金盾工程

GOLDEN

SHIELD

BY ANCHULI FELICIA KING Welcome

In 2017 we launched our NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program with the goal of better supporting Australian writers. Funded by the donors and foundations of MTC’s Playwrights Giving Circle and MTC, it is the most significant writer and play development program ever undertaken by MTC and is allowing us to provide more opportunities for more writers, with better funding and deeper relationships with the Company. Golden Shield is the first of the NEXT STAGE commissions to be produced and an astonishing new work from a very bright young talent. Anchuli Felicia King is an incredible multi-disciplinary artist whose work represents the exciting future of contemporary theatre. Weaving together the political and the personal, issues of communication and translation in a globalised, fractious world and potent dilemmas of the tech-age, Golden Shield is unlike any other play we’ve come across. It is a very proud moment to see this NEXT STAGE Original on the Sumner stage and we look forward to sharing more brilliant new Australian works with you in 2020. Enjoy the show.

Brett Sheehy ao Virginia Lovett Artistic Director & CEO Executive Director & Co-CEO

Melbourne Theatre Company acknowledges the Yalukit Willam Peoples of the Boon Wurrung, the First Peoples of Country on which Southbank Theatre and MTC HQ stand, and we pay our respects to all of Melbourne’s First Peoples, to their ancestors and Elders, and to our shared future.

MTC is a department MTC is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, MTC is a member of Live of the University its arts funding and advisory body, and by the State Government of Victoria through Performance Australia and the of Melbourne. Creative Victoria. Australian Major Performing Arts Group. MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS GOLDEN SHIELD BY ANCHULI FELICIA KING

12 AUGUST – 14 SEPTEMBER 2019 Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

— About the Play — Tenacious young lawyer Julie Chen brings her sister, Eva, on board as a translator in a risky legal battle with international ramifications. Leading a class action exposing an American tech giant’s involvement with the Chinese government’s internet firewall, Golden Shield, they must put their differences aside to confront large-scale censorship, corporate greed and their own complicated past.

— Cast — — Creative Team — Nicholas Bell Richard Warren/ Director Sarah Goodes Larry Murdoch Set & Costume Design The Sisters Hayes Jing-Xuan Chan Eva Chen (Esther Marie Hayes & Rebecca Hayes) Gabrielle Chan Huang Mei/ Lighting Designer Damien Cooper Deputy Minister Gao Shengwei Composer & Sound Designer Luke Smiles Fiona Choi Julie Chen Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner Yi Jin Li Dao Associate Designer Kat Chan Josh McConville Marshall McLaren Assistant Director Alice Qin Sophie Ross Amanda Carlson/ Language & Translation Consultant Jing Wei Lee Jane Bollman Design Secondments Yuchen Wang The Translator Jemima Johnston & Harrie Hogan Voice & Dialect Secondment Matt Furlani Stage Manager Pippa Wright Assistant Stage Manager Lisette Drew Rehearsal Photographer Deryk McAlpin Production Photographer Jeff Busby

For information regarding running time, please see a member of the Front of House team. (below) Fiona Choi, Director Sarah Goodes and Jing-Xuan Chan; (above) playwright Anchuli Felicia King From the playwright

Anchuli Felicia King shares how and why she came to write a play about China and the United States of America.

