Meme Girls Program

MEME GIRLS 8 APRIL – 2 MAY 2015

Malthouse Theatre presents

MEME GIRLS CHAPTER TWO: POST // LOVE *** BECKETT THEATRE Created by / Ash Flanders, Stephen Nicolazzo & Marion Potts based on an original idea by Ash Flanders Direction / Stephen Nicolazzo Set & Costume Design / Eugyeene Teh Lighting Design / Katie Sfetkidis Sound Design & Composition / THE SWEATS Cast / Ash Flanders, Art Simone Stage Manager / Lisa Osborn

Special thanks to Tamed by Trent Ashley for Art Simone’s wigs.

Malthouse Theatre would like to acknowledge the people of the Kulin nation on whose land this work is being presented.

Director’s Note

Like Charles Ludlam, Karen Finely and Leigh Bowery, Ash Flanders explores identity politics through the art of physical transformation and serious laughs. It’s as much about him as a human being, as it is about the characters he portrays. It’s like watching a young man attempt to find himself through the act of performance. There is sarcasm present, but always honesty and innocence, and a genuine love of the genders, races, or classes he represents on stage.

Flanders’ style of performance is beyond drag. Or at least beyond drag in the form we are generally familiar with. But what I think we are trying to explore with Meme Girls is that drag and performativity are a political act that has the power to obliterate binary oppositions.

weirdly, and perhaps sadly, become the New Theatre, a place where audiences can instantly connect with their community.

I’d like to thank Marion Potts for her perceptive and passionate part in the making of this work.

She has challenged and inspired me in all the right ways and I am deeply grateful to have had the chance to work with such a legend before her departure from Malthouse Theatre.

I would also like to thank Eugyeene Teh, Katie Sfetkidis and THE SWEATS – a design team who are crazy, creative, and inspiring, and have informed the creation of this work in ways I never thought possible.

Finally, I would like to thank Ash Flanders and Art Simone, two incomparable artists whose no-bullshit attitude and For Flanders, YouTube love of risk has allowed us to monologues hold the same weight unlock the world of YouTube as a Shakespearean soliloquy. in a bizarre and unique way.

They are, as we have discovered I don’t think I will be able to watch over the last three years of a YouTube video again. Ever. But developing this work, deeply I hope you enjoy the show. theatrical and hold just as many satisfying creative possibilities Stephen Nicolazzo / for a performer. YouTube has Director

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY /

Andrew Gough

COVER TREATMENT /

The Sisters Hayes

REHEARSAL IMAGES /

Sarah Walker