Sunday Arts Magazine

30 Apr 2017

Tales of Hoffman, Bears, Ed Morris, Jack Ferver, 3 Little Words

Arts, Arts Festival, Bears, Books, Comedy, Dance, Education, LGBTIQ, Music, Natural Sciences, News & Politics, Opera, Performing Arts, Photography, Social Sciences, Visual Arts

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Tales of Hoffman, Bears, Ed Morris, Jack Ferver, 3 Little Words

David is joined by Neil and Fiona again today with Brendan interstate again for family reasons. Fiona is in the hot seat later today, doing her first monthly segment for Sunday Arts Magazine–an interview with New York performance artist, actor, director and choreographer Jack Ferver. She’s thinking of calling the segment Fiona Brook presents. David talks about a major event coming up soon– the 50^th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; a uniquely different and revolutionary album which shocked the world in 1967. He plays ‘A little help from my friends’ from the album (which later was a huge hit for Joe Cocker).

There are 4 interviews this week PLUS the first of FIONA’s monthly segments called Fiona Brook presents…

Our interviewees talk about their own journey to where they are now as well as a current event, show or exhibition. Along with inside stories, interesting anecdotes and descriptions.

Special guests this week include:

08:20 to 20:51 mins–Jamie Moffat and Othon Charalambous are here to talk about an opera they are performing in which is presented by Savoy Opera Company Inc. It is Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman –on at The Phoenix Theatre in Elwood – 6, 7, 11 & 13 May AND once each in 3 regional areas i.e. Bunyip 27 May, Dunolly 10 June and Ceres 25 June. Jamie was a pianist but a car accident damaged his hand so he became an opera singer. He’s sung with many opera companies and has travelled a lot. He talks about Savoy Opera which is celebrating its 75^th anniversary in 2018. They mainly do Gilbert and Sullivan but sometimes branch out. Othon discovered he had a good tenor voice when he was pushed by friends to visit a singing teacher; and started singing and really appreciating opera from there. He also works in IT to pay the mortgage hence he doesn’t travel. Jamie tells how there are many different versions of the Hoffman score which he discovered when working with Richard Bonynge Joan Sutherland (post retirement). This was because Offenbach died before he finished it. This opera is largescale with 15 principles, 30-40 in the chorus and a 22 piece orchestra. Our guests talk about costs of production, popularity of opera, technology, and the beautiful look of this production.

21:48 to 33:56 mins–David Cooke or Cookie is here to talk about his book Bear It Up. Cookie is well known to JOY as he was a presenter of The Cubbyhouse which was followed by The Woods–a bear show. He was first called a ‘cub’ many years before he identified with the bear scene. He feels there aren’t many positive role models of endomorph shapes in any media, which larger guys can relate to. Cookie dabbled in photography for a long time and finally took to it properly when his fellow presenter pushed him. His idea for the book came because of the lack of realistic visual representations, of themselves, that the bear community had been using. It’s been 3 years in the making. Cookie talks about the process of getting the photos done including the different spaces he took photos in and the slowness of getting enough of the right type of subjects due to them not feeling sexy or pretty enough. Cookie did get sexy and attractive photos of them and also some with a sense of humour. Consequently a lot felt more comfortable in their own skin. David and Cookie discuss the bear community, the confidence of younger bears, and the major bear event– Southern Hibernation— on the queen’s birthday weekend in June. Cookie launched his book recently and was heartened with the response. He mentions a few bookstores where the book can be bought but the bulk is likely to be sold from his website. He expects a lot of international sales too as there’s no book like it.

36:00 to 50:59 mins—Artist/Activist/Art Lecturer Ed Morris is from the USA and part of an artist duo Sayler/Morris with his wife, Susannah Sayler. He is here to do a talk at Melbourne Uni on 1 May about their work on increasing public understanding of climate change and ecological issues. This talk is part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 – a festival that brings together diverse works to deepen understanding of, or provoke a response to climate change. Amazingly, about 12 years ago, Ed was translating Japanese poetry and THEN, he became a Private Investigator in NYC! His ‘conversion moment’ towards climate change came when he read a detailed article on it, in the magazine The New Yorker. The main point was that there’s a massive discrepancy between scientific understanding of climate change and public understanding–and therefore political will. Ed felt some outrage and also an urgency to contribute to awareness of this issue. He and his wife, a photographer, launched a project to photograph landscapes (around the world) being impacted by climate change. They exhibited these widely and also did lectures and contributed to editorials. They formed a larger organisation–The Canary Project–which included work of other artists. Ed considers that creation of caring or investment in the issue is the most important thing art can do.

FIONA’s monthly segment – Fiona Brook presents

51:57 to 1:11:50 mins–Fiona’s guest today is Jack Ferver–a New York based queer performance artist, actor, director and choreographer. He is here to talk about his work, his first visit to Melbourne and his show Mon, Ma, Mes (Revisité) for Phillip Adams BalletLab (PABL) at Temperance Hall, South Melbourne–on from 4 to 7 May. He is also doing public workshops at PABL, on 29 & 30 April, for dance, theatre and contemporary performance artists. Mon, Ma, Mes (Revisité) means My, My, My. It’s ‘revisited’ because it premiered in 2012 in the Crossing the Line Festival in New York–produced by French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF). As he toured with it for a while he wanted to change it to fit in more with his artistic processes, his obsession with films, and ‘concerns’ such as– ageing, his queer identity, the US political situation, things that inspire him, and the audience. In his intense pieces, Fiona sees Jack as going through cathartic, psychoanalytic experiences. In his workshops he asks his students to give one sentence as to why they make work–so they can quickly remember why they’re doing it when things are tough. His own answer to the question is he makes his work so people don’t feel so alone. He seeks to ‘mirror the human psyche’ including things the audience doesn’t want to see as well as a lot of humour. The older Jack gets, the deeper he feels the emotional pain in his pieces because there’s more nuance. He feels the full weight of the material and its mysteriousness; which keeps him in the game. He talks about providing an alternate voice in today’s world and what he sees his obligations are as a teacher.

1:12:31 to 1:28:13 mins–Prolific playwright Joanna Murray-Smith is back on Sunday Arts Magazine to chat about her new play– Three Little Words— having its world premiere at the MTC until 27 May. David has seen the play and loved it. Joanna wrote it very quickly, hence its fast pace, with scenes moving in quick succession and it having an intense, fluid energy. TLW is about 2 middle-aged couples who have been close friends for years–one straight, one lesbian. It opens with the straight couple (SC) telling the lesbian couple (LC) that they’ve decided to split. The rest of the play is about the outcome of that announcement. The LC are shocked, angry and threatened as the 2 couples are no longer; two of the people are now single. The LC don’t really want to relate to two separate entities. Theirs was a ‘couple life’. There are other things the LC feel threatened by such as– the SC may have higher standards; Tess from the SC is announces she is now free to find herself; and having to possibly reassess their life at their age. The play moves from being very funny at times to being very serious/vicious/tough/real at other times where the SC are brutal to each other. And yet, the underlying feeling is that they will forgive each other. Joanna and David then discuss the amazing set, the audience’s reactions, and the 4 exemplary actors i.e. Catherine McClements, Peter Houghton, Kate Atkinson and Katherine Tonkin.

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