2017 Information Sessions

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Our Information Sessions are back in November. These are an opportunity to stay up to date with what we are doing here at National Theatre of Parramatta, from our 2018 season to future industry programs and developments. Plus it’s a chance for us to meet with you and an opportunity for you to meet other creatives.

These sessions will be held over two evenings and one afternoon from 16-18 November at Riverside Theatres. As part of these sessions we will be presenting a number of playwriting focused events, including new readings from recently graduated NIDA writers and a free playwriting workshop presented by NIDA Head of Writing Dr Stephen Sewell.

We will also be hosting our inaugural Page to Stage playreadings shining a spotlight on four Western Sydney artists, participants of our playwriting mentorship program.

These events are followed by a post-event drink. There is limited capacity to all of these events, bookings are essential make sure to secure your place.

SCHEDULE
Thursday 16th November at 7pm
– Information Session
– Readings of news works by NIDA graduates:
The Kick by Michael Costi
Scout by Angela Collins
Whose Uterus Is It Anyway? by Georgina Adamson

Friday 17th November at 7pm
Information Session
– Readings of new works by NIDA graduates:
Bird Song by Suvi Derkenne
Halfway by Sarah Odillo Maher
The Bestiary: Part 1 by Hannah Tonks

Saturday 18th November from 12pm to 4.30pm
– Free playwriting workshop session with Dr Stephen Sewell 12pm to 2pm
– Information Session
– Inaugural Readings from our Page To Stage writers:
James Elazzi
Monikka Eliah
Sandy Maestro
Valentino Musico

Playwriting Workshop

Join us for a free playwriting workshop with Dr Stephen Sewell, Head of Writing for Performance at NIDA. Following the workshop we wil be holding an Information Session and our inaugural play readings from four of our Page To Stage program participants.

Dr. Stephen Sewell is not only one of Australia’s foremost writers, with credits such as The Blind Giant is Dancing and the screenplay of the film, The Boys. He is the Head of Writing for Performance at NIDA.

This workshop is an intensive introduction to playwriting, dealing with creativity and what inspires a work, how to create elements of drama and a narrative structure. It will suit writers looking to understand their creativity and to improve their craft.

This Playwriting Workshop is free however there is limited capacity availabale. Book to secure your place. The workshop is followed by our Information session and inaugural Playreadings by our Page To Stage playwriting program participants.

New Works By NIDA Writers

Writers undertaking NIDA’s Writing for Performance MFA program will present a thirty minute excerpt from their full length plays, screen and radio plays over the course of two nights.

Dr Stephen Sewell (Head of Writing for Performance, National Institute of Dramatic Art) will introduce the evening, and then each writer will introduce their piece with a brief overview prior to the reading.

Frederick J Gibson Graduate Season in memory of Garnet H Carroll OBE

 

THE KICK
By Michael Costi

Now you look me in the eyes and tell me it was ‘just a game’

THE KICK is an Australian comedy that follows the bizarre odyssey of Cookie ‘the rookie’ Gilchrist, former star of a prestigious North Shore boarding school. Captain of the Saint Seb’s rugby team, Cookie was destined for greatness…until he missed the kick that would’ve won the premiership.
Now in his forties, Cookie is forced to re-live his mistake at his thirty year school reunion. However, Cookie’s luck is about to change, as he is given the opportunity of a lifetime. A former school mate has invented a time machine that will send Cookie Gilchrist back to 1984, for 30 seconds, to retake the kick and reverse history.

Cast
Skip Saunders – Jack Ellis
Olivia Gilchrist – Imogen Morgan
Cookie Gilchrist – Jamie Oxenbould
Macca Hunt – Rhett Walton
Matty Mercer – Ben Wood

SCOUT
By Angela Collins

A motley crew of Scouts and Girl Guides navigate growing up in this wacky coming-of-age romp.

Milly’s a goody-two shoes Girl Guide attending her first combined Scouts and Guides camp in the Belanglo State Forest. Over a single weekend, she makes new friends, a couple of enemies, hears a scary story about a man called Milat, and tries to cling to familiar territory as some uncharted memories threaten to bubble to the surface the deeper she ventures into the great Aussie bush.

Cast
Milly – Sophie Wilde
Mickey – Badaidilaga Maftuh-Flynn
Crunchy – Brontë Sparrow
Spud – Tom Russell
Rod – Jeremi Campese
Counsellor 1/Gertrude – Nick Drummond
Counsellor 2/Starr – Mabel Li
Stage Directions – Ella Prince

 

WHOSE UTERUS IS IT ANYWAY?
By Georgina Adamson

“What happens when an IUD, HRT, an STI and an abortion walk into a bar?”

Have you ever wanted to take a peek at the privatest privates of complete strangers?
Have a squiz at their naughty bits? A geez at their ganders? Well now you can!
Four people have made appointments here at the reproductive health clinic and will now compete to receive their treatments.
Our contestants are Mary the nun, Michelle the wine-mum, Lila the millennial and our dark horse Tom.
What prizes will they receive? Maybe an IUD? An STI? An abortion? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Cast
Mary – Melissa Kahramen
Michelle – Alison Chambers
Lila – Eve Beck
Tom – Nyx Calder
Host – Fabian Mccallum
Stage Directions – Roman Delo

 

BIRD SONG
By Suvi Derkenne

A tapestry of family memories embroidered with bird song

With the announcement that her parents are divorcing, five year old ruth says goodbye to her best friend william. years later they rekindle their romance,
but ruth struggles to escape the traumas of the past. bird song is a play with words, a performance for sound and radio.

Cast
Ruth – Mabel Li
Mum – Natalie Freeman
Dad – Patrick James Howe
William – Joseph Marcus Althouse
Womyn/wife – Barbara Papathanasopowulos
Creative Direction – Andrew Fraser
Sound Design – Mattison Tabone

HALFWAY
By Sarah Odillo Maher

Your 20’s are supposed to be the best years of your life, but what if they’re not? What if you’ve taken a wrong turn and can’t find your way back?

Welcome to Halfway, an inner city share-house where the only certainty is uncertainty. A drama series about a disparate group of 20-somethings, Halfway is about navigating the muddy waters of love, life and relationships while trying to work out what the hell you’re doing.

Cast
TBC

THE BESTIARY: PART 1
By Hannah Tonks

The Arts celebrates our difference, Aesthetics transcends them.

A group of friends in a dead-end town, full of creative potential but completely stagnant.
For Valerie the decision is clear, keep fighting for creative fulfilment or surrender to a mundane life in the public service.
Their artistic futures seem bleak until an upstart Minister, Oswald Emerson, arrives on the scene. He promises drastic change and the opening of a new, state of the art facility called ‘The Institution’.
The Minister for Aesthetics is bold, charismatic and very, very likeable; His aim is to unify Australia, once and for all. But what is the Ministry for Aesthetics? Can Oswald be trusted?
Is the Institution really as wonderful as it seems? One thing is for certain, the Arts in Australia will never be the same.

Cast
Valerie – Chantel Leseberg
Harry – Edward Skaines
Knife – Alex Chalwell
Chloe – Alexandra Morgan
Oswald – James Lugton
Prime Minister – Mark Langham
Stage Directions – Lloyd Allison Young