The John Lennon Play - In His Own Write- By Cleo Posa

By Cleo Posa

MONASH University Student Theatre, better known as MUST,  is experiencing outstanding success in the theatre world, this year producing one of the two student-based theatre shows accepted into the Melbourne Fringe Festival. However, this success comes at a high price with late nights and a demanding rehearsal schedule leaving students sacrificing their time, energy and studies for their love of the art form. MUST students prove, you got to love it, because it becomes your life.

MUST publicist Cassandra Fumi says “it’s becoming huge”.

“More and more students are getting involved with student theatre and there are increased numbers of student-based entries into the Fringe each year. The standard of production is extremely high right now, its fantastic. It definitely comes at a price though,” Fumi said.

In their recent production of The Grace Of Mary Traverse, students involved were dedicating up to six evenings a week to rehearsals and sacrificing their precious weekends, some nights not wrapping up rehearsals until as late as 3am.

On the strain of rehearsals, MUST student and cast member Simon Eales says “its a lot of time, and effort. You really need to have a strong passion for theatre and the arts to be involved”.

” When signing up to be part of a play, you’re also signing up to be permanently tired and cram in your studies at the last minute,” Eales said. “The important thing is to keep the finished product in mind at all times. Because it is so rewarding when that time comes.”

However, the hours dedicated aren’t as painful as they sound, as when spending an afternoon sitting in on rehearsals the scene seems less like an regimented rehearsal of actors, and more like a gathering of family. Eales says, “the crew at MUST are so tight we are like a family, so the strenuous rehearsal schedules aren’t so bad. We have a lot of fun.”

And in MUST’s case, practice really does pay off.

Last year the cast of The John Lennon Play – In His On Write, made it into the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals, a rarity for small student-based productions.

“We couldn’t believe it. When I auditioned to be in the play I had no idea we would end up performing for crowds in Adelaide at the Fringe Festival,” Eales said.

“It was such an amazing experience and was great for meeting other people in the industry. All the hours spent rehearsing really did pay off.”

Can't Pay, Won't Pay

MUST is a fantastic opportunity for opening doors into this creative industry.

MUST director Celeste Emira McLeod told the Herald Sun (Bloody, but up for a fight, October 1, 2009): “MUST is a fantastic opportunity because nobody ever doubts you or diminishes what you’re doing because you are amateur.

“There is a powerful sense of respect and nobody doesn’t take it seriously or think its not important. Student theatres are still the birthplaces of talent and experimentation, despite being constantly hard up for funds.”

And with more great things expected to come from MUST, be sure to catch their latest show in the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Cant Pay, Won’t Pay, running until October 17 at Monash University Student Theatre.

How to find us:

View Larger Map

Bookings:
8th – 10th (Melbourne Fringe) on +61 3 9660 9666 or online at http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/.
13th – 17th (MUST) +61 3 9905 8173.

A man crowd surfs at Falls Festival 2008

Despite Victoria’s dire teenage unemployment rate and current economic situation, music festivals in the state are thriving.

According to The Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate among Victorian teenagers looking for full-time work has jumped from 14.3 per cent to 19.5 per cent in the last year, largely due to the current world economic climate.

The Reserve Bank is also predicted to deliver two more interest rate rises before Christmas, which will affect many young first home buyers.

However, Victorian music festivals, which attract a mainly young demographic, have been more popular than ever.

Falls Festival, a three-day music festival held annually in Lorne, sold out within hours, despite tickets costing a hefty $329. Electronic music festival Parklife also sold out quickly, tickets selling for $122 for just one day.

International festival organisers were shaken earlier in the year, when the Langerado Music Festival in Miami and the Hydro Connect Festival in Scotland called off their events, citing the recession’s impact on ticket sales as a major factor. However, since then, most other major international music festivals have not suffered.

This year’s Glastonbury Festival in England grossed over $50 million, people paying $350 per ticket. The Reading and Leeds festivals also sold out. Last year, live music business in the United Kingdom alone amounted to over $2.5 billion, which surpassed previous years.

Pyramid Rock Festival 2008

The appeal of music festivals lies in their ability to showcase numerous musicians and bands in one location, for the less than the cost of buying individual tickets.

“I prefer to save up and buy festival tickets rather than go to side-shows, which can cost $100 for one night”, says Melbourne student and avid festival attendee Noemie Le Coz, 21. “The atmosphere at festivals is also amazing”.

The popularity of music festivals also reflects the recent trend away from consumer spending on recorded music, and towards live performance.

“I don’t buy CDs anymore”, says Le Coz. “I usually just download individual songs from iTunes. CDs are expensive, and I’d rather save my money and see the band live”.

Pascal Buensoz, a jazz festival organiser working in Lyon, France, is thrilled at the continuing success of music festivals in the region.

