fortyfivedownstairs.com

See article in its original context here by Nina Bertok for The Melbourne Review.

TRUE LOVE TRAVELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD

When in pursuit of an extraordinary dream, some people disregard any possible consequences.

That’s the concept award-winning playwright Jane Miller is bringing to the Melbourne stages with her comedy-drama, True Love Travels On A Gravel Road. Set in regional Australia, Miller’s new work explores the tragedy of broken dreams alongside the freedom of choice through a cast of colourful (and relatable) characters.

According to the playwright, it all began with the characters themselves – long before a concrete plot was conceived.

“That’s the kind of writer I am, really,” Miller states. “I always know the characters long before I know what I’m trying to say with the story. The plot for True Love Travels On A Gravel Road came out of an idea that I had of these two guys sitting on a street in some little town. I pictured them doing a business transaction and the whole time there is a dog that keeps barking… And that’s basically where the whole play evolved from! I started thinking to myself, ‘Why are they doing this business transaction, what’s it leading up to, what’s the impact going to be?’ After that, all the details of the story came flooding in.”

Next came the main characters of the story – Jake and Maggie. Although Miller claims all of them are completely fictional, the playwright admits that there are elements of her within each one of the characters. Much like musicians tend to describe their songs, Miller says all of the play’s characters are her “babies”.

“There is one incident in the play that happens between two characters, which was inspired by something similar to a real-life happening that my mother told me about, but that’s as close as it gets,” she insists. “I truly relate to all of them, it’s like picking your favourite child. It’s interesting how I am much more forgiving of my characters and the things they do – no matter how wrong they may be – than I am of real people I know. You can learn a lot about yourself through your own writing. If a real person did something similar to one of the characters, I would say, ‘Oh, that’s really strange’ or, ‘Oh, that’s unacceptable’, but when it’s people that you invent, you feel bonded to them.”

True Love Travels On A Gravel Road tells the story of Jake – pegged the town “tard” all his life – who falls in love with Maggie – a girl also “out of step” with the community – with whom he wants to run away to Graceland, of all places. Jake and Maggie’s plans to escape the small rural town and get away from the locals – including Maggie’s straight-talking mother, philosopher Richard, and Jake’s boss and boss’ wife – turn into a near-obsession which sees the play explore the extent to which some people will go in pursuit of their own happiness.
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In our guest post series, we invite alumni, staff and current students to reflect on their time with the VCA. A Mexican born Costume and Set Designer, Yunuen Pérez arrived in Australia in 2007 to study a Postgraduate Diploma in Production at the VCA. She was happy to find the college resembled a friendly artists´ community, where creativity was just as important as hard work.

There were only two students in the year I enrolled, so the attention of the teachers was closely focused on our personal and professional development. Their theoretical and practical projects were meticulously researched, and as a result were always rewarding and prepared me for the professional environment. The personalised training was of a high standard, allowing me to develop into a more disciplined and committed professional, and I was encouraged to always present pre-eminent outcomes.

I had the opportunity to collaborate with students from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, providing me with a multidisciplinary approach to any performing art practice. After graduation, I worked with many classmates on their own projects allowing me to feel part of the wider artistic community of the VCA and Melbourne. This confidence and training enabled me to start my career as a freelance Costume and Set Designer.

In 2011, I began working with cinematographer Sissy M Reyes, the result of the collaboration beingMex-tli, Mexican Goddesses, an exhibition at fortyfivedownstairs that reflects our own artistic practices, together with an emphasis on cross-cultural aesthetics and the power of the image.
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All images by Sarah Walker.

See article in its original context here on by Brendan McCallum for Aussie Theatre.

In the lead up to the opening of Cruising Paradise — tales by Sam Shepardon 25 April, Aussie Theatre’s Brendan McCallum managed to catch up with director Terence O’Connell for a chat.

For a man who has had so much on his plate over the last few months, accomplished director Terence O’Connell (two hundred plus shows under his belt and counting) sounds remarkably relaxed.

In addition to Empire, a circus theatre show playing on the roof of Crown Casino, and a production of Neil Simon’s musicalThey’re Playing Our Song currently touring the country, Terence has somehow found the time to adapt for the stage the short fiction of one of modern theatre’s heavyweights, Sam Shepard.

Best known here in Australia as the author of plays such as True West and A Lie of the Mind, Shepard is in fact an engine of cross-discipline creativity, much admired by O’Connell.

