Tag / actor

by brandsa2018

Riverland Youth Theatre inspiring communities through the arts

For more than three decades, theatrical productions, workshops and visual arts performances have been played out in Riverland theatres and institutes.

The Riverland Youth Theatre (RYT) is the organisation behind many of the region’s creative and artistic activities, helping to boost confidence in young people and create a more culturally inclusive community.

Based out of the Renmark Institute, the professional youth arts organisation is one of only two in regional South Australia.

RYT general manager Danyon De Buell says the organisation runs an annual program of workshops and major projects and also plays a part in a number of community events.

The Tackerz group are part of Cirkidz, a circus arts class run at RYT.

“Each year more than 4000 people participate in arts projects and activities that RYT is engaged with,” she says.

“RYT participants are aged between 5–26 and come from as far as Blanchetown. We also have a number of young people who come over from the Mallee.

“We offer a number of creative opportunities including styling, makeup, technical support, so it’s not just about acting. We’re constantly amazed at the confidence building that happens.”

RYT was born in 1985 as a participatory organisation for young people, putting on drama productions and hosting workshops and performances by visiting artists in Renmark’s Chaffey Theatre.

In 1995, it became independently incorporated and since then has consistently built its reputation for promoting inclusivity and presenting opportunities for Indigenous and multicultural groups to celebrate culture through the arts.

RYT is involved in Riverland Harmony Day, an annual event celebrating cultural diversity.

RYT relies heavily on philanthropic support and receives donations from local businesses as well as funds raised through the annual RYT gala dinner.

Last year’s gala dinner was attended by well-known ABC radio personality Peter Goers as well as jazz act and former RYT performers, The Casey Brothers.

Danyon says RYT offers a non-competitive and non-threatening environment for young people to build on or develop their skills in creative arts.

“All our work with young people isn’t competitive, although team work is implicit in what we do,” she says. “At no time is any child or young person given negative feedback either. We see friendships form and it breaks down barriers between towns.”

Danyon has been in her current role at RYT since 2014 but was involved with the organisation for some years prior.

RYT’s artistic director is Christopher Bond, a Flinders University and National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) graduate who has directed and workshoped theatre performances at a number of arts education institutions.

A group of Nunga Rhythms young performers and tutors.

Highlights of the 2019 program include TECHDesign, a nighttime light and sound show enabling youth to learn about lighting design and projection.

Professional Indigenous dancer and choreographer Michael Harris will work with young people on Nunga Rhythms, a performance of traditional Indigenous dance and movement.

Six RYT participants will be selected to travel to the Melbourne Fringe and take part in Standby Cue 1: GO!, which involves a behind-the-scenes experience at the major arts festival.

Back at home, RYT will bring colour and culture to the community through its performances and creative presences at annual local events including Riverland Harmony Day, Riverland Field Days, National Youth Week, NAIDOC Week, Renmark Rose Festival and local Christmas pageants.

“RYT gives young people confidence and we make sure all programs and projects are inclusive for all young people including young people with disabilities,” Danyon says.

“RYT isn’t just for Renmark, it’s for the whole of the region.”

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by brandsa2018

Windmill Theatre one of SA’s best exports

Local theatre company Windmill Theatre Co looks set to continue its march onto the world stage in 2019, building on its success as one of South Australia’s best creative exports.

Windmill, founded in 2002, creates quirky, funny, thought provoking theatre for children and families. Some of the best known shows include Grug, Pinocchio and Big Bad Wolf.

Following a recent period of growth and expansion, the company has now positioned itself as one of the most innovative and in-demand theatre companies in the world, touring productions nationally and internationally, including to New York, China, Canada and New Zealand.

December will see a new pinnacle for the company when hit musical Rumpelstiltskin plays at Europe’s largest centre for the arts, the Southbank Centre in London.

Elena Carapetis, left, Alirio Zavarce, Matt Crook and Michaela Burger in ‘Rumpelstiltskin’. Photo by Shane Reid.

“That’s a really big deal for us,” says Rose Myers, Windmill’s artistic director, who directed and co-wrote the show.

”We’re taking a company of 20 people over and we will be there for a month in the heart of London.