I read something on the internet. metaobjects because it’s an aggressively immediate and analog form. It’s a space This is how most of my plays start. It’s also where big issues can be transformed into how the majority of the world’s population little stories, where the epic and the gets its information. As of April 2019, 56.1% quotidian don’t just coexist but coalesce. of the world’s population was online. 55% In theatre, the personal is always political, of that online content was written in English, and vice versa. and 800 million of those users were Chinese, making it by far the largest In 2016, I read something on the internet. national population online. A group of Chinese dissidents were mounting a class action lawsuit against And yes, I got those statistics from the an American technology company for their internet. purported criminal collusion with the Chinese government. The plaintiffs alleged It’s easy to balk at statistics like these, that this billion-dollar corporation had but how can we actually conceptualise the knowingly helped the Chinese government human cost of this mass global digitalisation? build systems that would enable online Indeed, how can we conceptualise the censorship and digital surveillance as part internet? As a nebulous cloud of data? As a of the Golden Shield project, the national vast, interconnected web of servers, data security policy that has since become processing centres, household objects (the synonymous with China’s Great Firewall. Internet of Things)? Or should we think of it as pure math – algorithms that determine For some ineffable reason, I knew I wanted to what we see or don’t see, algorithms written write a play about this. And I knew that the by an emergent class of technocrats who play should be written in both Mandarin and increasingly define our political, social and English, so the play would need a translator. cultural lives? And if it needed a translator, why not make them The Translator, who could not only To my mind, the theatre is a really good translate literal text but also subtext and place to grapple with impossibly big context, revealing the total sum of semiotic phenomena like the internet and misfires that can happen when two parties globalisation – what some contemporary try to bridge a communicative chasm? philosophers, borrowing terminology from computer science, call ‘metaobjects’. I read everything I could find about the Theatre is uniquely suited to dealing with lawsuit. Then I read a lot more. I read public (opposite, top) Fiona Choi, Yi Jin, Sophie Ross, Nicholas Bell, Gabrielle Chan and Josh McConville; (bottom from left) Yi Jin and Josh McConville; Nicholas Bell and Fiona Choi; Yuchen Wang

documentation on the numerous cases Golden Shield is based on. I read transcripts of civil trials, theses on the Great Firewall, books on digital filtering, on Mandarin-to- English translation, on the surveillance state and linguistics and technocracy … and then I threw it all out and tried to write a compelling piece of drama.

So how ‘real’ are the events in this play? I would say the broader circumstances and events are based on fact, while individual characters and events are heavily fictionalised. In this sense, the play is itself an act of translation. Complex global issues are mapped onto fictive human stories – the core of which is the story of Julie and Eva, two Chinese-American sisters struggling to navigate their fraught relationship and shared trauma. The Chen sisters are in many ways my metaphor for the toxic sisterhood of China and America, two economically codependent superpowers that continue to struggle with their profound ideological incompatibility.

I am, of course, painfully aware of the hubris of a 25-year-old Thai-Australian playwright thinking she has anything meaningful to say about Sino-American relations (or indeed, about international litigation or human rights abuses in China). My hope is that Golden Shield gives you an impressionistic sweep of these metaobjects, and if you want to learn more about them, please consult an actual expert who will

(Top, from left) Fiona Choi; Sophie Ross; (above from left) Fiona Choi, Josh McConville, Yi Jin, Sophie Ross, Nicholas Bell, Jing-Xuan Chan and Gabrielle Chan have far more interesting and nuanced cultures, but between technologies, judicial things to say than I ever could. That is after systems, lovers and family members. I hope all the wonderful thing about the internet; that what people take away from the play is the enlightened texts of linguists, engineers, that the attempt to translate, as fraught as activists and lawyers are just a click away. it is, is what counts – that as multivalent and impossible as communication is, we The only thing we’re really qualified to do as have to keep trying because it's the best artists is ask questions about what it means mechanism we have. to be human. The heart of this play is a universal human predicament: the failure to communicate. Golden Shield explores how Hear from actor Jing-Xuan Chan at we fail to translate effectively on all fronts mtc.com.au/backstage – not just between different languages and Cast & Creative Team

