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This week we celebrate the first production from La MaMa ETC New York to visit us here at La Mama Melbourne and we’d love you to share it with us!

Do strangers share memories?
From an acclaimed season at La MaMa ETC New York in 2010, La Mama Melbourne presents She Turned On The Light, a tour-de-force monologue with physical theatre that explores how memory, fantasy and reality loop and merge between women separated by age and history.

Special offer for Friends of La Mama – $10 tickets for the first 3 performances Wed June 22 – Fri June 24
Go to www.lamama.com.au for show details and to make your prepaid booking. Select FULL PRICE when entering the required number of  tickets, then use  the promotion code: NewYork before checking out to receive your special offer.

Tickets are also available through phone bookings: 9347 6142, or at the door, using the same code.
Offer subject to seat availability.

“Welcome to my abode. Apologies for the simple surroundings but I’m a simple man. You’ll see.”
Mannie knows he has discovered the truth about religion and the world we live in. Can he convince the Preacher he has kidnapped, or the prostitute he has drugged, to see it his way?

Brettcardie Ingram’s Manacle opens tonight at La Mama Theatre, and for your chance to win a double pass, simply email us at info@lamama.com.au with the answer to this question:

Who or what is the link between Manacle and Augie March (one of Australia’s most loved bands)?
Check out the stunning video preview for Manacle if you’d like a clue.

“Matt Scholten’s production converts the Courthouse into a spectral traverse. Intense, physical performances consume the space… I’ve never seen the interface between flesh and technology, and its dysfunctional potential, invested with such flensing honesty and power.”
Cameron Woodhead, Behind the Critical Curtain

“…a truly engaging piece has been delivered here.. Congratulations to all involved on a stunning performance.”
Theatre People

“A moving and immersive theatre experience”
“…an insightful and superbly agonizing re-telling.”
Kate Boston-Smith, Theatre Press

Looking further ahead to next week, we are very excited about Wendy Woodson’s production, She Turned On The Light, direct from La MaMa ETC New York. It’s always a thrill for us to present international productions, especially those from our New York soul mates!

Would you like to help with the set design of a La Mama play?
PROPS NEEDED FOR NEW PLAY ABOUT LIONEL MURPHY – CONSPIRACY BY JOHN KIELY.

We are looking for old law books (or anything that could pass as such – just big, thick volumes) and a gavil. Anybody happy to donate or lend these items would receive a free double pass to the show, and a mention in the program (offer valid until we have the required number of books).

Call the office between 12pm – 5pm  on 9347 6948 to let us know: how many old books you have to spare, how we can get them from you, and your contact details so we can give you a double pass to the show.

Conspiracy runs at La Mama Courthouse from the 30th June – 17th July. Reservations for tickets can be made through the La Mama website (www.lamama.com.au) or via the booking line: 9347 6142

Wed 1st June 2011

Where can you go on a winter night and find yourself: on a flight to Angola, in conversation with a small, fragile and feral-looking adolescent; rocked by the power of love, chewing the fat on the things we humans do to each other in the name of truth and the need for change and finally depart the scene by train lulled by the thought of the ocean?

Opening at La Mama Courthouse on Wednesday, as part of an ongoing partnership with Platform Youth Theatre, POST is a presentation of five short works from the 2010 emerging artists’ mentored development program, Provokateur. Powered by an amalgam of young artists, industry based mentors and a passion for making theatre, POST features new work from young artists on subjects including love, war and its effect, hope and managing change.

The partnership with Platform Youth Theatre continues at La Mama Courthouse next week with Crossed.
Check out the video preview for this exciting new work by emerging playwright, Chris Summers, below.

We regret to advise you that due to a cast illness, Last Songs will now be opening on Wednesday June 8 with a season running until June 12. We have made every effort to contact patrons who have made prior bookings and we regret any inconvenience.

