A new music festival arises in the Barossa Valley just as the spring buds burst forth from the vines.
It is an apt celebration and, for many, sweet relief that the Barossa once again can begin to host music festivals - for which it had a splendid history through the 90s and early 2000s.
It is beginning modestly.
Its organiser, Margaret Lehmann, calls it “a micro festival” and says let’s not get carried away on the idea of a big festival - quite yet.
Nonetheless, there is an air of excitement.
Small is beautiful.
Barossa Baroque and Beyond is a two-concert one-day event on Sunday October 4.
Margaret Lehmann has conceived and nurtured it as one of the forms in which her much celebrated winemaker husband, the late Peter Lehmann, may be remembered. Peter and Margaret were renowned as hosts to musicians and musical events throughout the history of the Barossa Music Festival and, although the Peter Lehmann Winery now has been sold, its Old Redemption goes on as one of the best event venues in the Valley.
Acclaimed opera singer Kirsty Harms, now also a lawyer who has settled in the Valley, has been working with Margaret in bringing the events together along with the distinguished musician and music manager Reuben Zylberszpic and, says Margaret, lots of Barossa people “doing what they are good at”.
Starring in the concerts will be celebrated guitarists, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan along with oboist Grant Dickson, cellist Sharon Draper, bassoonist Jackie Hansen, violinist, Cameron Hill, viola player, Stephen King, clarinettist Dean Newcomb and, most particularly in the afternoon concert, Josh van Konkelenberg playing the organ.
The organ is the component of sheer charm in the afternoon concert which is being presented in the Organ Gallery of the Tanunda Arts Centre. Therein rises to immense, exquisitely decorated heights, the glorious old William Hill & Son grand pipe organ which graced Adelaide Town Hall from the 1880s until 1990 when it was, some may say, rudely discarded. Barossans rescued the instrument, all 2,260 pipes of it, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and, with expertise from master organ builder George Stevens and more than 20 years of diligence and devotion by musical artisans extraordinaire, restored the organ to nigh pristine condition. Certainly, it is now one of the prides of the Barossa.
Beautiful baroque music will come forth from the organ in a program which includes Bach, Handel and Haydn - and, of course, in Barossa tradition, wines for the purchase at interval.
The evening concert, complete with food and wine, goes from Baroque to Beyond. It is to be performed in Old Redemption at the Lehmann winery with table settings and foods for sale by Elli Beer.
Jane Doyle will compere the show which has been described as a “musical smorgasbord” featuring music by Piazzola, Vivaldi, Towner, Lovelady, Kurt Weill and Bach.
Tickets are available at www.barossa.com or on (08) 8563 0600
$40 ($30 concession) Concert 1 - 3pm Sunday Oct 4
$50 Concert 2 - 6pm Sunday Oct 4
Samela Harris
Matt Byrne did not have to do a lot of hunting to find his Alfie.
He didn’t even have to hold an audition.
Marc Clement was “it”.
He has been around MBM shows for twelve years and has played major and leading roles in most of them. As for the role of Alfie, well, it was tailor made.
“Matt just came up and asked me if I would do the part,” says Marc. “What an iconic role.”
Alfie, the libidinous Londoner, was the character who made Michael Caine famous in 1966, which is the era in which the play is set.
It tells of Alfie’s “sexploits” among women young and old in the heydays of Swinging London.
Marc not only comes with the musical and acting experience for this lively, naughty and funny piece of classic theatre. He comes with the cultural background to take on the part made famous Caine.
“I’m originally from England, so I’ve got the Cockney accent sorted,” he laughs.
Clement is 42 and in real life he’s a seasoned RDNS nurse.
“I’ve also been a musician since I was born,” he says.
“And I’m a singer, songwriter, guitarist and bass player.”
He is also a writer. Clement has written a TV Show of which he has produced three episodes. In each he plays eight characters.
“It’s called All Right With All Bright,” he explains. “It’s a sit com about a psychiatrist who sets up practice in a country town where a psychiatrist isn’t really needed. We’re looking for funding.”
He has short films in the pipeline, too.
But right now, it is full-on rehearsing for Alfie which opens at Holden Street Theatres on October 7.
“I’ve played Holden Street before and it is good. I love the intimacy of it,” he says.
"And Afie gets to interact with the audience. It is perfect for that. I’ll enjoy getting really involved with them. There’ll be a few surprises for them, especially those in the front row.”
There’s some serious acting in the show, too, with no less than 15 monologues by Marc’s count.
He’s thriving on the challenge. After all, he’s played demanding roles in Reservoir Dogs, Tommy, Calendar Girls…myriad MBM shows as well as his funny folly Fringe productions.
