Thursday, August 28, 2014

MASTERS OF F*** ALL

by Micharne Cloughley

Directed by Gina Rattan

Featuring Christy Altomare, Shirine Babb, Jason Babinsky, Greg Hildreth, Andrew Hutcheson, Eric William Morris

Five Masters graduates have taken work at a fashion empire in Times Square. Welcome to underemployment in all its debt-to-income ratio glory. Specializing in misplaced uses of intelligence, our Masters of F*** All devise a secret rotational break system they call 'Guerrilla Sanity'. During these breaks, five very different academic worlds collide under the pressure of mortgaging your future. But when one of them finds a desperate loop hole escape, the consequences ricochet through and far beyond this group of unlikely friends.

Micharne Cloughley (Playwright) is an Australian writer and development producer. Micharne was Literary Associate for The Civilians, the centre for investigative theatre, in 2013 and dramaturg for their new play Be the Death of Me (Irondale Center). She will return to The Civilians as a writer in residence later this year and will develop the new work The Way They Live for performance in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2015. Micharne's play One Flesh premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2012 (Holden Street Theatres) and her plays have been developed through Australian Made Entertainment, New York Stage and Film, Animus Theatre, Rock Surfers Theatre Company and the Australia Council's JUMP Mentorship program. Micharne also works in television development and production for non-fiction programming and has worked for Eyeworks Australia, Endemol Australia, Fremantle Media and Silk Studios.

Gina Rattan (Director) Currently: Resident Director on Matilda The Musical (Broadway) and Associate Director of Peter Pan (Live on NBC). As director: O Beautiful (The University of Illinois), The Tin (Samuel French Play Festival), Sweet Tooth (Fringe NYC 2012), How Deep is the Ocean? (NYMF 2012), Twelfth Night (Old Globe San Diego), Virtually Me (National Tour), The Burning House (NY Workshop). Selected credits as associate: The Sound of Music (Live on NBC), Soul Doctor (Broadway), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Broadway), Billy Elliot (Broadway-Resident Director), Little House on the Prairie (Guthrie & First National Tour), Lorca in a Green Dress (Apostrof Festival, Prague), Show Boat (Royal Albert Hall, London), First Wives’ Club, King Lear, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Old Globe). Gina works extensively as a teaching artist both at NYU and independently. www.ginarattan.com

Thursday, July 24, 2014

TRUE LOVE TRAVELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD

by Jane Miller

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Peter Dettmann, Laura Iris Hill, Phoebe Leonard, Kelly McCready, Adam Rennie, David Sedgwick

"We are never more ruthless than in the pursuit of happiness." Set in rural Australia, True Love Travels on a Gravel Road is about ordinary people who go to extraordinary lengths in pursuit of a dream without regard to the consequences. Jake has been patronised and pegged as the town “tard” all of his life, but when he falls in love with Maggie, anything seems possible. Maggie dreams of escaping to Graceland. Jake’s quest is to make this dream a reality and prove himself in a town that has labelled him a loser. Jake's and Maggie’s desire to escape implicates the town’s locals, including Maggie’s straight-talking mother, hard man and philosopher Richard, as well as Jake’s boss and his wife.

Jane Miller’s plays have been produced both around Australia and internationally, beginning in 2006 when Perfect Stillness reached the finals of Short & Sweet in Melbourne, where it won the People’s Choice award for Best Overall Production. Since then, it has been produced in Malaysia, Delhi, Dubai and the United Kingdom. In 2007, Hope Fades But The Duck Never Dies was a finalist at Short & Sweet Sydney and The Painter won the Audience Choice award at MelBorn (Melbourne Fringe Festival). In 2008, The Bookclub was produced during Carnival of the Damned...Funny at Dante’s (Comedy Festival) and A Cup of Sugar was included in the Melbourne Writers’ Theatre’s MelBorn08 short play festival. Jane made her La Mama debut in 2010 with a sell-out season of Happily Ever After, directed by Beng Oh, which subsequently went on to tour. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road was awarded an R E Ross Trust Playwrights’ Script Development Award in 2011 and had its premiere production at fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne in 2013. Jane is currently studying a Masters in Writing for Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

CAKE: A Wedding Comedy

by Peter Buck Dettmann

Directed by Simonne Hurse

Featuring Olivia Etzine, Matthew Foster, Peter James, Ella Morton, James C. Stewart, Alex Taylor

Billy and Carolina are getting married. Carolina and Don have a secret. Harold is accidentally on drugs, and amidst all the chaos, the chances of survival for Kate’s beautiful wedding cake look increasingly slim. A frantic, foul-mouthed farce, Cake: A Wedding Comedy fuses the energy and precision of blank verse with the earthy bluntness of the modern Australian vernacular.

