Centenary Theatre Group 2012 season

 

Wrong Turn at Lungfish by Garry Marshal and Lowell Ganz

Playing – 3, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23 and 24 March

This is the story of a blind and bitter college professor and his encounter with a saucy, street wise young woman who volunteers to read to him in the hospital. The clash of intellect and wit takes the two from animosity and fear to friendship and understanding. Both come to their relationship with questions, hers dealing with her station in life and her handsome boyfriend and his about past life choices - both leave with hopeful answers, even after the boyfriend shows up.

Perve by Stacey Gregg

Playing – 5, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25 and 26 May

World amateur premiere.

It's the cautionary tale of Gethin, who having finished a course in film studies and thinking he is going to be the next Scorsese, embarks on a social experiment that will test his friendships, question his idealism and turn his life upside down.

Annoyed at the way everybody gets so hysterical about paedophilia and how quickly society is to judge those who are accused of it, Gethin places himself in the firing line, starting a rumour that quickly turns around to bite him in the bum, but not before secrets come out and consequences arise that he never thought would, helping him learn about responsibility and raising questions about the validity of our paranoia.

[Perve contains adult themes – for mature audiences only]

Death & Deceit on the Nile by Peter Di Pietro

Playing - 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29 July - 4 August

An interactive murder mystery Dinner Theatre

The mystery takes place on a cruise ship sailing on the Nile. An ancient Egyptian pharaoh's secret tomb and treasure has been discovered and because of its extraordinary value has been named the "Eighth Wonder of the World." A cast of bizarre international characters assembles to view it: a scheming professor, a voluptuous princess, a daffy housekeeper, a slick lounge lizard, an astute writer and a dealer in exotic antiques. Suddenly, gunshots ring out! The archaeological wonder becomes the focus of murder. Heated interrogations, shocking revelations and hilarious banter eventually give way to the dramatic realization of whodunit. When the killer is caught, the ancient gods of Egypt can rest easily ... or can they?

Breaker Morant by Kenneth Ross

Playing – 8, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28 and 29 September

A new twist of an Australian classic

Harry 'Breaker' Morant (1864-1902) was a drover, balladeer and poet who was executed for war crimes .During the Second Boer War (1899-1902) Morant participated in the killing of several Boer prisoners and a German missionary. Together with six other soldiers, he faced a court martial charged with murder - the three Australians (Morant, Handcock and Witton) were found guilty.

Witton’s sentence was life imprisonment; Morant’s and Handcock’s death warrants were apparently signed by the British commander in South Africa Lord Kitchener, although he subsequently denied having done so. Morant’s execution by firing squad in Pretoria Gaol generated controversy which continues to this day. Harry Harbord Morant did “finish off in style”, according to the official account, refusing to wear the customary blindfold, looking the firing squad square in the eye and requesting, "Shoot straight you bastards and don't make a mess of it."

Of such stuff are legends built, heroes made, and plays written. This is a remarkable piece of Australian theatre.

The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie

Playing – 3, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23 and 24 November

Another thrilling murder mystery from the Queen of Crime, from the director who brought you “The Mousetrap” ….

When Michael Starkwedder drives into a ditch in thick fog on a country road, he walks to the nearest house for help – only to find a woman standing over the body of her dead husband with a gun in her hand. It looks like an open and shut murder case, but it soon becomes clear that the dead man's wife may be covering up for someone – and there are a whole host of people in the house with both motive and opportunity to commit the murder. As the suspense unfolds we discover that perhaps no one – not even the unexpected guest – is telling the complete truth. Murder, blackmail, insanity, conspiracy, love … “The Unexpected Guest” delivers all of these in the true style of the incomparable Dame Agatha.

All performances are at the Chelmer Community Centre, Cnr. Queenscroft & Halsbury Streets/ All plays perform Friday & Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 6 pm.

The Theatre Restaurant will perform Saturdays and Sundays only at 6 pm – Ticket price will include dinner & show

Groups welcome --- 0435 591 720 for more. Bookings can be made online through www.centenarytheatre.

 

Queensland Theatre Company

 

Every summer, cane-cutters Barney and Roo come back from Queensland to the Carlton house they share with Nancy and Olive for an annual season of fun and frivolity.

But this summer is different. Nancy has gone and got married, Roo is flat broke, and the friends just can’t seem to recreate the chemistry of years gone by. After 17 years, could this really be the end?

“The Doll” is one of the pillars of our national theatre. Australian playwriting came of age with the premiere of this play in 1955. Set in an inner-city Melbourne townhouse and filled with quintessential Australian language of the era, it was the first time we saw ourselves truly reflected on stage. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler is a classic, must-see play about the nature of happiness, the destruction of idealism, and the struggle to accept change and find life anew.

Director: Neil Armfield; Cast Includes: Luke Ford, Steve Le Marquand, Robyn Nevin, Helen Thomson. Playhouse, QPAC Dates: 22 February– 11 March

 

From Joanna Murray-Smith the writer of Female of the Species, Rockabye, and Ninety comes Bombshells, a cheeky, insightful and salaciously entertaining look at the inner thoughts of the modern Australian woman.

In a series of vignettes we’re introduced to six colourfully complex characters who are all on the brink of falling apart. Christen O’Leary is a singing, dancing and acting dynamo who plays a housewife running on empty, a cactus-loving divorcee, an anxious bride, a Glee Club wannabe, a yearning sexagenarian, and a cabaret diva singing her last hurrah. Bombshells is a witty, funny and intimate theatre romp, jam-packed with vitality and vivacious storytelling. An affirmation of the anxieties, emotions and fantasies of everyday heroines.

Director: Wesley EnochCast: Christen O’Leary

Cremorne Theatre, QPAC 17 March – 21 April

Warnings: Coarse language, sexual references

 

In the heat of a raging feud between their two households, teenagers Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. With a price on Romeo’s head, and Juliet suddenly betrothed to another man, the young lovers share a night of forbidden passion before Romeo flees the city.

Juliet’s desperate pleas to call off the wedding are denied, and she hatches a secret plan for them to be reunited, with devastating consequences.

Shakespeare’s classic will be directed by Jennifer Flowers and star Thomas Larkin (Hamlet), Melanie Zanetti (Pygmalion, The Crucible, Grimm Tales)

Cast Includes: Ross Balbuziente, Caroline Kennison, Thomas Larkin, Melanie Zanetti

Playhouse, QPAC 21 April – 13 May

Single ticket prices:

 

In the final day of her life, an ailing Elizabeth I clings desperately to her throne and her sanity. It has been eleven days since she last slept, and she rightly fears that if she allows herself to bed she may not rise again.

