 Score ap, Script ap,/theatre.htm Photos ap

Music Theatre Sydney Night and Dreams - 3/00 Andrew Ford Margaret Morgan Music Theatre Sydney Macdonnell Promotions 2 9310 3716 2 9699 9099 macprom@tradesrv.com.au 9 Telopea St CD p, Score p, Script p,The Death of www.nmn.org.au Redfern NSW 2016 Photos pSigmund Freud /theatre.htm

NORPA The Mercenary 10/99 Paul Grabowsky Janis Balodis Northern Rivers Liz Fraser 2 6622 0300 2 6622 3175 norpa@nrg.com.au PO Box 225 Video a, Score a, Script a,Performing Arts Inc www.norpa.org.au Lismore NSW 2480 Photos p

Opera Australia The Eighth Wonder 10/95 Alan John Dennis Watkins Opera Australia John Moulton 2 9699 1099 2 9699 3184 info@opera-australia.org.au PO Box 291 Score a, Script a, Photos awww.opera-australia.org.au Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

Opera Australia The Summer of the 10/96 Richard Mills Peter Goldsworthy Opera Australia John Moulton 2 9699 1099 2 9699 3184 info@opera-australia.org.au PO Box 291 Score a, Script a, Photos aSeventeenth Doll (after Ray Lawler) www.opera-australia.org.au Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

OzOpera (Opera Australia) Love Burns 10/98 Graeme Koehne Louis Nowra OzOpera Lindy Hume 3 9685 3777 3 9686 1441 info@opera-australia.org.au PO Box 389 Score a, Script a, Photos aBelvoir Company B www.opera-australia.org.au South Melbourne VIC 3205

The opera Project Inc. Choux Choux 6/93 Various Nigel Kellaway, The opera Project Inc. Nigel Kellaway 2 9516 3762 2 9516 3762 72 Margaret St Video ap, Score a, Photos apBaguette Remembers Annette Tesoriero Newtown NSW 2042

The opera Project The Romantic Trilogy 97-99 Berlioz, Wells; Keith Gallasch, The opera Project Inc. Nigel Kellaway 2 9516 3762 2 9516 3762 72 Margaret St Video ap, Score a, Script a,Wagner, Lizst; Nigel Kellaway Newtown NSW 2042 Photos apPuccini, Kellaway

The opera Project This Most Wicked 3/98 Beethoven Nigel Kellaway, The opera Project Inc. Nigel Kellaway 2 9516 3762 2 9516 3762 72 Margaret St Video ap, Score a, Script a,Body Various texts Newtown NSW 2042 Photos ap

Performing Lines The Theft of Sita 3/00 Paul Grabowsky Nigel Jamieson Performing Lines for Wendy Blacklock 2 9319 0066 2 9318 2186 perfline@ozemail.com.au Suite 6/245 Chalmers Stand collaborators Adelaide Festival www.performinglines.org.au Redfern NSW 2016

Linsey Pollak The Art of Food 9/97 Linsey Pollak Performing Lines Wendy Blacklock 2 9319 0066 2 9318 2186 perfline@ozemail.com.au Suite 6/245 Chalmers St Video ap, Photos apRedfern NSW 2016

Queensland The Sunshine Club 11/99 John Rodgers Wesley Enoch Queensland Sue Hunt 7 3840 7000 7 3840 7040 mail@qldtheatreco.com.au PO Box 3310 Video a, Score a, Script a,Theatre Company Theatre Company South Brisbane 4101 Photos p

REM Theatre Frozen Girl 6/99 Felicity Fox Roger Rynd Marguerite Pepper Marguerite Pepper 2 9699 2111 2 9699 9405 info@mpproductions.com.au 9 Telopea St Video p, Photos pProductions www.mpproductions.com.au Redfern NSW 2016

REM Theatre toteMMusic 8/99 Mark Atkins, The company Marguerite Pepper Marguerite Pepper 2 9699 2111 2 9699 9405 info@mpproductions.com.au 9 Telopea St Video p, Photos pDaniel O'Shea, Productions www.mpproductions.com.au Redfern NSW 2016Les Daniel

The Song Company The Sinking of the 1/97 Colin Bright Amanda Stewart The Song Company Eugene Ragghianti 2 9351 7939 2 9692 8581 songcompany@flex.com.au Seymour Centre, PO Box 553 CD p, Photos p, Score a,Rainbow Warrior www.songcompany.com.au Broadway NSW 2007 Script a

