operetta: third person other March 25 - 29, 2015 La Mama presents operetta: third person other Written & directed by James Clayden Developed with the cast: Helen Hopkins, Meg White, Sally Armstrong, John Francis Howard and Kevin Hopkins And musicians: Dur-e Dara, David Brown and Adam Simmons Musical Director: David Brown Seeing Conrad clearly can indeed be tricky. But that is the point: his books are epistemological journeys, parables of knowing. Giles Foden, December 2007 This work is inspired by the spirit of the great modernist writer Joseph Conrad, not his stories as such but the impressions conveyed through the senses by his so-called “personages” along with his narrators, not least Conrad on himself, “I was simply attending to my business.” It was 1906, “during a period of mental and emotional reaction” when he “began impulsively and wrote continuously” his most ironic and humourous book The Secret Agent, 1907. I had been an admirer of Conrad for many years when in 1997 after reading The Secret Agent, I came up with a text, the idea being to develop an Opera - The Other. I made a short video test one evening with musicians David Tolley and Ren Walters along with actors, Shelley Lasica, Sally Armstrong, Ian Scott, Tom Wright. It was an interesting and rewarding session, but for one reason or another it wasn’t to be. The following year I adapted that text for the play EVIDENCE, staged at La Mama in December 1998 - with actors Helen Hopkins, Shelley Lasica, Peter Green, Tom Wright with music by Tim O’Dwyer. Last year Dur-e Dara asked if I would play a short piece of music with David Brown at LaMama Courthouse along with a group of other musicians in memory of the musician/artist David Tolley. I was to play with David Brown that night and was moved by the other musicians and the spirit of the night. It remains a special memory. Out of that I had the desire to develop my previous texts of The Other together with EVIDENCE as an Operetta and stage it at La Mama Courthouse if possible, with a group of musicians from that night along with several actors-singers. Once I had the text together I was fortunate enough to gather the group we have here to perform Third Person Other. The show you are about to see is not a story as such though there is narration to it, within it, watching it . . . woven around and through it, as in Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent . . . with what he and others wrote about his act of being able to write anything at all. In the works of Darwin, Hardy, Lawrence, and Conrad, then, reading mimics the physiological process of seeing. - The Entangled Eye – James Krasner 1992 D.H. Lawrence wrote of Cezzane’s apple: For the intuitive apperception of the apple is so tangibly aware of the apple that it is aware of it all round, not only just the front. The eyes see only fronts, and the mind, on the whole, is satisfied with fronts. But intuition needs all-roundness, and instinct needs insideness. The true imagination is forever curving round to the other side, to the back of presented appearance. Sensations not a picture but - a presence Bon Voyage James Clayden James Clayden has made theatre pieces at La Mama since 1972, working with Helen, Meg, Sally, Kevin and John on La Mama productions along with several film/video productions of his own, and over the years he has performed with Dur-e Dara and David Brown many times, more recently with David as a duo. As a painter he has exhibited since 1969, with numerous paintings held in private and public collections. His experimental film and video works are held in Screen Australia Archives/Library (or whatever title the original National Film Library goes under at these days) having been screened at film festivals here and other countries. James is represented by NKN Gallery: [email protected] Helen Hopkins Co founder of The Shift Theatre with Carolyn Bock, Helen appeared in their productions of Two Sisters and a Piano and Fred at The Dog Theatre in Footscray. Together they have written, produced and performed in The Girls in Grey about Australian army nurses in World War 1 which had an Explorations season at La Mama and has toured Victoria and NSW. Helen has performed for The Australian Shakespeare Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Performing Arts Projects, Hoy Polloy Theatre and many shows at La Mama. She wrote a play about the Chirnside family, Grind and Grandeur, for the 130th anniversary event at Werribee Mansion. Her recent theatre appearances include Wuthering Heights at Ripponlea for The Australian Shakespeare Company and The Shift Theatre’s co-production with L. Wolf Productions of Barry Dickins’ Lost in Ringwood at La Mama Courthouse. Helen has previously worked with James Clayden at La Mama on Substitute for the Mechanics’ Institute, Macbeth X, Evidence, Monologues for an Apocalypse and Mary Shelley and the Monsters as well as the films Ghost Paintings 1-4, Hamlet X and The Marey Project. Sally Armstrong graduated from the VCA in 1995 and has performed in a number of film, television and theatre productions since that time. Her most recent performance was as Trisha in Aurora Calling - The Results of A Joint Observation at Lot 19 in Castlemaine. Sally is also a Speech Pathologist, specialising in the management of voice disorders. She