“Sam’s a short story writer, and a musician and a cowboy – Sam’s got it all… he’s one of my great heroes,” says Terence during a break in rehearsals for Cruising Paradise — tales by Sam Shepardopening at fortyfivedownstairs on April 25^th – a venue which, given its subterranean locale and battered, austere bones, should prove a fitting venue for the vaguely gothic underworld of Shepard’s writing.

“It’s a fantastic venue. The show is set in a sort of bar or beer barn out in the middle of nowhere and it’s performed in front of a massive backdrop of a tattered poster of the Western Bad Day at Blackrock… so it looks surreal. It’s going to be great at fortyfivedownstairs.”
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See article in its original context here by Sophia Sourris for Spanish Australia.

Yunuen Pérez and Sissy M. Reyes have joined creative forces to produce their first exhibition together, titled ‘Mex-tli, Mexican Goddesses’, a series of superbly crafted photographs drawing on historical Indigenous practices and aesthetics celebrating resilient women rarely acknowledged in both local and global societies.
Multi-talented Yunuen Pérez, a costume and production designer living in Melbourne and Sydney based cinematographer, Sissy M. Reyes, not only conceptualise, produce and fund their visual art exhibition, but they also feature as the central characters in their photographs. The portrayals are so convincing that they could be mistaken as a series of film stills presenting scenes from a detailed narrative. Due to their artistic backgrounds, it is no surprise that their images have a cinematic and theatrical quality. As passionate and compelling as the women depicted in the photographs, Reyes and Pérez both work on a variety of creative projects in their chosen fields. Although they have been working separately in Australia for six years, this is the first time they have had the opportunity to collaborate together to showcase their skills and unique aesthetic heralded from their Mexican upbringing.

Originally meeting at university in Puebla, Mexico in 2002, it was only when Pérez and Reyes both realised they were going to Australia did they begin to recognise the connection between their creative practices, influences and common visual language. Concerned with the way Mexican culture was being portrayed in Australia and driven by their own struggles trying to live in this country, they began to develop the idea of imagery embracing Indigenous dress cleverly constructing portraits of Mexican women in the Australian landscape. Combined with their fascination for the Aztec period of Mexican history, the pair immersed themselves in a year’s worth of research before producing photographs inspired by Toltec and Mexica ceremonies.
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See article in its original context here by Byron Bache for Crikey.

The new Melbourne production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins has its problems, but with a stellar cast and faultless material it’s still worth a look.

To most Australians, Taft is a hairspray and not a president. All but the broadest strokes of American political history are a blank for most of us, so a show about the strange assortment of people who’ve attempted to assassinate American presidents is a vastly different animal here than it is on its native turf. Assassins, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s misfit musical opened last night at fortyfivedownstairs, and like the assassins it condemns and celebrates, it hurtles towards its goals with varying degrees of success.

Assassins doesn’t really have a narrative — its events happen over a span of 166 years. We go from John Wilkes Booth, the disgruntled actor who shot Abraham Lincoln in 1865, all the way through to John Hinckley, Jr, who shot Ronald Reagan to impress a teenage Jodie Foster.

Weidman’s book sparkles like it was written yesterday, but the showpiece here really is Sondheim’s score. Twenty-three years after its off-Broadway debut, it still packs a mean punch. Arguably his only pop song, the killer love duet “Unworthy of Your Love” — sung by John Hinkley, Jr and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme not to each other but to the objects of their affection: Jodie Foster and Charles Manson — is twice as heartbreaking and three times as fascinating as anything Stephen Schwartz has turned out. Nick Simpson-Deeks as The Balladeer — who has possibly the prettiest voice in musical theatre — gets the best material in the show, sharing The Ballad of Booth and The Ballad of Guiteau with the respective assassins, and busts out his masterful acting chops in his eleven-o-clock transformation into Lee Harvey Oswald.
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See article in its original context here by Kate Herbert for Herald Sun.

The killers of American Presidents may seem unlikely and macabre characters for a musical, but Stephen Sondheim, noted for his unusual themes, depicts this motley collection of nutters in his revue-style musical Assassins.

Assassins, with Sondheim’s eclectic music and lyrics and a witty book by John Weidman, is an old-style, musical revue set in a fairground where the proprietor of a shooting gallery provides the would-be assassins with guns.

