PLAY TITLE: Sad Song
PLAYWRIGHT: Anna Ziegler
PERFORMANCE DATES: Tues 29 January – Sat February 2, 2008
THEATRE: Seymour Centre, Downstairs
DIRECTOR: Richard James Allen
CAST: Zoe Tuckwell-Smith, Ben Davy-Thorburn, and Stephen Peacocke
CREW: Designer: Mark Quinan, Sound Designer: William Lawlor
BRIEF SYNOPSIS:
Log Line (written by director):
One moment could change your life. But not in the way you think.
One Line Synopsis (written by director):
In “Sad Song”, a drunken young woman makes a brave and perhaps foolhardy lunge at happiness, but will the man she loves catch her before she falls?
One Paragraph (written by writer):
In "Sad Song," a college house party is the backdrop for revelations and resignation. One young woman pours her heart out only to find that opening up does not always lead to the catharsis and healing one hopes for or expects. A play about the complications of being an almost-adult, "Sad Song" is funny, heartfelt and honest.
REVIEWS:
sad song (2 male, 1 female)
is published in New American Short Plays 2005 (Backstage Books).
Its editor, Craig Lucas, wrote that sad song
"manages to provide a glimpse of late adolescence or early adulthood--whatever you call it, it's that appalling time when you don't have any idea what damage you are doing to other people, or yourself, as you blithely flail and stumble around trying to hammer together some sort of Self--a 'personality,' a set of likes and dislikes, a job, a mate, a life; the results are both tender and terribly bitter."
BIOG INFO:
WRITER: Anna Ziegler
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS
Anna Ziegler was born in New York City in 1979. She grew up in Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights and attended Saint Ann's School for twelve long years. She graduated from Yale College in 2001 with a BA in English, and then went to England for a year to frequent local pubs and write poems at the University of East Anglia (at a program then run by Andrew Motion, England's Poet Laureate), where she earned a Masters in Creative Writing.
In 2002, Anna began the MFA program in Dramatic Writing at the Tisch School of the Arts. While there she wrote such well-known works as Sad Song and Everything You Have. She graduated in 2004.
After graduate school, Anna moved to Washington DC and taught Introduction to Creative Writing as an adjunct at George Washington University, and English and Creative Writing at The Charles E Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD.
She recently returned to New York, and life in Brooklyn Heights, and is spending her days at St. Ann's School, as a former student-turned-teacher, and as a writer trying to find the time to write.
Anna Ziegler’s plays include: BFF (produced by W.E.T. at the DR2 Theatre, 2007), NOVEL (SPF, 2007), LIFE SCIENCE (produced by Jack Thomas, 2007), PHOTOGRAPH 51 (to be produced by Active Cultures, February 2008), DOV AND ALI, IN THE SAME ROOM, THE MINOTAUR, VARIATIONS ON A THEME, TO BE FAIR, and EVERYTHING YOU HAVE.
Ziegler’s plays have been developed by: The Sundance Theatre Lab, The Old Vic New Voices program, The Geva Theatre Center, The Lark Theatre, Ars Nova, The Kennedy Center, Theater J, New Georges (where she is an Affiliated Artist), Clubbed Thumb, The New Harmony Project, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, Catalyst Theater, the Playwright’s Center PlayLabs Festival, the Fireraisers Theatre Company at the Hampstead Theatre (London) and The Birmingham Rep, and by Company B at the Belvoir St. Theatre in Sydney, Australia. She was a Dramatist’s Guild Fellow for 2004-2005, a member of the 2005 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and has been published in Ten-Minute Plays for 2 Actors: The Best of 2004 (Smith and Kraus, Inc.) and New American Short Plays 2005 (Backstage Books, ed. Craig Lucas). BFF and LIFE SCIENCE will be published by Dramatists Play Service and BFF will be included in the anthology: New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2007 (Smith and Kraus). She is currently under commission by Active Cultures Theatre. A graduate of Yale, she holds an MFA from Tisch.
Anna Ziegler’s poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2003, The Threepenny Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Reactions, The Mississippi Review, Arts and Letters, Mid-American Review, Smartish Pace, The Saint Ann’s Review, and many other journals.
For more information, please see www.annabziegler.com.
Director’s Comment: Anna Ziegler is a young American writer whose widely performed and much acclaimed plays delve below the surface of human character to reveal dark and complex motivations and self-delusions. The joy of this kind of work for a director is that each time you come back to it there is more to discover.
DIRECTOR: Richard James Allen
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS
One of Australia’s most versatile artists, Director Richard James Allen has combined a unique international career as a filmmaker, writer, choreographer and performer, with work screened, broadcast, published, or performed in thirty countries, and nominated for or winning major prizes in filmmaking, screenwriting, playwriting, poetry and dance. His work “points the way to the possibilities that abound when collaboration occurs across forms and new technologies are integrated into the totality of the vision,” Hunter Cordaiy, RealTime.
