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The little space that could – fortyfivedownstairs celebrates 10 years
Erin James
AussieTheatre.com.au
24/2/2012
See the article in its original context here.
Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs is celebrating its 10 year anniversary as a haven for emerging artists and independent theatre this weekend. We caught up with Co-Founder and Artistic Director Mary Lou Jelbart to discuss the last 10 years, the success of the enterprise and the upcoming Anniversary Showcase tomorrow night.
10 years ago, fortyfivedownstairs was a closed-down contemporary art gallery which was, as Mary Lou Jelbart says, “too significant and too beautiful to disappear and become offices”.
Not content to see such a creative space go to waste, the former ABC Arts reviewer and journalist set about making the space available for independent emerging artists and performers to utilise in the centre of Melbourne.
Artistic vision comes of age
The Age
Kathy Evans
24/2/2012
Innovative arts venue fortyfivedownstairs celebrates its first decade.
JULIAN Burnside QC, once harboured “foolish fantasies” about becoming a photographer before changing his mind at the last minute. But he still carries a torch for artists whose creative expression, he believes, makes our lives more bearable: “Without law you can’t have society, but without art you can’t have civilisation.”
See Juliet’s side of the story – Stephen Russell interviews Zoey Dawson for Melbourne Weekly
14/02/2012
Stephen Russell
Melbourne Weekly
A CLASSIC tale of doomed romance, Romeo and Juliet is usually performed with Romeo as the protagonist. But a new all-woman production of The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet at fortyfivedownstairs puts Juliet front and centre, focusing on her attempt to navigate through the perils and pitfalls of high-octane teenage dreams.
Aussie Theatre reviews Two by Two
Annemarie Peard reviews Two by Two for Aussie Theatre. See the review in its original context here.
As it’s Saint Valentine’s Day week, it’s a commercial glut of glittery hearts and factory roses as we’re told to face the future as the gods intended: as a wholesome twosome. Blah to that; celebrate instead by going to fortyfive downstairs to see Little One’s Theatre’s Two by Two.
It’s raining; it’s been raining for so long that Carl (Gary Abrahams) and Jack (Paul Blenheim) can see the huge boat from their high-rise city apartment window. Jack’s packing supplies and listening to the radio for unlikely evacuation news. As a painter, Jack’s ticket to board is at the end of the queue, but Carl’s a doctor – someone with useful post-ammageddon skills. Both know why they’re not staring in this episode of The Love Boat, especially as their boy/girl couple neighbours went days ago. But there’s hope when Duckie (Zahra Newman), a patient of Carl’s, turns up with a baby and is desperate to board.
Darkly funny and unexpectedly confronting, Two by Two was developed at NIDA and won the 2011 Malcolm Robertson Prize (for awesome writing).
Stage Whispers reviews Two By Two
Karen Coombs reviews Two by Two for Stage Whispers. See the review in its original context here.
Noah’s Ark is a biblical story that at times is depicted as a charming tale of God’s creatures walking two by two into the safety of an enormous ark. At its crux, though, is an apocalyptic event of a grieving God about to destroy his creation with world-wide deluge – only one family, and one male and female of every living creature are saved.
Two by Two, the winner of the Malcolm Robertson Prize in 2011, transports this ancient story into the 21st century, a futuristic Melbourne that is facing the potential end-of-the-world due to torrential rain and the threat of the dams about to rupture.
STOP PRESS: Ursula Martinez joins The Burlesque Hour: The Glory Box, 7-16 June!
Exciting news for audiences of the acclaimed Finucane & Smith’s The Burlesque Hour: The Glory Box…
We have just heard that Ursula Martinez, she of the infamous red hanky strip Hanky Panky, London cult cabaret diva, star of the Olivier Award winning La Clique, is coming to join Moira Finucane’s Burlesque hour meets Pandora’s Box, THE GLORY BOX.
Ursula is bringing her mind bending new act Glen/Glenda, which brings a whole new meaning to loving yourself – she will set herself on fire, she will produce her infamous red hanky.
DON’T MISS OUT – Ursula is our special guest for 2 weeks only 7-16 June. And to celebrate, anyone who books Catwalk or General Admission tickets between 8-15 February will get a glass of bubbly on us!
In praise of mothers
The Age
Annabel Ross
07/02/2012
See the article in its original context here.
In contrast with her past shows, motherhood seems a quite conventional topic for photographer Morganna Magee. The sometime newspaper photographer has shot showgirls, residents of the bushfire-ravaged shire of Murrindindi, and a three-year-old boy who had both eyes amputated after being afflicted with cancer.
