FULL TILT at the Arts Centre presents CANDY BOWERS in Who’s That Chik?

This Is Not Art

A supercharged convergence of writers, performers, thinkers, independent and industry musicians, creative researchers, electronic artists, dilettantes, and DIY culture makers in a showcase featuring over 400 local, national and international artists.

TINA present Australia’s most exciting and emergent exhibitions, screenings, performances, panels, workshops, talks, gigs, interventions, live art and special events in five days of creativity and absolute madness!

Features: Zombie Rights March, Zine Festival,heck way too many to mention. Check out all the This Is Not Art participants here.

This Is Not Art
Office: 3/231 King Street, NEWCASTLE, Australia 2300
Phone: (02) 4927 0675 Fax: +61 2 4927 1475
Email: admin@thisisnotart.org
www.thisisnotart.org

independent, emerging & experimental annual arts & media festival

01 – 05 October 2009
Newcastle, Australia

MySchoolAct is an Australian first for online high school music competitions

A school assignment like never before!

Do you want to be the next world famous music star, but just don’t know where to begin?  Now launched MySchoolAct – is Australia’s first ever online high school music and creative talent competition…and they are calling for YOUR submissions!

Hosted by ex-Idol host James Mathison and supported by Sony Music Australia, the comp allows high school students to showcase their talent via an interactive Web site – www.myschoolact.com

What’s more, they’re not just looking for music acts – MySchoolAct is searching for talented ‘behind the scenes’ creatives such as video producers, managers and songwriters.  There is more than $150,000 in prizes up for grabs, including:

• A recording deal, commercial album release and music video from the team at Sony Music Australia

• Two full scholarships for a Diploma in Audio Engineering or Film making at any of the 6 SAE Institute campuses in Australia and a Diploma in Graphic Design at any of the 3 Qantm College Campuses in Australia

• $15,000 publishing deal with Sony ATV for the best original songwriter

MySchoolAct’s Music Director, John O’Donnell is the man responsible for helping young Aussie artists such as Missy Higgins, Operator Please, Silverchair and Jebediah on their rise from the classroom to the top of the charts, and he’s back on the hunt for the next big thing.  “Whether you’re an aspiring rock star, singer/songwriter, hip hop stylist or music video director, MySchoolAct provides the opportunity to share and develop your talents in a digital forum. I can’t wait to see what Australia’s youth have to offer.”

Put yourself in the running for the ultimate career kickstart, log onto www.myschoolact.com and get your act together!

A Dinner to Die For interactive evening of murder mystery and mayhem

Lord Quinten Daventry invites you for an interactive evening of murder mystery and mayhem all served up with a delicious 3 course dinner.

We’re not talking molecular gastronomy here, but rather a wickedly funny Murder Mystery Dinner. Bare Elements Productions, based in Melbourne, present their new dinner dates.

Become part of the show whilst watching the show – set in 1928 you are invited to be a guest of Lord Quinten Daventry at his birthday bash. The rumour going around social circles is that he will announce his engagement to Miss Fanny Farquar.

It’s Agatha Christie in spirit – all cut glass accents, strings of pearls, flapper dresses, army outfits, dinner jackets and monocles – with lashings of sexual innuendo and double entendres.

When: 29 Aug, 7 Nov, 5 Dec, 12 Dec and 19  Dec, 2009.
Website:http://www.adinnertodiefor.com

“I would pay thoosands and thoosands of poonds to see this show”

“Murder! Mayhem! Merriment! and Mirth! A marvellous cast and excellent entertainment. We had a ball, fun & laughter all night long! Definitely recommended – get right into the characters and transport yourself to another era.”

“Just brilliant. I’ve never had a more entertaining dinner!”

“Absolutely brilliant, the acting was at a high level, exceeded my expectations”

“The whole experience was like being in an enjoyable time warp.Encore…”

Artist Revisits Australian Television’s Biggest Kleenex Moment in ‘The Death of Molly Jones’.

Like many Australians, artist Jo Kerlogue vividly remembers mourning much loved Molly Jones from the popular Australian soap A Country Practice. Described as Australian television’s biggest ‘Kleenex moment’, the two episodes screened over two nights in 1985 are the subject of her latest solo exhibition ‘The Death of Molly Jones’.

