Sunday Arts Magazine

24 Apr 2016

Prince, Jack The Bear, Emerging Writers Fest, Singin’ in the Rain

Arts, Books, Music, Performing Arts, TV & Film

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Prince, Jack The Bear, Emerging Writers Fest, Singin’ in the Rain

David and Brendan pay homage to legendary musician Prince throughout the show and play his music. Prince died on 21 April at the age of 57. Many listener messages also pay tribute.

Our hosts have had an ‘arty week’. Brendan starts with reviewing the slow burn sci-fi film Midnight Special about a boy with mysterious powers. It stars Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst and is a smart film with strong direction and visuals– but is a bit underwhelming 3 stars. He also saw Pawno –a film set in Footscray and this location is one of the characters. Our hosts have lived there previously and discuss it and how it has changed over the years. The film involves characters from a pawn shop, a book shop and from the fringe– 3 stars.

David talks about NGV’s upcoming Spring/Summer exhibitions including David Hockney, John Olsen and Viktor&Rolf. Also, this year is the 400^th year of Shakespeare and 2 artists have released albums to do with this, i.e. Paul Kelly and Rufus Wainwright who put music to 7 sonnets and poems.

Special guests today are:

16:18 to 29:27 mins–Jack The Bear is an Inspirational speaker and master sound engineer. He tells about his background including being a DJ, his love of records, his favourite artists, and learning sound engineering at various studios while travelling overseas–which ultimately included Mastering. Jack explains the audio mastering process–essentially, bands bring their recorded stereo material to him and he optimises the audio and then transfers it to a master storage device where all the CDs, vinyl and online copies are produced from. His business is called Deluxe Mastering. Nowadays Jack is spending more time doing inspirational speaking to creative and artistic kids to encourage them to pursue their art with great gusto. He’s experienced the fear and anxiety that can ensue with creative endeavours and has got through that, and he relays that to the kids. He also does mentoring and group work largely on a volunteer basis. He feels he has been blessed doing what he loves doing and wants to give back to the world.

David talks about Chelsea Wilson from Soul Sisters (also see Sunday Arts interview with Chelsea on 18 October, 2015). David and Brendan then talk more about Prince including—him writing songs for other famous musicians, why he changed his name from Prince to others, his admiration for female musicians, the spire made purple at the Arts Centre where he had played very recently. Later Brendan talks about a couple of acts lined up for Splendour in the Grass i.e. Leon Bridges and Ngaiire.

41:50 to 1:07:15 mins —Michaela McGuire is here to talk about the Emerging Writers’ Festival 14 to 24 June which she is Festival Director of. She came to Melbourne from Brisbane 8 years ago and was offered a book deal very soon resulting in–Apply Within: Stories of Career Sabotage–about the horrible jobs she had when at uni. Overall she’s had 2 & a bit books published. In between she’s worked as a PA and has been co-running and co-hosting (with Marieke Hardy) a very popular literary salon called Women of Letters where 5-6 women of diverse professions are invited to write a letter to a theme– which they have a month to consider–and they read them live on the stage. It is an intimate experience and some women cry when they read the letter. Being Director of the Emerging Writers’ Festival Michael feels is a natural career progression for her. This festival is for writers, not readers, and is an opportunity to meet other writers plus their literary heroes. Also to experiment with their form and do a performance in front of peers. Michaela stresses the importance of mentors for emerging writers citing her own experience. She has has kept only 2 events out of 70 from the previous festival with the rest being new. She consults with a programming but logistics and the invitations are up to her. The program is announced on 10 May but the names of the 5 well-established writers (ambassadors) have been released–and Michaela briefly introduces them.

1:08:30 to 1: 21:45 mins–Cameron Wenn is Associate Director of Singin’ in the Rain on from 14 May to 26 June (with a preview week from 7 May) at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Cameron is based in the UK but is a Melbourne boy and was a chorister in The National Boys Choir and toured here and overseas. He went to High School and simultaneously trained in singing & dancing and worked in Musical Theatre learning the business–there was no course in those days. He was performing, unpacking trucks, driving, stage managing, doing the dressing, maintaining the lighting etc. Singin’ in the Rain is originally a 1952 movie and was first put on the stage in the 1980s in the USA. This production started in Chichester Festival Theatre in the UK and Cameron goes through its journey from there to here. He also talks about the relevance of it in today’s world–as a form of escapism; the logistics of having rain on a stage; putting the iconic moments from the movie onstage but in a different form; the perfect casting of Adam Garcia as the lead and the need for the ensemble to be able to ‘do everything’.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:38 — 37.8MB)

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