She decided to tackle mothers for personal reasons. “A lot of my friends starting having children over the past few years and I started to see a lot of them being really beaten down by the outside pressure,” she says. “So I wanted to do something that really celebrated being a mother, something that didn’t look at all the negatives.”
Ten subjects were photographed with their children in the style of classical portraiture, in black and white. Magee has posed questions to each mother, including, “What have you gained from motherhood?” and “What do you feel you’ve lost?”, with the responses running alongside the photographs in the exhibition.
One mother has a 28-year-old son with Down syndrome, another is a 20-year-old whose baby was born with extreme health complications. The child is still in hospital. The mothers’ answers to Magee’s questions are honest and often surprising.
The project caused Magee to reassess some of her own preconceptions. “I think I really started to realise that being a mother doesn’t mean you have to have a personality lobotomy,” she says. “I was brought up with the real notion that mothers have to sacrifice a lot, and I’m starting to wonder whether or not that’s true.”
Find out more about the exhibition here.
Footscray Star interviews Paola Balla
Footscray Star
Charlene Gatt
07/02/12
See the article in its original context here.
WEST Footscray artist Paola Balla has been shortlisted for a Victorian Indigenous Art Award.
Ms Balla is one of 20 artists in the running for more than $50,000 in prizes, with awards announced at an exhibition at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs next month.
She was shortlisted for two pieces – a photo called Kaden Boy, and a photo and video called Sacred Ibis.
Finissage to A Dingo Fence and Mallee Roots
The closing of A Dingo Fence and Mallee Roots: Victorian Farming on the Fringe was a great success last Saturday. Kristin Deimer’s artist talk and accompanying performance by Helen Davey made a fabulous ‘Finissage’ which is apparently all the rage in Europe!
Our next pair of artist talks will take place Saturday 11 of February at 2pm. Morganna Magee and Jean Lyons will discuss their respective exhibitions Motherhood (photography) and Earth’s Shadow (paintings) now showing at fortyfivedownstairs until the February 18.
Photographer captures real mums in all their glory
Herald Sun article by Sally Bennett
Sunday February 03, 2012
See the article in its original context here.
WHEN friends of Melbourne photographer Morganna Magee started having babies, it opened her eyes to parts of life she had previously not seen.
Not the anticipated world of feeding, nappies and sleep deprivation – the unexpected ways in which motherhood has become a “commercial entity”.
“Advertising really plays on being a mother now,” she said. “My friends were feeling a lot of pressure and guilt about whether they were doing the right things.”
So Magee decided to do something about it, picked up her camera and created an exhibition celebrating everyday mums doing a “pretty amazing job”.
Her third solo exhibition, Motherhood, opening at fortyfivedownstairs on Tuesday, aims to give mums back a little of their power.
Magee has beautifully captured women from a range of cultural and social backgrounds in different stages of motherhood.
Among them is a woman pregnant with her first child, a single mother of four girls, and an older woman with an adult son who has Down syndrome.
“Once you look at them and read about them, any pre-conceived notions and judgments fade away,” Magee said.
————
MOTHERHOOD, fortyfivedownstairs, Flinders Lane, city, February 7-18.
The Age interviews Dan Giovannoni
The Age
Robin Usher
31/01/2012
The Age interviews Dan Giovannoni – see the article in its original context here.
PLAYWRIGHT Dan Giovannoni is suspicious of the tolerance afforded minorities in contemporary Australia, even though he is a member of generation Y that he acknowledges has little direct experience of prejudice.
”I could live my whole life quite happily in a lefty bubble having a great time with friends and family,” he says.
Giovannoni shared in last year’s fringe festival award for best emerging writer for the comedy Cut Snake and won the the Malcolm Robertson Prize for his new play, Two by Two, which is at fortyfivedownstairs next month.
Shortlist announced for 2012 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards
Twenty artists are in the running for prizes totaling more than $50,000 as part of the Victorian Government’s 2012 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards.
The awards, now in their seventh year, profile the diversity of Indigenous arts practice in Victoria and showcase the uniqueness of south-east Australian Aboriginal art.
Premier and Minister for the Arts Ted Baillieu said the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards played an important role in celebrating and promoting the work of the State’s Indigenous artists and our unique Koorie culture.
Time Out Melbourne interviews Zoey Dawson
Time Out Melbourne
25/01/2012
Time Out Melbourne interviews Zoey Dawson – see the article in its original context here.
Actor and director Zoey Dawson presents an all-female production of Romeo and Juliet at fortyfivedownstairs, sharing the space with an all male production of Henry IV.
How did you come to this play?
I’d never seen a production that was really concerned with Juliet herself. Romeo and Juliet usually come as a couple. I wanted to yank them apart and just look at what happens to her. The fact that she meets a boy at a party and four days later she kills herself. What is that?