collaborated with James, Meg, Helen, Kevin and John in a production at La Mama Courthouse in 1997 and she is delighted to perform with them once again. Sally was also involved in the original conception of Third Person Other with James in 1997 and is honoured to be a part of its final vision. Meg White has worked for more than 20 years in theatre as both a performer and a designer. Theatre design work includes Dark Heart, Malady of Death, Savannah Bay, Hideous Portraits, Bauernhof, Agatha, Paradise, Krapp’s Last Tape, The Hanging of Jean Lee, …waiting for Godot, The Madness of the Day (La Mama), The Telephone Exchange (fortyfivedownstairs), Mr Puntilla and his man Matti (Trades Hall) and Poet #7 (Black Box). Green Room Awards include Bauernhof (1999) and Mr Puntila and his man Matti (2005). Nominations include: Body of work (1999), Krapp’s Last Tape, Paradise and Poet #7. Meg is also an architect and works at Cottee Parker Architects on a number of large scale projects. Kevin Hopkins has worked in the entertainment industry for 24 years as an actor and director. He has worked with James Clayden in theatre on Macbeth X, Mary Shelley and the Monsters, and last year’s Substitute fro the Mechanics’ Institute and in film on Hamlet X and The Marey Project. Most of his work has been in theatre, with companies including The Melbourne Theatre Co, Complete Works Theatre Co, Arena Theatre Co, Performing Arts Projects, La Mama and others, in all states of Australia and overseas. He has been an ensemble member with The Australian Shakespeare Company for 15 years. In feature films he has been seen in The Settlement, Life, Nigel, Sensitive New Age Killer, has appeared in many television series including Stingers, Blue Heelers, Neighbours, Phryne Fisher, Janus, Phoenix and The Feds. He was head of Acting at regional Arts academy GRADA for 3 yrs, and now teaches for CAE, and runs annual workshops in Europe. Kevin lives in Footscray with partner Helen and their two boys John Francis Howard has performed with numerous mainstream theatre companies and independent co-operatives including Antigone (Hoist Theatre Group), Claustrophobia (La Mama), A Mile In Her Shadow (The Store Room), Non Parlo Di Salo [Do Not Speak Of Salo] (Melbourne Workers Theatre), and Hamlet (APT). John’s television appearances include guest roles in various ABC and Network TV series including Blue Heelers, Stingers and The Nick. His cinema work includes principle roles in numerous short films including Hell’s Gates and An Illness At The House; and in the feature films Sweethearts, Deadly Chase, Open City, The Marey Project, Purge, Hamlet, and Van Diemen’s Land. David Brown has been involved in the Melbourne avant-garde, art rock/punk rock scene since the mid-seventies. The focus of his solo projec, candlesnuffer, has increasingly centred on the development of composing techniques which meld opposing streams like conventional electroacoustic methods with noise and rock and also the development of a vocabulary of tiny acoustic sounds enlarged outside their normal context. He has continued to develop a vocabulary that runs the gamut from rock bassist through experimental guitarist to sound artist and has recently completed a PhD project researching the use of electroacoustic compositions in a public hospital Emergency Department. Adam Simmons is a sought after woodwind multi-instrumentalist, well known for creating the Adam Simmons Toy Band, he is currently performing with Nick Tsiavos Ensemble, BOLT Ensemble, The Pearly Shells, Tanin-e Melbourne, and Origami and has worked with international and major artists such as Ernest Ranglin, Nigel Kennedy, Peter Brotzmann, Odean Pope, The Mavis’s, You Am I, Spiderbait, Australian Art Orchestra, Kutcha Edwards, Legends of Motorsport and Gotye? His recent commissions include for the Quiddity Project, celebrating the Federation Bells (Melbourne Museum), as well as by M.A.D.E. for Eureka 160 to produce a song for a 100-voice choir to be performed in December 2014. He is also the Artistic Director and creator of the Festival of Slow Music (Ballarat) Dur-e Dara is a Sounder and Improviser and has performed over many years in Melbourne. Dure and her partner David Tolley worked and collaborated with James Clayden on various projects over the years. James’ Operetta is a renewal of this connection for Dure. Office Phone: (03) 9347 6948 Office Hours: Mon – Fri 10:30am – 5:30pm Level 1, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton VIC 3053 www.lamama.com.au [email protected] www.facebook.com/lamama.theatre Our sincerest thanks to the many volunteers who generously give their time in support of La Mama. La Mama’s Committee of Management, staff and its wider theatrical community acknowledge that our theatre is on traditional Wurundjeri land. The La Mama community acknowledges the considerable support it has received in the past decade from Jeannie Pratt and The Pratt Foundation. La Mama is financially assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council – its arts funding and advisory body, the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria - Department of Premier and Cabinet, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts and Culture triennial funding program.
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