This production, by new company Watch This, captures the bizarre nature of the characters and the wry humour, political satire and moral commentary of the script, but the quality of the singing and acting is uneven.

In a compelling, abstract world, killers from different time periods collide, sing about their obsessions, explain their motives through monologues, scenes and songs, including the poignant November 22, 1963, in which people recall where they were when Kennedy was shot.

Sondheim’s idiosyncratic songs straddle a range of styles and periods, but all bear his signature style and ironic tones.

Nick Simpson-Deeks, with his bright, clear, expressive vocal tones, provides the strongest all-round performance, playing the Balladeer who narrates the story, giving a sympathetic, nuanced portrayal of the repressed Lee Harvey Oswald.
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See article in its original context here by Rebecca Harkins-Cross for The Age.

Reviewer rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Stephen Sondheim
fortyfivedownstairs
Until April 21

Staging an independent musical is not an easy affair, when you’re up against budgets of the likes of last year’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the most recent Stephen Sondheim musical to play in Melbourne.

Director Tyran Parke has done remarkably well with this production of Sondheim’s lesser-known Assassins, first staged off-Broadway in 1990 and locally by the Melbourne Theatre Company in 1995.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre and consequent debates over gun control, its themes are eerily apposite. This revue-style musical reimagines the assassins who have targeted American presidents, from Lincoln’s infamous slayer, John Wilkes Booth, to the forgotten ones who missed their target.

Assassins questions the flipside of the American character – how the God-given right to the American Dream can turn murderously sour; why the lost, the downtrodden or the delusional will express their frustrations with firearms when they don’t win the prize.

This production requires a large ensemble, and here their ranges vary considerably. Nadine Garner is a joy as Sara Jane Moore, a scatterbrained, droll and screechy housewife who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford. Shane Nagle, Aaron Tsindos and Nick Simpson-Deeks also put in good performances.

A few bung notes early on are soon smoothed out – though some questionable accents endure – and the final numbers are brilliantly realised.

This is social critique with high kicks and harmonies.

See article in its original context here by Bradley Storer for Theatre Press.

See article in its original context here by Reuben Liversidge.

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins is rarely performed in this country. Australian audiences’ only chance previously to see a production of this clever, unsettling and brilliant musical theatre work was almost 20 years ago, when the Melbourne Theatre Company included the show as part of its 1995 season.

Assassins uses a revue-like structure to explore the lives and times of nine disturbed individuals through a kaleidoscopic melding of song, historical event and meta-theatrical hypothesis. Each character in the show attempted to kill a US president and about half succeeded. Assassins neither condemns nor condones the actions of these people. The authors explore the notion of a perceived right these criminals feel they have or an abstract ‘American dream’ that they feel they have been deprived of fulfilling. But, is this a uniquely American experience? All societies have had political change and oftentimes this change occurs swiftly and violently. Assassins doesn’t ask how these catastrophic events occurred, but why.

Director Tyran Parke’s production almost succeeds in living up to the magnificence of the material. He has assembled a truly stellar cast and nearly all of the performances in Assassins are superb. They are sad, hilarious, brooding, brave and horrifying. Mark Dickinson leads the cast with his commanding physicality and phenomenal vocals; an absolutely stunning turn as John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln. An early sequence detailing Booth’s final hours in a burning barn, including the hauntingly beautiful soliloquy ‘The Ballad of Booth’ is particularly moving.
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See article in its original context here by Anne-Marie Peard for Aussie Theatre.

Sondheim fans don’t need anyone to convince them to see a production of Assassins, and they are selling out fortyfivedownstairs every night to see a new company, Watch This, take aim and fire.

Assassins was first produced Off-Broadway in 1990 and at London’s Donmar Warhouse in 1992, the MTC showed it to Melbourne in 1995 and the Broadway revival was set to open in 2001, but was postponed in the light of the September 11 attacks and the nature of its material. It’s a show about people who assassinated or tried to assassinate US presidents.

With a book by Tony Award nominee John Weidman, it’s a bitter and darkly funny look at American culture and how the American dream can go so wrong that some need to blame and punish. By presenting characters before the moment that assassination/attempt marked them as insane and unAmerican, it presents people who are not asking for sympathy or even empathy, but are simply seen as more than just the act of violence they are remembered for.