This production emerged out of an honours year project, is that right?
That was in 2010. I’m calling it an extensive development period. Before then I wasn’t so keen on it, really. But after I was assigned to it at university, and read it through, I was like, shit, this is a 13-year-old girl, and yet it’s part of this great romantic mythology.
I thought, OK, so my cousin is 13, and she’s obsessed with Twilight. I look at her, and other 13-year-olds, and I think: she is a child. How did this romantic mythology build up around a child? That was where it started, when I realised Juliet was 13.
MCV interviews Dan Giovannoni
MCV
Andrew Shaw
25/01/2012
MCV interviews Dan Giovannoni – see the article in its original context here.
Two by Two is a modern take on the classic bible tale Noah’s Ark but with a gay twist. Playwright Dan Giovannoni talks about the play’s plot, issues and themes.
Dan, what’s the story behind Two by Two?
It’s set in a futuristic Melbourne, during a great flood. An ark has been built and parts of the city are being evacuated. Carl and Jack don’t qualify for passage on the boat because they don’t meet the requirements of a ‘family’ – they’re gay, they have no kids, and they can’t procreate with each other. The play follows them in their struggle to find a way to get on board. Their home is gatecrashed by Duckie, who for her own reasons is also looking for a way to get on the boat, but has something they all want and need – a ticket, which comes in the form of a baby.
ArtsHub reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna
Aleksia Barron reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna for ArtsHub. See the review in its original context here.
The subterranean haven of fortyfivedownstairs is the perfect place to settle down with a champagne and suspend one’s disbelief at a man, sans costume and makeup, announcing that he is, in fact, Madonna. So does Michael Griffiths, who doesn’t bat an eyelid when declaring that he is, in fact, Madge herself, before merrily launching into a night of musical and comedic repartee.
The Age reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna
Cameron Woodhead reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna for the Age. See the review in its original context here.
Dean Bryant’s pop-inspired cabaret continues to delight audiences: Christie Whelan returns in Britney over at Chapel off Chapel, and at fortyfivedownstairs, Michael Griffiths is camping out as Madonna.
In Vogue doesn’t reach for humane impersonation in the way the Britney show does, but it shares one quality that makes it unusually engaging as entertainment. By salvaging Madonna’s tunes from the tinny iterations of 80s pop, and twisting them into intricate arrangements for the baby grand, the show gives a lively sense of how good the songs really are.
Herald Sun reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna
Kate Herbert reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna for the Herald Sun. See the review in its original context here.
Stars:****
WHO CAN EXPLAIN why pop divas such as Madonna, Bette Midler and Kylie are gay icons – they just are.
Singer-pianist, Michael Griffiths, directed by Dean Bryant, performs Madonna’s hit songs, speaking in first person as Madonna but without any drag-queen costuming, accent or attempted impersonation of that feisty, Italo-American pop idol.
Australian Stage reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna
Vito Matarelli reviews In Vogue: Songs By Madonna for Australian Stage. See the review in its original context here.
With Melbourne’s Midsumma now in full swing and pop royalty spreading their cabaret wings (Britney is currently performing south of the Yarra), it seems quite natural that the Queen of Pop should seek to re-invent herself yet again. The Queen of them all – Madonna!
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Australian Stage interviews Dean Bryant
Australian Stage
by Paul Andrew
20/01/12
Paul Andrews interviews Dean Bryant – see the article in its original context here.
Prolific writer/director and musical theatre prodigy, Dean Bryant, returns to the 2012 Midsumma festival with a new work celebrating the life and art of a pop culture icon – In Vogue: Songs By Madonna. He speaks to Australian Stage’s Paul Andrew.
It seems you have been rather busy Dean?
The last twelve months have been crazy, actually, and the busiest of my life – and it’s not letting up any time soon – the year started with a revival of Prodigal, the first musical I wrote – with Britney MD Matty Frank) and Liza (on an E) – both of which were huge hits for Midsumma Festival. I went to NYC to put up the Broadway premiere of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – which is still pulling in crowds and is a popular hit. Then my directing debut at Melbourne Theatre Company with Next to Normal, my opera directing debut with Hansel and Gretel for OzOpera and my Production Company directing debut with Anything Goes, co-directed with Andy Hallsworth.
I wrote two new shows for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival – Josie in the Bathhouse – which is playing the Spiegeltent at the Arts Centre in March and In Vogue: Songs by Madonna. Then I flew round the world casting Priscilla in Brazil, Milan and recasting NYC and finally moved to Milan for two months to direct the production in Italian – quite the experience, brilliant cast, very rocky tech period, but another big success. Now, it’s quite a relief to be staging two single actor shows for Midsumma.
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