ENTERTAINMENT NORPA WORKSHOPS FOR 8–18 WITH LILITH BREAKING ASTRO-NEWS THIS WEEK IS SATURN, PLANET OF LAW AND ORDER, JOINING MIDWEEK MOON, LATEWEEK SUN AND PLUTO IN AMBITIOUS CAPRICORN FOR THE ULTIMATE LET’S DO THIS RIGHT TRANSIT… ARIES: How best to mesh your personal input and courageous nature with the logistical workings of this wild week? Stay open and receptive to delicious synchronicities and the encouragement of others. Make a conscious attitude adjustment to less battleground, more dancefloor. Don’t squander energy. Take deep breaths. Smile. Happy Xmas. TAURUS: The current influx of Capricorn energetics favours earth-sign activities and operating styles. Meaning take it slowly. Balance the countless expectations, needs and demands of family, friends and community with enough of the quiet calm you naturally crave. Meanwhile, it’s a pretty decent week for seasonal shopping bargains, holidays upgrades and getting the best for less.
GEMINI: Current conditions not unexpectedly spell changing arrangements in Capitals. Italics. Underlined. With exclamation marks. So be ready to dance with shifting goalposts, alternative plans and ongoing adjustments. Lucky flexibility’s your forte, because this week calls for maximum adaptability with a generous dash of creative genius. All the best.
LIBRA: With this week, month and significant sections of the coming year’s emphasis on your home zone, there’s plenty of action in the domestic arena. If seasonal plans or purchases fail to gain traction, consider alternatives. Everyone’s commitment rich and time poor right now, but still keep space open in your schedule for happy surprises. SCORPIO: Moving on from Scorpio’s sector of economic self-esteem, Saturn arrives for a major upgrade of your communications zone – kicking right off with disciplined verbal expression. Because the way you say what you say will boomerang straight back this week: which depending on your output, could be flirty badinage, witty repartee or accurate feedback…
SAGITTARIUS: This week insists on thorough, patient strategising for important decisions, because snap judgments and hasty behaviour could have adverse long-term consequences. On the upside, early-week Sagittarius new moon flung open the cosmic portal for your personal wish list, and Venus in your sign is inviting a fresh new restyle.
CANCER:New moon, as always, brought a lift for you lunar beings, with this week’s stimulating an urge to spice up daily routines with something fresh and adventurous. Or maybe introduce some new, unusual slant to holiday entertaining: a creative twist to Xmas gift-giving and get-togethers, something fun and different for family gatherings or community celebrations.
CAPRICORN: Happy birthday, Goat folk, as the astral bonanza of midweek moon, late-week sun and Saturn join Pluto in your sign: an awesome planetary quartet planting the force solidly in Capricorn corner. As your ambitious personality steps into its hour of power, management and organisational skills blossom, but stay available for unanticipated outcomes.
LEO: Been having second thoughts about holiday plans and commitments, future career directions and relationships? Serious Saturn is adding its weight to seasonal considerations, but these needn’t weigh heavily so long as you don’t overbook. Lighten up via the occasional break and breather. Let chance work this week’s magic on your behalf.
AQUARIUS: If approached with determined and purposeful zest, this could be a spritzy week for the free spirited and open minded, which usually describes your Aquirkyan selves. And with Saturn in your spirit house of psychological insight shining a spotlight on inner dramas, you certainly won’t have to travel far for entertainment.
VIRGO: The present earth sign emphasis is excellent news for Virgos, coming as it does with heaps of cosmic support. Which just keeps increasing as this week simplifies choices and decisions by suggesting you stop should-ing yourself. Doing what makes you happy tends to make those who love you heave a sigh of relief
PISCES: Of all signs, yours has the most need of private downtime to refresh, replenish, restore and recover from the hectic festive pace. It’s especially necessary this week with Saturn loading your house of communal activities and group projects with extra responsibilities, special events, festive follies… need I go on?
