MA Drama Week 12

Drama Rehearsals in full swing now for the “big” presentation next Wednesday the 7th June at the MA Centre, 19 Denham Street, Surry Hills. Performance at 11 am sharp. We have had a ball rehearsing both the extract from the Bard’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and from Jim McNeill’s “How Does Your Garden Grow”. The scene from Shakespeare is perfect for our needs. It combines a brilliant exposition of one of Shakespeare’s key ideas (“All the World’s a Stage and we are Merely Players”) with a fabulous opportunity to accomodate all our nervousness and hesitancy as PART OF the meaning of the play itself… the unforgettalbe Peter Quince, Bottom, Snug, Snout, Flute, Starveling and the fairies and the rest…. the world would be a much less interesting and joyous place if Mr Shakespeare had not left this legacy for us to perform, enjoy and entertain with…… here are some screen shots of the motley crew IN rehearsal: (Click on all pictures to enlarge-if you wish)
Here are Anissa and Reza pondering deeply their roles as the ardent lover Pyramus and the fearless (terrifed) lion:

Here is Tom as Starveling AS MOONSHINE being prompted into his role by our fearless director John G:

Here is Tania as Peter Quince being drummed by John into being a merciless director for this dissolute crew of actors:

And here is Liza in the background preparing her role as Snout about to play THE WALL.

Here now is Reza, as Snug about to be pushed onto the front of the stage to indeed play the Lion’s part and frighten all the ladies in the audience… but note well on the day of the performance he WILL BE WEARING A LION’S MASK WHICH HE WILL BE TAKING OFF BEFORE THE LADIES GET TOO SCARED: rrrrrroooooooaaaaaaaRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!….. squeak!:

And by the way I want to share with you the fact that our oh so terrified and hyper-sensitive lion, Reza is an amazing behind-the-scenes artist. Drawing on his rich Persian background- look what he produced in the back room in the short breaks between rehearsal scenes:

And here is a close up of this amazing impromptu creation:

Here now is the preposterous Thisbe coming in dancing… played by the dextrous John Van Gulick…. twirling his way onto the stage…… the lion bewildered… the director coaxing all into life:

Here in conclusion is the whole class taking a breather before they move into a play reading of their next item: a scene from “How Does Your Garden Grow”… with John VG as Brenda! Tom as Sam, Reza as Mick….

Round the table from left going clockwise are: Reza, Liza, Johannes, Thomas (the tank), Tania, John G (program co-ordinator), Anissa (and yours truly behind the camera!)
Here finally and in conclusion again is the invitation for the show- complete with art work which will form the backdrop of the show itself… art-work produced by residents of MA:

By the way if anyone would like to view more work/ stories/ photos by the cast as presented above then click on the following URLs:
Anissa C
http://anissa-c.livejournal.com/
Tania H
http://tahilder.livejournal.com/
John VG
http://johannes123.livejournal.com
Reza I
http://reza-is.livejournal.com/
Liza D
http://lidavigus.livejournal.com/
Tom M
http://thomasthetank40.livejournal.com/