The Adelaide Cabaret Festival runs from 9 to 24 June, 2006.
Website: www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com
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Kath Pappas from AusDance (VIC) about the Australian Youth Dance Festival 2006, being held in conjunction with Horsham’s Art Is… Festival (in the Wimmera district). Groups attending included STEPS, Restless, Fresh Bred, Extensions, Nubrico (from Wales in the UK - they have been holding dance-athons to raise the money!), Girawheen SHS (WA), Tracks young dancers (NT), Cowra Ballet School (NSW), Shopfront Youth Theatre (NSW), Melbourne Dance Theatre, and 15 local Horsham dancers on scholarships, and up to 10 young people or artists who have secured travel funds via Regional Arts Victoria. Additional artists are: Nikki Ashby (Vic) – hip hop; Lamine Sonko (Vic) – Senegalese; and Claudio Climaco (Qld) – Capoeira.
The festival website is at www.ausdance.org.au, then follow the link to AYDF 2006 on the front page.
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Linda Catalano - the Artist and Program Manager for Comedy @ Trades joined us for her weekly update about what's on and what's hot at Trades Hall during the Comedy Festival.
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Peter Krauz – one of the programmers for the 5th Festival of German Films told us about some of the titles screening at the festival this year, which features an eclectic and versatile mix of comedies, biographies, documentaries - many of which were featured at this year's Berlin Film Festival. Highlights include a variation of the Brothers Grimm fairytale The Fisherman and his Wife, the Oscar nominated Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, and love story The White Masai.Full program details available at www.goethe.de/ins/au/prj/ff06/enindex.htm
Bookings www.acmi.net.au or phone (03) 8663 2583
SPECIAL FESTIVAL EVENT: Female Vision Strong Women
The 2006 Festival of German Films has already been dubbed 'LADIES YEAR’ as it highlights a never before seen selection of women directors and women's stories. Is this a coincidence or is filmmaking about to be free itself from male dominated topics and views? Is it just a German or European trend or does this phenomenon have an equivalent in Australia?
Do women in front or behind the camera have different views and visions than their male counterparts? Film experts, directors and actors look into the subject of female roles, both in front of the camera and behind the scene.
When: Monday, 24.04.2006 – 8.30pm
Where: ACMI, Cinema 2, Federation Square, following the screening of Against All Odds, with attendance of Heike Makatsch (among others)
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Next up we caught up with a trio of folks - an architect, a curator and the artist Robbie Rowlands - about the opening of a new artist-run-space: DireTribe Gallery (1/81 Bouverie Street Carlton, phone 9349 1885; website www.diretribe.com.au) and its innaugural exhibition.DireTribe is an association of young designers and cultural practitioners with a strong connection to their cultural environment and its art forms. This new gallery has been established by DireTribe to support and promote emerging artists exploring urban experiences.
The first show is entitled “Capsize” and is to be opened tomorrow night at 6pm. Robbie Rowlands’ sculptures explore time and the inescapable change that it brings upon the objects that we take for granted in our everyday lives.
Dire Tribe was founded in 2000 as an association of designers and cultural practitioners. DireTribe is a design consultancy with a reputation for critical practice within the disciplines of architecture, graphics, philosophy and film.
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Thereafter I was joined by Donna Jackson (writer/director) and Mark Seymour (band leader and composer) to talk about the latest production by Melbourne Workers Theatre: WE BUILT THIS CITY - Stories from the ground upThe show features a roving rock performance with Mark Seymour (ex-Hunters & Collectors), industrial percussion, a 40 strong workers choir and some very heavy machinery.
As 44-gallon drums beat out an urban jungle rhythm against a skyline of headbanging heavy machinery, the audience is invited to enter a strange and exotic world of concrete, steel and scaffolding. In this place, no one is called by their real name, hand signals are never rude and real men always wear hats.
Through storytelling, theatre and live music, We Built this City offers a rare insight into the life and times of those who laid not only the physical foundations of Melbourne, but also the seeds of its cultural, sporting and political life. On the 21st April 1856, Melbourne stonemasons downed tools, marched to parliament house to demand an eight hour day and walked straight into history.
We Built this City is a major highlight of 888 Eight Hour Day: Celebrate 150 years of work, rest and play, a program of events being presented in partnership with other major arts and cultural institutions.
Preview: April 25 @8pm
When: April 26 – 29 & May 3 – 6 @8pm
Where: Scienceworks, 2 Booker Street, Spotswood (Melway Map 56 B1)
Tickets: $22 Full/$17 Concession/$12 Previews & Groups 10 +
Bookings: 03 9639 0096 or www.melbourneworkerstheatre.com
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Next up was comedian Kieran Butler whose Comedy Festival show is called Kieran Butler Claims Collingwood Ruined My Life!As Kieran tells it, "A young migrant to Australia, I met Collingwood through a Catholic nun at my new school… After three Grand Final losses in a row I learnt a horrible truth about life: dreams don't come true, nothing good ever really happens and life is essentially one episode after another of pain and misery until you end up in a nursing home, daring your family to snuff you out with a pillow.
In 1990 the drought broke. Collingwood won the flag. There is Channel 7 footage of me that day at the MCG. I was deliriously happy. I also thought my fortunes were inextricably tied to those of The Club. The ‘experts’ were saying the new Collingwood brand of football could go on to dominate the ‘90’s: I was convinced that things were finally going to get better… The ‘experts’ were wrong”
After three straight years at the Edinburgh Fringe, long term Woodsman, Kieran Butler (BBC Scotland), returns from the UK with a new comedy and music show concerning the comedy and tragedy of life as a Magpie fan this past 30 years. The show will be performed a stones throw from Victoria Park, at the historic Carringbush Hotel."
"Madcap… impeccable… damn good fun… an armful of great jokes and stories. Four stars."
Edinburgh Evening News
"Brilliant." Natalie Imbruglia
"Too much finessing." Tom Hafey
Venue: Carringbush Hotel, 228 Langridge St, Abbotsford
Prices: Full $15.00 Conc $12.00 Group (10 or more) $120.00 Tightarse Tuesday $10.00
Dinner & Show (with glass of wine) $40.00
Bookings: The venue on 9428 4492 / 0410 495 230
Website: kieranbutler.com & at the door
When: 12th Apr - 7th May
Duration: 60 minutes
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My penultimate guest was Cerise Howard, with her fortnightly screen culture segment, in which we discussed the new Australian film KOKODA, the debut feature by director Alister Grierson, which opens on ANZAC Day. The Internet Movie Database page for the film is here, while the official website is over there.SYNOPSIS: A platoon of Australian soldiers from the 39th Battalion is sent as forward patrol outside the village of Isurava on the Kokoda track in New Guinea, during World War II, but sustained Japanese bombardment and initial attacks cut them off from their supply lines and communication. Isolated, they endure without food for three days, carrying their wounded. As they emerge exhausted from the jungle, Isurava is about to fall to the Japanese, and they must gather their last ounce of strength and courage to rejoin the battle.
CAST: Jack Finsterer, Travis McMahon, Simon Stone, Luke Ford, Steve Le Marquand, Angus Sampson, Christopher Baker, Ewen Leslie, Ben Barrack, Shane Bourne, William McInnes, Tom Budge
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And my final guest in another action-packed episode of Smartarts was Lucinda Straughn with the arts news and gossip segment SHOOT THE MESSENGER, and to learn what we talked about, you can check out her blog!
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