Lascivious, neurotic and narcissistic, the once stoic ruler is now stark raving mad. Her mind conjures up vivid memories and grandly paranoid delusions, first and foremost that William Shakespeare has plagiarised the events of her life in each of his famous plays. Suddenly, her boudoir transforms into The Globe Theatre, where the last few hours of her reign are played out in stratospherically high drama.

Not only must Her Royal Redness stave off pesky coups and conspiracies, she’s intermittently haunted by the headless ghost of her Scottish sister

Mary. To make matters even worse, hunky heartbreaker Robert Essex is due any minute and Her Majesty is in no condition to receive guests. But that’s nothing a bit of leech-o-suction and a bee sting booblift won’t fix…

Drawing on all the energy, spirit and spontaneity of original 16th century          commedia dell’arte, Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo (Accidental Death of an Anarchist) offers up a modern stage masterpiece which transcends language and culture.

Elizabeth, Almost by Chance a Woman is in equal parts a bawdy burlesque, a riotous nose-thumbing of authority, and a surprisingly touching insight into the challenges of womanhood.

Warnings: Coarse language, sexual references

Director: Wesley Enoch Cast Includes: Carol Burns, Dash Kruck

Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre 26 May – 24 June

 

The Annual Alice Springs Beanie Festival is fast approaching and Tilly Napuljari is out of time to finish her new creation in time to enter it for judging.

Nessa Tavistock, a Sydneysider, has run away to the red centre to escape her own problems back in the big smoke. Head Full of Love by Alana Valentine is the story of these two remarkable women and the unlikely but inspiring friendship which forms between them. It invites you to look differently at the possibilities of the humble beanie: a much-loved everyday item, and an extension of ourselves and the everyday lives we wear.

This intricate, warm and wisely told tale by Australian playwright Alana Valentine (Run Rabbit Run, Parramatta Girls) is directed by Wesley Enoch and stars Colette Mann (Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Strange Bedfellows) and Roxanne McDonald (Skin of our Teeth, Parramatta Girls, The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table).

Warnings: Some coarse language, adult themes

Director: Wesley Enoch Cast: Colette Mann, Roxanne McDonald

Cremorne Theatre, QPAC 7 July – 11 August

 

Ned Kelly sits in a grimy cell at Old Melbourne Gaol on the night before his execution. His brother and fellow gang member Dan, who Ned believes died at the siege of Glenrowan, visits disguised as a priest. He’s seeking Ned’s blessing and forgiveness before heading north to start a new life in Queensland. But after everything they’ve been through together over the years, and how all of this has affected them, a blessing is not an easy ask. Brothers of the same blood and name, but with very different perspectives of their past; cowards, murderers or heroes? Life or death?

Now, at the end, they confront each other, striving to understand their past.

Dramatically entwining fact,  heory and myth, Kelly is the latest achievement of Brisbane-based playwright Matthew Ryan (boy girl wall, Sacré Bleu).

Kelly is a fast-moving, action-packed story which portrays the infamous cult heroes in a totally new light.

Director: Todd MacDonald Cast Includes: Leon Cain, Steven Rooke

Cremorne Theatre, QPAC 15 September – 20 October

Warnings: Coarse language, adult themes

 

Brent Lyall has it all. At 23 years old he has a beautiful girlfriend, two Brownlow medals, and he’s already the captain of one of the most powerful football clubs in the land.

There’s just one small hitch. Occasionally he enjoys dressing up in women’s clothes.

Uncovering his client’s penchant for cross dressing, Brent’s wily agent Rohan Swift swings into damage control to prevent the devastating truth from coming out.

The media already has a whiff of the story and the humiliation of a public outing would spell the end of the athlete’s career, not to mention the mountains of cash they’re both making through endorsements.

Inevitably, the AFL player’s addiction is irrepressible and his alter ego must beset free. With more than 40 years in the business and a string of box office successes,  David Williamson (The Club, Don’s Party, Let the Sunshine) has earned a reputation as our country’s most popular and successful playwright. Managing Carmen is Williamson’s latest laugh-out-loud instalment, holding a mirror up to the personalities we’ve all come to love and hate – the whatever-it-takes businessman, the bimbo trophy wife, and of course, the flawed footy hero.

Warnings: Some coarse language, sexual references

Director: Wesley Enoch

Playhouse, QPAC 13 October – 4 November

 

Outsider Cherish will be our guide through a community torn in two, divided by bloodline. This is Cherish’s place, this is where she hides away from the real world, speaks to imagined friends and is visited by ghosts of relatives long dead.

At the centre of the story is a young couple; two lovers united in their devotion but separated by clan. Theirs is a tale of social  dysfunction, black on black conflict and the difficulties of observing traditional lore in a community permeated by western values. Stephen Page, Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre and award-winning choreographer, collaborates with writer and actor Wayne Blair on this landmark work.

Stephen and Wayne developed this original work for over a year, collaborating with local  storytellers in Arnhem Land.

Featuring an Indigenous cast of twelve including established urban actors as well as  traditional Yolngu storytellers, Bloodland fuses traditional languages and Pidgin English, plus dance and song to tell the story.

Bloodland promises to be unique in scale and significance.

Director: Stephen Page

Cast Includes:  Kathy Balngayngu Marika,Elaine Crombie, Rarriwuy Hicks, Rhimi Johnson Page, Nolene Marika, Djakapurra Munyarryun, David Page,  Hunter Page Lochard, Kelton Pell, Tessa Rose, Meyne Wyatt, Ursula Yovich

Warnings: Mild violence

A Sydney Theatre Company and Adelaide Festival production In association with bangarra dance theatre

Concept by Stephen Page , Story by Kathy Balngayngu Marika , Stephen Page and Wayne Blair . Written by Wayne Blair

Playhouse Theatre, QPAC 14 – 18 March

 

Andrew Guild , Simon Bryce and Tim Woods , in association with YPM International Presents Yes, Prime Minister a new comedy by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn

The hit BBC TV series is now a hilarious new stage play and has become London’s biggest comedy sensation in decades.

Enter Jim Hacker’s world of hung parliaments, a nation in financial crisis, a world of global warming, illegal immigrants and oil rich dictators. Yes, Prime Minister is a hysterical foray into the comedy of politics and intrigue.

Set in the present day, in the oak-panelled drawing room of the British Prime Minister’s country residence, the embattled PM, Sir Humphrey and Bernard are back – this time facing their greatest challenge yet!

The European Union is in financial meltdown and Hacker is hanging onto power by a thread as he heads up a minority government. Then the country of Kumranistan throws a potential lifeline – a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure deal which could save the British economy.

Closing the deal, however, will be tricky, and may require some rather unsavoury bargaining. Hacker and his team meet at Chequers to navigate the political and moral minefield and evade the ever-present media who will, of course, try to catch them out.

In 2012, the writers of the original TV series of Yes, Prime Minister bring the riotous inner workings of Westminster to the Australian stage for the first time.

