MKA: She’s A Little Finch

MKA | 2011

MK-ALPHA presents

She’s A Little Finch

by Elise Hearst

” writing is beautifully dark, painfully funny and stays with you long after the play’s end.”

SOMETIMES MELBOURNE ANNE-MARIE PEARD

“some really gloriously awkward exchanges…Kerith Manderson-Galvin perfectly captures the random awkwardness of the tween Josie””

ARTSHUB NICOLE ECKERSLEY

Josie has found a bird and she wants to keep it.

It’s twelve odd years since her mother, Nina, went away, and Josie is not letting go of this little finch.

She’s a Little Finch is a story about loss, and the way its impact reverberates through lives, towns, generations. Following a hugely successful season of Dirtyland, in Sydney, Melbourne local Elise Hearst is thrilled to bring She’s a Little Finch to MKA.

THE THINGS WE KNOW, MY LOVE, LIVE INSIDE US. KEEP LIVING LONG AFTER WE HAVE FORGOTTEN THEM.

Running time 80 minutes, no interval

You fucking shits

Reviews

4 STARS “Taught, tight, terrorist theatrics.”
THE AGE ELLY VARRENTI
“Thrilling in the best tradition of European political theatre.”
TIMEOUT MAGAZINE ANDREW FUHRMANN

Credits

PLAYWRIGHT ELISE HEARST
DIRECTOR JACQUELIN LOW
SET+LIGHTING DESIGN MICHAEL PARRY
ADDITIONAL LIGHTING DESIGN OREN GERASSI
SOUND DESIGN TOM BARTON + DIEGO VILLALTA
COSTUME CONSULTANT AMY BUTCHER

CAST INCLUDES

ALEXANDRIA STEFFENSEN as Lydia & Sarah
TOM DENT as Tom, Grant & Sanders
KERITH MANDERSON-GALVIN as Josie
LAUREN URQUHART as Nina

ELISE HEARST is a Melbourne based playwright, and a graduate of a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Melbourne University. She attended World Interplay 2005 and in 2006 relocated to London. From 2006-07 she attended the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers’ Programme and advanced Programme. Readings and performances of her work were shown at Trafalgar Studios, Soho Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, RADA and Theatre503.   Upon returning to Melbourne Dirtyland was included in the 2009 National Play Festival, and premiered with a full production at the New Theatre in April 2011. Other credits include award-winning play Apple, award-winning play 12B, The Sea Project (Melbourne Theatre Company Cybec Readings), The Sun Room (MKA) and Delight (Griffin Theatre). Elise’s play The Sea Project is scheduled for production in 2012 with Mudlark Theatre in Launceston, and the Griffin Theatre in Sydney. Elise held a 2010 residency with the Griffin Theatre, and is a founding member and associate artist of Kumquat Theatre, OBC and Arthur.

JACQUELIN LOW studied Communications at Murdoch University before graduating from WAAPA (Adv Dip Acting). She has worked with David Buchanan as a dramaturg on Exctasis and The Lightning and the Bell (Deckchair) and devised works with Blue Vault, Inner Cities (The Foundry) and Prosthetic Hip (Danceworks). Jacquelin co-devised and directed Powder Couch (Blue Room, Perth) and has directed Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues and Rinne Groff’s Inky (Theatreworks). After 12B, this is the second play by Elise Hearst that Jacquelin has directed.   

ALEXANDRIA STEFFENSEN is an acting graduate from the Western Academy of Performing Arts where she was the recipient of The Leslie Anderson Award for Acting Excellence. Her most recent theatre roles include A View of Concrete (Belvoir), Valley Song including a NSW regional tour and Camarilla (Merrigong Theatre Company), The Crucible (Black Swan Theatre Company), Human Resources (Siren Theatre Company), Jet of Blood (Ignite Productions), X-Stacy (Black Swan) and Live Acts on Stage, which was part of the Perth International Arts Festival (Black Swan).  Some of her film and TV credits include Neighbours, CNNNN, Life Support, FB Holden (Short) and Happy Feet. In 2007-2008, Alexandria was involved in an actor development program in Los Angeles and thoroughly enjoyed working with many industry professionals. This is her first production with MKA.