NICHOLAS BELL GABRIELLE CHAN JING-XUAN CHAN Richard Warren/Larry Murdoch Huang Mei/Deputy Minister Eva Chen Gao Shengwei Nicholas Bell’s Melbourne Theatre Gabrielle Chan is an Australian Jing-Xuan Chan graduated from Company credits include The actor, born in Vietnam, of Chinese the Victorian College of the Arts Architect, North by Northwest, heritage. After finishing tertiary in 2006. During her studies she Madagascar, Richard III, The studies in Australia she completed received the Irene Mitchell Award Hypocrite, Enlightenment, Festen, an acting workshop at Sydney for outstanding performance, Dumbshow and Memory of Water. Theatre Company, where she built the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Other theatre includes War Horse on her previous skills learnt in Scholarship for outstanding (Global Creatures); The Great Chinese opera. Gabrielle has commitment to training, and the (Sydney Theatre Company); appeared in Chinese opera, short Friends of the VCA New Emerging The Wintering (Red Stitch Actors films, feature films, television Talent Award. She has since worked Theatre); Richard III, Loves Labours series and commercials, which for various theatre companies Lost, Red Noses, Hamlet, Henry V include The Last Chip, Celestial including Melbourne Theatre (Royal Shakespeare Company); Avenue, Jasper Jones, City Company, Red Stitch Actors as well as repertory seasons at Homicide, Mother Child, Rake Theatre, La Boite, and Malthouse Basingstoke, Oxford, Chesterfield and Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Theatre; she has also performed and York in the UK. Television: Mysteries. Her theatrical in productions both locally and A Place to Call Home, Wanted, appearances include Chimerca overseas including Hungry Ghosts, The Ex PM, True Story with Hamish (STC) and Australian Graffiti Criminology, Othello, The Merry & Andy, Underbelly Files: Chopper, (Sydney Theatre Company). Her Wives of Windsor (Green Room Mad as Hell, Seven Types of other theatrical performances Award nominated for Best Ambiguity, Time of Our Lives, include Silence (La Mama) and The Ensemble), Incognito, Single Asian Winners & Losers, Miss Fisher’s Quiet Brother (Belvoir). Gabrielle Female and Wit (for which she Murder Mysteries, Power Games, starred in the internationally was nominated for a Green Room Childhood’s End, Parer’s War, The acclaimed short film Mother, Child Award). Her television and film Games, Newstopia, Stingers and and has recently finished shooting credits include City Homicide, Satisfaction to name a few. Film: the TV series, Hungry Ghosts (SBS The Family Law, Dirt Game, Don’t be Afraid of the Dark, I Love TV). Gabrielle won the Outstanding Winners & Losers, and The you Too, Noise, Caterpillar Wish, Performance Award at the 25th Letdown. Jing-Xuan has also Charlotte’s Web, Opal Dreams, Bad Sydney Film School Festival for her attained her A.T.C.L Associate Eggs, The Great Raid, Take Away, role as a Japanese woman on death Diploma in Speech and Drama and Ned Kelly, The Dish, Mission row in Kijo. Her last short film The aside from acting, enjoys lending Impossible II, The Craic, Dark City, Egg was nominated for a Best Short her voice to narrating audio books Shine and Hotel Sorrento. Awards Film Award after premiering at the and audio plays. include Best Actor at the New York Sydney Film Festival in 2019. City International Film Festival 2011 for Afterglow. Cast & Creative Team

