Brendan reviews the new film Beauty and the Beast which is a remake of the 1991 animated film and has a much publicised gay character. Our hosts talk about Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame.  She is an independent, feisty and more modern heroine. Brendan thought the film was beautiful and magical–4stars.

There are 4 interviews this week and our guests 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:

11:51 to 33:09 mins–Curator Dr Angela Hesson is here to talk about an upcoming FREE exhibition at the NGV called Love: Art of Emotion 1400–1800 on at NGV International from 31 March to 18 June. She got her BA and PhD in Arts at Melbourne Uni and went on to lecture in Arts there as well as do research. At present Angela is mostly curating at NGV due to a collaboration between them, Melbourne Uni and a research centre called The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE) which has ‘nodes’ in Universities.  She explains the function of the CHE which essentially is to give us a broader understanding of the way emotions are expressed and understood. Angela and our hosts discuss her research, the rich history of art and sexuality in different eras. She also talks about how she put the exhibition together including depictions of many forms of love, and objects ‘infused with feeling’ such as clothing,textiles, jugs, jewellery and furniture. She then details some of the exhibits. Exhibitions also need cohesion and a sense of narrative or trajectory–in this case having love as a cycle with Anticipation, Realisation and Remembrance. Along with this exhibition there is an extensive publication,  public programs and a special symposium (4 to 6 May).

34:05 to 53:06 mins–Theatre-maker Gorkem Acaroglu has been to JOY before and is part of the team at Metanoia Theatre at the Mechanics Institute in Brunswick. Metanoia is an artist-led company that creates and directs diverse and boundary-pushing theatre and performance experiences. She talks about past work such as the live art 24-Hour Experience in Ballarat (and Melbourne) and the Milk Bars installation/experiential piece at the Mechanics Institute. Their latest venture is a bit different.  It’s an Argentinian play, a comedy, called The Omission of the Coleman Family on from 12 to 22 April at the Mechanics Institute in Brunswick.  It is directed by Gorkem but in collaboration with the actors; and it is part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF). The play is about a crazy, obsessive family which is falling apart–only held together by the grandmother.  Once she becomes ill, the play looks at what keeps the family together. Despite the absurdity and outlandishness of the family, it is actually very relatable. It is not a ‘light’ comedy but is very funny in its absurdity and is universal in its themes. **Gorkem then announced that Metanoia will be leaving The Mechanics Institute soon.  They want to take theatre out to places you don’t usually find it.  They want theatre without walls. Gorkem gives some examples of some future work.

53:26 to 1:17:41 mins–Famous comedian Lawrence Mooney is here to entertain us, give us food for thought and also talk about his show Like Literally on from 29 March to 23 April.  This is also part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF). Our hosts immediately hit Lawrence with the question–Is comedy an artform?  Lawrence defines art as ‘something that can remove you from the everyday life’ and ‘articulates something that your heart is unable to articulate’.  It makes the intangible tangible. He thinks the BEST comedy can do that, like the best theatre! So the answer to the questions sounds like a YES. Lawrence then talks about his comedy writing process, usually starting in the middle, and his theatre background which eventually led into stand-up comedy when he saw a brilliant comedian at Melbourne Uni.  His first gig went so well it reinforced his resolve to do stand-up comedy. As we know, he went on to a successful career and also moved into a wider media career including an appearance on a pre-game panel show for the historic AFLW final. He is very supportive of women’s football, the LGBTIQ community and equality for all. As for his show Like Literally, it started from a publisher asking if he wanted to write a memoir! He agreed and then had to decide what stories went in and what went out and do they stand up to his heroes.  That is the premise of the show.

1:18:51 to 1:32:15 mins–Artist Jason Moad has got an Exhibition at Fox Gallery in Collingwood called Tangible on until 15 April. Jason tells us about the owner of the gallery, Michael Fox, who he first met in Brisbane where he had another Fox gallery. They met again in Melbourne when Jason needed an Arts Accountant. He considers Michael a very conscientious and trustworthy art dealer and gallery director. Jason started painting fulltime when his wife got a fulltime job in Melbourne, and they moved here, about 10 years ago. He talks about how he feels about Melbourne in regard to his art and arts generally. He calls himself a realist painter and talks about his ‘labour-intensive’ way of producing his paintings.  Each painting takes about 3-4 weeks to finish. The background colours in his paintings are very vibrant and presently his subjects are usually objects he has in his living room– such as a stack of books or a skull. The theme of his body of work is about residual media and our connection to physical objects; because the digital revolution has moved in the opposite direction and things are so ephemeral now. He feels that is a poorer experience of culture when you cannot touch or feel a physical object. Jason and David discuss examples of this in their experience. Jason expects he will continue on this theme in his artwork for the foreseeable future.