“It’s a co-production with the State Theatre Company which premiered in Adelaide a couple of years ago. It is a big thrill to take that on the road.”

Taking great SA productions out to the world is not just about playing to bigger audiences, it’s about building cultural ties and artistic networks overseas that feed back into the state, says Rose, who has been at the helm since 2009.

“Touring is important because we make the work and there is a lot of investment poured into it,” she says. “SA is a small state and we have a small audience, but you get into a market place like China or America where the audience is huge and you are amortising your investment and generating employment for our artists and that helps keep great artists here in SA because they know they can make a living here.

Paul Capsis, left, and Ezra Juanta on stage. Photo by Shane Reid.

“It’s also just great cultural diplomacy. We’re trying to make trade links with China and this is all about cultural exchange and taking pieces of Australia over there and sharing culture which is really important.”

Over the last 16 years Windmill has done 59 regional, national and international tours taking in 247 cities across 28 countries and five continents. So far this year the company has already toured Scotland and NZ and is at the tail end of a regional stint with a 14-town, 18-week tour of Big Bad Wolf.

Beep, a production for under fives which premiered in 2017, is currently on a nine-week, five-city tour of mainland China and returns to Adelaide for the DreamBIG Children’s Festival next May, before heading to Sydney next July and Western Australia later in 2019.

Antoine Jelk, left, Kialea Nadine Williams and Ezra Juanta star in ‘Beep’. Photo by Shane Reid.

A new production in the 2019 season is Baba Yaga (ages 7+), a co-production with Scotland’s Imaginate Festival, which will have its premiere at the 2019 Adelaide Festival, following a sold out season at the 2018 Edinburgh International Children’s Festival.

The story is a new take on an old Russian folktale and has been co-created by Rose Myers, Scottish theatre maker Shona Reppe and Christine Johnston, of Kransky Sisters fame, who also plays the lead role. The show will tour in China, Ireland and England next year.

Windmill’s 2019 season also sees the return of the award-winning production Girl Asleep (ages 14+) which was first presented at the Adelaide Festival in 2014 as part of a trilogy that included Fugitive and School Dance.

Imaginate and Windmill Theatre’s ‘Baba Yaga’. Photo by Rob McDougall.

The production went on to be developed into a film, premiering at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival and going on to achieve critical acclaim globally, screening in 114 cities across 21 countries, and winning numerous awards.

“It’s a coming of age show set in 1970s,” Rose explains. ”It’s very funny and loosely based on Sleeping Beauty. It stars a lot of great SA actors such as Ellen Steele and Amber McMahon who’s brilliant.

“There’s a lot of interest because a people have seen the movie and kids are now studying the movie at school.”

The success of Girl Asleep resulted in the company announcing the launch of Windmill Pictures in 2017, a new arm of the company dedicated to developing screen projects from its live theatre repertoire.

Rose says SA is the perfect place to create great film works.

Ellen Steele in ‘Girl Asleep’. Photo by Shane Reid.

“Girl Asleep was supported by a great initiative called The Hive, through Amanda Duthie and Katrina Sedgwick at the Adelaide Film Festival,” she says. “It’s just all about innovation and I feel like in some of the bigger states you wouldn’t get that opportunity.

“This has opened up whole other dialogues and whole other ways we can generate more content and industries in Adelaide. That film was very successful and now we are exploring more film production opportunities and ways to bring more money into SA in that industry.”

Rose says it’s a privilege to be part of the team at Windmill as the company continues to be driven to make great works for young people.

“It’s always a joy for me,” she says. “I was in the audience watching Big Bad Wolf in Darling Harbour and I realised I never get sick of watching an audience get excited by the work.”

Header image features Christine Johnston in Baba Yaga. Photo by Rob McDougall.

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by brandsa2018

Untold migrant stories reawakened on Port Pirie stage

The stories of Greek, Cypriot and Italian migrants post WWII will be brought to life on the stage for what will be the State Theatre Company’s first regional premiere.

South Australian actor, playwright and Greek Cypriot descendant Elena Carapetis is reigniting the oral histories of migrants in Port Pirie, where her grandparents settled and she spent her childhood.