FIONA CHOI YI JIN JOSH MCCONVILLE Julie Chen Li Dao Marshall McLaren Fiona Choi has appeared for Yi Jin is an actor, director and Josh McConville’s theatre credits Melbourne Theatre Company playwright. He is a graduate of include The Sublime (Melbourne in The Lady in The Van and the Central Academy of Drama in Theatre Company); Cyrano de Metamorphoses. A graduate of Beijing. In a career that spans fifty Bergerac, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, WAAPA, Fiona’s musical theatre years he has performed in, written, Cloud Nine, All My Sons, highlights include Dragon Lady: and directed a variety of plays and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Many Lives & Deaths of screenplays. Golden Shield will Loot, Arcadia, Noises Off (Sydney Anna May Wong (2019 Adelaide be his second performance with Theatre Award for Best Supporting Cabaret Festival), RENT (Cameron Melbourne Theatre Company. Actor), In the Next Room (Sydney Mackintosh); Mamma Mia! Theatre credits include Madame Theatre Award Nomination for Best (Littlestar/Dainty) and Plainsong Butterfly, (MODD/Melbourne Supporting Actor), Gross Und Klein (Black Swan) as well as creating Theatre Company, in collaboration (Sydney Theatre Company); roles in Off-Broadway productions with Victoria State Opera, The The Boys (Sydney Theatre Award of Apathy – The Gen X Musical; Australian Ballet and Melbourne for Best Actor in a Leading Role), Insecurity and FAMBAM360. In New Symphony Orchestra); The Lyrebird, The Call, Strange Attractor (Sydney York Fiona also appeared on stage Gate to Paradise, Kiss Yesterday Theatre Award for Best Newcomer) in The Tempest; A Midsummer Goodbye (Melbourne International (Griffin Theatre); Hamlet (Sydney Night’s Dream (Manhattan Chinese Arts Festival); Strange Theatre Award Nomination for Best Repertory Theatre); The Silken Fruit (Melbourne International Arts Actor) (Bell Shakespeare); A Taste Phoenix (Core Ensemble) and Festival); The Mousetrap, Popcorn, of Honey, The Sugar House (Belvoir) guest-starred on television’s Thunderstorm (Melbourne and Death of a Salesman (Black Homeland; Law & Order; Person University Chinese Theatre Group); Swan Theatre Company). Television of Interest; Unforgettable and Peer Gynt, Twelfth Night, The Family, credits include: Wild Boys, The Newsroom. Back in Australia, (Central Academy of Drama). Underbelly II: A Tale of Two Cities, Fiona is best known for playing the For television Yi Jin has featured Redfern Now, Cleverman, The irrepressible Jenny Law in Benjamin in the series Stingers, Golden Killing Field and Home and Away. Law’s award-winning SBS comedy Melbourne, and A Poor Father Film credits include: M4M, Escape The Family Law, for which she and a Rich Father. Film credits & Evasion, Top End Wedding, received an AACTA nomination for include Celestial Avenue and The Infinite Man, The Turning: Best Performance in a Television Point of No Return. Commission, Down Under, Comedy. Fiona can also be seen Joe Cinque’s Consolation, War on screen this year in My Life Is Machine, 1% (AACTA Award Murder; Utopia; The Letdown; Nomination for Best Supporting Mustangs; Get Krack!n and Secret Actor) and The Merger. Bridesmaid’s Business. Cast & Creative Team

SOPHIE ROSS YUCHEN WANG ANCHULI FELICIA KING Amanda Carlson/Jane Bollman The Translator Playwright Sophie Ross is an actor, theatre Yuchen Wang completed a Anchuli Felicia King is a playwright maker and social change activist. Bachelor Degree of Theatre Practice and multidisciplinary artist of Thai- As an actor, Sophie has appeared at the Victorian College of the Australian descent. As a playwright, for Melbourne Theatre Company Arts in 2015. In 2014, Yuchen was Felicia is interested in linguistic in What Rhymes with Cars and selected to perform at the 20th hybrids, digital cultures and issues Girls, The Waiting Room, and Cock; Performance Studies International of globalisation. Her plays have for Malthouse Theatre in The Real Conference at the Shanghai Theatre been produced by the Royal Court and Imagined History of the Academy. Some of his credits Theatre (London), Studio Theatre Elephant Man and Revolt. She Said. include 4:48 Psychosis directed by (Washington D.C.), American Revolt Again; for Sydney Theatre Justin Nott, Cloudstreet directed Shakespeare Center (Staunton), Company in Disgraced, Gross und by Julian Fuentes Reta (Victorian Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Klein, Before/After, Hamlet, Blood College of the Arts); Approximate Theatre Company, National Theatre Wedding, Money Shots, Vs Translation curated by Felix Ching of Parramatta and Belvoir Theatre Macbeth, Oresteia, Comedy Ching Ho, Little Emperors, written (Sydney). As a multidisciplinary of Errors, Leviathan, Mysteries: by Lachlan Philpott and directed by artist, Felicia has worked with a Genesis, Romeo & Juliet, Waikiki Wang Chong (Malthouse Theatre); wide range of companies and Palace/Hip Hip Hooray, and The Nightingale and the Rose by institutions, including Punchdrunk, Woman in Mind; for Griffin in Little Ones Theatre (Theatre PlayCo, 3LD Arts & Technology The Bleeding Tree; for Lab Kelpie Works). He also appeared in the Center, Roundabout Theater, in Broken; for the Royal Court in Netflix mini series Chosen directed 59E59, Ars Nova, the Obie Awards, Narrative; for B Sharp/Small Things by Tony Tilse (Playmaker/Sony); The Builders Association, Ensemble in Ladybird; for Griffin Stablemates My Life Is Murder (Network Ten); Studio Theater, NYTW and Red Bull in Stoning Mary; and for Arena in Hungry Ghosts (SBS). In 2017, Yuchen Theater. She is a member of The Sleepover. Sophie is co-founder received a Green Room Award Ensemble Studio Theater's and co-director of Safe Theatres nomination as an Independent Youngblood Group and Roundabout Australia, a company committed Theatre Performer. Golden Shield Theater's Space Jam Program. to creating theatrical workspaces is his first collaboration with Formerly based in New York, Felicia that are free of sexual harassment, Melbourne Theatre Company. continues to work internationally bullying and discrimination. She is and is based between London, a proud member of Actors Equity. New York and her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Meet the Wonder Woman of dance