The Song Company Quito 11/98 Martin Wesley-Smith Peter Wesley-Smith The Song Company Eugene Ragghianti 2 9351 7939 2 9692 8581 songcompany@flex.com.au Seymour Centre, PO Box 553 CD apc, CD-ROM ap,www.songcompany.com.au Broadway NSW 2007 Score a, Script ap

Stella Liquid Days & 10/99 Taverner, Glass, Reckless Moments Barry Plews 8 8232 3990 8 8232 1886 producers@reckless.on.net PO Box 7162 Hutt St Video ap, CD c, Photos apDark Nights Edwards,Gubaidulina, 0412 484 430 www.reckless.on.net Adelaide SA 5000

Gorecki

Theatre of Image Grandma’s Shoes 1/00 Graeme Koehne Libby Hathorn Theatre of Image Neil Hunt 2 9360 4734 2 9360 6256 kcarpent@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au 4 Clifton Reserve Video a, Score a, Photos aOpera Australia www.theatreofimage. Surry Hills NSW 2010

citysearch.com.au

Vitalstatistix My Vicious Angel 7/1998 Christine Evans Christine Evans Vitalstatistix National Catherine Fitzgerald 8 8447 6211 8 8447 7577 vitals@cmatech.net.au PO Box 459 Video apc, Score a, Script a,Women’s Theatre Port Adelaide SA 5015 Photos ap

company/artist work premiere composer writer producer contact tel +61 fax + 61 email/website post documentationof this a archival production p promotional

c commercial

Works in ProgressAphids’ major new work for 2000 isMaps, with composers David Youngand Juliana Hodkinson (Denmark-UK)working with provocative theatredesigner Louise Beck from Denmark’sOperanord.

Raffaele Marcellino is working on The Flight of Les Darcy, a “physicalopera” with a libretto by RobertJarman, to be workshopped by MusicTheatre Sydney in 2000. Pukamani(working title), composed by MichaelAtherton and Matthew Doyle incollaboration with the Tiwi people ofBathhurst Island, will be premiered bythe same company in November 2000.

Physical theatre company Rock’n’RollCircus will premiere Sonata for TenHands in 2000 with Tamara AnnaCislowska, a leading youngAustralian concert pianist (who recordswith Chandos and ABC Classics). The piano sometimes provides thescore for the physical action, issometimes a participant and issometimes under attack.

Andrew Schultz (Black River) writesfrom London that Going Into Shadows,his new three act opera to a libretto byJulianne Schultz will be presented bythe Guildhall Opera School, London inJune 2001.

In northern Queensland MichaelWhiticker is creating music and textfor Bone Map with performance artistsRebecca Youdell and Russell Milledge.Bone Map will be presented in Cairns,Townsville and Brisbane between May and September 2000. For 2001, Whiticker is composingAspirations/Inspirations with librettistMichael Beresford-Plummer.

Composer Colin Bright and directorNigel Kellaway are developing a newwork on sexual taboos about Queerand Gay sex juxtaposed with themorality of violence—war as morallyand socially acceptable.

Richard Vella’s work-in-progress forCalculated Risks Opera is Pulp Cities, a site-specific whodunnit whichcapitalises on inherent narrativesprovided by the architecture andcityscape of the city it is being performedin. Richard is also planning a revisedversion of Tales of Love for late 2000.

The Song Company’s projected worksinclude, for the end of 2000, Liber deLudo, an international collaborationabout gambling from Australiancomposer Mary Finsterer, Dutch

director Jan Ritsema and British writerPaul Mayersberg; David Young andLouise Curham will collaborate with thecompany on an installation-basedperformance, Lacrimae Rerum, for mid-2001; and Martin Wesley-Smith is atwork on The Chimera (working title) forsix singers, CD-ROM, live computeraudio processing and live and preparedvideo, for a performance about geneticengineering.

Michael Smetanin (creator of themusic for Howard Barker’s play TheEcstatic Bible for the 2000 TelstraAdelaide Festival) is composing Gauginto a libretto by Alison Croggan forChamber Made Opera. Michael isalso one of the mdTV contributors,working with David Freeman onFloating. As well as Gaugin, Chamber Made Opera’s commissionsfor production in 2000-1 includeMotherland of the Foreign Son(composer Dominique Probst,librettist Le Quy Duong) about aFrench businessman and his Australianwife haunted by Vietnam’s blood-drenched past; The Hive (composerMatthew Hindson, text by SamSejavka) about the British poet RupertBrooke; Walkabout (text by WesleyEnoch), based on Nicholas Roeg’s film;and a dance-opera The Tsar Saltan,composed by Elena Kats-Cherninto a text by Pushkin and produced in collaboration with choreographerMeryl Tankard.