Watch This is Sonya Suares’s (who was General Manager of Red Stitch) new company and this debut has assured that Melbourne’s music thearte lovers are already looking forward to their next production.

With a rehearsal time that was counted in days, not weeks, their Assasins is assured and complex and deserving of its full houses. While there’s an inconsistency among performances and voices, this doesn’t take away from the production and leaves us imagining how amazing they will be with the support and funding to rehearse for a reasonable amount of time.

Musically, well it’s Saint Stephen Sondheim so it captures the inner turmoil and emotions of its characters in ways that are felt more than heard, then hangs in your head until you buy the CD, know the work backwards and find yourself singing it at inappropriate moments. The small orchestra can’t grasp the intricacies of his composition, but again all this does is wish them the support to have a bigger orchestra.
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See article in its original context here by Tintin Rahman.

Squawk It’s a murder of crows and parrots

Is that a parrot?” I ask, gesturing to the painting of a blue and green bird.
“Yes. It’s a Twenty-eight.”
“It’s a what?”
The redhead with ringlets in a blue and white spotted dress and black tights, the daughter of a bird-watcher, then explains that Twenty-eight parrots (also known as Port Lincoln parrots on the west coast) were named so because the sound they made was like the word twenty-eight.

Twenty-eight!” she squawks, as an example. There’s the irreverent Australian humour. She then tells me the story of that particular painting, Shuddering Echoes I.

A friend of a friend shot a twenty-eight. My friend then gave it to me. Dead birds are easier to paint,” she says smilingly.

By ‘she’, I mean 38 year-old Clare McFarlane, whose bird-centric exhibition, Murders and Echoes, is showing atfortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne CBD until April 20. Yes, while we are moving from summer to autumn, it’s best to think of pleasant indoor activities and events. Why not go on a ‘gallery crawl’ along Flinders Lane? While you’re doing that, check out fortyfivedownstairs, which is in full swing.

Besides Clare’s collection, Michael Pearce’s Unwrapped Hong Kong, a silent commentary about Hong Kong architecture, is on in the larger room at fortyfivedownstairs. Step onto the dark wooden floorboards spattered with white dots of paint and stare at some birds and buildings while listening to poignant instrumental and classical music. The plain scrolls of grey and blue skyscrapers made me think of how going overseas (the artist lived in Hong Kong for two years) has a profound effect on one’s life, how it broadens your perspective. Some Australians go to Japan and bring home a wife. Others go to Hong Kong and can’t forget the architecture. They can’t bring it back so they replicate it in their art.
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Sondheim is the master of the musical and this little seen dark comedy is delightful in its score. The plot revolves around some of the most and least infamous would-be Presidential assassins in US history. Some names you will know, John Wilkes Booth and John Hinckley, and others are less well known.

Whilst the book by John Weidman is average the performances from the entire ensemble and Sondheim’s marvelous musical numbers more than made up for this.  Mark Dickinson’s portrayal of John Wilkes Booth struck the perfect note between hilarity and tragic irony. Vocally he was powerful. He inhabited the role of the vain actor so completely that the audience felt as if they were living within the character. The duet, The Ballad of Booth, performed by Dickinson and Nick Simpson-Deeks, as the balladeer, was impeccable.  In typical Sondheim fashion each character was required to seamlessly blend what are ostensibly two different songs into one, picking their key out of the air. It was quite simply marvelous and without a doubt the best song of the evening. Simpson-Deeks is an accomplished vocalist and owned his role as the balladeer whilst later transforming into a heart-breaking portrayal of possibly America’s best-known assassin.

Aaron Tsindos gave a brilliant performance at Charles Guiteau, endearing all the way to the gallows. Again Simpson-Deeks was called upon to chronicle the demise of Guiteau as the balladeer creating the second stand out number of the evening. Nadine Garner proved she has great skill as a comedic theatre performer with possibly the best part of the book, Sarah Jane Moore. She wonderfully brought to life a sad and forgotten housewife whom it was impossible for the audience not to love.  Her comic timing was impeccable. And while we’re on the topic of impeccable comic timing, Shane Nagle rates a special mention.  As a struggling Santa Claus and would be Nixon assassin, Nagle delivered his monologues with such pathos that you almost found yourself rooting for him to succeed in his plot.

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Sam Shepard

See article in its original context here by John Bailey on Sydney Morning Herald.

Sam Shepard is one of the most-performed playwrights of the late 20th century but his non-theatrical writing is far less familiar to playgoers.