Director: Tom Gutteridge Cast: Tony Llewellyn-Jones, Mark Owen-Taylor, John Lloyd Fillingham, Caroline Craig

Playhouse, QPAC 5 July – 15 July

buying a season ticket

You don’t even need to select plays now if you don’t want to. Just choose the package which suits you best from the following options, then decide whether you want 3, 5 or 7 plays credited to your season ticket.

opening night package The creme de la creme of theatre experiences. Affords you an invitation to all seven Opening Night performances in Season 2012. Walk the red carpet at these exclusive events, enjoy a glass of champagne with other VIPs, and then rub shoulders with the stars at our famous post-show parties. A $190 tax-deductible donation to our philanthropic programs is included in the price of this package.

weekend package This package is all about unlimited access. Redeem your season ticket for any performance of any production including popular Friday, Saturday and Sunday sessions (except Opening Nights). Sit in A-Reserve seats or any part of the theatre you choose. If you need to change or shift your dates after you’ve booked, for whatever reason, you can do so free of charge.

mid-week package This package gets you into the best available seats at Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday performances, and still saves you up to 30% just by buying in advance. Fees apply if you exchange out of a show you’ve booked or if you need to book into a weekend performance (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

off-peak package This very economical option is only valid for previews (where the show is tested on an audience before Opening Night) or any Wednesday matinee. If your schedule is more flexible than your budget, this package is ideal. Plus you get to see the show before anyone else!

Australian Ballet

 

THE Australian Ballet has launched its 50th anniversary 2012 program.

Artistic Director David McAllister has announced new commissions – including a traditional Swan Lake – along with classic revivals of audience favourites, an all-Australian dance party and a special international gala.

This milestone season is the culmination of a three-year program showcasing the company’s rich history and achievements. McAllister says the championing of original works is a bold move into the future.

“Over 50 years, the company has developed a dynamic and unique style, and I’m so proud to have so many Australian choreographers featured in such a historic year,” said McAllister. “This really is our biggest season ever. There’s traditional full-length works mixed in with more experimental triple bills, extensive national and regional tours, a free outdoor performance and a host of Education programs. We want to share our 50th birthday with as many people as possible!”

The 50th anniversary 2012 season:  Infinity,  Onegin, Let’s Dance, Icons,  Swan Lake,  50th Anniversary Gala,  Romeo & Juliet, New York international tour

Infinity brings together three trailblazers of Australian dance: Graeme Murphy, Stephen Page and Gideon Obarzanek. Each will bring their unique style to three new works with a contemporary edge.

John Cranko’s Onegin brims with emotion and human drama. Set to a stirring Tchaikovsky score, 1820s St Petersburg will come to life in this tragic tale of lost love.

Leading dance companies around the country will join forces for a celebration in Let’s Dance. Adding to the festivities will be the premiere of a new work by rising choreographic star Tim Harbour.

Pivotal works from the company’s formative years will be restaged in Icons. The Display, Gemini and Beyond Twelve were all seminal works of their time and instrumental in developing the company’s national dance identity.

There is also a new, traditional Swan Lake choreographed by Stephen Baynes with David McAllister as creative associate and costumes designed by Hugh Colman.

In the week marking the 50th birthday, artists from the world’s leading ballet companies will gather for a 50th Anniversary Gala. The Australian Ballet will showcase its world-class dancers with the demanding work Etudes.

Following the world premiere in 2011, Graeme Murphy’s Romeo & Juliet will travel to Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Ballet fans in Canberra will also be treated to a free outdoor performance with Ballet in the Gardens.

On the touring front the company will embark on its 32nd international tour to New York in June. The Dancers Company will tour extensively throughout regional areas in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with the lively Spanish classic Don Quixote.

Five new Australian commissions, lush costumes, inspirational music, a swag of international guest artists and an impressive back catalogue of repertoire is enough to make any ballet fan dizzy. 2012 is one 50th birthday party you won’t want to miss.

 

2012 Australian Opera productions

 

The Magic Flute

Mozart's classic opera The Magic Flute is transformed for the 21st century with giant puppets, dazzling costumes, flying children and dancing animals! Originally from The Metropolitan Opera in New York, Julie Taymor's spectacular, family-friendly production heralds a year where opera in Sydney is not just a night out, it's an event.

Runs Friday 6 January - Friday 23 March 2012

Turandot

Big ideas, bold themes and beautiful singing, Graeme Murphy's grand vision of ancient Peking returns with American soprano Susan Foster heading an international cast for Puccini's late, great masterpiece.

Runs Tuesday 17 January - Monday 19 March 2012

 Opera in the Domain: The Pearlfishers

It's Sydney, it's summer, so it must be time for Opera in the Domain! Around 20,000 Sydneysiders are expected to pack a picnic, grab a bottle of bubbles and spend the evening under the stars to be serenaded by the romantic sights and sounds of this Ceylon-inspired opera. This year is the exotic opera favourite, The Pearlfishers.
FREE! Saturday 28 January 2012 at 8:00pm

The Marriage of Figaro

Two creative powerhouses join forces for a revolutionary masterpiece, when Benedict Andrews and Ralph Myers of Belvoir St Theatre bring to the stage their new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Joshua Bloom, Taryn Fiebig and Elvira Fatykhova head an all-star cast in this long-awaited collaboration.

Runs Monday 6 February - Saturday 24 March 2012

Così fan tutte

The 'summer of Mozart' draws to a close with Jim Sharman's take on the timeless yet bittersweet story of young love. His version challenges all preconceptions of classical opera: sexy, irreverent and very funny, featuring live video, action replays and audience reactions.

Runs Thursday 8 March - Monday 26 March 2012

Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: La Traviata

A harbour stage, a giant chandelier and fireworks galore will dazzle audiences like never before, when Opera Australia presents La Traviata in a spectacular three-week season on Sydney Harbour. It will be the first opera in Australia to be held on a tailor-made stage built over the water and under the stars. Francesca Zambello will stage direct this once-in-a-lifetime event, which opens on Satuday 24 March 2012 in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.

Runs Saturday 24 March – Sunday 15 April 2012

General Details for The Magic Flute, Turandot, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte: venue: Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House (except Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour) Bookings: (02) 9318 8200 or online www.opera-australia.org.au
Tickets: $89 - $280 (student rush available on the day).

 

 

Queensland Symphony Orchestra Season 2012

 

Live the music with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2012

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce Season 2012 with Chief Conductor Johannes Fritzsch. This year QSO will embark on an exciting journey to move to the new purpose built studio in the heart of South Bank’s cultural precinct. This building will enable the Orchestra to host a range of community events and concerts including the new Concerti Series, showcasing the talented QSO musicians.

