PROGRAM
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DIRECTORS NOTE A STORY ABOUT PEOPLE AND PLACE
Paradise is Singing is comprised of three chapters by three writers. The piece is a work for and about Cairns, an examination of ‘place’: a ‘place’ where we live, fall in love, fail and celebrate. Paradise is Singing is a where people change place and place changes people, but what is this vast idea of place? ‘Place’ is not space. Space is an area, a concrete idea, whereas ‘place’ is an abstraction. ‘Place’ is defined by our emotions and memory, our rituals, and the values we ‘place’ on spaces we consider important. Dr David Fenton
We need a sense of place because we need community. As such, the three chapters of this poly-vocal work convey with different theatrical styles important questions: ‘How do we find home?’, ‘What is special, poetic, and prosaic about our place?’, ‘How addictive, seductive, and dangerous is our place?’, ‘How cruel, exclusive, and lonely is our place?', and most importantly ‘Is this our place at all?’ As the work’s Director I am not from this place, yet I have had the good fortune to work consistently with JUTE since before their inception in the early 1990s. My role, beyond staging and interpreting the work, is to defer to the actors, who have a strong ownership of place and ask them for the specifics of their experience in Cairns in 2016. This show is a joy, full of music, social commentary, heart, forgiveness and cruelty but most of all ‘place’ is a hard thing to pin down. It’s something that makes our experience specific of Cairns uncannily universal. Thanks to those who have played. David Fenton
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY
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PLAYWRIGHTS In 2014, her play Thieves was chosen for national development by Playwriting Australia, and was later chosen for presentation at the 2014 National Play Festival. Her play Bag O’ Marbles won The New York Dramatists’ Exchange in 2001, a national award that took the play and the playwright to New York. Other plays produced by JUTE include Digging In, Flutter, Pop, Hands Of Lesser Men (as part of Jute’s 7 Deadly Australian Sins production of 2008 and Cake!). Ash was also one of the driving forces behind Kathryn Ash
the instigation of JUTE's award-winning and highly respected script development program, Enter Stage
Write, which has opened career pathways for many regional playwrights. Kathryn is a founding member of JUTE, and is delighted to work with the company on a project-by-project basis. She is the JUTE Dramaturg in Residence in 2016 and is currently under commission by JUTE for a new work, Doug is Hamlet, which will be produced and toured in 2017.
Michael Gow’s plays include the Australian classic Away, Toy Symphony, The Kid, On Top of the World, Europe, Sweet Phoebe, Live Acts on Stage, 17 (for the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain) and Once in Royal David’s City. His plays have been performed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Vietnam, Japan and all over the US. Michael has been Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company and Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company. He has directed for all the major Australian theatre companies as Michael Gow
well as Opera Australia, Australian Theatre for Young People and the Lincoln Centre’s New Visions New
Voices Programme. Michael’s awards include two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, two Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Awards and an AFI Award for writing the ABC miniseries Edens Lost. His most recent play Once in Royal David’s City premiered at Belvoir St Theatre in 2014. In 2015 he directed a remount of his production of The Magic Flute for Opera Australia and his translation of Mother Courage and Her Children premiered at Belvoir St Theatre. 2016 has seen two critically acclaimed productions touring under Michael’s direction with Voyage to the Moon (which he also wrote the libretto for) for Victorian Opera / Musical Vivia and The Pearlfishers for Opera Australia.