One of the things he says he enjoys about working with Byrne are the interesting roles he presents,
“He puts on shows that other people won’t even try,” he declares.
Indeed, Byrne says he was thrilled to get the rights to this “naughty classic” written by Bill Naughton.
While the movie put Michael Caine on the map in 1966, Byrne points out that the play itself was first presented on stage in London in 1963.
“I am thrilled to give one of Adelaide’s finest actors, Marc Clement, the opportunity to create his version of Alfie Elkins in person and drive the women of Adelaide to distraction,” he adds.
Among the production’s points of interest is the Burt Bacharach connection. Bacharach composed the famous Alfie theme song, performed by Cilla Black. Just as the Alfie’s Adelaide season heads towards its finish, the man himself, Burt Bacharach will be appearing almost next door in the Entertainment Centre performing that very song live. A pleasant piece of synchronicity.
Despite the predatory nature of Alfie in the play, Byrne says the story stands as "a cautionary tale of a life lived without a moral compass”.
Alfie is a narcissistic, unfaithful womaniser - but he ends up a lost soul.
Hence, the show’s famous catchcry: “What’s it all about?”
Matt Byrne is renowned for his ability to find new talent in Adelaide and, according to Marc Clement, there are some to-be-watched new faces in the cast along with some well-known familiars.
The cast includes Kristen Tommasini, Kim York, Heather Riley, Bronwyn Ruciak, Niki Yiannoulou, Anjali Sarma, Nadine Wood, Victoria Morgam, Kacy Ratta, John Matsen, Sean Hilton, Reg Hamlyn, Loccy Hywood, Nick Stagg and Daniel Knowles - and, of course, Matt Byrne somewhere in there in a cameo role.
Samela Harris
When: October 7 - 10 , 14-17, 21-24 with matinees in October 17 and 24
Where: Holden St Theatres
Bookings: 8262 4906, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or www.mattbyrnemedia.com.au
Adelaide’s State Theatre Company (STC) will play on stages across South Australia, around the country and, for the first time ever, in London in its 2016 season. The 10 show season, announced today, will include 6 co-productions, reaffirming the Company’s position as a major player in the national theatre sphere and nurturing a new relationship with leading UK company, Frantic Assembly.
The new relationship has been 2 years in the making and comes to fruition in London with the world premiere of Things I Know To Be True, a new work by leading Australian playwright Andrew Bovell. “The 2016 Season is one of our strongest yet.” says Artistic Director Geordie Brookman.
“It retains the Company’s commitment to new Australian writing and our South Australian artists as well as bringing some of the best of the best from around the country to create work right here in Adelaide.”
The 2016 season sees State Theatre work with some of Australia’s leading artists including Gold Logie award-winning actress Lisa McCune, who will make her STC debut in Machu Picchu. The play, directed by Brookman, tells the story of two mid-life civil engineers whose lives are changed after one is badly injured in a horrifying car accident. It explores mindfulness, altruism and the challenge of staying true to oneself.
Machu Picchu builds on an already strong relationship with Australia’s largest theatre company as a brand new Australian play that will be co-produced with Sydney Theatre Company. Sue Smith’s perceptive new work opens in Sydney before transferring to the Dunstan Playhouse for its Adelaide season.
Catherine McClements will also return to STC in The Events directed by Clare Watson. The season opener, and a co-production with Belvoir and Malthouse Theatre, it was written in response to the 2011 Norway murders committed by Anders Breivik. The play follows a community’s search for compassion, peace and understanding in the wake of the unthinkable violence. The Events will feature as part of the Adelaide Festival before returning to Sydney for a Belvoir season and on to Melbourne to close its Australian tour at Malthouse.
The critically acclaimed Paul Capsis will also return to STC in Rumpelstiltskin. A co-production with Windmill theatre, it takes on the famous fairy-tale with the addition of Windmill’s unique style, inventive music and extravagant performance.
State Theatre Company local favourite’s Paul Blackwell and Nathan O’Keefe will grace the stage in Moliere’s Taruffe, directed by Chris Drummond and co-produced by Brink. First performed in 1664, the classic comedy combines adultery, betrayal, seduction, lies and deceit with the precisely organised chaos of farce.
STC will also partner with Queensland’s La Boite Theatre Company for the first time to bring New York playwright Young Jean Lee’s razor sharp Straight White Men to the Australian stage for its national premiere. Directed by Nescha Jelk it tells the story of the widowed Ed, and his three middle aged sons, who, after welcoming them home at Christmas, finds himself exploring identity, privilege and the real value of being a ‘straight white man’.
Brookman goes on to say that “the diversity and depth of our local theatre sector is something we love to celebrate, and we’re delighted that in 2016 we’ll get to play with a number of South Australia’s best and brightest companies.”