To start the year on a high note, QSO has two exciting projects. In January, QSO will perform with Tim Minchin on his return to Australia. In February, famous television personality Michael Parkinson will join QSO for the unique concert Symphony at the Movies with Michael Parkinson.

This season, Scandinavian Maestro Eivind Aadland returns as Principal Guest Conductor along with a range of prolific guest conductors including Arturo Enrique Diemecke, Valery Polyansky, Edvard Tchivzhel, Gerard Schwarz, Andrew Mogrelia and Tecwyn Evans.

QSO also has a prominent line up of international and Australian stars. In our prestigious Maestro Series, QSO will perform alongside some of the world’s greatest pianists including Stephen Kovacevich, Markus Schirmer, Sergio Tiempo, Tatiana Polyanskaya, Roger Woodward, Piers Lane, Nikolai Demidenko and Eldar Nebolsin. Other Maestro soloists include oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk, soprano Lisa Gasteen and violinists Esther Yoo and Jack Liebeck.

For our relaxed Morning Masterworks series see the keyboard synergy between Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg in their piano duo, or the enriching harp playing by Marshall McGuire. With presenter Guy Noble, QSO makes Sunday mornings a delight. The Music on Sundays series will feature sopranos Kiandra Howarth and Milica Ilic, Baritone José Carbo and Tenor Kang Wang. 

For a night of glamour and spectacle, the QSO Gala Series has a range of performances to suit any cultural taste. After the popular 2011 event, QSO will work in collaboration with 4MBS Classic Arts Production actors to present scenes from William Shakespeare’s woodland comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Felix Mendelssohn’s timeless score. QSO will also bring J.R.R Tolkien’s timeless story to life with Howard Shore’s music from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, conducted by Ludwig Wicki with soprano Kaitlyn Lusk. For a dance spectacular, QSO will collaborate with Expressions Dance Company and the Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts.

Prolific Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin continues her QSO residency for the 20/21 Series showcasing important music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. This series will feature saxophonist Amy Dickson and violinist Jack Liebeck.

With a mission to touch the hearts and minds of all music lovers, QSO will travel to a number of regional areas in Queensland throughout 2012. To continue its annual tribute to Australian veterans and serving men and women, QSO will also host the ANZAC Eve concert on 24 April with RSL Queensland.

QSO is ready to share the magic of music with Queensland’s aspiring musicians in the 2012 Education Season. With specially designed workshops and a range of concerts targeted at school-aged students, this season is sure to inspire students across the state.

Chief conductor Johannes Fritzsch

Chief Conductor Johannes Fritzsch has been with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra since 2008. He plays a vital role in the development of the Orchestra’s profile and its high standard of performance.

The German Maestro has a well-established reputation on the international classical music stage. He divides his time between Australia and Austria, where he is the Chief Conductor of Oper Graz and the Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester.

In 2012, Maestro Fritzsch will join QSO for the following performances:

Maestro 2: Saturday 3 March  PIANO Markus Schirmer.

STRAUSS,         Festliches Praeludium Op.61;  MOZART Symphony No.41 Jupiter; MOZART, Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor; JANACEK Sinfonietta                                            Music on Sundays 1: Sunday 11 March - Espana!  Music of Spain and Latin America. PRESENTER Guy Noble; BARITONE José Carbo.  Includes music from CHABRIER’S España!, BIZET’S Carmen, DEBUSSY’S Le matin d’un jour de fete from Iberia and RAVEL’S Bolero.        

Maestro 4: Saturday 21 April  OBOE, Alexei Ogrintchouk, CELLO, David Lale, VIOLA Yoko Okayasu

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8;  MOZART Oboe Concerto; R STRAUSS Don Quixote Maestro 7: Friday 13 July PIANO, Piers Lane. BERNSTEIN Candide: Overture; GERSHWIN, Piano Concerto; DVORAK  Symphony No. 9

Maestro 8:  Saturday 11 August  SOPRANO, Lisa Gasteen. WAGNER Wesendonck Lieder; BRUCKNER Symphony No.8

Morning Masterworks 4:  Thursday 16 August. PIANO DUO Sivan Silver & Gil Garburg. MENDELSSOHN Concerto for Two Pianos in E; BEETHOVEN  Symphony No.4     

Maestro 11: Saturday 27 October VIOLIN, Jack Liebeck. STRAUSS On the Beautiful Blue Danube; SCHÖNBERG Transfigured Night; BRAHMS Violin Concerto                   

Music on Sundays 6: Sunday 11 November - Circus! Circus!  PRESENTER Guy Noble, TENOR   Kang Wang. Includes famous circus music from GOULD’S Concerto for Tap Dancer and Orchestra, FUCIK’S Entry of the Gladiators, STRAVINSKY’S Circus Polka; composed for a young elephant.

Gala 3: Saturday 17 November - Towards the Flame Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts (ACPA) - Directed by Penny Mullen & Marcus Hughes, Expressions Dance Company – Directed by Natalie Weir. BEETHOVEN Prometheus: Overture; STRAVINSKY            Fireworks; STRAVINSKY Firebird Suite (1919 version); SHCHEDRIN Carmen, ballet for strings and percussion (after Bizet)  

Maestro 12: Saturday 24 November PIANO Eldar Nebolsin. TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.2; MUSSORGSKY ARR. GORTCHAKOV Pictures at an Exhibition                 

Principal guest conductor Eivind Aadland

Maestro 6:  Saturday 16 June. PIANO Roger Woodward. BACH Keyboard Concerto No.1 in D minor; MAHLER Symphony No.9                                                               

Music on Sundays 2: Sunday 24 June - Romance and Passion. PRESENTER Guy Noble, SOPRANO Milica Ilic, TENOR Kang Wang, VIOLIN        Warwick Adeney. Includes favourites such as PROKOFIEV’S Romeo and Juliet, DVORAK’S Slavonic Dance, BEETHOVEN’S Romance No.2 in F and GOUNOD’S Mireille.       

Music on Sundays 4: Sunday 2 September - Nordic Fantasy. VIOLIN Warwick Adeney, PRESENTER Guy Noble. Includes Norwegian classics such as GRIEG’S Symphonic Dance No.1 and Peer Gynt Suite and SIBELIUS’S March from Karelia Suite.