Mark Gaal is Director of Vocational Studies and a member of the Executive Team at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art). A graduate of the University of Queensland and NIDA, Mark has directed productions for organisations including Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street Theatre, Opera Australia and JUTE Theatre Company. Mark is a regular Guest Director for Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera where he will direct Monteverdi’s, Coronation of Poppea in 2017. Mark Gaal
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY
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CAST + CREATIVES DIRECTOR - During his thirty-year career in the theatre David has directed over sixty-five productions for companies including Bell Shakespeare, La Boite, Qld Music Festival, QUT/QPAC, NIDA and JUTE. He is the founding producer of The Human Company, an independent theatre company specialising in live and digital performance. Most recently he premiered his adaption of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis to a sell-out season at Brisbane Powerhouse in 2015. Significant positions Dr David Fenton
David has held include CEO of Metro Arts, Head of Performance Practices at NIDA, Artistic
Director/CEO of Northern Ireland's Replay Theatre, Festival Director for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Manager of Events & Entertainment at Sydney Olympic Park Authority and Artistic Director of Riverina Theatre Company. David completed his PhD in Performance Innovation at Queensland University of Technology in 2007, for which he won the Philip Parsons Prize for performance as research from The Australian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies. ACTOR - Roz has been a constant in the Australian Music Industry for approximately 20 years as musician (one half of Women in Docs, independent original and international touring act), as a strong solo artist, as well as emerging playwright, actor, presenter, programmer and producer currently based in regional Queensland. While working on a variety of touring and community development based Roz Pappalardo
musical projects, she is currently touring as one of the songwriters in The Soldiers Wife project which
has seen her work artistically and musically with women and families who've lost their partners in war. Roz has diversified her extensive song writing experience into writing two plays through JUTE Theatre Company's, Enter Stage Write program which she was also presented on stage. Rosa, toured regional Queensland and Internationally. She is also working on a new work in creative development, Banging on the Door. Roz has performed in JUTE Theatre Company's smash hit, What are the Odds? Her first professional acting foray was playing Margarita Paronella in Paronella Park's presentation of The Impossible Dream. Roz is extremely excited to appear in JUTE Theatre Company's current production, Paradise is Singing with her great mentors and friends, Rachel Terry and Susan Prince, and looks forward to casting a new and quirky light on Paradise through a different lens...and a guitar. ACTOR - A founding member of JUTE Theatre Company. Susan has performed with QTC, Tropic Sun, Hard Sun, JUTE Theatre Company, Creative Regions and Full Throttle Theatre Company, in over 80 plays. She has directed some 23 plays and won a highly commended for writing her play Aids The Musical. Her one-woman show Is My Lipstick On Straight? was nominated for the Cairns Post Hit Susan Prince
Awards. She has also been invited to be on the wall of fame at the Innisfail Conservatorium of Music.
This year Susan has been resident with Full Throttle Theatre Company in the capacity of Actor/Marketing in Antigone, Director of Brecht's A Respectable Wedding and Actor/Director for Astronomical, a new work. Susan is a theatre maker and has been an actor, director, playwright, costume maker, stage manager, production manager, lighting designer and mechanist.
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY
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CAST + CREATIVES ACTOR- Rachel studied directing at the Queensland University of Technology as part of the Drama Open Program before being accepted into the acting course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art where she completed a Bachelor in Dramatic Art (Acting). Her theatre directing credits include, Frying Saucers and Waiting for Godot (Assistant Director) at QUT, Anything Goes for Cranbrook Boys School Rachel Cleland Terry
and The Wiz for Ascham Girls High, After Dinner and Europe for Dirty Bird Productions, The Vagina
Monologues for Gestation Productions. Rachel has worked as an actor for JUTE numerous times since its inception including, The Breast Project, The Impossible Dream (remount at Karnak) and Soph and the Real World. In 2016 she Directed, The Salt Remains. She is currently teaching drama and dance at Smithfield State High School.