Peter Buck Dettmann is an actor and writer from Sydney, who has lived in New York for the last three years. He holds a BA from Yale College with a major in Theatre Studies, and has also trained with NIDA in Sydney and the Stella Adler Studio in New York. He and his partner Phoebe Leonard are founding members of Randomly Specific Theatre, which will have its first production in October, when they produce Secondary Pitch, a new play by Larry Phillips.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

GINGERBREAD

by Anthony Noack

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Samuel Douglas Clark, Matthew Foster, Simonne Hurse, Georgina Richardson, Leanne Watson

In a modern city, a modern couple prepare a modern dinner for their modern guests. But when one guest insists on his right to bring his particular bedroom fetish to the dinner table, secrets are exposed and the evening ends up where none expected. Exploring themes of freedom, coercion and liberty, Gingerbread is a funny and exciting new play that tests the limits of what we are willing to accept.

Anthony Noack is a playwright from Melbourne, Victoria. His plays include Brighter Whiter, The Gift, which premiered at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2011, and Banana Republic, which premiered at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2012. Anthony’s first novella Eaglemont was published through Ginninderra Press in 2009, while his short film script Twenty Five Cents received production funding through the Australian Film Commission and premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival in 2007. As a freelance writer, Anthony has also contributed to a range of publications, including The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers. Anthony currently lives in New York City where he works in the murky world of cabaret theater.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

IF THE TRUTH BE TOLD

by Margaret Hickey

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Ro Dempsey, Alexis Fishman, Laura Iris Hill, Simonne Hurse, Tina Mitchell

A series of five monologues, all told by women of various ages and occupations; a scrapbooker from Surfers Paradise, a glamorous CEO's wife, an elderly woman stricken with jealousy, a crude and opinionated mum, and a die-hard Bulldogs supporter. These are stories of women who teeter and fall over that verbal precipice, 'If The Truth Be Told'. Often hilarious and always heartwarming, their voices are uniquely Australian, but their stories are recognizable to every woman who has ever taken a risk, suffered loss, or loved too much.

Margaret Hickey is a playwright and author from regional Victoria, whose plays include If The Truth Be Told and The Pool. Her first novel, A Grand Prospect, was published in 2008, earning rave reviews from, among others, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Cate Kennedy and ABC Radio. Margaret's short stories have also enjoyed great success; Fill Her Up received a Special Commendation at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and Kate and Mouse was named Best Australian Short Story 2010. Several of Margaret's monologues, including some from If The Truth Be Told, have been performed at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre as part of Baggage Productions' Madwomen Monologues series. In addition, Margaret has seen her work published in many newspapers and literary journals across Australia. She has also garnered the attention of renowned Australian playwright David Williamson, who described her as “a very talented writer with a knack of bringing to life her characters by a combination of astute observation of human truths and foibles, and a wonderful ear for the idiosyncrasies of the Australian language.”

Sunday, January 27, 2013

PERFECT STILLNESS

by Jane Miller

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Lisa Davey, Peter Dettmann, Nathan Spiteri

Tim and Annie are writing a eulogy … for someone unexpected. A play about small truths and little lies.

Jane Miller’s plays have been performed around Australia and internationally. In 2006-7, her plays Perfect Stillness and Hope Fades but the Duck Never Dies reached the finals of Short and Sweet in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. Perfect Stillness was featured on Movie Extra's documentary on the Short and Sweet finals where it won the People's Choice award for Best Overall Production and has had productions in India, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. In 2007, The Painter won the audience choice award at Melbourne Writers' Theatre's MelBorn (Melbourne Fringe Festival) and was also included in the top 90 at Short and Sweet Sydney 2008. The Bookclub was part of the Carnival of the Damned...Funny at Dante’s (2008 Melbourne Comedy Festival) and A Cup of Sugar was included in the Melbourne Writers’ Theatre’s MelBorn 08 short play festival. In 2010, Happily Ever After had a sellout season at Melbourne's iconic La Mama theatre and in 2011, True Love Travels on a Gravel Road was awarded the R E Ross Playwrights’ Script Development Award. Jane is currently working on a new full-length play titled Mon Frere.

THAT OLD CHESTNUT

by Michael Booth

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Caitlin O'Connor, Peter Dettmann, Laura Iris Hill, Phoebe Leonard

When two couples engage in dinner at a swanky Sydney restaurant, a pleasant evening unravels into a disastrous night of lies, sex, drugs and deception. Laced with crackling dialogue and hilariously tense situations, That Old Chestnut is a sharp and sexy examination of modern Australian relationships.