Richard James Allen has directed for film, television, live theatre and new media platforms. He is Co-Artistic Director of The Physical TV Company (www.physicaltv.com.au), whose screen works have been seen at over 200 Australian and International Film Festivals. Richard has studied film directing, writing, and producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), the University of Sydney, and the New School for Social Research in New York City. A Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) graduate of Sydney University, he won The Chancellor’s Award for the most outstanding PhD thesis from across all departments of the University of Technology, Sydney for his Doctorate of Creative Arts.
His latest work, the short feature film adaptation of his NSW Premier’s Literary Award Shortlisted book Thursday’s Fictions www.thursdaysfictions.com, won the ATOM Award for Best Experimental Film; the Gold Medal for Excellence - Director's Choice for Artistic Excellence in a Feature Film at the Park City Film Music Festival in Utah; the Special flEXiff Award for "film as artwork"; and Best Original Song Composed for the Screen, for “Aria”, at the APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards. As well as screening at over twenty festivals around the world, Thursday’s Fictions has been broadcast on ABC-TV, and is the basis of a 3D, online, immersive, interactive story world, funded by the Literature Board of the Australia Council’s The Story of the Future Project and acclaimed by many as the best thing in Second Life. The first episodes of an episodic machinima series, filmed in Thursday’s Fictions in Second Life and picking up where the live action film left off, are about to be launched.
His previous work as director, the short film No Surrender, also won Best Experimental Film at the 2002 Annual ATOM Awards for Film, Television, Radio & Multimedia in Melbourne, and Best Music for a Short Film in the 2002 APRA-Australian Guild of Screen Composers Screen Music Awards. In international competition for Awards for Best Impact of Music in Independent Film at the 2004 Park City Music Festival, Utah, No Surrender won the Gold Medal for Excellence: Audience Favorite in Short Films. It was Highly Commended by the Australian Cinematographers' Society and Shortlisted for Best Sound Design at the Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards - both in the Short Film category. It was Shortlisted for the 2002 ReelDance Awards and a Finalist for the Short Trips @ The Melbourne Fringe 2002 Best Film Award. No Surrender was broadcast nationally in Australia on ABC TV in May 2002 and showcased on TV Slovenia in June 2002. No Surrender has been selected for 30 international and national festivals and other screenings thus far.
With the publication of his ninth book, The Kamikaze Mind, the receipt of the 2006 UTS Chancellor’s Award for Best PhD Thesis, and the release of his multi-award-winning film adaptation of his last book, the NSW Premier’s Literary Award-nominated Thursday's Fictions, the jigsaw pieces of a remarkable and arresting artistic vision have come together into an energetic expression of his inherently cross-platform thinking. “Sad, funny, sharp, sometimes enigmatic, poetic, matter of fact, erotic, mystical, theatrical … powerful, ground-breaking work.” (Judith Beveridge, Meanjin).
For more information on Richard’s work, please visit the following websites: The Physical TV Company (www.physicaltv.com.au), The Kamikaze Mind (www.thekamikazemind.com), and Thursday’s Fictions (www.thursdaysfictions.com). To enter the online 3D immersive world Thursday's Fictions in Second Life click here.
ACTOR: Zoe Tuckwell-Smith
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS
2008 sees the release of some of Zoe's work for 2007. Her film Cactus premiers at the St George Open Air Cinema on Australia Day, as well as an appearance on Fox 8 comedy, Stupid Stupid Man. Recently she has completed another film released in 2007 called Gone. Other Television work includes Home and Away, The Cooks and All Saints. Previous theatre productions include Lullie the Iceberg with Theatre of Image, The Young Tycoons, Pick Ups and multiple shows during her BA Acting at NIDA. Her last engagement with Short and Sweet was in 2005 with the finalist play Insular.
Director’s Comment: Zoe is one of those actors that it is a real pleasure to work with because you get the impression she can play anything. Her delight in exploration and discovery in the rehearsal room is infectious. As a collaborator with different departments she is open and intelligent, bringing clarity and perspective to her role.
ACTOR: Ben Davy-Thorburn
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS –
Ben’s interest in acting began after enrolling in a 2 year tv and film production course at TAFE NSW and deciding there that acting looked like a lot more fun than holding a boom mike up for hours on end. After whetting his appetite with some NIDA short courses Ben studied at Theatre Nepean (University of Western Sydney) and is currently studying at The Actor’s Pulse in Redfern. Apart from playing King Edward VI in Nepean’s production of Henry VI (parts 1, 2 and 3) Ben has just shot a Fosters’s TVC for the UK market and a number of short films. He currently resides in Five Dock and this is his first appearance at Short and Sweet.
