LOGAN’SUNDER MUSICAL THIS SKY CELEBRATION Logan Sat 1 / Sun 2 Aug 6.30pm Football Field Logan Brothers Rugby League Club Free Event qmf.org.au MESSAGE FROM THE PREMIER & MINISTER FOR THE ARTS From 17 July to 2 August, all of Queensland will be a stage for the Queensland Music Festival (QMF), one of our state’s favourite and most ambitious events. QMF welcomes leading international and national artists alongside local talent in a robust program of concerts, performances and innovative musical experiences. We will see communities in Logan, Mount Isa, Townsville and Brisbane creating and presenting new works that weave together the stories of our state. The brand-new Mount Isa Symphony Orchestra will perform a world-first work of music that has been specially commissioned for the festival. Logan’s Under This Sky will feature more than 700 performers and potential audiences of more than MESSAGE FROM THE 20,000 in what is the region’s largest-ever community engagement project. MAYOR OF LOGAN No other Australian festival matches the vision to create spectacular and memorable events in such a The City of Logan is proud to host Under This Sky, wide geographical expanse, while at the same time as part of the 2015 Queensland Music Festival – a engaging communities on a vast scale and leaving a celebration of music, cultures and community. legacy for future generations. We’ve always known that our city is home to many QMF encourages state-wide participation through talented artists and performers, some of whom have a shared love of music and helps communities to come received national and international acclaim, such together through vibrant regional arts and culture. as Daniel Jones and Darren Hayes – better known The Queensland Government supports QMF through as Savage Garden – and more recently Dami Im, Arts Queensland and is committed to attracting new discovered just two years ago by X Factor. and improved major events to Queensland. Our city’s talented artists deserve the assistance I invite Queenslanders throughout the state to join of professionals who can bring a major production the fun as we celebrate Queensland Music Festival 2015. together and in the Queensland Music Festival we have Annastacia Palaszczuk MP found a partner that can bring out the best in our Premier and Minister for the Arts community. Tonight we will see many stars just waiting to be discovered in a spectacular that is closer to the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games than a stage production. Don’t be surprised by the diversity of the program – which includes performances such as fire twirlers, gigantic puppets, massed drummers, choreographed lawn mowers, dancers and choirs – representing the many peoples and cultures of Logan. The City of Logan is like no other place in Australia. Our people embrace the opportunity to be involved and we support events that bring our community together with unparalleled enthusiasm. Under This Sky presents City of Logan as it is – diverse, vibrant and alive – a place and community that is home to an amazing pool of talented people who deserve to be in the spotlight. Pam Parker Mayor of Logan MESSAGE FROM THE MESSAGE FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Projects such as Under This Sky start with a conversation. For Logan, that conversation began When I first sat down with Mayor Pam Parker to with the Council, the creative community and the talk about doing an event in Logan, I had no idea schools and then extended out to people across what we were getting ourselves into. Of course I the whole city. We met some inspirational leaders knew Logan was a large, diverse and artistically and teachers, some truly brilliant musicians and fascinating place – but I didn’t understand just composers and many (so many) talented young how huge, incredibly diverse and most of all, how people. No matter who we spoke to, from the extraordinarily artistically vibrant this community is. 15 year old beat-boxer to the respected elder, From the first auditions it became evident that the need seemed to be the same. They wanted a this was not like any other place QMF has worked. chance to change the narrative about this place; an The talent pool was an ocean; the ability and breadth opportunity to tell a different story about this city of the songwriters meant the community would write and its people, born of the extraordinary diversity the music for the show – a QMF first. I could go on and a powerful culture of performance of music. for pages about the surprises that have delighted There is dynamism and opportunity in this new the team as this event has come together but I think story. It is filled with music and celebration; a joyous the real message is that the story of Logan and its explosion of talent and aspiration, enriched by an people is nothing short of epic and needs to be told. unvarnished sense of who lives here, where they came from and an earnest wish for the future. James Morrison AM Under This Sky attempts to capture just a small part Artistic Director, Queensland Music Festival of this story by describing the extraordinary vibrancy and hope of the people who live here. Sean Mee Creative Director, Under This Sky LOGAN’SUNDER MUSICAL THIS SKY CELEBRATION MUSIC PROGRAM Morning Good Morning Logan Waking Up The City Move it The Logan Waltz Another Day Octane Fever Afternoon Know Where We’re From This Generation Top of the World The Game of Life Can You Hear Me? Night Children of the Universe Wandah Jageegan Jagun RISE UP! Beautiful Country Starlight Where I Belong Dawn Pachelbel’s Chanson I Have A Dream Get There From Here EARLY DEVELOPMENT The production has continued to grow, morph, react and contract ever since those cups In 2013 Queensland Music Festival (QMF) Artistic of tea in March 2014. It is now a ninety minute Director, James Morrison met with Logan City brand new, larger than life production, ready for Council Mayor Pam Parker and Deputy Mayor its world premiere! Under This Sky celebrates a Russell Lutton for a conversation on how the two special city and talented people with a massive organisations could work together to create a community cast, an eighty-six piece orchestra, special event for the City of Logan. There were a some two hundred voices, hundreds of dancers as handful of clear sentiments that arose from these well as a number of other surprising characters initial discussions. Namely, that it was Logan’s gathered from the Logan community. turn to celebrate its people, its community and its place in Queensland in a way the city never had before. SYNOPSIS What emerged was the idea of a major outdoor community event to showcase the Under This Sky opens in a park, under the stars. talent, diversity, exuberance and scope of Logan Throughout the production, the audience witness City. It would also be the signature event of the a twenty-four hour slice of life in Logan City, 2015 Queensland Music Festival. experiencing its people, its landscape, its stories The development for Under This Sky and its dreams. commenced. A creative team, led by Sean Mee, Our story opens in the morning; people Morganics, and supported by Shenzo, took bustle and busy themselves for the day, we meet off across the city in a mini bus for ten days walkers and workers, coffee makers and coffee in March 2014. This core development involved drinkers. We meet some characters that will help having conversations, meetings, auditions and guide us through the story. many cups of tea with cultural and community The morning spills into the afternoon, a time organisations, artists and groups to get a sense to celebrate the exuberance of youth. The hopes of the landscape for the show. It was in this initial of the city’s young people and its aspirations for consultation that the creative team embraced a the future are expressed in Rugby League riffs unique opportunity. There was enough musical and reggae beats and displayed through dance talent and skill in the community to source the battles. The park transforms into a hyper real entirety of the musical content locally. The Logan life sized video game with young people tackling community would write the songs for Under This obstacles to arrive at the pinnacle of the day. Sky. Moving into the night, we explore the stories In October 2014, Sean Mee, David Burton and that aren’t always present in the light of day; the Morganics, Shenzo and Shellie Morris bunkered stories of our traditional owners, the stories that down in the Kingston Butter Factory with a live in a place, as well as the new stories, those group of local singer/songwriters in a weekend that have arrived from distant shores. During the session called Song Trails. This weekend seeded music and action of the night, we acknowledge much of the musical content for Under This Sky that these stories shape this place. and affirmed a hope of the creative team that In the dawn we look to the future. The this show could be born through the talents of coming together of old and new, and the hope of its local writers and story tellers. The Song Trails shaping, celebrating and sharing a new collective process was delivered again in December 2014 story for Logan. in various high schools, which again developed major songs for the work. The creative team then nurtured and fleshed out these musical ideas to encompass a full script which included the characters and community members it met along the way.