To book for one of these performances, please call La Mama on 9347 6142 or book online at www.lamama.com.au

Last Wednesday, the newly refurbished La Mama forecourt celebrated an official opening. La Mama
Committee of Management and staff, representatives of the Del Monaco family, and a host of distinguished guests including the Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, Hon. Nicholas Kotsiras, and Deputy Lord Mayor, Susan Riley, all contributed inspiring and at times very moving speeches. A grand transformation from gravel carpark to a beautiful and open public space has taken place over the last 6 months and La Mama Theatre now looks and feels more alive than ever.

Six characters in search of an author… A new version created by Laurence Strangio based on the original theatre work by Luigi Pirandello is up and running at La Mama Theatre until May 29.

Thu 5th May 2011

Coming up this weekend at La Mama, it’s all about your Mama…

On Sunday, La Mama for Kids & The Mudcakes bring us Muddy Mothers Day – and all Mums get in for free!
Join The Mudcakes as they sing about the ups and downs of family life – the wonders of new teeth, hugging, potty training and all those things that parents and kids go through! With kazoos, electric ukuleles, bongos and harmonicas, you’ll be singing and dancing to music styles from Hawaiian to garage rock. And, you might even find yourself on stage too!

And later on in the day at La Mama Courthouse, we’re offering a double pass to Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper for you and your mum. Simply send an email to us at info@lamama.com.au explaining why you would  like to take your Mum to La Mama this Mother’s Day?

“Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper is everybody’s story… a delightful and absorbing theatrical treat that should not be missed”
-Peter Wilkins, THE CANBERRA TIMES

At La Mama, Whisky Ring continues to impress everyone who has been lucky enough to sit in on Eddie Ink‘s life story. We have a special ticket offer for all Friends of La Mama continuing into the last week of the season. Simply use the promotional code Bunny when prepaying with credit card or by phone to receive $10 tickets.
Check out the article on Whisky Ring by Annika Priest in the Melbourne Leader.

Wed 27th Apr 2011

We hope you had a lovely long Easter break, and have been completely
rejuvenated just in time to see some great new theatre!

Occasionally, you’ll meet other damaged victims standing alone,
but low self-esteem, a defensive shell, and an inability to reach
out make any sort of real contact impossible. You are doomed.

Eddie Ink’s Whisky Ring opens tonight, and we have a special ticket
offer for all Friends of La Mama. Simply use the promotional code
Bunny when booking with credit card by phone or via our website
to receive $10 tickets to the first week.

Lloyd cordially invites you into his granny flat to get some grub,
wet your whistle and learn a thing or two about life, the land
and beekeeping.

The return season of Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper gets under way on
Friday, Tim Stitz & Kelly Somes’ story of a Queensland battler
as told through his grandson’s eyes – which enjoyed an absolute
sell out season in early 2010.

“If it has a return season at any time, I wholeheartedly urge you
to see it.”
- Richard Watts, MAN ABOUT TOWN

*** Win a DOUBLE PASS to WHISKY RING ***

Simply send an email to info@lamama.com.au with your contact
details and the answer to this question:

Who is the dramturg for Whisky Ring?

Get in early, as the first correct answer wins!

The Grand Inquisitor launched the La Mama Autumn Programme
last night and runs right over Easter, and what a perfect time to
take in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s tale of religious institutions where
the promise of Paradise hereafter may conceal deadlier implications.
An unannounced visit by Jesus Christ is greeted with unexpected
welcome by a popular tele-evangelist, who remarks: why have you
come now?

Next week, Eddie Ink’s Whisky Ring opens on the Wednesday, as does
the return season of Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper, Tim Stitz & Kelly
Somes’ story of a Queensland battler as told through his grandson’s
eyes – which enjoyed an absolute sell out season in early 2010.

***$10 Ticket Offer to all Friends of La Mama***
Simply use the promotional code Bunny when booking with credit
card by phone or via our website to recieve $10 tickets to The
Grand Inquisitor or the first week of Whisky Ring

But don’t forget the Comedy Festival is still in full swing at
La Mama Courthouse with Australia Dot Com & Til Divorce keeping
audiences and critics alike in fits of laughter.