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Our very special guests today are:

08:21 to 26:18 mins–Actor and writer Alan Hopgood has had a career in the film, TV and theatre industries for about 60 years now with a myriad of acting and writing credits–starring in shows such as Bellbird and Neighbours and writing, the ever infamous, Alvin Purple and the play-And The Big Men Fly (about AFL footy). He talks of his inspirations, tells anecdotes about the industries and some historical info about famous theatres and TV serials. In the last 20 years Alan has written 11 ‘health plays’ for his theatre Company Health Play which began with a book and play about his own battle with prostate cancer.  Despite the subject matter there is a lot of humour and positivity in them. He found it a great way to get a health message across, especially for men, and has toured widely with them. He is starring in his one-man play The Carer which is on at the Alex Theatre in St Kilda on 8 October. Bud Tingwell had played the character previously. It’s about a man who had cared for his wife (now deceased) while she was suffering Alzheimer’s and is wondering ‘What now?’

27:06 to 37:22 mins–Actor, Director and Producer John Bell is a legend in Australian theatre who has given audiences a wonderful body of work over the decades. Based in Sydney, John started the Nimrod Theatre in 1970 and then the Bell Shakespeare Company in 1990 which he ran for 25 years–touring cities but also schools, rural and remote areas and prisons. He talks about Shakespeare plays, considering them as always being relevant; and also tells how young audiences have received them.  John’s latest venture is in a show called Speak Less Than You Know  where he and the Tinalley String Quartet will be exploring the words and music of Beethoven on 4 October at the Melbourne Recital Centre.  John will read from Beethoven’s letters and memoirs while the musicians interweave this with Beethoven’s String Quartets.  The words give the music a different dimension because you know what he was going through at the time of composing it.

38:57 to 1:01:47 mins–Bruce Gladwin is Artistic Director of the Back To Back Theatre Company, which has artists who have disabilities, and is here to talk about his play Lady Eats Apple which he wrote and directed.  It’s part of the Melbourne Festival and is on at the Arts Centre- Hamer Hall from 8 to 13 October–after which it will go to Perth , Sydney and then, in 2017,  to Vienna and Germany. The show is in 3 acts and is about the inevitability of death and how we create myths and illusions around it to fortify our relationship with it.  The First Act is to do with a god in the act of creation–reminiscent of Genesis; the Second Act in medieval Europe and the Third Act involves a group of cleaners who are cleaning Hamer Hall! Despite being a tragedy it also has humour. It is a remarkable play where the audience sit on the stage with headphones on watching looking into the cavern of the auditorium which has a huge inflatable set piece in it as well as the actors.

1:02:42 to 1:29:27 mins–Edgar Wegner has been a drama teacher for 25 years and for the last 6 years has been at Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School–a very supportive school.  Drama teaching is his passion as well as singing in Latvian choirs!!  Only a few students go into tertiary performing arts! But the course is invaluable because they learn  interpersonal skills, creativity, presentation skills and continue to develop skills in teamwork, learning from mistakes, voice, movement, gesture etc. Amazingly enough–with reference to previous guests–the Year 9s have Bell Shakespeare Co. coming to them each year and the Year 10 & 11s are going to see Bruce’s play Lady Eats Apple and will be assessed on the review they write! Edgar likes taking them to see small-scale and original theatre, not just the larger ones and blockbusters.  He prepares his students for these plays beforehand and finds they deal very well with them.