Historical fiction The Gods of Strangers will in November have its world premiere in the seaport town, home to many Greek and Italian migrants who settled in SA from their homelands after WWII.

Elena is State Theatre Company’s artist in residence and so when she was approached by director Geordie Brookman to write a play about the country, she knew instantly she was set for a trip down memory lane.

“He said do you want to write a show about the country, and I said ‘yes!’. Immediately before I had even thought about it, I just said instinctively that it will have to be set in Pirie and it would probably be based on my family history,” she says.

“He said ‘great’, and that’s how it all started.”

Dina Panozzo in The Gods of Strangers. Photo by Tash McCammon.

Elena explored her own family’s history to create The Gods of Strangers, featuring Dina Panozzo, Renato Musolino and Eugenia Fragos, and presented in association with Country Arts SA and Playwriting Australia.

The play is the result of a major commission through the Regional Theatre Strategy, which is the basis of a four-year partnership between Country Arts SA and State Theatre Company.

Set in 1947, the performance explores the untold stories and challenges faced by Greek, Cypriot and Italian migrants, with Elena dedicating the work to her grandparents, Yianni and Eleni Carapetis.

It will be performed in three languages, English, Italian and Greek and also in Auslan for the benefit of the deaf community.

“When my family and other Greek and Italian people come to see this show, I think it’s going to be the first time that many people have seen their own language and culture reflected back,” Elena says.

“More often than not women aren’t featured in the centre of stories, they’re instead connected to being someone’s mother or wife.

“I’ve basically done everything that people don’t expect to see; two protagonists who are women, over the age of 50 and English is their second language.”

The Gods of Strangers tells the tale of two migrant women who answer a knock at their doors by a stranger.

Photo by Sia Duff.

“At the heart of Greek and I think very much so Italian culture, is this idea of the meaning behind the Greek word ‘filotimo’, which means the hospitality and love you show to a stranger,” Elena says.

“It goes back to ancient Greek times when the gods would disguise themselves as humans and come to Earth to test humans, even if a beggar was at your door you’d let them in because they might be a god in disguise.

“These two women let these strangers into the house and it’s about what happens when these new forces collide with their lives.”

Elena researched for months Greek, Cypriot and Italian settlement in Port Pirie, visiting the region to reconnect with locals and hear their stories. She also visited libraries and spoke with academics to learn about what life was like in regional SA post WWII.

The play is also inspired by the stories of her own grandparents, including her grandmother who came to Australia as a young woman, set to marry a man she had never met, but only seen in a photo.

“With Greek culture, and with my grandma, she was sent a photo of a man she had never met, he paid for her passage, she got on a ship and came to Australia to marry him,” Elena says.

“But when my grandma got here, the man wasn’t the same man as the one in the photo, so she basically said, ‘I’m not marrying you’, which was huge.”

Elena Carapetis reflected on her family’s history for her latest work, The Gods of Strangers. Photo by Sia Duff.

Eventually Elena’s grandmother married neither the mystery man in the photo or the man waiting for her at the altar, but instead fell for the man who lived next door to her best friend.

Elena says The Gods of Strangers honours the sacrifices made by the women in her family.

Born in Whyalla, Elena grew up in Port Pirie before moving to Adelaide towards the end  of her primary school years.

After high school she studied drama at the University of Adelaide before being accepted into Australia’s leading drama school NIDA in Sydney, at a time when acting royalty Cate Blanchett had graduated two years prior.

After NIDA, Elena scored theatre and TV gigs before landing a role on Aussie drama Heartbreak High.

She spent 12 years in Sydney, moving back to Adelaide in 2003 “just check in with family”.

But Elena ended up staying in SA, employed by the State Theatre Company and cementing herself on the local stage as well as teaching at the Adelaide College of the Arts and Flinders University.

“What has kept me here is my family and the lifestyle,” Elena says.

“I’ve made some really beautiful connections with people here, they’re like my art family.”

The Gods of Strangers will premiere at Port Pirie’s Northern Festival Centre on November 9 and 10 before showing in Adelaide from November 14–December 2. Click here for details on the Port Pirie shows and here for details on the Adelaide run.

by brandsa2018

New theatre course is music to ears of Mamma Mia stars

A new musical theatre course recently announced by the University of Adelaide is attracting great interest not just locally, but from interstate and international students.