“…superbly acted with the team hitting just the right balance
of over-the-top and subtlety when required”
Lyndal Reading on Australia Dot Com, Herald Sun

“…authentic drama. Jones has a real talent for dramatic writing”
Cameron Woodhead on Til Divorce, The Age

*** Win a DOUBLE PASS to either:
THE GRAND INQUISITOR or WHISKY RING
Simply send an email to info@lamama.com.au with your contact details
and the answer to this question:

Simply name 4 shows that are part of La Mama’s 2011 Autumn Programme

So far we’ve been celebrating the 2011 International Comedy Festival
at La Mama Theatre with two wonderful shows from two wonderful women!
Rachel Leary’s Everything Must Go;

‘Leary is a consummate performer, really nailing the character of
Nancy Browne’ – The Pun,

… and fresh from taking out the award for Best Caberet at the
Adelaide Fringe; Sophie Walsh-Harrington’s The Damsel in Shining
Armour;

‘She acts, she dances, she sings and has finger puppets – a true
one woman show with all the bells and whistles.’ – The Advertiser.

*** Win a DOUBLE PASS to a DOUBLE HEADER ***
THE DAMSEL IN SHINING ARMOUR & EVERYTHING MUST GO

Simply send an email to info@lamama.com.au with your contact
details and the answer to this question:

In 1968, Celine Dion was born the youngest of how many children?

Get in early, as the first correct answer wins!

The Comedy Festival laughs will continue rolling in down the road
at La Mama Courthouse, as Til Divorce and Australia Dot Com open this week.
You can view a couple of great video trailers on the La Mama site.

Recent events may have put Toowoomba on the map but this week at La Mama Courthouse we have Sarah Collins’ delightful show Nothing Extraordinary Happens in Toowoomba. (Ever). Check out a short promo video on the La Mama website.

Win a DOUBLE PASS to NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY EVER HAPPENS IN TOOWOOMBA. (EVER)
Simply send an email to info@lamama.com.au with your contact details and the answer to this question:
Toowoomba is known as the ……….. City of Queensland?
Get in early, as the first correct answer wins!

We have a special ticket offer for all friends of La Mama. $10 tickets to The Long Day’s Dying this week only for prepaid bookings: Use the promotional code WAR (prepaid phone or online bookings only).

Don’t miss out on the double bill at La Mama – with This Is – of the Other & Skinhouse are both in their final week.

The use of music –Kilpatrick and Benton regularly break into duets – is brilliantly realized, rising organically to augment the show’s emotional impact….a moving piece of autobiographical theatre

- Cameron Woodhead on Skinhouse, The Age

The soliloquies are rich with metaphor and beautiful sentiment. Jackson meaningfully communicates her insecurity and tragic reliance on Read with a still, solemn voice and somber face…. The intimacy offered by a theatre such as La Mama in Carlton compliments the efforts of Jackson and Read, as the audience cannot escape the incredibly private thoughts being unveiled.

- Hetty Downer on This Is – of the Other, Theatre People

Also, a quick reminder that there will be a memorial tribute and celebration of Ralph McLean’s life tomorrow, Friday April 1, between 6pm and 8pm at the Reading Room in Fitzroy Town Hall. There will be refreshments afterwards at a nearby hotel. All welcome.

Stay tuned next week as the Comedy Festival hits La Mama, with Everything Must Go and, fresh from the
Adelaide Fringe Festival, the return season of The Damsel in Shining Armor.

A big congratulations to both Thomas Conroy (Henry in Something Natural But Very Childish), winner of the 2010 Green Room Award for Best Male Performer (Indepedent Theatre) and also to Gary Abrahams who won a Green Room Award for Best Direction for his body of work which included Acts of Deceit (Between Strangers in a Room) and Something Natural but Very Childish. It was so nice to have such a large representation of La Mama artists, and we thank all our 14 nominees for their contribution to La Mama and independent theatre in Melbourne.

Former Green Room Award winner Brigid Jackson has teamed up with Georgie Read to bring us This Is – of the Other at La Mama until April 3rd.

