Sunday Arts Magazine

15 May 2016

Richard Shaw, Wildlands, Melb Rainbow Band, The Winter’s Tale

Arts, Music, Performing Arts, TV & Film, Visual Arts

David and Brendan saw opening night of Singin’ In The Rain on 14May at The Maj.  They both thought the show was great fun with familiar songs, excellent dance numbers, and great costumes and set. Plus rain on the stage!     Brendan also saw Heathers: The Musical on at The Arts Centre from 11 to 22 May. It is directed by Trevor Ashley and is based on the 1989 film and keeps the ‘spirit’ of it.  A good production with great music and performances. They asked listeners for their Favourite Musical.  For himself, David wants to be allowed 5 favourites! Brendan’s favourite is Grease but it may be replaced by Little Shop of Horrors.

Later in the show Brendan talks films starting with Andrew Rossi’s new doco, The First Monday In May about the Met Gala –essentially a celebrity/designer  high profile fundraiser for The Met (New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) especially for a Fashion archive that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour runs. Singer Rihanna has top-billing. It’s a semi sequel to Rossi’s previous doco called The September Issue–4 stars.  Brendan also saw Bastille Day an action and buddy film about a cop trying to combat a conspiracy in Paris- 3 stars.  He and David briefly chat about Games of Thrones.  Brendan then reviews a psychological thriller/horror called The Boy–It has a good lead-up but the ending was a bit silly–3 stars.

Special Guests today are:

09:00 to 27:06 mins–Richard Shaw is a Photographer and Artist who is part of an exhibition called Australian Fauna & Flora On Show – The Beauty of Nature at Media House Gallery (inside ‘The Age’ building on the mezzanine level at 655 Collins St–opp Southern Cross Station) 7am to 7pm weekdays only—on until 14 July. Richard got a degree in criminology and then went off travelling using disposable film cameras to document it. Richard travelled widely and he upgraded the equipment he used and got to learn the principles of making a good photo.  He also did a writing course and used this to write stories about the photos and sell them to magazines. At present Richard is both a photographer and a stay-home-dad.  His favourite subjects is The Racetrack and he does photojournalistic type photography here and around the world.  This includes the horses, punters, bookies and the well-dressed fashionistas. In the Spring Carnival he focuses on the fashion. The Exhibition he’s in, has a diverse collection of artforms by 15 plus artists.  Richard loves the Australian bush and took many photos there.  He was approached about this exhibition by someone he’d worked with before and ended up having 6 images showing. It’s his first group exhibition. He talks about the gallery space, other artists and artforms and the beautiful way the art is hung.

35:02 to 47:58 mins–Sim Luttin is one of the curators of Wildlands a free Exhibition at Linden New Art Gallery in St Kilda on until 17 July.  Sim was creative as a child and came back to it after high school learning Contemporary Jewellery making at RMIT.  She lived in Adelaide at the Jam Factory (which she talks about) and then did a Masters of Fine Arts in the US. She has jewellery pieces in galleries in Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and New York.  Sim is now with Arts Project Australia and was approached in late 2015 by Melinda Martin from Linden New Art to put together an exhibition of works on animals that would complement a solo exhibition by Leith Maguire at the gallery which features hand-drawn animals. Arts Project Australia is a Studio and Gallery space in Northcote that supports artists with intellectual disabilities. They had their 40^th anniversary recently. Sim and co. decided to select 6 artists from Arts Project with strong collections involving an animal theme.  They chose painters, sculptors and ceramic based artists and have collaborated with Linden to put the show together.  Meanwhile Sim is still trying to pursue her career as a ‘contemporary jeweller’ and is working towards another solo show next year.  She talks about the style and themes of her jewellery.

55:52 to 1:14:34 mins–Marc Zanin is president of The Melbourne Rainbow Band (MRB)—a Gay and Lesbian community concert band. He heard our guests The Song Tailors on Sunday Arts last week and contacted JOY requesting their details so they could work with them. They enjoy collaborating and trying out new works.  They have performed commissioned works in the past as Australian premieres.  Marc runs the show along with a Musical Director and a Committee of Management. Marc did music at uni, then performed, and then went into secondary education and is now a music administrator for the school. This administrating job is similar to what he does with the band. Marc talks about the 20 year history and the values of the band emphasising the community, acceptance, social and commitment aspects. Marc considers MRB to be Australia’s premiere Gay and Lesbian concert band! Last year they started looking for a new Musical Director which took a while.  Marc explains the process. He is happy to announce that their new Musical Director is Tracy Videon and she fits in very well with the band as well as having great leadership qualities. She has always wanted to work with a community band. Her first public appearance as conductor will be at an MRB September concert.

1:14:43 to 1:30:07 mins– Director Stephen Lee is here to talk about The Winter’s Tale by Class Act Theatre at Northcote Town Hall on from 1-11 June.  Stephen grew up in London, started acting and got onto an episode of TV series The Bill.  He always loved Shakespeare but felt it wasn’t taught properly at school but, at uni, he got into acting ‘big time’.  He then started directing Shakespeare from 1977 onwards and has done about 35 different plays and is continuing with it. He talks about his love of Shakespeare and why the bard is still so popular after 400 years.  Stephen is based in Perth and only had 3 minute clips of actors sent over to him for casting purposes. So he really only met them properly when he came to Melbourne and fortunately they were all good. The Winter’s Tale is one of a group of plays that came after the tragedies called the ‘romances’. These are stories about redemption, understanding and ending well.  Stephen and Class Act are approaching it as a fairytale and are using modern dress. The story is of 2 kings who are close friends until one suspects the other of having an affair with his wife. It’s about how this breaks them apart and the ultimate attempts to put everything together again. Class Act Theatre actually started in Perth by Angelique Malcolm 20 years ago and spread out eventually to Melbourne and Sydney.  Then Angelique came to live in Melbourne and it was she who asked Stephen to come here.

 

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