Foxy's Hangout #8-10 min play recorded solo, one take by Kate Herbert- April 9, 2020

Foxy's Hangout is play # 8 in my Cycle of 8 X 10 minute plays. (audio file)

This is the 8th 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.

Daz rides his quad bike in the bush track and encounters a farmer, Mitch, who accuses him of trespassing on his land. Things get darker and more dangerous as Mitch toys with Daz.

All 8 x 10 min plays and  audio recordings of my improvised Radio Play, Evaline, are on my 2nd blog https://kateherbertplays.blogspot.com

Kate

Adelaid Writers Week podcasts 2020

Listen to thesepodcasts if you want some new input. k



Adelaide Writers Week podcasts 2020

Aust Shakespeare Co -online classes

Australian Shakespeare Company doing online classes for young people/kids:



Australian Shakespeare Company- online classes

National Theatre streaming Live shows

The National Theatre will stream NT Live shows for free on YouTube Every Thursday at 7.00pm UK time from Thursday 2 April.

Available on demand for seven days on the NT's YouTube channel.

• Thurs 2 April: Richard Bean's One Man Two Guvnors - James Corden. 
• Thurs 9 April: Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre 
• Thurs 16 April Bryony Lavery's Treasure Island
• Thurs 23 April: Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig

National Theatre Live

My fully improvised, SOLO Radio Play - Evaline

I/m recording a fully improvised Radio Play solo! 

Bonkers! This what I do with time on my hands and a captive audience.

Multiple characters, no preparation, no written text, one take only, no rehearsal, no preparation.

I finished Episode 1and had to keep going.  I've now recorded 6 episodes.

 It is set in 1923 England and starts an English country mansion where Evaline suspects a murder has been committed. The story eventually takes her to Tivoli Theatre in London.

Characters in Episodes 1 to 6 so far:

Evaline 'Evvie' Pankhurst (young woman, 21)
Hillary 'Hills' Appleby (young man, 23)
Honourable Matilda Appleby (his ailing aunt, 84)
Banderson (Butler, 70s )
Ernest Pankhust (Evvie & Binky's Great Uncle)
Harry (Ernest Pankhurst's Chauffeur)
Mrs. Fossicker (Ernest Pankhurst's Housekeeper)
Chantel the Chanteuse  (showgirl at the Tiv, 21)
Inspector Sidebottom (Police Officer)
Police Constable
Binky (Evvie's brother, 23)
Jackie & Bouncer (Tivoli comedy duo) 

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

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

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:

• The Arts Wellbeing Collective provides mental health and wellbeing resources and helps deliver the Support Act Wellbeing Helpline, a 24/7 phone line available to anyone in the performing arts. https://arts-centre-melbourne.giveeasy.org/arts-wellbeing-collective

• 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
• 
  

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

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

https://www.socialdistancingfestival.com/?fbclid=IwAR1DN5N-OylN6Ep6S9x-77tT_g6wCvsbjb4-0fyguO9tUOt9a9zJyGrrl4o

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

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

The Great Australian Play, Feb 20, 2020

THEATRE 
Written by Kim Ho 
At Theatre Works, until Feb 29, 2020
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:** 
 Review published in Herald Sun in print only on Fri 28 Feb, 2020. KH

Jessica Koncic, Sarah Fitzgerald, Tamara Lee Bailey, Sermsah Bin Saad, and Daniel Fischer.-pic Jack Dixon-Gunn

Kim Ho naming his production The Great Australian Play is asking for trouble and almost begging for criticism – so here it comes!

To deconstruct narrative, a playwright must learn to construct narrative. However, what we see is five wannabe filmmakers rambling about the rules of cinema narrative structure, including the ‘Hero’s Journey’, a well-worn, Hollywood model.

Their movie, set in 1930, deals with Lasseter’s purported reef of gold in Australia’s desert centre. The second half, When the Eucalyptus Weeps, includes episodes about a dysfunctional family – perhaps Lasseter’s?

At no point in the deconstructed format does a narrative of any substance emerge. It is a series of parodic sketches aiming to illuminate the Australian condition, history, environment and indigenous culture.

The story of The Fidgeter, introduced at the end of the play, might be developed as the second thread interwoven with Lasseter, but it is bolted on and merely narrated.

 

Although described as an epic, the only thing epic is the 150-minute duration – about 90 minutes too long.

Actors (Jessica Koncic, Sarah Fitzgerald, Tamara Lee Bailey, Sermsah Bin Saad, Daniel Fischer) are committed and energetic, but their efforts are eclipsed by the production’s failings.

Some scenes appropriate, rather than celebrate, indigenous culture, the depiction of a German is racist, the juvenile introduction of a dildo gets cheap laughs and references to burnt koalas are offensive.

Ho’s script is overwritten, impenetrable, informational, with little action. It is riddled with cinematic references, satirical film titles and idiotic script pitches, while Saro Lusty-Cavallari’s direction is static, and his production resembles a university revue.

The play tries to be artful, inventive and satirical but loses coherence and cohesion, so any message is lost in multiple styles and tangled narratives threads.

Anyone unfamiliar with screenwriting processes, modern cinema references or the compelling but dense work of lauded Australian writer, the late Patrick White, will probably feel alienating. Rule 1: never make your audience feel stupid! (That should be Rules 2 and 3 as well!)

Ho inserts himself in the play at the beginning and then the end when he argues with Patrick White about the merit of Ho’s work, a discussion which reveals Ho’s vision to be confused, self-indulgent and incoherent.