For those who were away and missed Ralph McLean’s funeral at La Mama on Dec 30, 2010, there will be a memorial tribute and celebration of Ralph’s life, on Friday April 1, between 6pm and 8pm at the Reading Room in Fitzroy Town Hall. There will be refreshments afterwards at a nearby hotel. All welcome.

We have 3 shows opening next week, all with a very different flavour.
This Is – of the Other, made by Brigid Jackson and Georgie Read, explores solitude, aloneness, loneliness – what do they really mean?
Opening on the same night, Fleur Kilpatrick and Kristina Benton bring us Skinhouse, a very personal story of one woman’s struggle to leave the highly addictive world of the sex industry.
Down at La Mama Courthouse, Kevin Summers directs The Long Day’s Dying, by David Blackman – a dramatic examination of Australians presently at war.

Have you checked out the Video Gallery on our website? It’s a great way to find out a little bit more about La Mama shows – you’ll find previews, interviews, and rehearsal footage of current and forthcoming productions.

We have a Special Ticket Offer for all of our Friends of La Mama – opening at La Mama Courthouse tonight is The Revengers’ Comedy by Leonard Radic. A dark, satiric comedy in a contemporary setting – a riff on a celebrated Jacobean tragedy. Simply book and prepay with a credit card for $10 tickets during the first week. Enter the promotional code FOL when purchasing your tickets online.

This Saturday at La Mama Courthouse, we present What Goes Around – a playreading by Ruth Baird & directed by Kate Kantor. Drawing on the performer’s lived experience of the bicycle postie world, What Goes Around has cross generational appeal and a unique mix of realism, baffled humour and gentle slapstick.

Next week at La Mama Courthouse, Donna Jackson brings us The Baby Show. Stand up comedy, a live Bull Terrier, surrogate parents played by nativity puppets, the style is sometimes knock-about, very funny and well…a bit harsh.

Opening next Wednesday at La Mama Theatre, An Evening with Chekhov takes us on a journey into two
different worlds created by the great Russian writer, Anton Chekhov. The Bear tells the tale of a grieving widow who is confronted by a cynical landowner. The Bet is a philosophical study of the value of life adapted to stage from Chekhov’s short story.

Things are running hot at La Mama this week; we are very pleased to see such good reviews coming in for both
Save For Crying & Mrs Vincent Price.

This Saturday we have two free shows as part of La Mama for Kids – Rosie Nose and the Suitcase Adventure
& Mysterious Mysteries: A Mystery at the Circus. Tickets are complimentary, as both shows are in development -
but you must reserve a seat. The cast would love any feedback you have to offer afterwards.

We have a couple of changes to the Summer Programme to announce – Vladimir the Crow has been postponed.

In its place we are thrilled to present a return season of The Damsel in Shining Armour, which received rave
reviews from critics and audience alike during its very short run at La Mama in early February. This season
season will commence on April 6th and run until April 17th.

CONGRATULATIONS to all 14 of the 2010 Green Room Award nominees from La Mama productions!

The Green Room Awards recognise the world-class Musical Theatre, Cabaret, Dance, Theatre and Opera productions that grace Melbourne’s stages each year. From artistic excellence to technical innovation, a Green Room Award is the most revered accolade an artist can receive in Australia’s cultural capital.

We are extremely proud to have such a nice representation of La Mama shows!

THEATRE – INDEPENDENT

MALE PERFORMER
- Thomas Conroy (Henry) - Something Natural But Very Childish (Dirty Pretty Theatre / La Mama)
FEMALE PERFORMER
- Peta Brady (Performer) – Status Update (La Mama)

ENSEMBLE
- Acts of Deceit (Between Strangers in a Room) (Dirty Pretty Theatre)
- Something Natural But Very Childish (Dirty Pretty Theatre / La Mama)
DESIGN
- Tim Stitz, Kelly Somes & Ashlee Hughes (Design Concept & Realisation) - Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper (Two Blue Cherries / Soulart / La Mama)
LIGHTING DESIGN
- Lisa Mibus (Lighting Design) - The Colour of Glass (La Mama)
- Emma Valente (Lighting) - Bare Witness (La Mama / fortyfivedownstairs)

