Issued Friday, 14 January 2005
A PROGRAM SO BRIGHT YOU HAVE TO WEAR SHADES!
The program is packed with another unique artistic blend and diversity continues to be the common thread of the program, while our low ticket prices have been maintained, making it possible to plan a whole night at the House without breaking the bank!
Over the last three years the Studio has become home for smaller scale contemporary productions from across the globe and a platform for independent Australian artists often new to Sydney or to the Sydney Opera House.
Shows in the Studio turn around at Festival pace, ranging from one-night stands to two-week seasons, providing an opportunity for an amazing breadth of contemporary stories that can be told in their own individual forms, suited to the ever changing Studio environment.
We’ve set out to support some of the most exciting work created on the fringes of the contemporary arts. Across the year we also celebrate some of the most interesting developments that are already happening in pockets around town and across Australia, like new Jazz, disability club culture and the rebirth of the live independent music scene
So, if diversity is the only common thread, then what better way to kick off than with three big international shows as part of Sydney’s annual Mardi Gras Festival.
Varla Jean Merman is a drag performer of Divine proportions and talents, whose show Girl With A Pearl Necklace will bring out the inner diva in all of us, before fellow New Yorker Penny Arcade returns to Sydney after a 10-year absence. Penny will be gracing us with the World Premiere of Rebellion Cabaret (New York Values) – a caustic, comic collaboration with Chris Rael (Church of Betty). Sexual and identity politics, hegemony and the media, and the future of Western Civilization are de-boned and investigated, tearing away the veil from marketed rebellion and celebrity culture.
Then Helen Paris and Leslie Hill are curious – two London-based artists working in performance, video and digital arts, known for their edgy and humorous interrogations of contemporary culture and politics. They’ll be presenting a double bill of Smoking Gun and Family Hold Back, two works that are as smart as they seductive in the way that they skewer social mores.
February also sees the return of our ever-popular Scratch Nights series. These rough n’ ready works-in-progress give you the chance to see a show in its developmental stage, allowing input from the audience with coffee and conversation after each performance.
March sees the return of Global Beats – world music from a small planet,where music from six different cultures combines with hypnotic projections to create a mini-festival for the senses. From the mesmerising Indian sounds of Raga Bliss via the French Gypsy swing of Les Yeaux Noirs to the tribal beats of Drum Drum, there really is something for everyone!
Music takes on an even more theatrical edge, but this time with a local emphasis in our new-look Studio Music Sessions. These nights will be curated by Sydney-based artists including The CODA Collective and local independent labels including Groovescooter to travel far beyond the concert in search of new ways of showcasing live music … a task The Song Company will also be taking up in their new work Brothers In Crime, a tribute performance for the 60th birthday of Martin and Peter Wesley-Smith.
We welcome one of Sydney’s most celebrated performer/photographers William Yang in his World Premiere of Objects for Meditation - a monologue with slides and video about life, travel and philosophy.
And two artists who are celebrated from the back blocks of Redfern to the back of Bourke and beyond … Morganics and MC Wire star in Stereotype, a two man Hip Hop Theatre show where songlines, bloodlines, history and Hip Hop come together in a challenging look at black and white Australia.
Before you think we’re getting too serious, it’s time for some serious entertainment with the debut of The New Breed featuring graduate students of the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne ... followed by more dynamic energy and style with the welcome return of BPM Beatsper Minute. This show comprises a seven piece band with a twist – tap dancers, musicians and a vocalist/rapper together create an original score of percussive grooves that’ll have every body moving.
Laughter is always a strong element of the Studio’s line-up, but brought to you with that quirky twist we’ve become known for … and here are two of the quirkiest!
The Kransky’s – We Don’t Have Husbands sees those three eccentric spinsters from Esk, rural Queensland, pack the Morris and unwittingly driving their strange behaviours and peculiar renditions of popular songs into the Studio, featuring Christine Johnston, Michelle Watt and Annie Lee.
Then Martin Murphy and Paul Livingston make for a memorable tag-team with their new double bill: Happy and Clean sees Martin reprise his Bob Honking character to crazy effect, while Flacco presents Paul J Livingston’s Releasing The Imbecile Within - the perfect antidote for the overachievers among us.
And if you can’t make it to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, then a taste of it comes to you with two leading International comedians, Chris Addison from the UK and the USA’s Maria Branford.
Finally we join forces with Sydney Film Festival for a celebration of new digital work from One.Zero and live music scores with film … and all that only takes us through to July! By then we’ll have released our second six-month program for 2005 with further flavours and twists to surprise and inspire, so stay tuned for further details and I hope to see you at a Studio show soon.
Virginia Hyam
Studio Executive Producer