Sunday 29 March 2020

Thievin' Thugs: Play #7-10 min play-recorded solo, one take by Kate Herbert -March 26, 2020


Kate Herbert · Thievin' Thugs Solo Kate Herbert 26 Mar 2020<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/783538303%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-cix9fwMLifs&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/kate-herbert-75153558" title="Kate Herbert" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Kate Herbert</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kate-herbert-75153558/thievin-thugs-solo-kate-herbert-26-mar-2020/s-cix9fwMLifs" title="Thievin' Thugs Solo Kate Herbert 26 Mar 2020" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Thievin' Thugs Solo Kate Herbert 26 Mar 2020</a></div><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/783538303%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-cix9fwMLifs&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/kate-herbert-75153558" title="Kate Herbert" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Kate Herbert</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kate-herbert-75153558/thievin-thugs-solo-kate-herbert-26-mar-2020/s-cix9fwMLifs" title="Thievin' Thugs Solo Kate Herbert 26 Mar 2020" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Thievin' Thugs Solo Kate Herbert 26 Mar 2020</a></div>



  Thievin' Thugs # 7 (2 young males)

This is the 7th of my cycle of 8 short plays, each approximately 10-minute plays. It's another solo reading.
 I record all the plays single-handed, one take, play all characters, no rehearsal, no edits.

This is how I'm entertaining myself and keeping up my Arts practice during the Virus period.
This play is about two teenage lads, Zac and Gabba, who roll people for their phones, 
IPads and laptops at the railway station or outside the school. Their last robbery is more 
violent than usual.

The 8 plays are connected not by a narrative thread, but by themes and characters.

A character that is only mentioned in a play then appears in the following play, until we get to  
Play # 8, when a character is mentioned who appeared in Play # 1.

As I wrote the plays, I realised that each dealt with a different social issue: bulling, perceptions 
of disability, street violence etc.

I then noticed that each play had characters using mobile phones and that phone technology had 
become a character!

I am recording them all single-handedly at my computer, at home in this Covid isolation. 

Hope you enjoy them and maybe choose to do the same.
KH





ddddd<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/783538303%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-cix9fwMLifs&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/kate-herbert-75153558" title="Kate Herbert" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Kate Herbert</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kate-herbert-75153558/thievin-thugs-solo-kate-herbert-26-mar-2020/s-cix9fwMLifs" title="Thievin' Thugs Solo Kate Herbert

Baggage #1 -10 min play- recorded solo in one take by Kate Herbert-March 26, 2020


Kate Herbert · Baggage KateHerbert Solo V2 26Mar2020


Baggage: Play #1 of 8 X 10. ( 1 male, 1 female)
  
This is the 1st of my cycle of 8 short plays, each approximately 10-minute plays. It's a solo reading.
I record all the plays single-handed, one take, play all characters, no rehearsal, no edits.

This is how I'm entertaining myself and keeping up my Arts practice during the Virus period.

 Baggage is about  an encounter between a middle-aged WOMAN and a scruffy, homeless, 
harmless YOUNG MAN and their conversation that gradually becomes more intimate.

The 8 plays are connected not by a narrative thread, but by themes and characters.

A character that is only mentioned in a play then appears in the following play, until we get to  Play # 8, 
when a character is mentioned who appeared in Play # 1.

As I wrote the plays, I realised that each dealt with a different social issue: bulling, perceptions of disability,
 street violence etc.

I then noticed that each play had characters using mobile phones and that phone technology had become 
a character!

I am recording them all single-handedly at my computer, at home in this Covid isolation. 

Hope you enjoy them and maybe choose to do the same.
KH
 


The 8 plays are as follows:


Baggage – 1 Woman, 1 Man

Phone Calls on a Train – 3 Women, 2 Men

Social ME-dia – 1 Woman, 1 Teenage Girl

Lover Boy! – 1 Woman, 1 Teenage Boy

The House That Alex Built – 1 Man, 1 Woman

DB & Scruff – 1 Man , 1 Woman

Thievin’ Thugs – 2 Men (1 off-stage voice)

Foxy’s Hangout ­ – 2 Men

Epilogue – 1 Woman (same character as Play #1) as yet unwritten.


Kate




Friday 27 March 2020

BATS IMPROV SHOWS ZOOM ONLINE FREE!


 2pm Australian EST (Melbourrne, Sydney, Brisbane east coast)
You can log onto the Link at 1.30pm to get one of the 500 places. Should be plenty of spots.

Sat 28 March at 2pm   Murder Mystery! 

or Sun 29 
March at 2pm   Impro Games


You need ZOOM.
It is FREE!
Go to website and click on date/link beside the show.
 https://www.improv.org/online-shows/?fbclid=IwAR3uCv5VKR9UthNnoHWesqKO_qdtL6wLNB5ah_8LUC2xlstCIZsFd7jSC3w

Friday 20 March 2020

3 charitable organisations supporting ARTSITS

Arts Centre Melbourne emailed this:

 If you would like to help arts industry workers during these unprecedented times, there are three charitable organisations that support the physical and/or mental wellbeing of the arts. We strongly encourage you to donate the value of your refunded tickets, or another amount you choose, to one of these three tax-deductible charities:
  • Victorian Actors’ Benevolent Fund –  The VABT provides emergency financial assistance to those in the entertainment industry who, in times of crisis or hardship, find themselves with nowhere else to turn. https://vabt.com.au/donate/

  • Support Act – Support Act deliver crisis relief services to artists, crew and music workers who are unable to work in the music industry, as well as partnering with Arts Centre Melbourne and the Arts Wellbeing Collective to deliver the Support Act Wellbeing Helpline. 
  •  https://www.mycause.com.au/page/226584/covid19-emergency-appeal

Thursday 19 March 2020

The Show Must Go ONLINE!!!

