Podcasts about little ones theatre

A Tony-award winning production of A Christmas Carol has returned to Australia, this time with the Welsh actor Owen Teale as Scrooge. A Tony winner himself, best known for playing Alliser Thorne in Game of Thrones, we learn about Owen's very unconventional path to becoming an actor. Also, the American playwright and drag icon Charles Busch has inspired a generation of artists with his outrageous writing and iconic performances. The first production from the Australian company Little Ones Theatre was Psycho Beach Party and their last will be Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. We're joined by Charles Busch and Little Ones co-founder Stephen Nicolazzo.

“The Comedy of Errors – the received perception of it is lightweight, thin, a bit of fluff, a diversion; actually it is quite the opposite... it is a play about people trying to find themselves, and connect to love. “  This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by award-winning actor and director Janine Watson.  In this episode, Janine discusses directing and discovering the complexities, nuances and physicality of The Comedy of Errors. She shares the process of transitioning into directing from acting, how a cast recreates a performance night after night on tour and the balance between collaboration and leadership in the rehearsal room.  Janine is a graduate of the National Theatre Drama School in Melbourne and has trained with the SITI Company in New York and Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre. For Bell Shakespeare she's appeared in Antony and Cleopatra and The Dream, and directed a production of Romeo and Juliet for young audiences. This year she directed Bell Shakespeare's national tour of The Comedy of Errors. In 2016 she won the inaugural Sandra Bates Directing Award at the Ensemble Theatre and went on to direct Unqualified, Nearer the Gods and Unqualified 2 for the company. In 2018 she won a GLUG Award for Best Supporting Actress for Red Line's A View from the Bridge, and was also nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award. In 2020, she won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Female Performer in an Independent Production for The Happy Prince, produced by Little Ones Theatre.   

It's summer! The gang bring you all summer related goods including how to be a Badass by Tash York at The Butterfly Club and Suddenly Last Summer by Little Ones Theatre at Red Stitch. During intermission we discuss the mini-series Waco and King Lear via National Theatre Live. Coming soon heralds Midsumma - top picks include Merciless Gods, The Legend of Queen Kong Ep II + The Homosapiens. Also there is Christian Marclay's 24 hour video piece The Clock at ACMI and MON FOMA, Sydney Festival.

The gang get dilated pupils of lust at Little Ones Theatre adaptation of Oscar Wilde's poem The Nightingale and the Rose - staged at Theatre Works. They then spend quality time with an Indigenous family rocked by suicide in Brothers Wreck at The Malthouse. Both performances affected our hosts quite deeply.

One company, two productions and a special guest! In this queer episode of Across the Aisle, Carla and Philip attend "The Moors" at Red Stitch and "Merciless Gods" at Northcote Town Hall, considering the work of Little Ones Theatre across two sites. Podcast supporter Wesa Chau joins them at intermission to share her insights, and the guide to Melbourne Fringe is riffled.

Christian chats to actor Jennifer Vuletic from the ensemble cast of Merciless Gods, a Little Ones Theatre production based on the book by Christos Tsiolkas, now playing at Northcote Town Hall, Main Hall, 189 High St until August 18.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Human Rights activist Adam Pulford from Pink Wolves discusses reports about the killing of queer men in Chechnya. Little Ones Theatre Director Stephen Nicolazzo and actor Sapidah Kian discuss their production Merciless Gods, an adaptation of the writings of Christos Tsiolkas. 

Silvi, Ben and Christina chat to actor Dion Mills about Red Stitch and Little Ones Theatre's production of The Moors, playing at Rear 2 Chapel St, St Kilda East until July 9.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A special episode at Melbourne's 30th Midsumma Festival. Carla and Philip take in two shows from this celebration of queer culture: I Am My Own Wife and The Happy Prince. At intermission, they banter about Hobart's MONA FOMA and the Golden Gaytime Crumb Shed. Happy Midsumma!

