Posted by Mike McEvoy in
News on 2 Mar 2011
We’re thrilled to congratulate four of our ensemble members on their nominations for 2010 Green Room Awards. Tamara Saulwick’s solo performance work ‘Pin Drop’ has been nominated for four awards including ‘Outstanding Production’, Clare Bartholomew’s work with Die Roten Punkte’s ‘Kunst Rock’ received two nominations in the Caberet category, and in the Independent Theatre category Tim Stitz picked up a nomination for his solo performance ‘Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper’ and Andrew Gray has been nominated for his direction of ‘The Colour of Glass’.
Melbourne Playback Theatre strives for artistic excellence in all our work and we’re proud to have some of Melbourne’s most accomplished performers and theatre-makers as members of our ensemble. Our members find that their work with Playback Theatre feeds their other creative practices just as much as their experience in other theatre companies and performance disciplines helps enhance the quality of this company’s work.
Posted by Mike McEvoy in
News on 9 Oct 2010
Melbourne Playback took part in the ‘Celebrating Story’ conference again this year. Andrew and Ian offered an active workshop entitled ‘interrupting and disrupting story’ on Thursday and a team of us performed a playback theatre show to open the second day of the conference.
It is always fascinating to meet other people who work with story in their professional lives and exchange ideas and approaches. I am particularly interested to see how story is increasingly being used in the corporate world within organisational development, change management and other areas concerned with organisational culture and performance management.
I was inspired to hear how one organisation had discovered the value of collecting the stories and anecdotes from its staff and has started publishing them to accompany the annual report. (Some qualitative material to balance the quantitative data). Another organisation uses the sharing of personal life stories as an integral part of a two-day retreat for its senior management staff. And a group of midwives use story to learn from each other’s experiences. In these cases, story is a tool used for individuals and working communities to define themselves, explore their culture and share knowledge. Humans have used story like this for eons. It makes perfect sense for business to harness the power of storytelling too.
For me, this conference was a reminder of how important and relevant the work of Melbourne Playback can be to communities and organisations. We have a real passion for storytelling and its role in our lives. We love finding theatrical ways of illuminating the meaning within stories and helping stories enrich and transform the collective experience. It is fantastic to meet others who share this enthusiasm for story and to see how they are using it in similar contexts. Thanks to Andrew Rixon of Babel Fish Group for bringing such a diverse group of story practitioners together again this year.
Posted by Mike McEvoy in
News on 25 May 2010
The Choir of Hard Knocks inspired Victorians and gave an insight into the lives of those for whom life has been tough. Many more Victorians did it tough through the fire districts over Summer 2009. In this new project, Melbourne Playback Theatre Company joins with community choirs in the fire-affected regions for a series of nights of music and story.
The project plans to support local choirs to sing the songs of community, and to hear fragments of life now in the recovery.
And to create a great night of celebration and sharing.
If you’ve ever sat in a Melbourne Playback show and felt moved by another’s story, or if you’ve experienced the magic of seeing your story on stage, please consider donating to make this project possible.
Story by story we rebuild our lives. And the lives of others.
We are pleased to publicly welcome three new performers to the company!
Rachael Dyson-McGregor, who joins the performing ensemble this year, has a natural flair for the Playback Theatre form. Rachael trained at Unitec, Auckland and has worked with NZ theatre companies: Potent Pause Productions, Auckland Theatre Company, Massive, and Tim Bray Productions, as well as co-founding chor:us collective and the Peripeteia Players. Since she moved to Melbourne in 2007, Rachael has worked with Underground Cinema, 24 Hour Play Festival and devised and produced a theatre and dance collaboration, Neon Toast, for Melbourne Fringe Festival 2009.
Trainee Program
And in a first for Melbourne Playback, in 2010 we are excited to launch a new 12-month trainee program for two emerging performers, Tom Harkin & Diana Nguyen.
Diana Nguyen is an actor and community development worker in the South Eastern Suburbs. She currently works with The Song Room, Her Productions and SEAAC for young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Diana went to NYC to study The Theatre of Oppressed with Julian Boal and has performed in various community projects with young people. Diana’s recent performances include Silence (La Mama 2009), Translations Generations (Big West Festival 2009), Miss Saigon (CLOC 2009).
Tom Harkin was a member of St.Martin’s Youth Ensemble 2005 and has trained at Eric Morris’ acting studio in LA. Tom works full time as a Senior Learning & Development Facilitator at The Reach Foundation using his passion for the dramatic performance space and acting techniques to work with teenagers in freeing their natural impulses and inherent potential.
The traineeship will offer Diana & Tom the opportunity to rehearse and participate in the life of the company and benefit from a mentorship with a senior member of the Melbourne Playback ensemble.
We are inspired by the energy, enthusiasm and diversity of experience that each of these three actors have already brought to our rehearsal room! Welcome.
To help launch our new blog site, we thought we’d celebrate the memorable moments that have occurred in our performances and workshops! In over 25 years we have performed for thousands of people and heard many amazing stories. There are many moments that stand out for us because they made us laugh or cry or inspired us in some way.
What do you remember?
It might be the time Melbourne Playback visited your organisation or it might be a public performance you saw. It might be a particular story you heard someone tell, an image that the actors made, or a song that has stayed with you for some reason. It might even be something that occurred after a Melbourne Playback performance – a conversation inspired by a story you heard or a relationship that changed.
Read about the moments that live on beyond our performances and share with us the memorable moments that you’ve had with Melbourne Playback Theatre!