STC will also collaborate closely with Country Arts SA to tour both The Red Cross Letters and its Education production Gorgon to regional South Australia.
In the last three years, Adelaide’s State Theatre Company has become a major player on the national theatre scene, regularly exporting its productions around the country, co-producing with companies interstate and touring within regional South Australia.
“Not only do co-productions bring new energy to creative collaborations, they also provide fantastic opportunities for South Australian artists to strut their stuff on the national stage and very significantly extends periods of employment for our fine cohort of actors, directors, and designers” says CEO and Producer, Rob Brookman.
State Theatre Company productions have, in the last few years, played in every State and Territory in Australia as well as on Broadway.
More information about the season and a sneak peek of the shows is now available on the STC website at statetheatrecompany.com.au
2016 State Theatre Company Season
25 Feb to 5 Mar – The Events by David Greig
13 Apr to 1 May – Machu Picchu by Sue Smith
3 May to 7 May – Gorgon by Elena Carapetis (State Ed Show)
13 May to 4 Jun – Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell
1 Jul to 23 Jul – Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee
3 Aug to 6 Aug – The Red Cross Letters Devised by Verity Laughton (State Extra)
19 Aug to 11 Sep – The 39 Steps Adapted by Patrick Barlow
8 Sep to 30 Sep – Red Sky Morning by Tom Holloway (State Umbrella)
11 Oct to 30 Oct – Rumpelstiltskin by Rosemary Myers & Julianne O’Brien
4 Nov to 20 Nov – Tartuffe by Moliere
Paul Rodda
Adapted from a media release
Yesterday, James D Smith was acclaimed as one of Australia's most promising emerging artists.
Today he truly emerges, leaping into a coveted blockbuster role.
Showbiz supremo John Frost, who knows more than a thing or two about investing in top talent, has announced Smith as a new cast elevation in Dirty Dancing for its October opening in Adelaide.
For Adelaide audiences, this is particularly pleasing since they remember Smith very fondly for his Fringe concerts at the Promethean, not to mention headlining with Pete Murray and The Whitlams at the Fringe 2013 closing concert.
He is one those for whom success has been a steady path, assured by diligent honing of the skills in broad and constant showbiz experience. He came from a musical family wherein his father taught him guitar early on. He went on to gain a degree in musical performance from the Ballarat Arts Academy.
He's made all the right moves, working wherever work was to be found, showing his discipline with long stage seasons as in four years playing Boq in the hit musical Wicked as it toured the world. He's sung Carols by Candlelight concerts in front of massive open-air crowds. He has entertained the champagne-sippers on cruise ships. He sung clubs, bars and backing. He's been where the work has been.
He has been touring with Dirty Dancing as Mark Vincent's understudy in the role of Billy Kostecki for some time and now, just as in all the showbiz dream-come-true stories, the understudy door opens and he is granted the prized role.
While Smith's training encompassed operatic singing, he has become known in the pop/indie genre. Very different from that of his predecessor in the role, Smith's voice is of a lovely light tenor character with some very beautiful and unusual resonances. Bert Newton has been quoted describing it as "a magnificent voice which reaches out and touches all emotions" while the Promethean's David Grice swooned: "Quite simply his is the best male voice I have ever heard. I was sitting there not actually believing I was hearing what I was."
Dirty Dancing showcases that special voice with two of the best songs in the show - The Time of My Life and The Still of the Night.
The season commences in Adelaide on October 2 at the Festival Theatre.
Samela Harris
When: 2 Oct to 1 Nov
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Harold Minear has shocked the theatre world with news of his resignation as Publicity Officer of St Jude's Players.
The man is only 87 years old, for heaven's sake. He will be a hard act to follow.
Harold Minear must have been the most senior publicist in the business. He's been at it for 10 years and directing, writing and being on the company committee for 50. He has been an institution not only at St Jude's but in the country's theatre world.
If it were not for medical advice, one imagines he would have gone on producing with the media releases, phone outreach, photo calls and promotional charm.
Of course, he has had an advantage in that slippery world of publicity. He is a singularly popular, nay, beloved thespian - respected in all quarters. He is recipient of an Adelaide Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award among many accolades. Even overworked and evasive media people feel happy, perhaps even honoured, every time they hear from him.
He has been the great jewel in the crown of St Jude's these many long years.
He reveals that a publicity committee will be looking after things in his lieu until the next St Jude's AGM next year.
And he is far from out of the game. As a Life Member of St Jude's, he says he will be involved with the company whenever possible.
Naturally, his last press release is as professional as his first, ensuring that the proper contact information is passed on; phone, email and, of course, St Jude's website: www.stjudesplayers.asn.au
All power and good spirit to a good publicist and thespian role model.
Samela Harris