TOM DENT is a recent graduate of the VCA (2010). His recent credits include: After All This (Elbow Room) Dir: Marcel Dorney, Australia On Trial (ABC TV) Dir: Malcolm McDonald, J.A.T.O. (MKA) Dir: Tanya Dickson, Kassandra (Studio 45) Dir: Marcel Dorney Much Ado About Nothing(VCA) Dir. Reese McConnochie, Ghetto (VCA) Dir. Harald Furhmann, The Hollow (VCA) Dir. Daniel Schlusser, I, The Other (Brodie Films) Dir. Brodie Higgs, The Share Sugar (VCA) Dir. Tom Dent, Jack Starkey-Gill and William Rogers, The Room Mr Kidd (VCA) Dir. Marcel Dorney, Innocence: The Life and Death of Carravagio (VCA) Dir. Kirsten von Bibra

KERITH MANDERSON-GALVIN takes the leap from pen to performer. Amongst others she has appeared in former company “Sample Theatre” shows as a giant spider and God’s mother, in amateur musicals, amongst a gold-leafed set in an Opera Australia production, in a short film covered head to toe in mud, as the thin girl at a fat pride spoken word night, as the better half of a post-punk-vaudeville duo with her brother and most recently in the Canberra leg of MKA’s Season 1 show “22 Short Plays” as many characters. Now she will play a 12 year old girl. She is also a published poet, co-founder of independent theatre company “Family of Strangers”, and a playwright (Sunny Side Up, The Hat Box, The Keep, Rockafeller, Love Serenade of the Nymph).

LAUREN URQUHART has participated in over 15 theatre productions, several short films, 2 feature films and 2 voice-overs for puppetry productions. Lauren is a member of This is a Science Project. An international/motley ensemble based in New York City where she lived for 6 years interning and working at the Performing Garage home of The Wooster Group. Here in Melbourne Lauren has performed at the Malthouse Theatre and various independent theatres. In 2006 she was a member of the Malthouse Artistic council and in 2007 won a Greenroom award for best actress in the independent theatre category for her performance in Sweet Staccato Rising by Robert Reid. Most recently Lauren has been training in and observing the work of Tanya Gurstle, became a member of Melbourne performance group OBC and working on completing her non-acting related studies at the University of Melbourne. This is Lauren’s third production performing text by Elise Hearst and her first performance at MKA.

MICHAEL PARRY is a production designer working in theatre and digital media. He has previously worked with La Mama, Chapel off Chapel, Theatreworks, RMIT and many of Melbourne’s independent companies. Michael’s work spans theatre, exhibition, installation design and media production.. He also directs and performs. Michael directed/designed Kumquat Theatre’s production of ‘Hide and Sleep’, performed in their production of ‘Crave’ and designed Kumquat’s productions of ‘Beast’ and ‘Lulu vs Jack the Ripper’. He is designer-in-residence with Kumquat Theatre and OBC. Other productions include ‘Exposing Ed Wood’, ‘Spring Awakening’ (RMIT), ‘Hello Again’ (Halogen), ‘Mysterium’, ‘The Stupid Play’ (La Mama), ‘Penny Machinations’, ‘Zoetrope’ (Interior Theatre).

OREN GERASSI is producer, sound designer and technician based in Melbourne. He has experience in sound design and music composition for multiple platforms of the moving image, features and short films, documentary and animation projects for the cinema, television and internet mediums. He had initiated the 48 Hour Film Project in Melbourne and functioned as the Festival chairperson and production manager for two years. Oren’s technical background spans a year as a technician at the Melbourne Museum and working as sound engineer at many Festivals and events and not so many but still a considerable amount of studios, recording, editing, breathing and fiddling with performance and human expression. Along the way, he also obtained a useless piece of paper with the title Diploma of Technical Production in a Melbourne Institute.

Composers and performers TOM BARTON and DIEGO VILLALTA create electronically augmented soundscapes that transgress from the familiar to the otherworldly. Often improvised, their music launches from the traditional mediums of human voice and guitar into the surreal.  The graduates of the Victorian College of the Arts have collaborated on a number of projects, including composing the soundtrack for Spam the Musical – winner of the 36th Concours Internationaux de Bourges / Netart (IMEB Bourges/France) and the X Media Forum / 31st International Film Festival / Special Mention (Moscow/Russia).

THE CAST AND CREW WOULD LIKE TO THANK …
Matt Kelly, Rico Rogers, Jessica Murphy, Glenn Trembath,
Brett Tuer, Richard Giblett