“I didn’t know what would happen when the economic crisis hit France”, he says. “A lot of people lost their jobs, or just stopped going out. But then one of the festivals I helped to organise in June [Jazz à Vienne] was very popular, and I think it’s because, in the end, music is something that people are happy to spend money on”.

Upcoming Victorian music festivals include the Meredith Music Festival held in mid-December, The Pyramid Rock Festival held over the New Year, and The Big Day Out, which sold out in mere minutes.

The Yacht Club DJ's: Gareth Harrison and Guy Chappell-Lawrence

In a dark underground bar in the south-east suburbs of Melbourne, a concoction of plaid, leather and denim clad youths are congregating around the stage, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the second act. That’s right, the second act. Not the final, headlining act whose name takes up the majority of the ticket. The second act, in a timeslot generally reserved for lesser known performers. See, the fresh-faced foursome who appeared first did a successful job of geeing up the crowd; and the headliners are sure to please as well, due to showcase their repertoire of hits played repeatedly on Triple J; however it is the middle act, an odd looking duo with their 70’s inspired facial hair and kooky eyewear, that is set to stir the crowd into a sweaty, hyped up frenzy. They are the Yacht Club DJ’s by name, musical wizards by night.

 Forming in the summer of 2007, the Yacht Club DJ’s – Gareth “Gaz” Harrison and Guy Chappell-Lawrence – have come a long way from their humble beginnings as resident DJs at Ballarat’s Karova Lounge. After numerous stints at university courses – as yet, none finished – the boys decided to have a crack at music. “We were sick of going out an not hearing the songs we love, and we both love super quick mixing which there is very little of”, Guy says.

The “local-heroes” quickly gained a reputation as the saviours of the mash-up genre after a stellar performance at the Meredith Music Festival in 2008.

The duo have now been catapulted to crowd-favourites for not only their electrifying party sets but their crazy on-stage antics which often result in nudity and crowd surfing. They have even been known to, quite literally, swing from the rafters. “Meredith Music Festival 2008 was surreal and ahhhhmazing (sic). We have a career highlight every time we get a room really moving and making idiots of themselves,” Gareth says.

“We have done so many bad gigs where we weren’t wanted. The worst for me was being punched at a house party for not playing ‘Rage against the Machine’ on repeat (laughs),” Guy says.

Their eclectic mixes are made up of recognisable songs from nearly every genre and era, transfused with old-school cartoon theme songs. In fact, it’s the inclusion of these popular melodies from our childhood that has put the boys on the map. “We both love metal – it’s the music we grew up listening to – and hip hop… anything you can party to. Oh, and T.V show and movie themes. We are both total movie nerds”, says Guy. Whether it’s the Rodger Ramjet theme being mixed into Regurgitator or the Mario Brothers tune being transformed into Marvin Gaye, YCD’s musical fusions are pulled off effortlessly. The boys are often praised for not sticking to the one genre, with their diverse sets prompting a surge of people to download their mixtapes and now, sell out a string of shows across the country. 

Manager, Shaun Adams says it’s been a long time coming. “Gaz and Guy have been passionate music fans their whole lives. Fortunately, when they started producing their own stuff, the audiences latched on to it and couldn’t get enough. They feel extremely lucky to be doing what they’re doing.”

 But it hasn’t always been that easy.

 The legalities of sampling pre-recorded music have been an issue YCD has faced since surfacing in the music industry. Other mash-up favourites like US DJ Gregg Gillis – stage name, Girl Talk – have come under scrutiny in the media with some sources even calling the genre “a lawsuit waiting to happen”. Girl Talk, however, cite ‘fair use’ as a legal backbone for his sampling practices.

Despite the haziness of the ‘rules’ however, there’s no doubt the mash-up genre is surpassing its dance/techno/house counterparts. The day of persistent, monotone beats and lyric-less club anthems appear to be fading into the background, with audiences instead becoming enthralled by DJ’s who utilise familiar melodies.

Not only have YCD invented a brand new genre of live entertainment, they’ve broken down the barriers that once stood between the sub-cultures. No longer is the turntable reserved for Ed Hardy wearing, city ravers; YCD has smashed the stereotype and has created a sound that can be appreciated and enjoyed by all.  Immersed in the heaving crowd of fans you will find a bunch of people with tastes as different as their hairstyles. Whether it’s rock, pop, dance, indy, alternative or all of the above that you’re into, YCD’s diverse range of material is guaranteed to satisfy – and fuel the party animal within- every single individual. “We will literally play anything that we love and will try to illicit a response from the audience. We treat DJ’ing like a fun party, like a rock show”, Gareth says.

 And no longer do the throngs of fans have to pack into tiny pub venues.