Maestro 9:  Friday 7 September. VIOLIN Esther Yoo. SIBELIUS Finlandia; SIBELIUS Violin Concerto; PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet Suite

Composer in residence Elena Kats-Chernin

20/21 ONE: Saturday 28 April. CONDUCTOR Benjamin Northey; SAXOPHONE Amy Dickson. KATS-CHERNIN Heaven is Closed; ISAACS  Serenade for Orchestra (world premiere); KATS-CHERNIN Winter from The Seasons; STANHOPE Fantasia on a Theme of Vaughan Williams; GLASS Violin Concerto No.1 arr. for saxophone by A. Dickson

20/21 TWO: Friday 2 November. CONDUCTOR           Andrew Mogrelia; VIOLIN Jack Liebeck. KATS-CHERNIN Obsidian Light;  KATS-CHERNIN Mater; LINDBERG Violin Concerto; SIBELIUS Symphony No.7     

2012 guest conductors and soloists

Guest conductors: Gerard Schwarz 11 February; Nicholas Braithwaite 15 March; Arturo Enrique Diemecke 30 March, 5 April; Benjamin Northey 28 April, 7 July; Valery Polyansky 3, 12 May; Simon Murphy 26 May, 2 June; Guy Noble 22 July; Sarah-Grace Williams  5, 26 July; Edvard Tchivzhel 29 September, 7 October; Andrew Mogrelia 2 November; Tecwyn Evans 1 December.

Concerti series

Our new Concerti series will showcase the QSO musicians, conducted by Sarah-Grace Williams, in our new South Bank Studio.

Concerti 1: Thursday 5 July. TUBA Thomas Allely; VIOLA Bernard Hoey; HARP Jill Atkinson; FLUTE Hayley Radke

VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS Tuba Concerto; MOZART Flute and Harp Concerto; HINDEMITH Concerto for Viola  (Kammermusik No.5)

Concerti 2: Thursday 26 July. OBOE Amelia Coleman; TROMBONE Jason Redman; TIMPANI Tim Corkeron.

LOVELOCK Concertino for Trombone; VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Oboe Concerto; MATTHUS Timpani Concerto Der Wald

Community and touring

REGIONAL CONCERTS

Every year, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra musicians spend a significant amount of time travelling to regional communities in Queensland to share their love of classical music. In 2012, QSO will visit the Gold Coast, Caloundra, Cairns, Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Mackay to host a range of concerts and educational activities.

GOLD COAST: Russian Favourites: Friday 11 May CONDUCTOR Valery Polyansky, PIANO      Tatiana Polyanskaya; Romance and Passion: Friday 22 June. CONDUCTOR Eivind Aadland; PRESENTER Guy Noble; TENOR Kang Wang; SOPRANO Milica Ilic; VIOLIN Warwick Adeney. QSO Great Favourites: Friday 20 July. CONDUCTOR/PRESENTER Guy Noble; TRUMPET Sarah Wilson.

CALOUNDRA: QSO Plays Elgar: Friday 16 March. CONDUCTOR Nicholas Braithwaite; HARP                           Marshall McGuire

CAIRNS QSO Great Favourites: Tuesday 28 August. CONDUCTOR/PRESENTER Guy Noble, TRUMPET Sarah Wilson

TOOWOOMBA Nordic Fantasy: Wednesday 5 September CONDUCTOR Eivind Aadland, PRESENTER Guy Noble, VIOLIN Wariwck Adeney; Circus! Circus!: Thursday 15 November, CONDUCTOR Johannes Fritzsch, PRESENTER            Guy Noble, TENOR  Kang Wang

ROCKHAMPTON Russian Spectacular: Tuesday 9 October. CONDUCTOR Edvard Tchivzhel, PRESENTER Guy Noble, TENOR     Kang Wang

GLADSTONE Russian Spectacular: Wednesday 10 October. CONDUCTOR Edvard Tchivzhel, PRESENTER Guy Noble, TENOR       Kang Wang

MACKAY Russian Spectacular: Friday 12 October. CONDUCTOR Edvard Tchivzhel, PRESENTER Guy Noble, TENOR Kang Wang

EDUCATION REGIONAL TOURING

What’s An Orchestra? (Years 5-12). Cairns, Wednesday 29 August; Rockhampton Wednesday 10 October; Gladstone   Thursday 11 October; Mackay Friday 12 October.

CONDUCTOR Peter Luff, PRESENTER Vivienne Collier-Vickers

ANZAC EVE CONCERT: Tuesday 24 April

In 2012 Queensland Symphony Orchestra and RSL Queensland will present the third ANZAC Eve concert on Tuesday 24 April at 6:30pm in the South Bank Piazza. This concert will feature a host of talented musicians and singers, conducted by Marc Taddei. This free community concert is a tribute to honour Australian veterans and serving men and women.

Education program

In 2012 the Queensland Symphony Orchestra will share the magic of music with teachers and students across Queensland. With two seasons of Kiddies Cushion Concerts and a number of concerts directed at specific aged students, QSO is driven to motivate the State’s aspiring musicians.

Open Rehearsals

For a number of rehearsals throughout 2012, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra will open its doors to the public. These open rehearsals allow the public to experience the lifestyle of a professional musician as they see the Orchestra adding the finishing touches to its performances and hear a question and answer session with the orchestral musicians.

QSO 2 U - Artist in Residence

With the generous support of Arts Queensland, four Queensland Symphony Orchestra musicians are involved in an Artist in Residence Program with Brisbane State High School that will run until the end of term one in 2012. These musicians are working intensely with the BSHS students in a number of tailored lessons, rehearsals and masterclasses particularly focused on Bassoon, Oboe, Trumpet and French Horn. Throughout the Artist in Residence Program, a small ensemble of QSO musicians will also perform for the students in various engagements and performance activities.

Young Instrumentalist Competition

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Young Instrumentalist Competition is an annual event that brings together Queensland’s most outstanding young student musicians. The winner of the 2012 Young Instrumentalist Competition will perform with the Orchestra for the Secondary Showcase on Wednesday 7 March 2012 in the QPAC Concert Hall. Applications close on Friday 2 December 2011. The Secondary Showcase is proudly co-produced by QPAC.

Professional Development Day

On Monday 22 October 2012, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra will host a range of professional development activities designed to inspire teachers in their classrooms. The Professional Development Day is an annual event for QSO and involves a number of workshops, keynote speakers and fantastic clinicians. 

School Partnerships

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s School Partnership program enables students to be taught by Queensland’s finest musicians in their own classroom. This program involves specially designed workshops for teachers and students to enhance the current curriculum.

 

Opera Queensland

 

 MEDIEVAL justice, delightful satire and a flaming beauty are at the core of Opera Queensland‟s 2012 Season when the company presents a concert rendition of Verdi‟s Macbeth, a new production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado and the Queensland première of Francesca Zambello’s production of Bizet’s Carmen.

As a precursor to its mainstage season, the company makes its debut in the Concert Hall to present for two nights Macbeth in Concert on 13 and 14 April. Shakespeare‟s tale of madness and mass-murder is transformed into opera by Verdi’s magnificent score. Under the baton of Maestro Nicholas Braithwaite, Australian baritone Michael Lewis sings the title role with German-based Australian soprano Elizabeth Whitehouse making her company debut as Lady Macbeth and Bulgarian tenor Kaludi Kaludow returning to Brisbane after an eight-year absence to perform the role of Macduff.