Dangerous Liaisons by Little Ones theatre is a theatrical adaption of Pierre Chodelos De Laclos novel. The story takes place in France in the 1700s, It’s a long winding story of revenge and seduction. Two ex lovers have plans for revenge and humiliation; they try to out do each other in an attempt to dominate one another.  Little Ones theatre originally staged this in 2014 at MTCs Neon festival, since then it has toured across Australia to Darwin and Brisbane and has won and been nominated for multiple awards, and is now being restage at Theatre Works in St Kilda. The set design and costume design was stunning and striking. It was a beautiful pallet of gold’s and pinks. There were shimmering golden curtains draped from the ceiling surrounding the space, with a sparkly golden floor with golden elaborate period couches. All the other props were consitant witht this colour sceme, all coloured gold, they appeared to be spray painted. The costumes were all period and lovely shades of pink. The script was very dense and wordy, which the actors and director were up for the challenge. The direction was superb, it was intricate and precise. The actors held together and delivered the script in a phenomenal way, you could tell how well they knew their character and what their intentions were.  This play spoke about complex issues around gender, manipulation and seduction though the lens of Little Ones camp, raunchy, theatrical style. It was extremely entertaining and fun to watch and be apart of. Although it was beautifully designed and performed I did take deep issue with part of the story. There is a part in the play, towards the end, were one of the male characters quite blatantly sexually assaults a woman, who to my understanding is quite young. It is played as comedy and is brushed off quite quickly, which I found very uncomfortable and it a later scene it was suggested that it was consensual, which I just didn’t believe, it seemed to be like coercion, which was deeply upsetting. I’m unsure if little ones was trying to make a statement about sexual assault in some way with this scene, but it did not translate to me at all, if you’re going to take a path of making a stamen about sexual assault through satire, which is a rocky path to begin with, it must be overt, and obvious that you are no condoning the actions of person who committed sexual assault.  I don’t have an answer to what Little Ones were trying to say with this scene, but I must say that it did offend me, and I would like to know the answer. Dangerous Liaisons by Little Ones theatre is showing at Theatre Works until August 20th. Written by Ebony Beaton. Voiced by Adalya Hussein. 

Dangerous Liaisons by Little Ones theatre is a theatrical adaption of Pierre Chodelos De Laclos novel. The story takes place in France in the 1700s, It’s a long winding story of revenge and seduction. Two ex lovers have plans for revenge and humiliation; they try to out do each other in an attempt to dominate one another. Little Ones theatre originally staged this in 2014 at MTCs Neon festival, since then it has toured across Australia to Darwin and Brisbane and has won and been nominated for multiple awards, and is now being restage at Theatre Works in St Kilda. The set design and costume design was stunning and striking. It was a beautiful pallet of gold’s and pinks. There were shimmering golden curtains draped from the ceiling surrounding the space, with a sparkly golden floor with golden elaborate period couches. All the other props were consitant witht this colour sceme, all coloured gold, they appeared to be spray painted. The costumes were all period and lovely shades of pink. The script was very dense and wordy, which the actors and director were up for the challenge. The direction was superb, it was intricate and precise. The actors held together and delivered the script in a phenomenal way, you could tell how well they knew their character and what their intentions were. This play spoke about complex issues around gender, manipulation and seduction though the lens of Little Ones camp, raunchy, theatrical style. It was extremely entertaining and fun to watch and be apart of. Although it was beautifully designed and performed I did take deep issue with part of the story. There is a part in the play, towards the end, were one of the male characters quite blatantly sexually assaults a woman, who to my understanding is quite young. It is played as comedy and is brushed off quite quickly, which I found very uncomfortable and it a later scene it was suggested that it was consensual, which I just didn’t believe, it seemed to be like coercion, which was deeply upsetting. I’m unsure if little ones was trying to make a statement about sexual assault in some way with this scene, but it did not translate to me at all, if you’re going to take a path of making a stamen about sexual assault through satire, which is a rocky path to begin with, it must be overt, and obvious that you are no condoning the actions of person who committed sexual assault. I don’t have an answer to what Little Ones were trying to say with this scene, but I must say that it did offend me, and I would like to know the answer. Dangerous Liaisons by Little Ones theatre is showing at Theatre Works until August 20th. Written by Ebony Beaton. Voiced by Adalya Hussein. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