The crowd at Parklife

 The rise of YCD is propelling faster than the speed of lightning, with their most recent gig – fronting a crowd of 17,000 at Melbourne’s leg of the Parklife festival – a testament to their growing popularity.
Nick Shute, an avid festival-goer witnessed the antics of YCD for the first time at Parklife in Melbourne at the start of this month. “They were amazing. The crowd went off, especially when theme songs like Captain Planet got mixed in with other stuff. They have a way of making the entire crowd go crazy and feel connected with each other for sharing the experience. It was pure fun.”

And it’s ‘fun’ that seems to fuel YCD’s colourful sets. “Our aim is keep growing and playing to more people. We would love to see more acts like us emerge and have fun with playing music to people, because there really are no rules. You can play absolutely anything”, Guy says.

“We want audiences to walk away with a smile on their faces thinking, ‘I’ve never heard that song in a club/at a festival etc. I f***ing LOVE that song!’ We want them to walk away feeling like they have been on a three day bender of party music.”

It appears the boys have fashioned a new breed of DJ; DJ’s that these plaid, denim and leather clad ‘alternative’ youths are not ashamed to like. Or perhaps even dance to.

YCD are set to return to their old stomping grounds near Ballarat and play the Meredith Music Festival on December 11 – December 13. Tickets are now sold out.

Alexandra Oke

Meredith Music Festival, Mt. Mercer Road, Meredith, Victoria

Every year more than two thousand scripts for ten minute plays from around the world are submitted to the directors of Short+Sweet. The plays are short listed and then over a two week period, the plays are performed to an audience and a panel of judges and a finals round is selected. The prize pool in Melbourne last year was more than $32,000. The Short+Sweet festival is the world’s biggest short play festival, it has expanded from Sydney and Melbourne to almost all capital cities in Australia and also into Singapore and Malaysia. Over the years we have seen the growth of the festival move into dance, song, and cabaret with also several subsections for actors, play-writes, dancers and performers under the age of eighteen. Mark Cleary, director of the entire festival says that Short+Sweet is to make a “More creative world, ten minutes at a time”

This year, I have entered into Melbourne’s Short+Sweet Cabaret Festival. As a performer we have to write direct and perform our own self contained cabaret and present it to the festival director, David Read. There is an audition process for untried performers before making the shortlist. So I asked Mr. Read a couple of questions about what he’s looking for in a cabaret. For entirely journalistic purposes of course. According to Read there is a tendency in Australian cabaret at the moment for some performers to take the lazy option and sing their favorite audition pieces with a loose dialogue connecting them. Apparently this is not what the judges want to see. “Bring me dark and edgy cabaret, satire, excitement, a good yarn! Bring me vaudeville, burlesque, magic, circus, rock! Think big people!” says Read. So now I know I’m on the right track.

The next question is what happens now? Where will this festival take me as a cabaret artist? Read has a vision for that too. Cabaret occurs all over Melbourne all of the time, but because of its ephemeral nature by the time audiences hear of a good act it’s often moved on. Short Sweet+Cabaret provides an opportunity to bring all these performers together in a festival environment. “I’d like to see Short Sweet+Cabaret start up in other cities but I’m not convinced any other city in Australia has anywhere near the talent pool that Melbourne does, so we may need to look offshore.” Says Read “Each year we do Short Sweet+Cabaret, we are growing an extraordinary mix of ten minute performance pieces, and I’d like to see a ‘best of’ show featuring these acts, tour outside of Melbourne.” This may happen in 2010 with the inaugural Melbourne Cabaret Festival.

Cleary says that as the openings of the festivals approach his time is quickly spiraling away, however he did spare me a moment to wish me luck and give me a sneak peek into his vision for the future “World domination (ten minutes at a time) next target NZ, the UK and USA.”

Short Sweet+Cabaret will be held at Chapel Off Chapel in Prahran from Thursday 12 to Sunday 22 November 2009.

Bookings: www.chapeloffchapel.com.au

or      (03) 8290 7000

Cabaret performers Reuben Krum and Cara Cleary perform at Chapel Off Chapel

We have a yearly artistic program that generally comprises 2 or 3 shows directed by our Artistic Director, 4 student submissions and many one off events- all of which attract audiences from all over Melbourne. We also run heavily subsidised workshops in performing, backstage and film that are taught by professional tutors of note in their field. These workshops are also open to the general public. We have a dedicated space at the Western end of the Campus Centre and sometimes perform in venues off campus as well.

Monash also has three performance-based clubs. These are the Monash Players, The Monash Shakespeare Society and MUMCo, the musical theatre company. They all have their own artistic program and perform in the Student Theatre space.

