Metamorphosis - June Season of Student Productions 2021

STUDENT PRODUCTIONS June 2021 nida.edu.au/june-2021

WELCOME I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we learn and tell stories, the Bidjigal and Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present who have cared for land, water and story on these lands for generations. We also recognise the work and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, workers and creatives within the NIDA Community.

Sovereignty was never ceded.

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you to another outstanding June Season of Student Productions at NIDA. The focus on digital and emerging technologies is now embedded in NIDA’s core practice as we commit to creating and nurturing the world’s best storytellers and unlocking the power of the performing arts across stages, screens, future media and beyond.

These four, fully-staged NIDA productions tell stories that will surprise and shake. With live cinema, an urban mystery, an urgent demolition and a flagship partnership – this is a season of shapeshifting.

Change is in the air. Certainties are challenged. The past and present collide.

Eat Me is a series of four short new Australian plays in one night, devised and produced in a unique collaborative process with NIDA, Sydney Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group, and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) with leading writers and directors. Metamorphosis is a big and bold interpretation of a classic Franz Kafka, directed

by NIDA Course Leader Dr Benjamin Schostakowski. We’re delighted to welcome Kate Champion back to NIDA, directing Hilary Bell’s confronting Perfect Stranger, where the world of audience and performer collides in a revolving world. Award-winning Heather Fairbairn disrupts accepted modes of storytelling with Alice Birch’s exposure of patriarchy REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN. This season gives all our students the opportunity to push boundaries and engage with industry representatives, agents, theatre and event companies, film, and television producers.

The state-of-the-art performance spaces they work in, as well as the experts they have access to at every step of the creative process, are what makes NIDA one of the world’s top performing arts educators.

It is fantastic to see the outcomes of the hard work of the incredible group of talented and passionate students and practising artists from diverse backgrounds and from all over Australia.

We couldn’t present any of these high-calibre productions without support from the Australian Government, our Principal Partner for Property Services ARA, our Major Partners Technical Direction Company and Canon Australia, our Corporate Partner YouTube, our Supporters Tempus Two, Young Henrys, Media Super and Screen Australia, our Legal Services Supporter Kay & Hughes, our Event supporter Fourth Wall and the trusts and foundations and the generous individuals who make up our donors and supporters.

We hope you enjoy these live productions.

– Liz Hughes, CEO

June Season of Student Productions 2021 Rehearsals

Metamorphosis

By Franz Kafka Translated and adapted by David Farr and Gísli Örn Garðarsson Directed by Benjamin Schostakowski NIDA Theatres, Reg Grundy Studio 11,15–18 June, 7.45pm 15 June, 1pm Running time 90 minutes Metamorphosis will be performed in one act with no interval It is one of the most famous opening lines in literary history: As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a delightfully strange fable that reaches universally into the darker side of the human condition – isolation, estrangement, and fear of something or someone that represents the ‘other’. The theatrical potential in this fable is compelling: the magical realist overtones, the melancholic setting, and at its heart, a story that is psychologically complex but narratively to the point.

This adaptation for the stage was originally created by David Farr and Gísli Örn Garðarsson for a 2006 coproduction by the Lyric Hammersmith London and Vesturport, an Icelandic theatre company. The compact and thoughtful theatricalisation of the text offers a playground of rich potential for a team of theatre artists to create from.

With some consideration, we arrived at the idea of working in the form of live-cinema to provide a multifaceted theatrical experience for audiences to fall deep into the dream or nightmare, as it were. For the actors, designers, technicians and makers who collaborated on this production, on offer was the opportunity to draw from powerful techniques of storytelling in both live performance and cinema as art forms.

The process of creation has been principally experimental and altogether thrilling to witness.

It is an exciting glimmer into the creative potential of our next generation of professional artists.

– Benjamin Schostakowski, Director

Presented by NIDA BFA Design for Performance, BFA Costume, BFA Properties and Objects, BFA Scenic Construction and Technologies, BFA Technical Theatre and Stage Management, MFA Directing and final year BFA Acting students.

Company

Gregor Grete Mother Father Stietl/Fischer

Philip Lynch Julie Bettens Alyona Popova Riley McNamara Flynn Barnard

Director Benjamin Schostakowski** Assistant Director Amy Sole Set Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Video Designer Sound Designer

Soham Apte Blake Hedley Nathan Sandy Joel Mallett Trillian Vieira

Voice Coach Gavin Leahy * Movement Coach Troy Honeysett*

Production Manager Zac Saric Stage Manager Chloe Langdon Assistant Stage Manager Christopher Milburn

Construction Manager Lynsey Brown**

Props Supervisor Isabell De Laurentis

Costume Supervisor Ori Hiser

Head Electrician Scott Cleggett

Video Systems McLane Catterall

Design Assistants Taylah Miller Madaleine Cooper

Costume Assistant Laura Moschner

Props Assistant Jess McIntosh

Sets Assistant Eryn Douglas Tommaso Patelli

Cinematographer and Camera Operator Carter Cheng*

Camera Operators Keelan Ellis Daniel Story

Mic Technician Isobel Morrissey

*Guest artist **NIDA staff

Thank you to AFTRS, Kim Batterham Head of Cinematography at AFTRS and Carter Cheng, guest student artist, AFTRS.

Graduating students 2021 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)

G abriel A lvarado

H annah Julii A nder s on

Fly nn B arnard

Julie B et tens

O liv ia B ourne

S haw C ameron

R yan Ennis s

A my Joyce

Libby Kay

A lfre d Kouris

A shan Kum ar

A ri Ma za Long

Charlot te L uc a s

Philip Ly nch

Wern M ak

B raydon May

Riley McNam ara

A lyona Pop ova

Harrison Q ua s t

C onnor Reilly

Mem a Munro

Chris t y Tran

Eb ony Tucker

Adolphus Wayle e

L ucy Jauris to

S am antha Manning

S iobhan Nealon

A ngelina Meany

H ayden Relf

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Costume)

Elsb eth C ameron

B ethany Hew it t

O ri His er

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design for Performance)

S oham A pte

B lake He dley

Hannah Tayler

H annah Yardley

A my Jack s on

Pho eni x Mckay

Is ab ella S altearn

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Properties and Objects)

Hunter D epalo

Danielle G uyot

Rachel Hallet t

Is ab ell de L aurentis

Zo e M anning

Rhyanna M ar tinus s en

Z achar y Por telli

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Scenic Construction and Technologies)

C atherine Imer

M at thew Hinton

Z achar y W hite

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Theatre and Stage Management)

Elif A kgul

Is a ac B arron

K aitly n Cro cker

S ophie Jone s

Leia Lois a

Alex Makaronopoulos

Jo el M allet t

K r ys telle Q uar term ain

Jame s Rawlings

S aint Clair

Nathan Sandy

Z achar y S aric

Mellit a Ver tigan

Trillian V ieira

Sy billa Wajon

S ophia Wallace

Rik iah L izarraga

A my S ole

A lexei Ymer-Welsby

Master of Fine Arts (Directing)

Eve B e ck

Madeleine D iggins

S amuel Jing

STUDENT PRODUCTIONS JUNE 2021

NIDA employs a wide range of industry professionals on both a part-time and casual basis who teach students across all the courses. NIDA would like to acknowledge and thank all members of staff who have shared their expertise with the 2021 students.

NIDA is grateful for the support of our corporate partners, trusts and foundations, supporters and donors.

Principal Partner for Property Services

Major Partners

Corporate Partner

Legal Services

Supporters

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The National Institute of Dramatic Art is supported by the Australian Government