The new Bachelor of Music Theatre kicks off in 2019 at the University’s Elder Conservatorium and will be run by renowned music theatre expert and educator George Torbay.

He says the benefits of such a course are not just that aspiring musical theatre stars no longer need to study interstate, but there will also be flow on effects for the South Australian arts scene more broadly.

“The whole point of a course like this here is to add to the cultural scene in this state,” George says. “However, more than just keeping young artists here, the course is already attracting applicants from all over Australia and even international applicants.

“SA has been crying out for a degree like this. Music theatre is a rapidly growing art form and incredibly popular across Australia.”

The course will include singing lessons and song coaching, classes in acting, voice and speech, song repertoire and audition technique, ballet, pas de deux, tap and jazz. Students will also have the opportunity to connect with current writers and explore new works as well as gain professional-level experience working within Adelaide’s thriving festival scene.

Zoe Komazec is now living in SA and will teach dance as part of the University of Adelaide’s new musical theatre course.

Musical theatre star Zoe Komazec, who grew up in Adelaide and is currently starring in the hit production Mamma Mia! The Musical which begun this week, is particularly excited about the announcement as she and fiancé Matt Geronimi will be teaching dance as part of the new course.

“When I was contacted about the course I thought it was one of the most exciting things to happen,” says Zoe, who has been based in Sydney for the past five years but is now living in SA.

“Adelaide has produced so many incredibly talented people in various industries, particularly musical theatre. You’d be surprised how many times I mention I am from Adelaide and at least five people are also born and bred Radelaidians.

“Not having to leave this wonderful state straight away is such a bonus, I think it will allow more aspiring young South Aussies an avenue that they thought wasn’t an option.”

Zoe began dancing at age two at her mum’s studio Barbara Jayne Dance Centre in Norwood, seeing her first musical at age eight – The Sound of Music.

Annie Chiswell.

Annie Chiswell is another local musical theatre performer who trained here, at the Adelaide College of the Arts. She too is starring in Mamma Mia! The Musical, which will be her first major production appearance in front of a hometown crowd.

She agrees Adelaide is a breeding ground for great musical theatre talent, although she says time spent interstate can be of benefit.

“For me personally, I believe in any career it is important to take risks and break out of your comfort zone,” says Annie, who saw her first musical The Lion King, in Melbourne at age 10.

“I felt for my career that Melbourne was calling my name, but this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. I know Adelaide is up and coming in musical theatre training and so hopefully there will be more opportunities to study here.

“I’m also a huge believer in it’s not where you study, but how. I will always be thankful for the artist foundation that SA gave me, and cannot wait to come home and perform.”

Phillip Lowe is yet another Mamma Mia! The Musical star who grew up in SA.

Phillip, who plays Harry Bright in the hit Abba musical, grew up in Jamestown and had no idea as a kid that people were paid to perform as a job.

Jamestown-raised actor Phillip Lowe is back in Adelaide for Mamma Mia! The Musical.

His mother was the piano player for the local production of Pirates of Penzance when Phillip was four years old and he remembers turning the pages for her and singing along as she practiced.

It wasn’t until his brother went to study at WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAPPA) that Phillip realised musical theatre was an actual career path.

However, he didn’t follow his dreams into musical theatrical when he finished school – first, he got a job at a bank and dabbled in amateur theatre.

“I thought I had to have a ‘real’ job. However, one day we got held up by two guys with shotguns so I decided that I was done with real jobs and I auditioned for drama school. I never looked back after that,” says Phillip, who also went on to study at WAPPA and has maintained a stellar career over the past 25 years, appearing in Crazy for You, The Producers, Dusty, Mary Poppins and many more.

Phillip has been based in Sydney for the past 23 years and Mamma Mia! The Musical will be his first time on the Adelaide Festival Theatre stage.

“I cannot wait. It’s a lifelong dream come true,” he adds.

Mama Mia! The Musical is on at the Adelaide Festival Centre until November 18. Click here for tickets.

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

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