Michael Booth studied acting in Chicago with Steppenwolf Theatre Company and in New York with the Atlantic Theatre Company. He is a graduate of the NIDA Playwrights Studio, and his produced works in Sydney include The Tunnel (part of the inaugural season at The Old Fitzroy Theatre), Who Smokes Kool? and That Old Chestnut. He also co-wrote the plays Thirty-Three and The Great Lie of the Western World. Michael co-wrote and co-directed the award-winning short film The Hitch which played festivals world-wide. His film and television acting credits include 48 Shades, the Academy Award-nominated The Saviour, All Saints, Comedy Inc., Packed to the Rafters, as well as local and international commercials. As a stage director, Michael directed The Zoo Story, Spike Heels, The Grey House, Balm in Gilead and Our Country’s Good.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

THE LUNCHTIME MEETING

by Bridgette Burton

Directed by Pat Shay

Featuring Rachel Barrer, Laura Iris Hill, Marc LeVasseur

A philandering CEO is surprised when his wife interrupts a lunchtime meeting with his mistress.

Bridgette Burton has been writing for theatre since the early 1990s. She formed Baggage Productions with Christina Costigan in 1999, a company dedicated to original work for women. Bridgette has co-written three successful comedy shows, each enjoying multiple seasons - Femme (2000), Breeding Contempt (2001) and Undomesticated (2003). She has written two one-act plays, two full-length plays and over 30 short plays, which have been performed all over Australia and internationally. Bridgette won the R E Ross Trust Playwrights Script Development Award in 2005 for Killing Jeremy, and again in 2009 for Rhonda is in Therapy. Killing Jeremy was also shortlisted for the Griffin prize in 2006. In 2012, Bridgette was awarded a grant by The Malcolm Robertson Trust to develop a first draft for her new full-length work Fury.

THE CYCLE

by Kathleen Foster

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Rachel Barrer, Michael Poignand

A young married couple relates their experiences, both joys and hardships, as they attempt to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization.

Kathleen Foster is a New York-based actor and writer, originally from Sydney, Australia. Her favorite theatre credits include Fantine in Les Misérables, Amneris in Aida, Cinderella in Into The Woods, Kate McGowan in Titanic, Carrie in Carousel, Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, and Emeline in Grimm for FringeNYC. For Australian Made Entertainment, she has appeared in Così and Speaking In Tongues. She also spent a season in Japan, performing in Tokyo Disneyland's Broadway tribute show, Encore. An accomplished cabaret performer, she has appeared on stage at Sydney's Bar Me in the hit cabaret Valentine's Schmalentines and also toured with the dinner theatre show Supergirls. She has also contributed her vocal talents to the Angels the Musical cast album, as well as narrated children’s books for Scholastic. On film, she recently played the lead role of Mrs. Olsen in the independent feature Secret Guilt. Kathleen is a co-founder of Australian Made Entertainment.

ONE FLESH

by Micharne Cloughley

Directed by Kristen Kress

Featuring Hamish Briggs, Leah Filley, Natalie Trent, Sofie Somoroff

Love, faith and reality collide in this new play that throws the beginning of the Book of Esther into contemporary Australian suburbia. It is a story of being really young, really in love and really confused. As two very different women are brought together by the one man, they challenge rules that are breaking each other. More than hearts will be broken.

Micharne Cloughley holds a Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Arts (Playwriting) from the National Institute of Dramatic Art. In 2012, her play One Flesh was directed by Anthony Skuse at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Her work has previously been included in festivals by Playwriting Australia, Baggage Productions, the NYC Playwrights and Short and Sweet Festival. Micharne co-wrote the web series My Secret Friend (Think(it) Film Assembly) and the short films Free Bike and Perspective, directed by Kristen Kress and featured on the Home Beautiful Magazine website. Previously, Micharne has a background in both the development and production sides of the television industry, for companies including Eyeworks, Endemol Southern Star, Fremantle Media and the SBS network. Recently, she has been commissioned by Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, for a pilot TV drama project.

Kristen Kress (Director) is a 2nd year MFA Director from the Actors Studio Drama School. Recent commercial credits include assistant directing the Scope Mouthwash "Courage Encouraged" YouTube series and the American Cancer Society "What If" commercial. Recent stage credits include directing the hilarious farce HR as part of the 2012 Actors Studio Drama School spring festival and local playwright Jo Ann Rosen's Stranger on a Train and The Quiet Room for the 2012 NY Avant-Garde Arts Festival. She is currently directing Wil Calhoun's one-act Affections of an Alleycat, and the original play Bubble by ASDS playwright Carrie Boehm for the 2012-2013 ASDS festival. Production recently wrapped for her first feature film, Coach of the Year, for which Kristen worked as 2nd AD. She is currently assisting Director David Stott with post, preparing for the summer 2013 national tour. Her latest short films Life with Liam, and Free Bike have made it into the "Best of NY" category for their respective 24 & 48 Hour Film Competitions, where Free Bike also received the Audience Award for its screening group and Best Actress in a Featured Role (Laura Michelle as Olivia Masterson). In September 2012, Kristen was one of six invited filmmakers to compete in the Designer Visions 48 Hour Film Project, and her newest short Perspective, will be screened at the famous Angelika Theater in NYC in December. Kristen performs standup comedy at various clubs & colleges around NYC and also volunteers as the faculty advisor for the S!NG student-produced musicals at the Bronx High School of Science, where she is proud to have spent four years as a tenured English Department faculty member.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