SET DESIGNER - Simona Cosentini is a Neapolitan Scenographer. She graduated in Stage Design in 2007 at the Fine Art Academy in Bologna. Simona started out as a stage painter in 2003, working both as charge artist and in props, she then joined the dressmaking and the costume design department, to the Chief of Stage Design in opera plays and dramas with regional and independent theatre companies. Simona Cosentini
Her costume design credits include Paolo & Francesca, La serva padrona and Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Simona started her independent production and creative development in opera plays and dramas mainly for Operaovunque and Teatro Colli. Since 2013 Simona has been working with local theatre companies. Her credits include Half & Half, Propelled, Sentinel Chickens, Proppa Solid, Delirium, Stewed and Is My Lipstick on Straight? In 2015, she created the headpieces for the performance, Biddigal Dreaming, produced by Biddigal Dreaming Arts. She worked as mentor in costume design during the community theatre project, Macbeth, run by Tropical Arts Association, ARC and DCT. Currently, she is working on the upcoming production, My Name is Jimi, produced by Queensland Theatre Company as well as Mr Takahashi and Doug is Hamlet with JUTE Theatre Company.
SET DESIGNER - Simone Tesorieri is an Italian Scenographer from Bologna who graduated with Honours in Scenography from the Fine Art Academy in Alma Mater. His career started in the late 90’s as a fine art sculptor and decorator, skills that lead him to master-craft art for local theatre. He then progresses to Stage and Prop Designer in lyric opera and musical plays for regional, Civic Theatre and Simone Tesorieri
independent theatre companies in Italy. Simone then became a Producer and Designer. His stage design
credits include, Madam Butterfly, Traviata, Don Pasquale, Boheme and Cavalleria Rusticana with Bonci Theatre. Since his arrival in Australia, Simone has been involved in Like a Fishbone, Half & Half, Propelled, Sentinel Chickens, Proper Solid, Delirium, Stewed and Is My Lipstick on Straight? He has also worked with TurnDogQuick Films on the production, On Stage. He has mentored in set and prop design for the community theatre project, Macbeth by Tropical Arts Association, ARC and DCT. Currently, he is working on the upcoming production, My Name is Jimi, produced by Queensland Theatre Company as well as Mr Takahashi and Doug is Hamlet with JUTE Theatre Company.
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY
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CAST + CREATIVES LIGHTING DESIGNER- Jason graduated from QUT’s Technical production course in 2007. Since then he has lit just under 200 plays, cabarets, dance works, musicals, operas and installations for some of Australia’s most reputable companies, directors and choreographers. Credits as Lighting Designer include, The Salt Remains, Is My Lipstick on Straight?, Stewed, Delirium, Soph and the Real World, At Sea Jason Glenwright
Staring Up (JUTE); The Tragedy of King Richard III, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Pale Blue Dot, Ruben
Guthrie, Julius Caesar (La Boite); Argus (Dead Puppets Society/QTC); I want to Know What Love Is (The Good Room/QTC); I Should Have Drunk More Champagne (The Good Room); A Tribute of Sorts (Metro Arts/QTC); Faustus (Bell Shakespeare/QTC); Country Song, The Removalists, Water Falling Down, The Little Dog Laughed, Thom Pain (Queensland Theatre Company); A Hoax (Griffin Theatre/La Boite); Endgame, George's Marvellous Medicine, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Revolting Rhymes & Dirty Beasts, Tequila Mockingbird, Out Damn Snot, 1984, Animal Farm (Shake & Stir Theatre co); Cats The Arena Spectacular, Guys & Dolls, Blood Brothers, Oklahoma!, Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar (Harvest Rain); Wrecking Ball, Rumour Has It (Little Red). Jason was awarded a Matilda Award (Best Technical Design) for Dracula in 2015 and a Gold Matilda Award for his Body of Work in 2013. In 2010, 2012 and 2013, Jason won Groundling Award’s for Best Body of Work. Nine of Jason’s designs have received Del Arte Chart awards over the last 7 years. SOUND DESIGNER - Quincy writes as a freelance composer on commissions from musicians around Australia and Internationally. In recent years he has written and performed a lot of music for theatre, working with companies such as Slingsby, Circa, Brink Productions and State Theatre SA. He also writes for concert performances, films and plays in many groups: from rock to new music and most recently Quincy Grant
wild gypsy music with Golonka and rollicking sea-song rock with Mumpsimus. In 2016 he is writing and
performing the music for Slingsby’s, The Young King, touring to Japan with Golonka, writing music for 4 documentaries and short films and is at the beginnings of a new opera. In 2015 he toured with Little Bird, wrote the music for Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Much Ado about Nothing and co-created Circa’s Il Ritorno for the Brisbane Festival and international touring (which won a Helpmann Award in 2016). He is Co-director of The Firm, a company that presents concerts each year featuring Australian classical musicians in programs of new Australian music alongside interesting repertoire. His orchestral works have been performed by the Adelaide, Queensland and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. In 2013 his opera, An Ode to Nonsense, was premiered by Slingsby and the State Opera of SA. This is the second production he has done with JUTE: the first being, At Sea, Staring Up in 2012. AV DESIGNER - With a dynamic audio visual career spanning over 20 years, Dave has been involved with hundreds of productions around Australia. Utilising the myriad of skills gained through this process, he has emerged as an artist, with a unique blend of techniques; combining and manipulating the interconnections between various audio and visual technologies in order to manifest experiences that Dave Masters
are a delight to the senses and challenging to our perceptions of Art vs Science.