Australia‟s leading interpreter of Gilbert and Sullivan, director Stuart Maunder, teams up with Queensland designer Simone Romaniuk to create a new Titipu, home of Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko, Pish-Tush, Pooh-Bah, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo in a refreshingly new production of The Mikado which will explode on the Conservatorium Theatre stage in July. Blake Bowden, a rising star in Australian music theatre, makes his company debut as Nanki-Poo with UK-based Brisbane soprano Kristy Swift as his lovely Yum-Yum and Australian actor Eugene Gilfedder as Ko-Ko. Following the 10-performance Brisbane season, The Mikado company will embark on a 6-centre tour of Queensland in August with performances on the Gold Coast, in Toowoomba, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville.

October will see the Lyric Theatre curtain go up to reveal Francesca Zambello’s spectacular production of Carmen with American mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez in her Opera Queensland debut as the ultimate femme fatale. She leads a superb cast which includes Ukrainian tenor Konstantin Andreyev in his company debut as Don José, Australian-based Argentinian baritone José Carbó as the toreador Escamillo and Australian soprano Lecia Robertson as Micaëla, under French conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak, also making his company debut. Zambello’s Carmen was originally created for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden premièring in 2006. Its tremendous popularity has seen it performed in opera houses around the world, bringing stages to life with dazzling sets and costumes, flamenco dancers, bullfighters and even a magnificent horse.

The 2012 Season will also feature two special concert events, Sunset Opera and Opera at the Racecourse. Back by popular demand, Sunset Opera returns to The Parklands, South Bank on Saturday, 17 March for a matinee and evening performance. An initiative of Opera Queensland and South Bank Corporation, Sunset Opera is a fabulous outdoor event for opera lovers and newcomers to enjoy the stunning sounds of opera on the banks of the Brisbane River. Opera at the Racecourse is a collaboration between Opera Queensland and Brisbane Festival as part of the 2012 Festival. On Saturday, 22 September, under a canopy of stars at Eagle Farm Racecourse, festival lovers of all ages will be entertained by the soaring voices of Australia‟s best known artists accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to its mainstage productions, Opera Queensland provides the most extensive opera education program in Australia. Under the umbrella of the Opera Works banner, the company presents productions, workshops, professional development opportunities and educational activities for children, young people and adults. 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the Moving Opera! program which, over the last decade, has been presented to some 5,300 students in secondary schools throughout Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. Next year, workshops will be delivered in the Brisbane metropolitan area, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Mackay, Chinchilla, Clermont, and Townsville.

As an extension of the Moving Opera! program, in 2009 the company developed Vocal Threads to take music and arts learning into largely Indigenous-populated schools and communities. The aim of the Vocal Threads program is to build the confidence and self-esteem of Indigenous students by using creative activities which encourage them to work together in a team environment, and motivate them to freely express themselves artistically. To date, schools in Atherton, Brisbane, Walgett, Wilcannia and Weipa have received the program, with Weipa already rebooking for 2012.

This year, the company also launched Sing Story, a one-day, in-school arts/literacy workshop for students in Years 4 to 7 which shows that opera is simply a narrative told through drama and song, and Opera 50+, a week-long workshop for community groups or venues wishing to host a program for the over 50s. The overwhelming success of both these programs will see them continuing in 2012.

Next year, Prep to Year 7 students will be entertained by the chamber opera Space Encounters which will be performed in primary schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area, the Gold Coast and North Coast, as well as coastal communities from the Sunshine Coast to Cooktown, Mount Isa, Winton, Longreach, Charleville, Cunnamulla and surrounding areas.

Maintaining its commitment for fostering new operatic talent, the company’s Young Artist Program will welcome seven new recruits: sopranos Rebecca Cassidy and Heru Pinkasova, mezzo-sopranos Jade Moffat and Deborah Rogers, tenors Phillip Prendergast and Dominic Walsh, and bass Luke Stoker.

Opera Queensland’s Chairman Mr Martin Kriewaldt looks forward to the future of Opera Queensland: “As we leap into our fourth decade, it’s worth spending a minute to ponder the achievements of the last decade in which the company has staged over 2,400 performances state wide, playing to more than 988,000 people. We have staged shows for a quarter of a million children and travelled almost the same distance of kilometres, while nurturing the careers of over 100 young and emerging artists.”

“As the Minister says in her introduction, Opera Queensland is committed to developing our State’s valuable arts scene and so it will be in 2012 and beyond. Please join us on the journey.”

 

Queensland Ballet

 

QUEENSLAND Ballet Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer François Klaus has programmed an imaginative year of ballet for Queensland Ballet’s Season 2012.

“There are three essential elements in the planning of a new season: imagination, knowledge, and technique. The first of these, imagination, is central to all that we do to bring our productions to the stage, it inspires the choice of works, and it runs through the choreography, design, music, and of course, the dance itself. Dance begins with imagination, and we have imagined wonderful, magical places in our season for 2012,” comments Klaus.

Next year sees the return of two major productions to the Playhouse Theatre at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre), Alice in Wonderful returns along with Klaus’s poignant interpretation of the famous legend of Don Quixote.

Klaus will also bring audiences a new production for the Christmas season: Fairy Tales: Stories of Hans Christian Andersen. In this new work, Klaus will explore some of Andersen’s most famous tales. Queensland Ballet dancers will be joined by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for this December season, under the baton of Queensland Ballet’s Principal Guest Conductor, Andrew Mogrelia.

Other highlights of the season include A Classical Celebration, which pays homage to the classical ballet art form, which will be performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in the Lyric Theatre at QPAC.

Popular features of the annual program return in 2012: the International Gala in August will feature special guests from around the world, and the Vis-à-vis and Soirées Classiques series are perfect opportunities to get up close and personal with Queensland Ballet dancers at their home at the Thomas Dixon Centre.

Queensland Ballet will also be embarking on an extensive Queensland Regional Tour, visiting nine locations with Klaus’s acclaimed Cloudland.

Don Quixote 19 May – 2 June Playhouse, QPAC

International Gala 2012  3 – 5 August Playhouse, QPAC

A Classical Celebration 31 October & 2 November  Lyric Theatre, QPAC  With the Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Fairy Tales: Stories of Hans Christian Andersen 1 – 19 December  Playhouse, QPAC With the Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Alice in Wonderland 31 March – 14 April Playhouse, QPAC

Vis-à-vis Studio Series 17 Feb – 3 March, 27 April – 5 May, 23 August - 1 September Thomas Dixon Centre

Soirées Classiques  17 March & 13 October Thomas Dixon Centre

Cloudland Queensland Regional Tour 15 June – 14

 

Harvest Rain Theatre Co

 

James & the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and adapted by David Wood 5th to 21st January 2012  Cremorne Theatre QPAC

Director Tim O'Connor, Designer Josh McIntosh, Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright, Composer Kylie Morris. Featuring Sandro Colarelli, Clare Finlayson, Belinda Heit, Judy Hainsworth, Jack Kelly and Dash Kruck

The Wizard of Oz music & lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg
adapted by John Kane from the MGM Motion Picture 9th to 19th February 2012
Playhouse, QPAC

Director Tim O'Connor, Designer Josh McIntosh, Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright,

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner
presented as part of Harvest Rain's Affiliate Project 21st to 31st March 2012
Mina Parade Warehouse 81 Mina Parade, Alderley.