234 years after Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel Les liaisons dangereuses was published, and 31 years after the premier production of its stage adaptation by Christopher Hampton, this new production from Little Ones Theatre comes to Melbourne as a fresh and lively piece of contemporary theatre. Those who've studied the novel will certainly appreciate how director Stephen Nicolazzo has captured the sardonic spirit of the French aristocracy, while newcomers will surely be enticed into discovering more about it all. Most importantly though, this sojourn amongst the affairs of the French court has a meanly entertaining story to tell and the courage to tell it like it was. It was a world where wit and amoral intellect was the currency of the day, ruled by those whose minds were as nimble as their bodies and even more adept at vigorous intercourse, but whose hearts were held in as tightly as their bladders. Amazingly, Nicolazzo, and indeed his nearly all-female cast, are daring enough to match the intensity of the vocal sparring with raunchy nude scenes of masochistic intimacy, sights that are capable of shocking today's audiences as much as the sounds of blasphemy would have shocked 18th century audiences. He introduces his audience to this arena with an onslaught of ridiculous wigs, pasty white faces, exaggerated mannerisms, opulent set design from Eugyeene Teh and a robot-like match of Four in a Row. Here the original Connect Four is spruced up with some video game sound effects, just as the rest of the play is peppered with interludes of modern pop music. While it's certainly been done before, and not always well, the songs are well chosen to illustrate a battle between the two finest players in the great game of courtship. Representing men, we have the seductive Vicomte de Valmont (Zoe Boesen), and on the side of women we have the decadent Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Alexandra Uldrich). The two of them look to be evenly matched in cunning, arrogance and education. They court each other for pride and amusement, just as they carry on affairs with countless others as a form of recreation and competition. Their relationship is the classic on-and-off mix of love and hate, of devotion and indifference. Both actors are outstanding as these familiar archetypes that, through the immediacy of live theatre, are given new life. Boesen is as convincing as she needs to be in the part of a man. It turns out to be quite an inspired casting choice, seeing as many of the characteristics that are now considered feminine would have been regarded as masculine in the French salons. On the other hand, the Vicomte's valet, Azolan, is played by Tom Dent, who towers over Boesen as something of a gentle giant at first, before the Vicomte comes to realise how much he underestimated him. As the Marquise, Aldrich somehow manages to switch between, comical, despicable, likeable and moving with the speed of a lighting change. Her endlessly expressive face, richly intoned voice and slick movements make her a consistently fascinating character to watch, even when the main scene is happening elsewhere. The Vicomte's latest challenge, to court the devoutly Catholic and chronically morose Cécile de Volanges (Brigid Gallacher), forms the crux of a narrative that exposes the naiveties of both characters. The Vicomte believes that his heart can be contained again after it has been let loose, that you can control love and prevent love from controlling you. A parodic performance of Felix Jaehn's 'Ain't Nobody (Loves me better)' succinctly captures the Vicomte's delusions about these two of the many women in his life. While his twisted love for the Marquise is sold successfully by Hampton's writing and by Aldrich and Boesen's peformances, the love he eventually comes to feel for Cécile is not given enough time or breathing space to feel real, and certainly not enough to surmount the trite baggage that this plot line has garnered over the centuries. Fortunately, the Marquise's hard-learned lesson that emotions cannot always be suppressed for the sake of the game is a much more convincing character arc. A playful karaoke of Whitney Houston's 'I'm Every Woman' is similarly effective at signaling the universality of the Marquise's doomed attempt to fight with, and not against, the sexism of her world, to win at a game that has always been rigged against her gender instead of seeking to change the rules. The only music that doesn't quite fit is the funk tune that plays over a certain duel scene, one that felt like it was meant to be the climax, but ended up being a slow build-up to a fierce contest that never eventuates. One of the most common problems with many tragicomedies, is that they often make promises they can't keep. However, thanks to the talent of the creative team, and the strong establishment of its setting and main characters, Dangerous Liaisons delivers on most of the comedic payoffs it spends time developing in its first act, and remembers to set up most of the dramatic payoffs it launches itself into during the second act. Written by Christian Tsoutsouvas