This is no longer a joke when such confusion makes a mockery of the theatre it purports to value. How this play won the Patrick White award is as mysterious as Lasseter’s reef.

by Kate Herbert

Twelfth Night, ASC, Feb 17, 2020

THEATRE 

By William Shakespeare, by Australian Shakespeare Company 

at Botanical Gardens, until Feb 29, 2020 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ****

Review published in print (not online) in Herald Sun on Friday 21 Feb 2020. KH 

Antony Rive, Kevin Hopkins

 Under the stars on a late summer evening, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a joyful entertainment riddled with plot intrigues, mistaken identity, cross-dressing, comical twists and jolly japes.

Glenn Elston’s rollicking, laugh-out-loud production incorporates oodles of physical comedy, eccentric characterisations, original music (Paul Norton), vivid costumes (Karla Erenbots), clownish make-up (Lou McLaren) and modern references.

After a shipwreck which Viola (Elizabeth Brennan) believes killed her twin brother, Sebastian (Mitchell Wills), Viola dresses as a boy, gets a job as a manservant then falls in love with her employer, Duke Orsino (Hugh Sexton). Orsino pines for Olivia (Anna Burgess) who rebuffs him because she is in love with the cross-dressing Viola. 

Meanwhile, the servants and house guests engage in drunken carousing and other tomfoolery, including playing cruel tricks upon Olivia’s pompous and dour servant, Malvolio, played by Dion Mills.

The production is playful, fast-paced, animated and littered with bawdy, broad humour, singalongs and actors scampering amongst the audience. There is never a dull moment.

As the grief-stricken Olivia and lovelorn Orsino – characters generally not played for laughs ­– in this interpretation, Burgess and Sexton are almost as funny as the obvious comic characters.

The outrageously silly slapstick scenes are a highlight. Kevin Hopkins is loud and oafish as the scruffy, boozy Sir Toby Belch, while Tony Rive is deliciously comical as the foppish, foolish nincompoop, Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Claire Nicholls is suitably saucy and sharp-tongued as naughty Maria, Madeleine Somers brings new life to the minor role of Fabian, while Patrick Schnur leads the music – both mournful and spirited – as truth-telling jester, Feste.

Pick a warm evening, pack a picnic, a blanket and wine and enjoy these Twelfth Night revels. It’s a hoot!

by Kate Herbert

Orsino - Hugh Sexton

Viola - Elizabeth Brennan

Sebastian - Mitchell Wills

Olivia - Anna Burgess

Malvolio/Captain - Dion Mills

Maria - Claire Nicholls
Sir Toby Belch- Kevin Hopkins

Feste - Patrick Schnur
Sir Andrew Aguecheek- Tony Rive

Fabian - Maddy Somers
Antonia - Madeleine Mason

Officer Charlie Mycroft

Olivia McLeod

Music by Paul Norton

Costumes Karla Erenbots

Choreography Sue-Ellen Shook

Make-up Lou McLaren

Cats (Youth Production), Jan 18, 2020 ****

MUSICAL THEATRE 

Book by T.S. Eliot; Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; additional material by Trevor Nunn & Richard Stilgoe; by Young Australian Broadway Chorus (YABC) 

at National Theatre, St. Kilda, until Jan 25, 2020 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars:****

 Review also published in Herald Sun in print only on Wed 22 Jan 2020.  Pics: Kit Haselden Photography

YABC_CATS_Left Mungojerrie-Matthew Casamento_Right Rumpleteazer-Adeline Hunter

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s enormously successful musical, Cats, is the ideal vehicle for these youthful, talented performers who hurl themselves heart and soul into Robert Coates’ production for the Young Australian Broadway Chorus (YABC).

Lloyd Webber, Trevor Nunn and Richard Stilgoe based their rather flimsy narrative on T.S. Eliot’s collection of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, but added plenty of lively music, songs, and quirky, feline characters.

The tribe of Jellicle cats lives and frolics away from prying human eyes. On this night in the Jellicle world, Old Deuteronomy (Harrison Dart) will choose one cat to be reborn into a new life on the Heaviside Layer.

The clever design (Dann Barber) sets this production in a dilapidated theatre, and the cats wear extravagant, vivid costumes (Sean Rentero), with tattered Edwardian gowns and top hats mixed with 1920s flapper frocks and kitty make-up.

With 80+ in cast and orchestra, all aged 8 to 18 years, Coates’ direction is imaginative and deft, and the vivacious energy of this youthful chorus is undeniable. Like their animal counterparts, these felines are alert and nimble, with Jacqui Green’s effervescent choreography being a highlight.

Occasionally, the stage seems overcrowded, which is to be expected when you are - well - herding cats.

Cast of Cats YABC

Suzannah Bourke is compelling as Grizabella, the former Glamour Cat who is now shabby, stooped and grizzled, and her powerful soprano does justice to the moving song, Memory.

Praise goes to other leads, including: Kristen Robertson as Jennyanydots; Patrick Rogers as Skimbleshanks; Matthew Casamento and Adeline Hunter as acrobatic duo, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer; Tim Bland as Gus the Theatre Cat; Declan Ahern as magical Mr. Mistoffelees; and Nathan Derix-Brown as villainous, elusive Macavity.

Cats has adoring fans worldwide, although its critics believe the flaws outweigh its successes. People love or hate Cats, but die-hard fans of the stage show should be delighted with this energetic production.

by Kate Herbert 

Grizabella-Suzannah Bourke