Director Meg Ham, Music Director Sophie Mangan, Choreographer George Canham

The Neverending Story adapted by Tim O'Connor from the novel by Michael Ende

Director Tim O'Connor, Designer Josh McIntosh, Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright,

Composer Maitlohn Drew

Hairspray Book by Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan Lyrics by Scott Wittman & marc Shaiman Music by Marc Shaiman 21st June to 1st July 2012 Playhouse, QPAC

Director Tim O'Connor, Choreographer Callum Mansfield, Music Director Maitlohn Drew, Designer Josh McIntosh, Lighting Designer Jason Glenwright

Suckers devised by Andrew Cory, Cameron Hurry & Pippa Moore presented by LOLipop Productions as part of Harvest Rain's Affiliate Project 7th to 10th March 2012
Mina Parade Warehouse 81 Mina Parade, Alderley

Suckers is a new clown show that answers that age old question: what happens when your old vacuum cleaner stops working?

Director Andrew Cory Featuring Cameron Hurry and Pippa Moore

 

La Boite Theatre Company

 

LA BOITE’S 2012 season in David Berthold’s words:

This is a year that we hope will pull at the heart, stir the blood, tickle the funny bone and leave you feeling finer. It's the sweet touch of 2012.

We've rhymed some Shakespearean joy with summery Scottish charm, layered a mischievous hoax with a mesmerising puppet, and crowned it with melting verses of tender napalm.

I love what our theatre can do. This is a theatre that allows for the most direct and fundamentally sensual conversation between actor and audience I have ever encountered. Our shows - and they are shows, not just plays - very often flout that funny old fourth wall in ways that spice the space with a frisky playfulness. Quite a few of 2012's offerings do that and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how much fun we can foster.

Our collected works of 2012, drawn from creative colleagues here and around the world, have been chosen to provide you with full theatrical experiences; good nights out that we hope will surprise, stimulate and sweeten. The stories range across human living, but touch often on matters of the heart and dreams of the fantastical.

The season opens in February with me directing a contemporary reinvention of Shakespeare's most joyous comedy, As You Like It. Helen Howard (Hamlet) and Thomas Larkin (Hamlet, Julius Caesar) lead a 10-strong cast that includes Helen Cassidy (The Wishing Well), Kathryn Marquet (Ruben Guthrie), Bryan Probets (Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness), Hayden Spencer (Ruben Guthrie) and Trevor Stuart (Hamlet). This production will be our biggest in years - outrageous fun and full of theatrical surprises.

In April, we present the Traverse Theatre's smash hit musical rom-com Midsummer (a play with songs), direct from Edinburgh and the Sydney Opera House. It's wonderful to be able to welcome Scotland's leading theatre for new writing to the La Boite stage with a pitch-perfect production of enormous charm and depth - a show about the great lost weekend we all dream about.

In May, we team up with Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company for the world premiere of Rick Viede's Griffin Award winning new play A Hoax, directed by Lee Lewis. This is Rick's terrific second play, inspired by the recent spate of fabricated 'misery memoirs'. Think of the controversies surrounding James Frey's A Million Little Pieces and Wanda Koolmatrie's My Own Sweet Time. It's bravura writing. A Hoax will rehearse and premiere at La Boite ahead of a Sydney transfer in July.

In August, the Dead Puppet Society's 2011 La Boite Indie smash The Harbinger moves to our Mainstage in a refreshed and fuller version. Written and directed by David Morton (The Timely Death of Victor Blott) and Matthew Ryan (boy girl wall), The Harbinger combines 3D animation and more than a dozen puppets - the star of which is three metres tall. The Dead Puppet Society is a team of incredible dreamers and I think The Harbinger is their best, most ambitious work yet.

In September, we're partnering with Brisbane Festival 2012 for the Queensland premiere of Philip Ridley's intoxicating new play Tender Napalm. Philip is undoubtedly one of the world's most sensational playwrights. I've directed two of his plays and see in this, his latest, the most beautiful and acute distillation of his incredible art. It's a theatrical firecracker about love, desire and the whole damn thing.

An additional five productions will feature as part of La Boite Indie: The Truth About Kookaburras (Pentimento Productions), I Only Came to Use the Phone (Netta Yashchin), Home (nest4change), A Tribute of Sorts (Monsters Appear), and Children of War (The Danger Ensemble). It gives us great joy to be able to contribute to the development of independent work in this way and to help grow audiences for theatre right across the city.

A Season Ticket Package is the simplest way to get the biggest discount on theatre tickets. We've made it even more flexible with the introduction of a 'Flexi-Pass', which allows you to choose plays and dates later. Packages start at just $72 - they make great Christmas gifts.

 

Bell Theatre Co 2012 season

 

ARTISTIC Director, John Bell and Associate Artistic Director, Peter Evans  have announced Bell Shakespeare’s 2012 national touring season

• Peter Evans fulfills a long awaited ambition to collaborate with Dan Spielman in Macbeth, with Kate Mulvany as the highly erotic Lady Macbeth.

• John Bell directs a white-hot adaptation of John Webster’s finest play, The Duchess of Malfi, with his daughter, Lucy Bell in the title role.

• Following on from her success with Twelfth Night, director Lee Lewis directs a fresh new translation from Justin Fleming of Molière’s The School For Wives.

• After the success of Romeo And Juliet in 2011, where it was seen by over 22,000 students and families, the Company will stage a return of the schools-dedicated production.

• John Bell and Bell Shakespeare actors join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Romeo And Juliet to the music of Tchaikovsky, Delius and Prokofiev.

• Mind’s Eye project, Ophelia Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, in collaboration with Chamber Made Opera and directed by Daniel Schlusser, will be performed over three nights from 24 November 2011 at a private home in Armadale, Melbourne.

• The Company’s ensemble of travelling actors, The Players will present the many different Learning Programmes throughout the year, all over Australia.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The Macbeths are the picture of privileged nobility – happy, successful, going places. Then Macbeth happens upon three witches who predict he will soon be King – a prophecy he distrusts but which his wife becomes utterly seduced by.