A new “pop-up” theatre company is hoping to change that by staging a season inspired by Shepard’s short stories, though their subjects don’t sound too dissimilar to the figures who populate his stage plays: “Loners, losers, tough guys, introverts.”

Like Chekhov, the writer’s short fictions and stage work can be considered complementary rather than in opposition, and the production by the National Theatre-trained members of The Graduates aims to emphasise the inherently dramatic scope of the former.

Cruising Paradise – Tales by Sam Shepard opens on April 25 at forty fivedownstairs, tickets: fortyfivedownstairs.com or 9662 9966.

See article in its original context here by Erin James on Aussie Theatre.

We chat with actor Tod Strike about his role in the new production ofAssassins, which will commence performances tonight at fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne.

Tod Strike was most recently seen in the 2012–13 tour of South Pacific and the Australian Premiere Production of Love Never Dies where he understudied the roles of Raoul and Phantom, performing both on numerous occasions.

What prompted you to audition for this particular production of Assassins?

Actually Tyran Parke, the director, asked me to audition for the role of Zangara. He said “I think you’d like the ‘sing’ of the role” so he sent me out the script to have a look at and once I read it and looked at some music, it was a no brainer. Had to do it.

It was also an added bonus of auditioning for a brand new company that had people behind it that I respected and had wanted to work with for a while. It ticked all the boxes.

Have you worked at fortyfivedownstairs before?

No I haven’t. I’ve only seen one thing at 45 downstairs — a Trevor Ashley show. Of course It was faaaaboulousss! But I remember thinking at the time that this venue would make a great setting for a small niche like musical or cabaret. The intimacy allows you to explore the audience reactions and grab their attention in a way that you obviously can’t in a huge theatre. Agreat space right in the heart of Melbourne.

Have you worked with Tyran before as a director?

I have only worked with Ty as a fellow cast member — South Pacific for The Production Company– but never as a director. This was actually the biggest drawcard for me to do this show. He is honestly one of the most talented, hardest working artists and directors I know and always comes from a place of ‘where the drama is taking us’. The emphasis is heavy on the acting driving the show and what the text is saying first and foremost. This is an area that i wanted to move into as a singer and believe all good musical theatre should stem from. The piece and what it has to say driving everything forward rather than the songs being the most important dramatic aspect. If i had my study time again I would have been an actor who sings rather than a singer who acts. You know what I mean?
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See article in its original context here by Sarah Walker on Stonnington Review.

When: Until April 21

Where: fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, city

Bookings: Call 9662 9966 or visit fortyfivedownstairs.com

A song and dance about nine assassins, or would-be assassins, of American presidents is a surefire way to get audiences worked up after the laughter has subsided.

That’s the view of Windsor-based actor Matt Holly (pictured right in green), who plays John Hinckley jnr in Academy Award-winner Stephen Sondheim’s blackly comedic Assassins.

Hinckley tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981 to impress actor Jodie Foster during a long obsession with her.

The nine assassins include John Wilkes Booth, the actor who shot President Abraham Lincoln in a theatre in 1865, Lee Harvey Oswald, who killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and Sarah Jane Moore, who made an attempt to kill President Gerald Ford in 1975.

“It’s like taking the camera lens of history and moving it to a different angle to show their inner workings,” Holly says.

“You will laugh at some of them, and sympathise even.  Then it hammers home that what these people did was real.”

Holly was suitably disturbed when he first saw Assassins in 2010, performed by third-year National Institute of Dramatic Art students.

Holly’s credits include a national tour of West Side Story in 2010, the world premiere of the Cat Stevens show Moonshadow, the Australian premiere of Love Never Dies and a national tour ofA Chorus Line.

He says Assassins, directed by Tyran Parke, has one of the most talented ensembles he has worked with, including Nadine Garner.
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See article in its original context here by Andrew Furhmann for Time Out.

Sondheim’s black comedy Assassins comes to fortyfive downstairs, and Time Out has director Tyran Parke in its sights.

Set amidst the rubble of a travelling carnival, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s black comedy Assassins takes the audience on a musical romp through the minds of nine disturbed characters, each each one gunning for an American president. Starring Nadine Garner and Nick Simpson-Deeks,Assassins is a Broadway classic with bang, set to challenge and entertain in equal proportions.