MOTIVATIONAL DATING

by Christina Costigan

Directed by Pat Shay

Featuring Zach Bubolo, Ro Dempsey, Leah Gabriel

A self-help guru on a blind date finds more success with the waitress.

Christina Costigan is a writer and actor based in Melbourne, Australia. A passionate performer and storyteller from an early age, she entertained her family with stories, improvisations and puppet shows as a child until “going legit” and earning her Bachelor’s degree in Drama. Christina has undertaken further extensive actor training in Melbourne and Los Angeles (including with Upright Citizens Brigade and veteran actor Vincent Guastaferro), appeared in countless plays and short films, and continues to develop and hone her skills as a writer. She also regularly produces original Australian work through Baggage Productions, the independent theatre company she co-founded in 2000 with Bridgette Burton. With Baggage, Christina has co-written, produced and performed in seven stage shows, a sketch comedy TV pilot and a short film. Her short plays and comedy sketches have been selected in numerous short play festivals and produced in Melbourne, Sydney, Los Angeles and London.

BONDING LEAVE

by Nicolle Bradford

Directed by Pat Shay

Featuring Nicolle Bradford, Kathy Ferman, Joe Menino, David Sedgwick

A young couple’s excitement of bringing their baby home for the first time is tarnished by the unannounced visit of some horrible relatives.

Nicolle Bradford hails from Sydney, Australia. She founded the Production Company with Mark Armstrong in 2004 and has appeared in the company’s premieres of Goodbye New York, Goodbye Heart, Bobo an' Spyder an' a Girl from Down Under, Terra Australia Incognito, The Fatal Shore, The Furies, The Patient and I am Ned Kelly. Other New York credits include Church (The Public/Under the Radar Festival - Young Jean Lee Theater Co.), The Phantom Tollbooth (Atlantic Theater Company), You Say Tomato! (Manhattan Theatre Source), Monsters and Mirrors: Heavy at Play (Kick/Stand Dance), Idomeneo re di creta and Jenufa (Vertical Player Rep), and Cocus and Doot (Vital Theater). Australian theatre credits include Twelfth Night (ATYP Sydney season and NSW tour), The Maze (Hot Young Things Festival), Stags and Hens (PACT) and Riding the Tiger (ARTrage Festival). As a playwright, her first full-length play, Cassowary, received readings with The Production Company and The Greenpoint Arts Association in New York, as well as at the Australian Aliens Film & Theatre Reading Series in L.A. Her other plays include Lucy & Sally Like Living Together, Bonding Leave and Funeral Row. Nicolle is an alumna of Australian Theatre for Young People and Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. She is an Associate in Drama and Speech from Trinity College of Music, London.

TWO BY TWO

by Dan Giovannoni

Directed by Matthew Foster

Featuring Alexis Fishman, Stuart Williams, Adam Zivkovic

The rain’s getting louder, the water’s getting higher, and from their window Jack and Carl can see the boat. Then the dams burst, all hell breaks loose, and when it looks like they’re out of luck, Duckie rocks up. She’s drenched, half-dead, and has something they all need – a ticket. A baby. But who’s going to put two blokes and a baby on the Ark? Taking as its inspiration the Noah myth and setting it in an Australia of the near future, Two by Two weaves the political and the personal, exploring the complex nature of human affection, love, and the value we attribute to the things around us.

Dan Giovannoni’s plays include Cut Snake (with Amelia Evans and Paige Rattray; Best Emerging Writer – Melbourne Fringe, shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award, Arena Theatre Inside 130 Residency), Two by Two (Malcolm Robertson Prize 2011), Edmund & Grace, Kanat and the Red Army (Best Drama Writing – Short and Sweet), Brightside and Playground. His work for young audiences includes imagine title here: book of being young (Shopfront), Digging Down: The Musical (Star of the Sea) and How George Got Her Jacket (St Martins). He was artist-in-residence at Leonora District School in 2011 and 2012, is writer-in-residence at Red Stitch, and is working as a Guest Artist with Back to Back’s Theatre of SPEED. Most recently, he worked with No Show developing Shotgun Wedding. He has a Bachelor of Creative Arts from Melbourne University and a Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Art (Playwriting) from NIDA.