Director’s Comment: Ben has a real power and depth to his acting. His naturally strong masculine presence is balanced by an alert and inquiring mind and the interest and ability to access a broader range of emotional nuances and complexities.
ACTOR: Stephen Peacocke
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS –
Stephen Peacocke is relatively new to the field of acting. Growing up in Central Western New South Wales he spent a year as a Jackaroo on a large scale Sheep and Cattle Station west of Bourke before commencing study at Newcastle University. He performed in numerous Newcastle University Conservatorium Theatre Productions and in 2004 was awarded a City of Newcastle Drama Award (CONDA) for his portrayal of Ricko in Nick Enright’s A Property of the Clan. Since then Stephen has performed in a number of short films including Silent which was a Finalist at the 2006 Home Brewed International Film Festival and has appeared in featured roles in Channel 7’s All Saints playing Zeb Hall and the up-coming Emerald Falls for the ABC. In 2006 Stephen had his first feature film role in Paul Goldman’s Suburban Mayhem in which he memorably had his head cut off! In his spare time Stephen plays flanker for the Hawkesbury Ag Rugby union team and is a self-confessed slave to disco.
Director’s Comment: Steve brings a focused intensity and a strong moral centre to his acting. His search for the truth of his character is inspiring.
DESIGNER: Mark Quinan
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS
A Set and Costume Design graduate from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2000, Mark Quinan has spent the intervening years developing his skill sets in a variety of areas relating to performance design. Most recently he has completed a number of theatre projects in his hometown of Newcastle, NSW, including the multi award wining children’s production of ‘Billy and the Garbage Monsters’ (written by Vanessa Bates), for which he received an award for Excellence in Professional Technical Achievement for Design. He has a particular interest in design for Dance, and was an assistant to Kristian Fredricksen on the Australian Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’, choreographed by Graeme Murphy. He has also designed dance productions for choreographers including Neil Adams, Harold Collins and Sue Peacock. His latest foray in to dance design saw him collaborating with Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman on the fourth installment in their ongoing dance film project ‘The Physical Family Series’. ‘Sad Song’ for Short and Sweet is his second project with Richard James Allen.
LONGER BIO:
Trained as a designer, Mark Quinan graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2000. Working with Richard James Allen is a new professional relationship, ‘Sad Song’ for Short and Sweet, being the only the second collaboration; the first being the fourth installment of the ongoing dance film project, ‘The Physical Family Series’ by Richard and his partner, Karen Pearlman. Some of his most recent productions have seen him return to his hometown of Newcastle, where he was given an award for Excellence in Profession Technical Achievement for his design of the local children’s production Billy and the Garbage Monsters (A co-production between Shakespeare et al and Footlice Theatre Co). Other design credits include designing sets and costumes for several works by the choreographer, Neil Adams, including ‘Far from Turbulent Space’ (Victorian College of the Arts, 2007), ‘Incarna’ (VCA, 2005) and ‘Triptych’ (Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2000) from which he also received favourable mention in editorials. Mark has worked as a design assistant to many notable Australian designers, having undertaken model building for Kristian Fredricksen for the Australian Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’ (2002) and another production for the Houston Ballet, Texas (2005). He has also assisted Richard Roberts and Anna French. Other roles have seen Mark travel to Qatar work as a wardrobe co-ordinator on the opening and closing ceremonies for the 15th Asian Games in Doha. He has also worked in television, spending time in the wardrobe of the internationally renown SciFi program, ‘Farscape’. He was appointed a workshop artist to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras workshop in 2002 and also won 1st prize for the inaugural Sydney Esquisse Design Festival’s T-shirt design competition. Mark has a special interest in design for contemporary dance and classical ballet, but of course, loves theatrical productions of all genres.
SOUND DESIGNER: William Lawlor
BRIEF RESUME/CREDITS
William began his career in Melbourne as an audio engineer in live and studio music projects. Realizing his interest’s lay in the realm of film and television and performance he studied the Diploma of Screen at RMIT TAFE and worked as a volunteer at Channel 31. He worked as an Audio & Technical Director on community television shows No Limits News, and In Pit Lane, Motorsport News. William moved to Sydney to attend the Australian Film Television & Radio School and graduated with an MA in Sound Design in 2006. He has worked on numerous short films and documentaries including the short Blood Brothers, winner Reel Life film festival. Broadcast credits include the documentaries Beats Across Borders (ABC, 2005) and An Artist in Eden (ABC, 2006).
|
|
