Sunday Arts Magazine

20 Nov 2016

Assemblage #1, Seminar-A Comedy, NICA show, The Last Five Years

Arts, Comedy, Dance, Music, Performing Arts

David and Neil are our hosts today with Daniel under the weather and Brendan only just back in the country from his travels. David talks about Sharon Jones, an American soul-singer extraordinaire, who has just died at only 60yo. She’d only become very popular in the last 10 years or so and has sung in Melbourne a few times–at sold-out concerts.  David considers it a tragedy that we’ve lost one of the great soul singers so early. He plays a live version of her song– 100 days, 100 nights.

Our special guests this Sunday are:

6:49 to 33:09 mins–Matthew Day is a Contemporary Dancer and is here to talk about his latest work Assemblage #1 on from 23 to 27 November at Upstairs Studio at Dancehouse in 150 Princes St, North Carlton.  Matthew always had a natural ability but only got formal dance training when he got into competitive ‘dancesport’. Later he used clubs as an outlet but got back into contemporary dance classes at the Sydney Dance Co.  He travelled but considers Melbourne to be the centre of contemporary dance in Australia.   Assemblage #1 is the first season of a series called The Assemblage Series.  Matthew is presenting 2 different formats of the work with 1 hour shows on the nights of 23, 24 and 25 November and 3 hour ones on the weekend days of 26 and 27 November. He explains he is experimenting with the encounter with the audience and discusses this (and other aspects of the work) with David.  The sound in the work is a field recording of birds that has been ‘digitised’

34:55 to 46:58 mins–Producer /actor Mark Yeates and actor Dion Mills are are here to discuss their production Seminar: A Comedy on at Chapel off Chapel from 9 to 26 November. Dion was born in Malawi, emigrated to Perth and now lives in Melbourne.  He says he got into acting because of lack of other alternatives!! Mark has acted for 6 years and only this year started up the Artefact Theatre Company.  He explains the significance of the name of the company and why he started it. Mark saw Seminar on Broadway in 2012 and was very impressed.  Seminar is about 4 young aspiring novelists who collectively hire an international literary figure (played by Dion) to hold a writing seminar for them.  He comes in and ‘tears them apart’. It is a delightfully cruel, darkly comic and witty show.  The play is about the role of honesty in art, and where does that sit for young people just starting out in their artistic pursuits.  Both our guests greatly admire the talent of the young cast members in this play. The audience response has been very positive despite being very confronted with Dions’s character in the early stages.

48:05 to 1:04:17 mins–Jordan Revell and Winter Chapman are final year graduates from the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA)–which offers a number of courses including the only circus degree in Australia.  Our guests are here to talk about NICA, their experiences there  and also their show The Landscape Project on from 23 Nov ember to 3 December at NICA (39-59 Green Street, Prahran). Winter describes the show as trying to present a landscape about circus through circus. The performers will be wearing a similar jumpsuit/safari suit  type costume but each of them will have their own individual flair. There also will be ‘splashes of colour’ throughout the show. Winter performs with a roue Cyr, a large ring which he stands inside and spins around. Jordon’s primary discipline is contortion.

1:07:12 to 1:27:30 mins–Performers Verity Hunt-Ballard and Josh Piterman are here to discuss their theatre musical The Last Five Years on from 25 November to 11 December at fortyfivedownstairs. Verity is a WAAPA graduate who became an award-winning performer and has played main roles in big shows such as Sweet Charity and Mary Poppins.  She is now choosing to do smaller shows which fit into her lifestyle as a mother of small children.  Josh has worked with Verity before and they’re delighted to be working together in this production.  Josh studied musical theatre at Ballarat and found his voice was his strongest point.  He ended up touring with the Ten Tenors for 2 years which was a great learning experience for him.  He auditioned for West Side Story, got it, and toured Australia as the character Tony. He has also done Hairspray, Cats and The Light in the Piazza.  Josh has wanted to do the The Last Five Years since 2004.  The story is of a relationship that spans 5 years and the ‘complexity’ of it is to do with Verity’s character starting at the end of the relationship and Josh’s starting at the beginning.  And they meet in the middle. It is very musically clever and allows the audience to go on a ride and immerse themselves in the relationship. It is an intimate piece and suited to a small space. It is sexy, clever and thought-provoking.

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