National Play Festival Blog
Final day of rehersal
February 16th, 2010After a week and a half, we’ve just finished our final day of rehearsal. We’re plotting lights and sound tonight, before a very busy day tomorrow. Before we even get to the opening performance of the Showcase season, we’ve got Matthew Ryan’s The Life and Death of Dan Kelly as our Play for Breakfast, and our twenty-one Face Timers get to pitch their projects to our amazing panel of industry experts. Then our first three Showcase performances: A Beautiful Gesture, Water Falling Down and 19 Trains.
It’s a busy day of great new theatre. Will you be there?
Last chance to see Chasing the Lollyman
February 15th, 2010deBASE Productions’ Chasing the Lollyman returns for one final performance at 7.30pm on Tuesday 16 Feb at Metro Arts following the Commissioning W/Rights forum.
Devised and performed by Mark Sheppard, star of deBASE’s The Clown from Snowy River, Chasing the Lollyman is a brilliant one-man comedy show celebrating urban aboriginal identity.
“It’s difficult to think of a show that’s been filled with more fun and joie de vivre gracing Brisbane stages recently, and if you’re in desperate need of a really good belly-laugh, this will just about do it.” Time Off
Opening Night DJ and band announced
February 11th, 2010triple j Unearthed feature artists Skinny Jean will appear as special guests at the Opening Night Party on Wed 17 Feb. A Brisbane band on the rise, they’ve been described as treading “a fine line between theatricality and untrammelled pretentiousness” so we thought that was a perfect fit for the National Play Festival. Following their first release in 2007, they reached no. 2 in 4ZZZ’s Hottest 100 of 2008 with ‘Anhedonia’ and their debut album Dolce Doggerel was released at the end of last year. They’ve also recently supported Kate Miller-Heidke and Yves Klein Blue, among others, and they describe their influences as ranging from Icelandic experimental music, jazz and ragga, to U2 and Bob Dylan.
Skinny Jean will be joined by DJ Matchstick.
The Opening Night Party is on Wed 17 Feb from 9.30pm at the Judith Wright Centre.
Tickets $20/Admission free with any of the following National Play Festival tickets: 19 Trains Showcase session, Late Night Pass, Day Pass (Wed 17 Feb), Festival Pass or Industry Pass. Click here for details.
“An early state of play: A new festival serves up rough-and-ready works”
February 8th, 2010The early state of play is that it’s the end of day 1 of rehearsals and we’ve got through several family sized danish pastries and over 8,000 sheets of A4 paper. Fortunately it’s recycled paper.
Check out this story from Brisbane’s Courier Mail about why we do what we do.
Face Time panel announced
February 2nd, 2010There are still just a few places left to pitch your great ideas to our Face Time panel. Here’s who they are:
Chris Bendall (Deckchair Theatre, Fremantle)
Jane Bodie (National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney)
Janelle Christofis (Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane)
Katherine Hoepper (MAPS for Artists, Brisbane)
Cheryl Jorgensen (Arts Queensland)
Ralph Myers (Company B Belvoir, Sydney)
Face Time is like speed-dating, and you’ll get 3 minutes to pitch your project to each of the panellists in turn, before receiving overall feedback at the end of the session in our Saving Face forum. It’s a unique opportunity to try out your pitch and gain valuable feedback on your project but, more importantly, how you sell it.
Face Time is on Wednesday 17 February.