This comic play by Dario Fo and Franca Rame explores the sexual frustration of a woman regarding her relationship. A funny voice that screams pathetically, seeking for recognition amongst a male oriented world.
Aiming to put in perspective different angles of this female character, the director Alvaro Bittencourt works with three actors (including a man) to perform the hilarious role.
This play takes part of a performance research project the Brazilian director is conducting at Monash University. The rehearsal process is entirely focused on performers and makes use of different acting approaches simultaneously.

As a consequence, the show reflects his pursuit of theatrical essentiality, extracting from the actors all the resources needed for creating humor and dynamism in this show.

Written by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Directed by Alvaro Bittencourt

Venue
The Theatre Husk
161a Heidelberg Road Northcote

Transport
Dennis Train Station

Time
7.30pm, 5.00pm and 7.30pm 10 and 11 Oct (50min)

Tickets
Full Price: $ 15.00
Concession: $ 13.00
Group: $ 10.00 (per person for 5 people)

BUY TICKETS HERE

taken from: http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/coming-home

I will be developing a news report regarding the nature of student theatre in Melbourne, particularly within the Monash community. In my report I will address the nature of this art form and touch on the demanding schedules and lifestyle choices which involved students must make. I will describe the various student based theatre programs operating around Melbourne and outline some must-see, up and coming student theatre shows. I will focus my article on the Monash University Student Theatre (MUST), and their recent successes in both the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe festivals.

In light of this, I will be interviewing an active member of MUST, Cassandra Fumi – who last year traveled to Adelaide to perform in and promote a MUST show. In addition, I intend on interviewing both a director of the Melbourne Fringe festival and one person from the Malthouse Theatre, in order to gain a greater insight into the growing prevalence of Student Theatre around Melbourne.

To aid the construction of my news report, I will draw information from numerous articles published in local Victorian newspapers which relate to student theatre. One particular documentary source which I will use to write my report is the 2009 article written by Cassandra Fumi which was published in The Herald Sun about recent MUST production – Blood Wedding.

My news report will contain the news value of proximity as the story will relate and appeal mainly to people in Melbourne and particularly within the Monash community. Further, my story will have value for being timely as the Melbourne Fringe festival is running at the moment. A final news value this story will contain is personalisation as the key demographic for our Blog is young people, particularly students around Melbourne.

Music festivals boom-booming despite economic crisis

The issue I have chosen to research and develop for my news report is the growing popularity of music festivals, despite the current worldwide economic crisis. I will mainly focus on the success of Victorian music festivals, particularly the upcoming Falls Festival in Lorne, but will also briefly discuss similar international events including the Open’er festival, held annually in Poland. My article will detail the recent trend away from recorded music towards live music and the consequent surge in demand for festival tickets, and the commercial benefits of music festivals for festival organisers, artists and audiences.

One documentary source I will use to write my news report is the June 2009 edition of Business Life magazine, which features an article about the economic aspect of music festivals. Another documentary source I will use is an article that was published in the online edition of Billboard magazine on 10 April 2009 titled “Music Festivals Not Feeling Economic Pinch”.

I have also organised an interview with Melbourne student Noemie Le Coz, an avid festival goer, and I will also interview Pascal Buensoz, who works as a jazz festival organiser in the Rhône-Alpes region of France.

The main news values in my story will be of proximity (including cultural proximity, due to readers’ common interests in music, and financial proximity, because the economic crisis has had such an immense impact on the world), continuity (because of the continual coverage of economic news in the media, and the frequent staging, reporting and reviewing of music festivals in Melbourne) and personalisation (because readers will be able to identify with the issues discussed, including the world’s economic situation and saving money by attending numerous acts at festivals instead of individual shows).

In consideration to our group’s journalistic theme of “Live Entertainment” I have decided to cover the Short+Sweet festival in November this year. Short and Sweet is a festival for 10 minute theatre pieces ranging from Cabaret to Dance to Song and straight theatre. It also includes sections for writers and performers 18 years and under. In my article I would love to create more awareness and support for this international festival that is open to entries from experienced performers as well as beginners. Many members from the Arts Industry in Melbourne consider this festival a great platform for showcasing new work as well as providing a launching pad for up and coming artists. I will be speaking to David Read, owner of the Butterfly Club (Melbourne’s leading cabaret venue) and Director of the new sub group of the Festival, Short Sweet+Cabaret. I will be asking him about his ideas of what cabaret is and its place in theatre, as well as discussing the importance of supporting performers. I have also made contact with the festival’s Director in Chief Mark Cleary, based in Sydney, who will provide an in depth interview about the festivals origins and its plan for international growth. (The next planned destination is the USA, the UK and New Zealand!) Apart from making references to the official Short+Sweet website along with other online reviews and articles connected with this competition, I hope to make the article a little more interesting as I will be reporting from the point of view of a participating artist in the Cabaret Competition, also picking up some comments and insights from other performers and past winners along the way.