234 years after Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel Les liaisons dangereuses was published, and 31 years after the premier production of its stage adaptation by Christopher Hampton, this new production from Little Ones Theatre comes to Melbourne as a fresh and lively piece of contemporary theatre. Those who've studied the novel will certainly appreciate how director Stephen Nicolazzo has captured the sardonic spirit of the French aristocracy, while newcomers will surely be enticed into discovering more about it all. Most importantly though, this sojourn amongst the affairs of the French court has a meanly entertaining story to tell and the courage to tell it like it was. It was a world where wit and amoral intellect was the currency of the day, ruled by those whose minds were as nimble as their bodies and even more adept at vigorous intercourse, but whose hearts were held in as tightly as their bladders. Amazingly, Nicolazzo, and indeed his nearly all-female cast, are daring enough to match the intensity of the vocal sparring with raunchy nude scenes of masochistic intimacy, sights that are capable of shocking today's audiences as much as the sounds of blasphemy would have shocked 18th century audiences. He introduces his audience to this arena with an onslaught of ridiculous wigs, pasty white faces, exaggerated mannerisms, opulent set design from Eugyeene Teh and a robot-like match of Four in a Row. Here the original Connect Four is spruced up with some video game sound effects, just as the rest of the play is peppered with interludes of modern pop music. While it's certainly been done before, and not always well, the songs are well chosen to illustrate a battle between the two finest players in the great game of courtship. Representing men, we have the seductive Vicomte de Valmont (Zoe Boesen), and on the side of women we have the decadent Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Alexandra Uldrich). The two of them look to be evenly matched in cunning, arrogance and education. They court each other for pride and amusement, just as they carry on affairs with countless others as a form of recreation and competition. Their relationship is the classic on-and-off mix of love and hate, of devotion and indifference. Both actors are outstanding as these familiar archetypes that, through the immediacy of live theatre, are given new life. Boesen is as convincing as she needs to be in the part of a man. It turns out to be quite an inspired casting choice, seeing as many of the characteristics that are now considered feminine would have been regarded as masculine in the French salons. On the other hand, the Vicomte's valet, Azolan, is played by Tom Dent, who towers over Boesen as something of a gentle giant at first, before the Vicomte comes to realise how much he underestimated him. As the Marquise, Aldrich somehow manages to switch between, comical, despicable, likeable and moving with the speed of a lighting change. Her endlessly expressive face, richly intoned voice and slick movements make her a consistently fascinating character to watch, even when the main scene is happening elsewhere. The Vicomte's latest challenge, to court the devoutly Catholic and chronically morose Cécile de Volanges (Brigid Gallacher), forms the crux of a narrative that exposes the naiveties of both characters. The Vicomte believes that his heart can be contained again after it has been let loose, that you can control love and prevent love from controlling you. A parodic performance of Felix Jaehn's 'Ain't Nobody (Loves me better)' succinctly captures the Vicomte's delusions about these two of the many women in his life. While his twisted love for the Marquise is sold successfully by Hampton's writing and by Aldrich and Boesen's peformances, the love he eventually comes to feel for Cécile is not given enough time or breathing space to feel real, and certainly not enough to surmount the trite baggage that this plot line has garnered over the centuries. Fortunately, the Marquise's hard-learned lesson that emotions cannot always be suppressed for the sake of the game is a much more convincing character arc. A playful karaoke of Whitney Houston's 'I'm Every Woman' is similarly effective at signaling the universality of the Marquise's doomed attempt to fight with, and not against, the sexism of her world, to win at a game that has always been rigged against her gender instead of seeking to change the rules. The only music that doesn't quite fit is the funk tune that plays over a certain duel scene, one that felt like it was meant to be the climax, but ended up being a slow build-up to a fierce contest that never eventuates. One of the most common problems with many tragicomedies, is that they often make promises they can't keep. However, thanks to the talent of the creative team, and the strong establishment of its setting and main characters, Dangerous Liaisons delivers on most of the comedic payoffs it spends time developing in its first act, and remembers to set up most of the dramatic payoffs it launches itself into during the second act. Written by Christian TsoutsouvasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We discuss Nicola Gunn's latest production "Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster" plus Little Ones Theatre's silent film style retelling of Bram Stoker's "Dracula."