This season’s Macbeth, directed by Associate Artistic Director, Peter Evans and featuring Dan Spielman as Macbeth and Kate Mulvany as Lady Macbeth, reveals what the lure of power can do to a man, and the devastation it can wreak on a marriage and a nation.

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster

Young, beautiful and widowed, the Duchess of Malfi is a tragic figure of nobility and integrity. Yet she exists in a world of corruption where the true horror of her life is yet to unfold. Her two brothers control her fortune – and her body – and they want to keep it that way. When they discover she has not only married in secret but has also borne a child, a string of murders is set in motion.

John Bell directs this adaptation by Australian writer, director and performer Ailsa Piper (Small Mercies) and writer Hugh Colman. It features Lucy Bell, Lucia Mastrantone, Matthew Moore, Sean O’Shea, David Whitney and Ben Wood.

The School for Wives by Molière

The School For Wives is the story of a man with a problem. He wants desperately to get married but is afraid that a smart woman will cheat on him. His ingenious solution? Enlist the help of a local convent to raise a girl so stupidly innocent that she won’t know the first thing about cheating – let alone the last. In his mind she will be ever-faithful. The perfect wife.

Following on from her success with Twelfth Night, director Lee Lewis directs this fresh new translation from Justin Fleming of Molière’s comedic train-wreck of a love story that tangles innocence with arrogance – and the other way around.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Bell Shakespeare joins forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for a concert conducted by Benjamin Northey and directed by John Bell. A celebration in words and music of the world’s favourite love story, Bell Shakespeare actors will join the Orchestra with Romeo And Juliet to the music of Tchaikovsky, Delius and Prokofiev.

Mind’s Eye

A number of new works are currently in development through Mind’s Eye, Bell Shakespeare’s research and development arm, and will continue their creative journey in 2012 and beyond. There are various projects at different stages of development, supporting the Company’s commitment to artistic vibrancy, connecting with artists across Australia, and creating invigorating cross art-form work.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Set in the mid-twentieth century in drought-stricken Australia, modern teenagers will no doubt connect with Shakespeare’s tragic lovers in this dynamic, innovative retelling of the story we know so well.

A new troupe of Bell Shakespeare’s ensemble of travelling actors The Players, directed by Damien Ryan, will bring Romeo and Juliet back to Sydney and Melbourne audiences after the success of the schools-dedicated production of Romeo And Juliet in 2011.

Bell Learning

For more than 20 years, Bell Shakespeare has been transforming words on a page into lively, contemporary performances, engaging students in schools across Australia. The 2012 Bell Learning programme aims to inspire teachers and students to share the love of Shakespeare.

2011 saw Bell’s brand new acting ensemble, The Players traversing classrooms around Australia in a bid to debunk the bard. After a highly successful inaugural year, 2012 brings us a new troupe of actors to take on the roles of The Players. They will present Actors at Work shows including the joyous Midsumma Madness restaged – back by popular demand, and the brand new Macbeth

Undone.

Bell Learning also provides Student Masterclasses and Shakespeare Seminars, and a new initiative, the Artist in Residence programme, allowing schools to have an artist at their fingertips with an inschool residency for a one to two week period.

Specifically for teachers are Teaching and Directing Masterclasses, along with the Shakespeare Weekender.

 

Sydney Theatre Co 2012 season

 

SYDNEY Theatre Company announces its 2012 Main Stage Season

• More than half of Main Stage season comprised of new Australian works, including

premieres of new plays by Hilary Bell, Jonathan Biggins and Tim Winton.

• Exceptional roster of actors includes Bille Brown, Justine Clarke, Ryan Corr, Marta

Dusseldorp, Kerry Fox, John Gaden, Sandy Gore, Kim Gyngell, Wendy Hughes,

Jessica Marais, Jacqueline McKenzie, Barry Otto, Pamela Rabe, Greta Scacchi, Jack

Thompson, Erik Thomson, Helen Thomson and Hugo Weaving.

• Six directors make their STC Main Stage debuts.

Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton today announced their 2012 Main Stage Season for Sydney Theatre Company, comprising eleven productions throughout the year.

From an Austrian backwater to the West Australian outback, from Covent Garden to the Welsh seaside, from the streets of Edinburgh to the fictional Australian country town of Coriole, the 2012 Season introduces a kaleidoscope of characters and stories. Themes and ideas connecting the shows across the season include transformation and identity, sex and death, romance and the extraordinary power of language.

After a focus on American drama in 2010 and Europe in 2011, this season finds its inspiration closer to home with four new Australian plays and two new Australian adaptations.

2012 Season Tickets are on sale now. Single tickets will be released on 1 December 2011

Sydney Theatre Company 2012

Never did me any Harm devised by Force Majeure, Wharf 1. Previews from 6 Jan 2012. Season 11 Jan – 12 Feb 2012

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Sydney Theatre. Previews from 31 Jan 2012. Season 4 Feb – 3 March 2012

Midsummer (A play with songs) by David Greig & Gordon McIntyre, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Previews from 1 Feb 2012. Season from 6 Feb – 10 March 2012

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton From the novel by Choderlos De Laclos

Wharf 1. Previews from 31 March 2012. Season from 5 April – 10 June 2012

Under Milk wood by Dylan Thomas, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Previews from 22 May 2012. Season from 26 May – 7 July 2012

The Histrionic by Thomas Bernhard. Translated by Tom Wright Wharf 1. Previews from 15 June 2012. Season from 20 June – 28 July 2012

Face to Face a film by Ingmar Bergman. Adapted for the stage by Andrew Upton and Simon Stone, Sydney Theatre. Previews from 7 August 2012. Season from 11 Aug – 8 Sept 2012

The Splinter by Hilary Bell, Wharf 1. Previews from 10 Aug 2012. Season from 15 Aug – 15 Sept 2012,

Australia Day by Jonathan Biggins, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Previews from 7 Sept 2012. Season from 12 Sept – 27 Oct 2012.

Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, Wharf 1. Previews from 25 Sept 2012. Season from 28 Sept – 24 Nov 2012.

Signs of Life by Tim Winton, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Previews from 2 Nov 2012. Season from 7 Nov – 22 Dec 2012

Extra Offers:

A History of Everything Text by Alexander Devriendt, Joeri Smet in collaboration with the cast Wharf 2. Previews form 13 Jan 2012. Season 17 Jan – 5 Feb 2012.

Water Created by Filter and David Farr Sydney Theatre. Previews from 12 Sept 2012. Season 13 – 23 September 2012.

The Wharf Revue 2012 Written and created by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott. Previews from 1 Nov 2012. Season 2 – 25 Nov (Wharf 2) & 27 Nov - 22 Dec (Wharf 1)

Sasha Regan’s The Pirates of Penzance by W.S. Gilbert and A. Sullivan Sydney Theatre. Previews from 8 Nov 2012. Season 10 – 24 Nov 2012