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Special guests today are:

11:35 to 33:00 mins—Australian Soprano Greta Bradman tells us about her album My Hero which was released in August and is getting rave reviews and topping album lists in Australia and the UK. Richard Bonynge, who conducted the album, had originally suggested it and had also helped her cull the’ long list’ of arias. Greta talks about her background–how she was always singing, her family’s wonderful support, how she could also play instruments and compose and how she got BOTH a Music Degree and a PhD in Psychology. She has now been singing fulltime for about 5 years, winning many awards and accolades including the Limelight Australian Artist of the Year Award, just last Friday. Greta will be touring with her My Hero album from 23 January to 06 March 2016, so audiences can have a personal connection with her and the album, and she with her fanbase. Greta loves being on stage where she feels she’s ‘home’. She also has been doing ‘Opera Galas’ aimed at non-opera goers to be exposed to fragments of a number of operas. On NYE she’ll be doing a 2 concert Opera Gala at Hamer Hall with other singers and the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.

33:11 to 49:35mins—Eddie Kutner is the founder of Wonderment Walk which is a plan to enhance walking routes in Melbourne (linking significant places such as unis and art galleries) by introducing outdoor sculptures along the way to excite and inspire people. Initially starting in the city, it will spread to some suburbs and to other places in Victoria. Eddie got the idea for the Walk 4 years ago he saw sculptures at Questacon in Canberra. He sees the Wonderment Walk as a ‘science communication program’. It takes art as the medium and tries to communicate the wonders of science and innovation. Eddie considers there’s a natural intersection between art and science and gives some past examples. In the Walk, art and science intermingle with everyday life. So when people come across it, it arouses their curiosity and they may get a light bulb moment which stimulates them to think a bit further. The latest sculpture to be unveiled on 16 December in the Queen Victoria Gardens (opposite the NGV) is a 2 metre frog by prominent artist John Olsen with the scientific element being that frogs, in their fragility, are a good barometer of environmental health.

51:00 to 1:07:26mins— Tennille Moisel is the Festival Director of Midsumma (17 January to 07 February 2016) and has come in to talk about the Arts section of the festival. There are many art events such as theatre, modern dance, comedy, cabaret. Tennille considers this years’ arts program the best ever and previews some premiere events including—Michael Griffiths doing Cole Porter and also accompanying Carlotta in another event; a play called Elegy out at Gasworks about the queer refugee experience in the Middle East. Gasworks had also put together a process called Playtime to encourage new queer theatre work. People send in anything from a concept to a script and there’s a 10-15 minute reading of each and one is selected to work with the writer and produce the play. This year the winner is the play Gone by Dion Teasdale which is a heap of fun but also covers many issues. David has offered to do the 10 minute readings on air to serve as a platform for new artists! Tennille also talks about the Lesbian Comedy Gala, experimental drag, homages to divas and Kim Leutwyler—the artist who created Midsumma’s cover and poster.

1:07:48 to 1:30:32 mins—Director of NGV Tony Ellwood discusses what’s showing now and in 2016. The Andy Warhol-Ai Weiwei exhibition opened this week at NGV International and is on from 11 December 2015 to 24 April 2016. The impetus for the exhibition was an aspiration to introduce contemporary Asian art in the NGV as an institution. They wanted to pair a prominent Asian artist with a globally known artist. Warhol was the choice, as he’d influenced pop all through Asia in so many ways. Weiwei’s art was influenced by Warhol in a subtle way and there are many shared themes. Weiwei had also lived in New York and attended the Warhol’s studio and the parties, but never met him. In 2016 the program includes a mini show around the painting Whistler’s Mother— 26 March to 19 June 2016— to inform patrons of how it came to be and its influences. The one-off Art-Book Fair that NGV did will now be an expanded annual event with emphasis on certain areas. The Winter Masterpiece is Degas –A New Vision 24 June to 18 September 2016. Logistically it was difficult to put together drawn from 55 lenders and NGV employed a prominent authority on Degas to put it together. At NGV Australia–200 Years of Australian Fashion is on from 05 March to 31 July 2016. This will have a very exuberant design and will be a ‘stunning experience’. In the same building will be a retrospective on Melbourne painter Jan Senbergs from 18 March to June 2016.

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Today’s interview is with John Paul Fischbach, chief executive officer of Auspicious Arts Incubator. This incubator helps independent artists and artistic organisations gain the necessary marketing and business skills to thrive. John Paul talks about traveling all over urban and regional Australia running workshops, how much artistry is out there, how he came to do this and what else is available.

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