Thoughts & Walks

NTC's 'Love, Love, Love' starts tonight. Chookas!

A great Sandra by the looks of it!

Brief Interruption of 'Love, Love, Love' related posts for Italy.

Top Australian Chefs are joining their colleagues throughout the world in raising money for victims of the Italian Earthquake. They will cook Amatriciana Pasta, which originated from the earthquake damaged town of Amatriciana and send a portion of proceeds from every dish to the Italian Red Cross. 

Here's Jamie Oliver's related Instagram:

"Interview with the Olivier award-winning and BAFTA nominated writer Mike Bartlett" BBC writers room

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW HERE.

Mike Bartlett's Love, Love, Love: ABC Radio National 'Books & Arts"

I was googling for information on Mike Bartlett specifically when I came across this interview with Paul Ashcroft and Ella Caldwell from Melbourne's Redstitch Actor's Theatre. Click on the link below the screencap to listen to the interview. It contains discussion of Mike Bartlett's work, the play and a scene from Act 1 performed by Ashcroft (Kenneth) and Caldwell (Sandra).

I took a screencap of the programs summary: 

Source: Radio National Books and Arts program

Click to play audio Interview here

"Love, Love, Love" at Newcastle Theatre Company

Greetings,

Another attempt to revitalise this blog. I'm hoping to write about our place in the world, our walks and our travels. I think that when we first started to write this blog, I was in between jobs. Well ... I'm in between jobs again. This time I elected to 'retire' in order to make myself more available for my elderly mother.... that, and training for long distance walks as well as semi project managing our long overdue home renovations.(front of house only). I spend a few hours a week doing some voluntary work which I may or may not elaborate on in other posts. I'm also hoping that Geoff might re-join me in blogging.

Now - to the poster above. Newcastle Theatre Company is presenting Mike Bartlett's "Love, Love, Love" which opens on the 27th August. As a refugee of the actor, Richard Armitage's fanbase, I love the fact that coincidentally he has been cast in an off Broadway production of the same play at Roundabout Theatre Company, New York (commencing September 22nd). 

Newcastle Theatre Company Production:

1. Kenneth: Richard Murray
2. Sandra:    Tracey Gordon
3. Henry:      Justin Smith
4. Rose:         Beth Traynor
5. Jaime:     Conagh Punch

Director: Carl Caulfield

Tickets: $31 AUD

By contrast and coincidence:

Roundabout Theatre Company Production: 

For cast bios of  NYC Production of "Love, Love, Love"'see "Who's Who"

1. Kenneth:  Richard Armitage
2. Sandra:    Amy Ryan
3. Henry:     Alex Hurt
4. Rose:       Zoe Kazan
5. Jaime:     Ben Rosenfield

Director: Michael Mayer

Cost of ticket in NYC: $115 -  $130AUD + airfares and accommodation. (I worked out that it would probably cost me in the region of $6,000 to $7000 to see the play in New York). Lucky we can see the play here!!

Next Post (or two): About the play

High profile actors - do they remember the empty seats?

A few weeks ago I met a local playwright in the supermarket. He was expressing the frustration about the lack of support for live theatre in this country - funding in Australia could be much better than it is. Now, people in the local performing arts scene that know us will be the first to say that we are not the ideal, loyal theatre goers we should be, but we decided that it was about time we were more supportive and as there was a matinee, we booked our seats for yesterday. I'm not entirely sure how many people the Civic Playhouse holds (approx 205 people) but the audience was small enough to allow us to spread out. Unfortunate for the actors - nice for us. The Playhouse is designed so that the actors are directly in front of the audience which gives it an intimate feel but there is also the responsibility for the audience to ensure that they are attentive and responsive given the actors are in such close proximity. There must be nothing worse for actor morale than an unresponsive audience. I thoroughly enjoyed this play -it was very well written and the production I thought, was seamless. The actors, Paul Kelman (Tom), Helen Atkinson (Fiona), and Phil McGrath (Dave) were excellent. My only regret was that the audience was small and I felt that the actors deserved better. 

 

This led me to contemplate the fickle nature of performing arts and the struggle many actors must go through to "make it". How many actors must dream of a successful career where they start to be in demand and work offers flow into their agents as opposed to the agents and actors having to grovel and scrounge for even the smallest role? How many dream of playing to large and responsive audiences and of having a base of supporters who follow their work with interest? What happens however if a high profile good looking actor feels they are being misrepresented by the media as some kind of sex symbol and the base of supporters grows to include those who begin to cross boundaries and intrude into personal and work space? I think there must be a dilemma here - finding a happy medium between having a high profile as a popular actor whilst trying to earn respect and to be taken seriously as a talented artist whilst at the same time maintaining personal privacy away from media and supporters. Ascending to celebrity status must be hard at times to cope with. I wonder if actors ever look back at where they have come from, recall the days when they may well have been acting in a small theatre company and playing to small audiences. Do they remember the empty seats; do they dread that they have had their "15 minutes of fame" (as Tom in These Foolish Things mentions); do they ever wonder if they may end back where they started or do they forget - memories of the past lost in the surrounding hype? Do they forget the empty seats?