Brenton Broadstock’s Fahrenheit 451has had a recent season in Helsinki.He’s currently working on score andlibretto for a chamber opera based on H. Rider Haggard’s She to bepremiered at the Port Fairy Festival,Victoria in 2000.

Two works commissioned by OperaAustralia have been in developmentwith OzOpera. Cosmonaut (composerDavid Chesworth, librettist TonyMacGregor, director/dramaturgMichael Kantor) portrays “a poetic,metaphysial relationship between adoomed Soviet Russian Cosmonautliterally floating through space, and aspace-obsessed girl isolated in hersuburban bedroom.” The secondcommission, Batavia (composerRichard Mills, librettist PeterGoldsworthy) “is based on the truesequence of events which followed the wreck of a Dutch ship off theWestern Australian coast four centuriesago...(and an eventual descent into)cannibalism and moral oblivion.”Batavia will be performed in concert at the 2001 Melbourne InternationalFestival of the Arts.

The three CD set of Larry Sitsky’s TheGolem (librettist Gwen Harwood) fromOpera Australia performances is to belaunched by the ABC in 2000. Sitsky isplanning a new opera based on XavierHerbert’s classic Australian novel,Capricornia, with poet Andrew Tayloras librettist.

In 1998, Andrea rieniets made a trip to sub-Antarctica as a guest of the Australian National AntarcticResearch Expeditions. The trip inspired a contemporary popular song cycle andsoundscape planned to be performed as Holiday in Antarctica by the singeradrift in a sea of multi-layered projectedimages. rieniets is in concert in theTelstra Adelaide Festival 2000 presentingsome of the songs from the cycle.

In 2000, Gretchen Miller will bepresenting a staged version of her workInland, originally broadcast on ABCClassic FM’s The Listening Room.

Music theatre on televisionmdTV is a unique project, creatingmusic drama for television and aimingto generate new audiences for theform. Two hundred and seventysubmissions were received, fifteenshort-listed and finally four proposalswere selected. The collaboratorsinclude leading composers and popularmusicians, prominent writers andperformers: One Night the Moon (writerJohn Romeril, composer/musicaldirector Mairead Hannan, composer-performer Paul Kelly, composer KevCarmody); The Widower (based on thepoems of Les Murray; writer-performerLyndon Terracini; composer ElenaKats-Chernin; director Paul Cox);Floating (composer MichaelSmetanin, director David Freeman);Double Head (writers Daniel McNulty,Paul Healy, George Merryman;composer-director Andrew Lancaster;composer Antony Partos; originalstory Supersonic). mdTV is acollaboration between OzOpera, ABC TV Arts and Entertainment,MusicArtsDance Films (best known fortheir award-winning 1993 opera filmBlack River) and the Australia Council.

Music theatre on radioOn ABC Classic FM’s innovativeprogram The Listening Room,works broadcast that extend thepossibilities of music theatre includecomposer-producer-violinist JonRose’s The Long-Suffering AnnaMagdalena (1997) about Bach’s wife;composer Colin Bright and librettistAmanda Stewart’s The Sinking of theRainbow Warrior (1999, performed bythe Song Company and austraLYSIS

and premiered at the 1997 Festival ofSydney) about the French bombing of a Greenpeace nuclear-testing protestvessel; and Vanunu (1994), producedand composed by Robert Iolini andDavid Nerlich, about MordechaiVanunu’s exposure of Israel’sproduction of nuclear weapons and hisconsequent imprisonment. These workscan be heard at the Australian MusicCentre library in The Rocks, Sydney.

From ABC Radio Drama recentbroadcasts include The AnatomyLesson of Dr Ruysch (text and lyricsHilary Bell, composer Sarah de Jong)about an obsessive scientific mind atwork in 17th century Europe, andTestimony (composer, the saxophonistSandy Evans, text by jazz poet YusefKomunyakaa), a work about CharlieParker, featuring over thirty ofAustralia’s finest jazz musicians and a guest appearance by Kurt Elling.