SOUND/COMPOSITION
- Lou Bennett (Original Music) - Wakaid Girl Lyndhurst Kid (Loose Cannon Art Services / La Mama)

DIRECTION
- Gary Abrahams – Body of work
- Andrew Gray – The Colour of Glass (La Mama))

PRODUCTION
- Something Natural But Very Childish (Dirty Pretty Theatre / La Mama)

ASSOCIATION AWARDS

BEST NEW ORIGINAL WRITING FOR THE MELBOURNE STAGE
- Peta Brady - Status Update (La Mama

BEST ADAPTATION FOR THE MELBOURNE STAGE
- Gary Abrahams (Writer, inspired by and based on the novella by James Baldwin) - Acts of Deceit (Between Strangers in a Room) (Dirty Pretty Theatre / La Mama)
- Gary Abrahams (Writer, based on, adapted from and inspired by the short stories of Katherine Mansfield) - Something Natural But Very Childish (Dirty Pretty Theatre / La Mama))

The week got off to a wonderful start with Sophie Walsh-Harrington’s The Damsel in Shining Armour and continued full steam ahead with the opening of Richard Pettifer’s No-Show at La Mama Theatre.

Sometimes you just gotta go it alone…

No-Show is based on a true story of the development, and falling-over, of a show. Part allegory of failure, part nostalgia trip, No-Show is about the void that remains when beautiful things we love inevitably slip away from us.

Following on from this, Mrs Vincent Price premiere’s this evening at La Mama Courthouse.
Check out Robin Usher’s article in The Age on Mrs Vincent Price; ‘Behind-the-scenes look at a caustic thespian legend’. Tickets are running out the door, so be sure to book early for this one to avoid missing out.

Interested in a night of ‘uncensored lust and melodrama’, accompanied by the selected works of Celine Dion?
Join us for THE DAMSEL IN SHINING ARMOUR, a cabaret performance by Sophie Walsh-Harrington.
2 performances only at La Mama, Feb 7 & 8, before Sophie moves her show to the Butterfly Club and then on to the Adelaide Festival.

In association with The Dog Theatre, THE WAITING ROOM, by Born In A Taxi & The Public Floor Project, is performing for 2 nights only – Fri & Sat, Feb 4 & 5 , at La Mama. This is a fundraiser before the show goes on to The World Theatre Festival in Brisbane.

NO SHOW by Richard Pettifer has replaced Smudged – for one week only, Feb 9 – 13.

***SPECIAL FRIENDS OF LA MAMA Ticket Offer: $10 tix available for Wed Feb 9 @ 6.30p.m & Thurs Feb 10 @ 8p.m.
Quote the promotional code ‘bluebird’ when booking online or by phone

GOOD GRIEF by Charlie Laidlaw & Rosina Gannon is another addition to our Summer Programme, from Feb 15 to 27.

Definitely one for movie buffs! Footscray girl Coral Browne is the subject of MRS VINCENT PRICE, a world premiere production by Peter Quilter, at La Mama Courthouse from Feb 10.
Coral Browne left Footscray in 1934 and became a grande dame of the London stage. Described as talented, elegant and scandalous, she appeared in several movies (famously The Killing of Sister George), and later married actor Vincent Price.
While we clamour to discover which Aussies are nominated for Oscars, who among us remembers Coral and her achievements? The only vestiges of her memory here are 15 brown boxes of rarely opened memorabillia she bequeathed to The Victorian Arts Centre/Performing Arts Museum.

The Craft of Playwriting: Learn how to successfully write short plays, full-length plays; how to use online media including, YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace; how to apply for funding, how to self-produce your plays and how to get your plays into the hands of the right people.
At Holmesglen Institute, Chadstone Campus. Course starts: February 16.
FURTHER INFORMATON: Ray Mooney, ray.mooney@holmesglen.edu.au