Time Out spoke with director Tyran Parke ahead of the show’s premiere.

Hi there Tyran, what was your first Sondheim experience?
My first “Sondheim experience” was when my group of school friends didn’t know what to buy me for my fourteenth birthday. They knew I was into musicals so they bought me the video of Sunday in the Park with Georgestarring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. I did not understand what it was about, but I was intrigued by it and completely transported by the performances. Many years later I happened to run into Mandy Patinkin on the Street in New York and later met Bernadette Peters in an elevator. Maybe it was inevitable that I would play the role of George in the Australian Premiere.

Where did you first come by Assassins?
To be honest, when I was studying at WAAPA. The third years were doing it when I was in second year and they didn’t have enough guys, so a few of us stepped up into the chorus. I loved it – the show, and also the ability to play with the cool group. I never dreamed I would be directing it years later with such a top cast.

Broadway and political assassination – it makes sense, right?
Well, it did to Sondheim who, thank God, has made a career out of re-inventing the form of musical theatre. To be honest, the characters are so theatrical and Sondheim was very clever to create Assassins as a revue, the musical numbers are all based on popular American styles of the past 200 years so it has a historical context we can easily connect to. He writes musicals for people who don’t like musicals – they are dark and challenging and always very funny but BLACK. Assassins seems somehow perfect for his tastes and we are certainly the richer for it.
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See article in its original context here on Stage Whispers

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s killer black comedy (musical) Assassins kicks off amidst the lurid debris of a travelling carnival, taking the audience on a kaleidoscopic ride through the psychological landscape of nine notorious historical figures – men and women who, for one reason or another, made attempts on the lives of American presidents.

Directed by Tyran Parke, with Nick Simpson-Deeks as Lee Harvey Oswald and Nadine Garner as Sarah Jane Mooreamong the cast of this new production at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs in April, Assassinsdelves into dark side of the American Dream and its aggrandising notions of entitlement and “manifest destiny”.

“I didn’t want to kill anybody, but there comes a point when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a gun.“ Sarah

With a score by Stephen Sondheim (Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist, also known for Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Company, Follies)and a book by John Weidman, Assassins examines the lives, loves and lunacy of nine American assassins, including John Wilkes Booth, John Hinckley, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sarah Jane Moore.

“Assassins is both terrifically funny and terrifying,” says director, Tyran Parke. “As a show, it strikes that perfect balance between challenging ideas and sheer entertainment.
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See article in its original context here on Broadsheet.

Yunuen Pérez, costume designer, and Sissy Reyes, cinamatographer, join together in this exhibition of striking and vibrant photographs labelled Mex-tli, Mexican Goddess. With only twelve images to the exhibition, the attention to detail is very clear, as each piece being shown tells a beautiful and poignant story of its own. The images challenge the stereotypical conception and representation of Mexican women in Australian society. Each photograph combines the the themes of displacement, tradition and ritual. The exhibition will take place at fortyfivedownstairs in May.

See article in its original context here by Erin James for Aussie Theatre.

Watch This’ brand new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins commences at fortyfivedownstairs this Wednesday night starring Nadine Garner and Nick Simpson-Deeks. Erin James spoke with Director Tyran Parke about this exciting new company and their wonderful new production.

Method for a successful musical:

1. Choose your actor driven, well crafted show

2. Enlist a passionate director with a strong vision

3. Cast a group of dedicated and spirited actors to bring the piece to life

4. Combine all ingredients in a rehearsal room for four weeks (10am — 6pm), support them with a venue and promotion, and watch your masterpiece unfold.

Seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? But after speaking with Tyran Parke last week about his upcoming production of Assassins, it seems the producers (startup company Watch This, with Sonya Suares at the helm) might have followed this method to a tee. And the product is set to be sensational.

“It’s a great cast — a great cast, Erin, I love them” Parke told me one morning before rehearsals commenced last week. “They bring a huge wealth of preparation and experience I kind of have a show crush on all of them!”

Starring Nadine Garner (most recently seen as Jean in Dr Blake’s Mysteries on ABC), Nick Simpson-Deeks, Matt Holly, Tod Strike, Sonya Suares, Luigi Lucente, Mark Dickinson and more, the company of actors Parke has assembled for this musical are top notch. Parke explains that the month long rehearsal period has been an incredible journey, and every member of the company has put it an enormous amount of effort to bring the show to life.
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