Clique identity

Some months ago I received a comment from a woman I knew years ago at one of the many schools I attended in my childhood. She had been in another class from me, had been extemely popular and wanted information about how to get in contact with mutual old school friends. After I emailed the information she requested, I never heard from her again. Her name however began to appear on significant parts of the school's Old Girls' website...the alpha female had returned.

I can now look back on the times I spent at the school with a reasonable amount of neutrality. I enjoy watching the posturing and dynamics of a social group in action. Of course it is easy to be objective when one is looking from the outside in. The girl mentioned above was one of the reasons I had been ostracised by classmates during the entire first term I was at the school. It was not as if she said anything to my face, it was the direction she gave her minions not to play or speak with me that had the desired effect. I heard a review last year on a book about girl cliques.."Queen bees and Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman and remember thinking I must read it. I have come to the realisation that the experience I had in my first few months of being at a new school was instigated by a queen bee personality. For better or worse the girl I once knew has now re-emerged from her hibernation as a grown woman and once again will no doubt be calling the shots...this time with old school mates. I am watching from a distance a scenario unfolding where a clique could well be forming yet again. Queen bee has made herself known. The irony is that there is another alpha female in that particular group as well...a Queen bee who has reigned in the absence of the first Queen bee.

"The Queen bee is the clique member who has 'emerged' as the leader of the clique. With looks, charisma and the power of manipulation, the leader of a clique reigns supreme over other members and has substantial influence and power on the entire group. She is often very rich and act superior to the others.

Usually envied and looked upon as a role model by the other clique members and often outsiders to the clique, the queen bee's actions are closely followed and imitated, even though the actions of the queen bee may not be positive."  Definition from Wikipedia

I wonder if anyone knows what I am talking about. I'm not rambling...I have seen and am seeing a queen bee that has worked her sting on me in action. Cliquiness and exclusiveness is the name of the game. Try this quiz and see what your clique identity is. Mine? Yep you guessed it...Target.

test post

I've been away from this blog for two years - this is a test to see what the formatting is like. Posting a picture of the Thames Path west.

Dunedin to Middlemarch by the Taieri Railway

To recap, I will post the map of where we travelled last year in NZ. (Click to enlarge). We are actually heading back there in November, and I therefore thought I had better get my act together and post out photos from .... last year!! 

The Taieri Gorge Railway runs from Dunedin through to Middlemarch in Central Otago. From Middlemarch, we took a shuttle over to Queenstown. 

Work on the railway began in 1879 but was not completed until 1921. It was closed for commercial use in 1990 and is now purely a tourist railway. The scenery is spectacular. You can find the full album of photos in the sidebar here.

Again, I will let the photos do the talking. The Hobbit began filming at Middlemarch 6 days after we were there.

Dunedin Railway Station

 

Travelling from Christchurch to Dunedin - bus.

Continuing on our journey through New Zealand ........ (totally oblivious to the fact that Peter Jackson's The Hobbit cast and crew were travelling only a few days behind us).  

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Once leaving Christchurch bus station (whose office was a container with a portaloo), we hit the road in an Intercity bus headed for Dunedin. As I write this, Christchurch has been experiencing more tremors, so our thoughts are with the residents over there. 

The trip to Dunedin took about four or five hours, but as we left early in the morning, we arrived in Dunedin with enough time to walk around and also take a tour out to the Albatross nesting sites on the Otago Peninsula. 

While the Maori people were the first to establish settlements in the area, Dunedin city was founded by free settlers from Scotland and England. The cool wet weather reminded them of home. Driving out to the Otago Peninsula I was actually reminded of northern Scotland .... there were even dry stone walls dividing some of the paddocks.

I've picked out a few photos of the trip down to Dunedin. It was extremely cold, with snow falling south of Dunedin and across to Queenstown. As you can see from the photos, we are rather partial to snow capped mountains as we don't see them very often here. 

Looking towards Aoraki/Mt Cook national park area

First Presbyterian Church of Otago.

Octagon city centre

Otago Peninsula and Royal Albatross Centre.