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY
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CAST + CREATIVES STAGE MANAGER - Angela Burchett is a Brisbane based stage manager, mechanist, and performer. She completed her training at Griffith University with a Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Performance and Applied Theatre. She received Griffith Awards for Academic Excellence in both 2013 and 2014. Angela stage managed JUTE/ Knock-Em-Down /Browns Mart Productions, Bastard Angela Burchett
Territory, The Lisa Gasteen National Opera School’s 5th Anniversary Opera Gala with Queensland
Symphony Orchestra, Camerata of St John’s Things That Go Bump In The Night, Play On Production’s Learning to Love Gravity, Lizzie Moore’s Cool Britannia (Brisbane Powerhouse), This Child directed by Glyn Roberts (Metro Arts), Delirium Comedy Group’s True Stories, Something’s Red Cordial Love, and DNA directed by Daniel Evans. Angela Assistant Stage Managed The Danger Ensemble’s Caligula (Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts). She has collaborated and performed in Ship of Fools and Dog on Jetty, directed by Shaun Charles. As well as directed her adaption of Steven Berkoff’s play Exit. Angela is passionate about a future working in high energy and positive theatre and film and is delighted to join the team of Paradise is Singing in her second production with JUTE Theatre Company. STAGE MANAGER - Sam’s passion and expertise within the theatre and live events industry, combined with his excellence in the execution of what he does, makes him a sought-after individual. With a professional career exceeding over 17 years, Sam has managed countless national and international events, festivals, productions in a variety of roles. Extremely hands on, Sam has worked Sam Gibb
with national and international companies, artists as production manager, event operations manager,
technical manager, technical designer, stage manager, tour manager, technical operator, lighting designer, FOH audio engineer, monitor engineer, technical consultant and theme designer. Sam has worked in a variety of dynamic and challenging roles and venues around Australia – from the Rainforest to Rural Outback Australia to the Sydney Opera House - sometimes working around the clock to ensure nothing but the best outcome is realised. Sam has toured extensively throughout Australia and overseas in a variety of technical roles. He is excited to support the creative team technically during the process of this production. This is Sam’s 20th production with JUTE.
JUTE STAFF ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CEO - Suellen Maunder MARKETING, SALES, EVENTS - Peta Cooke EVENTS, ADMIN - Amanda Belanger MARKETING, ADMIN - Karen Engel
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY
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FUNDING + SPONSORS
THANK YOU TO... Our beautiful JUTE volunteers who tirelessly assisted with this production. Our generous supporters, audience and sponsors. Red Shoe Collective GBR Helicopters Big Hat Pictures Final Touch Productions Gary Gulliford KickArts Contemporary Arts Centre of Contemporary Arts
JUTE THEATRE COMPANY