ReferencesBooksArias, recent Australian music theatre,John Jenkins and Rainer Linz, Red House Editions, Footscray, Victoria, Australia, 1997

Australia, exploring the musicallandscape, edited by Caitlin Rowley, Australian Music Centre,Sydney, New South Wales, 1998

JournalsSounds Australian, no.15, 1987, Music Theatre, edited by Richard VellaSounds Australian, no. 49, 1997, Words and Music, edited by Keith GallaschOpera opera, Australasia’s independentmonthly newspaper of the musicaltheatre, edited by David GygerRealTime, Australia’s innovative arts bi-monthly, editors Keith Gallasch, Virginia Baxter

WebsitesAustralian Music Centre:http://www.amcoz.com.auRealTime:http://www.rtimearts.com./~opencity/New Music Network: http://www.nmn.org.au

26

Funding, Production & Management Credits

Chamber Made Opera - AustraliaCouncil, Arts Victoria; NORPA -Australia Council, NSW Ministry for theArts; The Theft of Sita - AustraliaCouncil*, Adelaide & MelbourneFestivals, Performing Lines; Laquiem,Australia Council; ELISION, The Inferno - Arts Queensland,Australia Council, 2000 AdelaideFestival; ELISION, Yue Ling Jie,Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals, Arts Queensland, Australia Council*;Queensland Theatre Company -Australia Council, Arts Queensland;White Baptist Abba Fan - Olympics

Arts Festivals & Events commission,Australia Council, Performing Lines;The Boy from Oz - Gannon-FoxProductions; theaterMalpertuis/MOBProductions, Slow Love -Department of Culture of the Flemishcommunity, Provincial Council of WestFlanders, the City of Tielt; MusicTheatre Sydney - Australia Council,NSW Ministry for the Arts; Night andDreams, Australia Council*, MacdonellPromotions; Condanza, Barbara O -The Hebbel Theatre Berlin, SchauspielBonn and Festspielhaus HellerauDresden; The opera Project -Australia Council; REM Theatre -Australia Council, NSW Ministry for theArts, Marguerite Pepper Productions;

deckchair theatre - Australia Council,ArtsWA; Arena - Arts Victoria, AustraliaCouncil, The City of Melbourne;Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, The Ghost Wife -Melbourne, Adelaide and SydneyFestivals, Australia Council*; doppio-para//elo - Arts SA, Australia Council;Vitalstatistix - Arts SA, AustraliaCouncil; The Song Company -Australia Council, NSW Ministry for theArts; Maximum Legroom - Arts SA,Reckless Moments Pty Ltd; GraemeLeak - Australia Council, Arts Victoria;Linsey Pollak, Performing Lines;Aphids, City of Melbourne, AustraliaCouncil; Theatre of Image - OperaAustralia, Australia Council, NSW

Ministry for the Arts; Opera Australia -Commonwealth Government throughDepartment of Communication,Information Technology and the Arts,and NSW Ministry for the Arts, ArtsVictoria; OzOpera - as for OperaAustralia; IHOS Opera - Arts Tasmania,Australia Council; Calculated RisksOpera - Australia Council; Crying inPublic Places - Australian NationalPlaywrights Conference, Arts Victoria’sResearch & Development CubedProgram.

*This project has been assisted by the Australia Council, through theCommonwealth Government’s MajorFestivals Initiative.

27

Photography credits

Page Work Photographer

4 The Burrow Ponch Hawkes5 The Two Executioners Ponch Hawkes6-7 The Mercenary Graham Batterbury7 Laquiem Justine Kerrigan8 transmisi Andrea Higgins9 The Sunshine Club Rob MacColl

White Baptist Abba Fan Tracey Schramm10 Slow Love Steven Massart11 Night & Dreams Tracey Schramm12 The Romatic Trilogy Heidrun Löhr13 ToteMMusic Miki-nobu Komatsu

Kate’n’Shiner Ashley de PrazerEat Your Young Jeff Busby

14 The Ghost Wife Jeff BusbyThe Last Child Jesse Reynolds

15 Acceptable Behaviour Joanna MajchrowskiMy Vicious Angel Rosey Boehm

16 Quito Original image Steve CoxComputer manipulation Kia Mistilis

The Song Company Dean Golja17 The Art of Noises Tracey Schramm

Liquid Days & Dark Nights Barry PlewsThe Art of Food Jenny Pollak

18 Grandma’s Shoes Branco GaicaRicefields David Young

19 Love Burns Jeff Busby20 The Divine Kiss Rob MacColl

The Last Supper Lyn Pool21 Skin Ponch Hawkes

28

wwww.amcoz.au/amc

Australia’s innovative arts bi-monthlywww.rtimearts.com/~opencity/

Keep up with the latest developments in Australian music theatre at

www.ozco.gov.au