80 December 20, 2017 The Byron Shire Echo
NORPA is offering three exciting theatre workshops for young people aged 8–18 with leading Australian theatre practitioners and educators Barry Liang, Kate Walder (Australian Theatre for Young People) and Ajita Cannings (NORPA). Each workshop is spread across four days (22–25 January) and explores the exciting ways in which NORPA makes theatre – from the physical and dynamic to the bold and downright silly. The workshops are: Stepping into Images with Barry Liang For 15–18-year-olds Bridge the space between imagination and physicality by exploring the intersection of image, movement, music and text. Explore collaborative strategies for theatre-making and creating images that emerge from young people’s concerns and interests. Conducted by Barry Liang, an internationally experienced performer and educator with vast experience in community development projects, theatre, dance, visual arts, cabaret and site-specific performance. His body of work has addressed actor/ performer training, devising/composition techniques, physical/ movement practice and strategies, imaginal practice, and writing for and from performance. Not a Word with Kate Walder For 12–15-year-olds Explore how much you can say without actually saying anything. Discover how physical theatre can help us express a range of emotions and explore clowning and mask work. Kate Walder is a regular tutor at the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), Monkey Baa Theatre Company, The Arts Unit, DramaWorks and Opera Express. Her physical theatre piece created for Newcastle DramaWorks was selected for State Drama Festival 2017. Empowered play-making with Ajita Cannings For 8–12-year-olds This workshop holds children’s natural joy and inherent inquisitiveness as performers and creators at its heart. An exciting and safe environment in which to explore performance. Ajita Cannings ran away with the circus all the way to Switzerland, where she performed as an acrobat and trapeze artist with Circolino Pipistrello. Every week the circus landed on a new spielplatz – playground – with a Big Top, twenty-five caravans, two cats and sixteen circus performers ready to make a new show in just four days with 100 children. On returning to Oz she began tutoring with Riverina Young People’s Theatre and went on to work with Australian Theatre for Young People. She has a long history of working with young people through NORPA, and was assistant director to Kirk Page on NORPA’s recent work Djurra. Each workshop runs for four days over 22–25 January. 10am– 4pm at Lismore City Hall $260 per student / $240 earlybird price if paid by 7 January 2018. A limited amount of financial-hardship scholarships are available. For more information and to book visit www.norpa.org.au or contact Ajita Cannings at education@norpa.org.au.
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ATHERTON HEADS UP HOME GROWN COMEDY Jonathan Atherton is without a doubt one of the most gifted comedians you are likely to see. His father was the editor-in-chief of the Courier Mail, and later he lived abroad exposing a young and attentive Jonathan to his lifelong inspiration: culture. The guy is like a sponge for language, but he’s no mimic; he understands language because he understands people in a very real way. ‘Australian culture is such a contradiction. I think of us as a nation of poofta-bashing redneck homosexual chardonnay sippers! Foreign Affairs and Trade should be giving me money to do what I do – the number of times people have come up to me and said (in India) I didn’t think Australians could understand Asian culture!’ Jonathan can talk. A lot. It’s like being under a philosophical avalanche that just keeps coming and coming. Everything is involved. He talks about the universe, politics, sex, men, women, and even the nature of the human heart. For Atherton, the stage is the therapist’s couch, and in an hour of dialogue he unravels. It’s mystifying to behold. ‘When I am onstage, I bare my soul. We all have that side; I think it makes people really comfortable that they have a dark side or an angry line. There’s a fine line between rape and seduction; I like that fine line. Sometimes it goes all terribly wrong. We tend to live in a tent of denial about our dark side, and I think that part of the job of the comedian is to shed light.’ Jonathan Atherton is the MC at the Byron Brewery on Thursday for Home Crafted Comedy, the monthly night that showcases the best emerging talent in the region. 8pm. Free.
PICKERING A WINNER Last month Charlie Pickering had to cancel his sold-out show at the Byron Brewery owing to illness but he promised to be back! And he is! A whole new show is scheduled for Thursday 18 January! Pickering spends his time between Australia and the US, and is currently in Oz making the annual ABC wrap-up of the year that was The Yearly. Edgy, polished and inventive, Charlie Pickering is one of the most exciting names in Australian comedy. Charlie is a political junkie, law graduate, and was the voice of his generation as a regular team captain for Generation X on Network Ten’s quiz show Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation. He was also on your TV screen every weeknight for five years as co-host of The Project, where the day’s news is dissected, digested and re-constituted by some of Australia’s funniest and smartest. Charlie has earned many an accolade for his live work over the years, including nominations for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in Edinburgh, the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as being named Best International Guest by the NZ Comedy Guild. He’s even been nominated for a Logie and in 2011 picked up Media Personality of the Year in the GQ Men of the Year Awards. Charlie was invited to perform at the prestigious Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal in 2016, guest hosted several episodes of ABC News 24’s Planet America – a political comedy show looking at the US presidential race. He also performed a brand-new solo show How to Tame a Wild Squirrel at the 2016 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Just For Laughs at the Sydney Opera House. In 2015 Charlie joined the team at ABC TV to premiere a news comedy show, a tonight show, a chat show and a panel show all in one – The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. The critically acclaimed show aired its third season in 2017. He’s been called dangerously funny, which he is. He is joined by support Damian Power, three-time Barry Award nominee and widely regarded as one of the most exhilarating voices in Australian comedy. He has been called the bar-room philosopher. His material is incisive, deep thinking and has even the drunkest person in the room contemplating their reason for being. He’s genius. With Ellen Briggs as MC this is one cracker of a show. Byron Brewery. Thursday 18 January. Doors 7pm, Show 8pm. $25. Tix on trybooking.com/SLDY
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo