sudsonline.org Blog

In this edition:

1. Upcoming General Meeting: Wednesday 18 March
2. Auditions: The Collection, Slot 3
3. Subgroup Meeting: Production and Design
4. Upcoming Show: Waiting for Godot
5. Performance Opportunity: Secret Garden Festival

1. Upcoming General Meeting

Just a brief reminder that the next General Meeting of the Society will be held this Wednesday (March 18) at 1pm in the Cellar Theatre, underneath the Holme Building. Use the entrance situated opposite the Woolley Building, go up past the lawns and then down the stairs to the Cellar. We will be hearing Proposals for Slot 4 (Weeks 8 and 9, Semester 1) and the Wildcard Slot (mid-Semester break). For more details on how to propose, please consult your 2009 Handbook, or email sudsexec2009@gmail.com; we’re more than happy to give assistance or advice on Proposals.

2. Auditions: The Collection

Firstly, some specifics on the project.

- Wednesday 1st April to Saturday 4th April will be a season of short plays both new and old.
- Wednesday 8th April to Saturday 11th April will be a festival of British Drama, featuring two plays by Harold Pinter, The Lover (a Slot 1 revival) and The Dumb Waiter, and a double-bill from Tom Stoppard, Dogg’s Hamlet & Cahoot’s Macbeth.

Auditions will be held on Tuesday 17th March from 10 am until 1 pm in the Cellar Theatre. No prior preparation is needed, instead we’ll require you to read an excerpt from Tom Stoppard’s Dogg’s Hamlet or Cahoot’s Macbeth. There’s no need to be familiar with the plays, but a vague knowledge of Hamlet or Macbeth might be useful! For those interested in production, design, direction or writing, please come along in the same timeslot to have a chat with us. For those on the backstage side of things, this won’t be so much an audition as a chance to figure where you’ll be most suited. If this interests you particularly, please email Chris at sudsexec2009@gmail.com.

We need quite a few people for this project, and we’d love to see as many new faces as possible, as well as old faces in new roles. If you’re a writer with a short play lying around, a director with a dream short play, or someone who hasn’t acted in a while, this is your perfect chance to get involved. Of course, we also welcome those with more experience!

If you have any questions, or can’t make the designated time for auditions, please contact Pierce on 0401262970.

3. Subgroup Meeting: Production and Design

This year’s first meeting for the Production and Design (PAD) subgroup will take place this Wednesday (18 March) at 12 noon in the Cellar Theatre, immediately prior to the General Meeting. This week PAD will be unveiling a new structure for 2009, including a debrief with the directors and designers of the previous Cellar slot, and a presentation from the newest Cellar slot to be decided about their technical plans.

4. Upcoming Show: Waiting for Godot

Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for Godot. Who and where Godot is is as mysterious as who and where Estragon and Vladimir are. One of the most infamous pieces in English theatre history, Waiting for Godot is simple and grandiose, meaningless and meaningful, incredibly dull and powerfully moving.

Directors: Cale Hubble and Timothy Steele
Producer: Nicholas Dixon-Wilmshurst
Cast: Todd Blackhouse, Bridie Connell, Xenogene Gray, Matt McGirr, Caitlin Weston.

5. Performance Opportunity: Secret Garden Festival

The general outline of the event is this:  it is a festival to raise funds for meningococcal research.  Put on by a team of music industry do-gooders (they do exist!) the festival is hoping to attract around 1000 people, and will be held on a property in Camden, approximately 45 mins drive southwest of Sydney. More details are available at www.secretgarden09.com.au.

The organisers are looking for some bright, young, SUDSy things to add a bit of razzle dazzle to the night; perhaps a troupe of wacky characters that could perform alongside entertainment that has already been confirmed, including firetwirlers, gymnasts and Capoeira dancers.  Ideally, the SUDS characters would spend the night mingling throughout the crowd, interacting with the audience, as well as staging various performances during the night. The more outlandish, energetic and eccentric, the better.

Aside from free entry to the event featuring some great music, (tickets are on sale for $100) the performers will have be provided with an ample supply of beverages, as well as having access to a VIP area.  They will not be required to work for the entire night.  The organisers want peformers to have as much fun as everyone else, and if not more.  If you’re looking for a big audience and free reign over your performance, this is the right opportunity.

For more details, send Chris an email at sudsexec2009@gmail.com and there is a meeting later in the week with the organisers. If there is sufficient interest, we will attempt to organise an official Exec liaison for the project.

“When you come into the theater, you have to be willing to say, “We’re all here to undergo a communion, to find out what the hell is going on in this world.” If you’re not willing to say that, what you get is entertainment instead of art, and poor entertainment at that.”

— David Mamet