Masquerading as alter-ego Nonchalant Sally, Jo Kerlogue will exhibit a camp, nostalgic re-evaluation of history. Armed with the tools of parody ‘The Death of Molly Jones’ will re-assess received wisdom and dominant Australian culture through the satirical vehicle of illustration montage. The Death of Molly from A Country Practice is both a vivid emotional memory shared by many Australians and a metaphor of the Australian contemporary condition.

“Impending homosexuality, detachment from extended family through immigration and living in suburban Adelaide altered my understanding of significant sentiment”, says Kerlogue. “Instances, regarded as meaningful, such as births, deaths and marriages were qualified through the characters from soap operas, who became ‘real family’ albeit, one made up of light and electronics”.

Possibly the only artist ever to undertake a Masters degree as an alter-ego, Kerlogue explains, “We have entered an age where fleshy analogue organisms intertwine with digital electronics and binary codes to create a new breed of bio-cybernetic creatures. In a world of images and simulations Nonchalant Sally is a cultural product, an attempt to answer the question; how does an artist compete in a world which is essentially a gigantic McFlurry of images?”

‘The Death of Molly Jones’ will combine a myriad of illustration montage with an installation of theatrical lighting, live classical music, recorded sound and moving image. The result is an unconventional and emotive, multi-media illustration experience, in the Old Port Adelaide Waterside Worker’s Hall, opening on Tuesday July 7th at 6.30pm until July 18, 2009 in conjunction with Vitalstatistix Theatre Company.

About Jo Kerlogue and Nonchalant Sally
Jo Kerlogue has exhibited work in Busan, Korea, Adelaide and Melbourne and is currently undertaking a Masters Degree in Illustration at the University of South Australia. Kerlogue and alter-ego Nonchalant Sally illustrate for a variety of formats including mobile phone, large scale digital projection, packaging, fabric printing, illustration performance, the world wide web as well as the traditional gallery setting. Nonchalant Sally Illustration and Art work are for the culture savvy consumer, always willing to remain one step ahead of the cultural zeitgeist.

Websites:
www.nonchalantsally.com
Also check out the Nonchalant Sally Blog as there will be a  ‘Death of Molly Jones’ video posting after the opening night and pics
www.nonchalantsallynews.blogspot.com/

In A Dark Dark House

In a Dark Dark House

Written by Neil LaBute
Directed by Wayne Pearn
22 July – 22 August, Red Stitch Theatre, Melbourne.

In A Dark, Dark House by one of America’s most provocative playwrights, Neil LaBute, is the latest offering by Red Stitch Theatre. An explosive drama full of twists, secrets and revenge, In A Dark, Dark House explores the depths of family loyalty and betrayal.

Terry is visiting his estranged younger brother Drew in the grounds of a psychiatric institution. Drew, a lawyer turned wealthy businessman, wants Terry to confirm a watershed event from their adolescence which may help make sense of his recent fall from grace.  But information has a price.  In A Dark, Dark House is a tense tale of fraught fraternal relationships, where male violence and vulnerability co-exist and where emotion can be seen as weakness.

Neil LaBute is one of the most prolific and provocative writers of our generation.  He adapted his first play for the big screen – In the Company of Men starring frequent collaborator Aaron Eckhart. Some of his other plays include Bash, Fat Pig and This is How It Goes. He wrote the screenplays The Wicker Man, and The Shape of Things, as well as directing Nurse Betty and Lakeview Terrace starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Wayne Pearn, founder of award winning theatre company, Hoy Polloy, makes his directorial debut with Red Stitch Theatre. Pearn’s previous productions include the much acclaimed play, Killing Jeremy, as well as last year’s The Real Thring and David Mamet’s Boston Marriage.

Red Stitch Ensemble member Dion Mills (Work of Wonder, Yellow Moon) stars as Terry alongside guest actors Geordie Taylor (This Wide Night) as Drew and Eloïse Mignon (Neighbours) as Jennifer.  Design is by Peter Mumford (Leaves Of Glass), with lighting design by Stelios Karagiannis (This Wide Night).

When: Wednesday 22 July  – Saturday 22 August 8pm (Sundays at 6.30pm)
No show Monday or Tuesday. Running time approximately 2 hours
Where: Red Stitch Actors Theatre, rear 2 Chapel St, St Kilda East (opp Astor), Melbourne
Tickets: $20 – $34 ($15 student rush)
Bookings: www.redstitch.net (discounted tix) or on 03 9533 8083

They’re still dying over Dinner.