I just found this link to online readings of all of Shakespeare plays, performed weekly in the order in which they were written.

It's called The Show Must Go ONLINE!

To watch the YouTube live readings, visit - https://youtu.be/KOAHj4ANGKw

Ways to teach Improvisation remotely

Hi all,

All my Improvisation colleagues in Oz and Nth America are working out ways to teach Improvisation remotely.

For example, verbal games, verbal impro exercises, storytelling and status exercises can be played online. You could do this as an online meeting, FaceTime or Skype.

You don't need to have an entire class/group to do it. It probably works better if everyone works in pairs then reports in a Forum or Facebook group.

More when I have some more specifics.

For now, there are pletnty of online lists of Games and Impro exercises. If you have a Theatresports games list, that will work for you.

My Handbook of Impro Basics: Offer to Accept, Status to Story, certainly has lots of exercises that could be used remotely.
KH

All reviews cancelled until further notice.

Dear readers,

All reviews are cancelled until further notice.

If you are there isolated at home, I'm sorry that I won't be posting reviews for an indefinite period.

Perhaps I'll think of something else to post about theatre to entertain myself and readers. I've found some links to live streaming of performances.
KH

Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 is livestreaming on the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's (MSO) YouTube channel at 7.30pm on Thursday 19 March 2020. It is conducted by Benjamin Northey.

MSO Youtube Channel is:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWC3rUkPeaV2B2r_bwwgnNw

Monday night’s MSO performance of Scheherazade can be viewed on Youtube still:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCBYvd5LKa4&utm_source=Mail2&utm_campaign=MKT_-_Coronavirus_Update&cmp=1&utm_medium=Email&fbclid=IwAR0w3G-5FKNoLL3xXi5_RPXe14hnTNLNfMGLt8pdQ9Vurkn27FbJF_b927I

Sunday 15 March 2020

Social Distancing Festival -Companies live streaming productions!!!

I wondered when theatre companies would start streaming their productions during this time.
The Social Distancing Festival in Toronto! k

Shows are cancelling!

Well, the show cancellations are now coming thick and fast.

I will not be reviewing WellBless at Theatre Works in St. Kilda this week (19 March) because the season is now cancelled as a safety precaution.

Even theatres under 200 seats need to protect their audiences from COVID19.

Comedy Festival 2020 is cancelled, although some small venues may still run their shows.

Staying away from crowds is good advice – so far.
Kate

Monday 2 March 2020

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Feb 23 2019 ****1/2 (Re-posting)

THEATRE
Story by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, script by Jack Thorne
At Princess Theatre, Melbourne, reviewed on Feb 23, 2019
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ****1/2

NB: This review was from the opening, Feb 23, 2019, in Melbourne. I am re-posting it as the show continues. I believe there are some new children in the cast this 2020 season. This was NOT published in Herald Sun in 2019. KH
Sean Rees-Wemyss & William McKenna 
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a sparkling, visual feast filled with tasty, Hogwarts  treats for the Potter aficionado.
 
The excitable and very vocal crowd cheers and gasps at the remarkable, jaw-dropping special effects of John Tiffany’s production that combines magical illusion, black theatre puppetry, startling appearances and disappearances, and whirling choreographic scenes - oh, and familiar characters as well as new ones.
 
Tiffany keeps the action swift and vivacious in Parts One and Two that are an endurance test of over five hours for the audience - but nobody seems to mind.
 
Based on an original new story by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, this new play, written by Jack Thorne, which hurls us back into the world of Hogwarts when Harry (Gareth Reeves) and Ginny’s (Lucy Goleby) son Albus (Sean Rees-Wemyss) begins his less than stellar school years at Hogwarts Academy. 
 
A cunning twist is that Albus's best friend is the goofy and incompetent Scorpius Malfoy (William McKenna), son of Draco, Harry’s childhood nemesis.
 
The signs at the theatre say, ‘Keep the secrets’, so this we will do. You will not hear anything of the cursed child, the changing fate of young Albus, Scorpius, Harry and his cronies, Ron Weasley (Gyrton Grantley) and Hermione (Paula Arundell) or the current headmistress Professor McGonagall (Debra Lawrance). 
 
If you loved the Potter books and movies, this is a must-see for you. There are working magic wands, magical creatures, moving staircases, terrifying dementors, villains and heroes, battles for life and death, broken familial relationships and all your favourite characters.
 
The heroes of this production are the invisible people who manipulate human bodies, puppets, staircases, wands and other paraphernalia to create this fantastic world before our eyes.
 
As Scorpius, McKenna delights the crowd from start to finish, and Rees-Wemyss, as Albus, is a suitably disenchanted, rebellious teenager.
 
Appearances by  Severus Snape (David Ross Patterson), Professor Dumbledore (George Henare), Lily and James Potter, Dolores Umbridge (Hannah Waterman), and a delicious bathroom cameo from Moaning Myrtle (Gillian Cosgriff) send the crowd into paroxysms of delight.
 
Occasionally, some dialogue feels a bit cheesy and uncomfortable, a few characters are a bit shouty and lacking vocal control, and the story is extremely convoluted.
 
But, ultimately, there is plenty of spectacle to keep the audience cheering and clapping as we witness the continuation of the fight between good and evil that is at the heart of the Harry Potter series. Everyone goes home tired and happy.
 
by Kate Herbert