I was hiding behind our set during preshow with Emily Tomlins as our first preview audience started entering the house. Hearing that preshow chatter my skin started tingling. Emily and I shared a look — “We’re back”.
The opening night of The Enlightenment […] was such an emotional time. We had a house full of friendly theatrical faces who held us up and supported us in the warmest embrace. Live theatre, man. There really is nothing else like it. I hope you’ll join us in the theatre.
Are you ready?
We’ve been deep in rehearsal for this wild new play by Joe Paradise Lui, and even though we’ve been through a snap lockdown, we’re well on track for our Melbourne season. Stay tuned for our Perth season, which, due to their snap lockdown, has been postponed.
On Saturday, we started work on a very special project that’s going to take a long time to come together. It will be in collaboration with the Rawcus Ensemble, as well as a group of young queer artists, facilitated by theatre-makers Kat Cornwell and Morgan Rose. I KNOW! What a dream. Even more of a dream, it’s going to be about action movies, and who we allow to be heroes. Here’s a little sneak peak behind the scenes of the photoshoot we did as part of the first workshop.
The talented Chi Nguyen is creating an all new musical! I will be directing the upcoming development and reading.
Miss Saigon-Wrong is a new musical that comments on Australia’s immigration laws through the immigrant’s perspective, and shines lights on the social and cultural dynamics within a modern day interracial relationship. The work is inspired by Nguyen’s recent experience of applying to be an Australian citizen, combining with her strong views on the problematic yet ever so popular musical Miss Saigon. This work is looking to be approx. 90 minutes long with 10-12 musical items that are heavily inspired by Vietnamese contemporary music (V-Pop, 00s onwards)
I first got to know Chi through watching her cabaret show Lotus (Nominated for Best Cabaret 2019 Melbourne Fringe). Her work is hilarious, nuanced nuanced and poignant. She is crowd funding for our development so please consider contributing to get this new show on its feet.