‘A Dinner to Die For’  has two special upcoming dates, so mark them on your diary!! A hit of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival the troop received some great reviews. Public shows are scheduled for Saturday 13th of June and the Christmas Special on 25 July. You can also get the ‘gang’ to entertain your friends and they’ll host a muder caper in your very own home!

Surreal Things – Art Gallery of Ontario

Surreal Things offers a new perspective on the surrealists’ contentious and ambiguous relationship to the commercial fields of design, fashion, advertising, architecture, film and theatre. The exhibition explores how the increasing pressures of burgeoning consumer culture conflicted with surrealism’s first principles. Nonetheless, there was significant creative, cross-fertilization between surrealist artists and designers. The exhibition brings together some of the most extraordinary objects ever created, and will include painting, sculpture, architecture, works on paper, jewellery, ceramics, textiles, furniture, fashion, film and photography.

Surreal Things examines the movement’s historical framework, identifies its major exhibitions and events, and highlights the later work of Surrealist artists and designers whose careers extended beyond the movement. The show brings together some of the most extraordinary objects created during the period of Surrealism, including Elsa Schiaparelli’s Tear evening dress (1938); with fabric designed by Salvador Dalí; René Magritte’s The Tempest (1931); Meret Oppenheim’s Table with Bird’s Legs (1939); and ‘Ruby Lips’ pin based on Salvador Dali’s work in the 1940′s.

Surrealism developed in the early 1920s in reaction to the Dada art movement. Inspired by the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud and led by French poet André Breton, the Surrealists were inspired by fantasy, the irrational and the marvelous to create objects that might be the manifestation of dreams, secret fantasies and fears. The Surrealists employed such experimental techniques as spontaneous sketches, automatism, and collage and assemblage which involved the chance juxtaposition of objects to create symbolic meaning. During the 1930s, Surrealism evolved from an avant-garde art movement and filtered into the worlds of design, fashion, advertising, architecture, film and theatre.

More information and a great audio introduction by curator Ghislaine Wood on the AGO website.

Exhibition runs until August 30, 2009

Editor’s note: AGO is also offering Surreal Things Art camps for Kids! Oh how I wish!!!GG 

Letters End at the Casula Powerhouse

From the creator of the internationally acclaimed productions LaLaLuna and The Shneedles, luminous physical theatre maestro Wolfe Bowart returns with Letter’s End – a whole new box of lunacy that truly pushes the envelope.

If your mind were a room and your life’s memories lost in a jumble of old boxes, what forgotten treasures might you find?

With his signature mix of circus and theatre, stage illusion, interactive film and physical comedy, Wolfe Bowart has travelled the world enchanting audiences of all ages and nationalities. Fresh from tours of Brazil, Greece, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and multiple nationwide tours of Australia, Bowart returns once again to invite us into the realm of the fantastic.

Cut the string, tear open the brown paper wrapping and live a wondrous world rediscovered in Letter’s End. Letter’s End – this time his memory is the one playing tricks.

Friday 15, Saturday 16 & Monday 18 May 2009
Performance Times
Fri & Mon 11am, Sat 2pm

Cost
Full $20
Conc $16
Family $65
Club Members $18
Club Members Conc. $13

Casula Powerhouse theatre
1 Casula Road Casula, NSW Australia

For Letters End bookings

MIX IT UP! Café Rebetika!

The Arts Centre in association with Multicultural Arts Victoria present MIX IT UP! Café Rebetika! @ the Arts Centre, Fairfax Studio 22 Apr – 9 May. Cafe Rebetika! is an epic story of the heart; a passionate and uplifting theatre production which tells a dramatic love story set in the slums of 1930s urban Greece amongst the rise of rebetika, the ‘Greek blues’. Theatre, cabaret, music and dance unite in the exotic and gutsy sub-sulture of Greek rebetika.

The production is conceived and directed by Stephen Helper who has numerous Broadway credits. Cafe Rebetika! features an award winning cast led by Tony Nikolakopoulos (Head On, The Wog Boy) and live music by Rebetiki.

Tix: $30-$50. Bookings: www.theartscentre.com.au, 1300 136 166, the Arts Centre box office or ticketmaster