31 AUGUST – 10 SEPTEMBER | Arts Centre Melbourne

Under 30? Book D reserve tickets from $75*

*Applies to all performances from 31 August – 10 September 2019, subject to availability. Cast & Creative Team

SARAH GOODES ESTHER MARIE HAYES REBECCA HAYES Director (THE SISTERS HAYES) (THE SISTERS HAYES) Set & Costume Designer Set & Costume Designer Sarah Goodes is Associate Artistic Esther Marie Hayes graduated from Rebecca Hayes is a Melbourne- Director of Melbourne Theatre the Victorian College of the Arts based multidisciplinary designer and Company. She is a Helpmann in 2006 with a BA of Dramatic Art. artist working across animation, Award-winning theatre director She has designed costumes for Hay illustration, new media, theatre recognised for bringing over 14 new Fever, Macbeth, Double Indemnity, and the visual arts. She holds a Australian works to the mainstage. The Beast, Other Desert Cities, Bachelor of Art in Animation and For Melbourne Theatre Company, The Heretic, Hamlet, All About My Interactive Media from RMIT and Sarah’s work includes Così, Arbus Mother, Richard III and Rockabye creates work for stage, screen, & West, Astroman, A Doll’s House, (Melbourne Theatre Company); print and installation. AV Design Part 2, The Children (with Sydney North by Northwest (MTC and Kay + and animation for stage includes Theatre Company), Three Little McLean Productions); William Tell, Beached (Melbourne Theatre Words, and John. As Resident Nixon in China, Midnight Son and Company) and Going Down (Sydney Director at Sydney Theatre Baroque Triple Bill (Victorian Theatre Company/Malthouse Company, Sarah directed The Opera); Curtains (The Production Theatre). Her award-winning Hanging, Disgraced, Orlando, Company); Mother and Son animated works have screened Battle of Waterloo, The Effect, (McLaren House); Delectable in exhibitions, public spaces and Vere (Faith), The Splinter, and Shelter (The Hayloft Project); and film festivals across Australia and Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Scare Campaign (Cyan Films). overseas. As part of The Sisters Loneliness. Sarah’s other directing As part of The Sisters Hayes, a Hayes, a collaborative group of credits include The Sugar House collaborative group of sibling sibling artists and theatre designers, (Belvoir), The Sweetest Thing, artists and theatre designers, Rebecca has co-designed set and The Small Things, Elling, and Black Esther has co-designed set and costume for The Space Between Milk (B Sharp Belvoir); The Colour costume for The Space Between (Tinderbox Productions/Art Centre of Panic (Sydney Opera House); (Tinderbox Productions/Art Centre Melbourne); Going Down (Sydney Vertigo and the Virginia, The Melbourne); Going Down (Sydney Theatre Company/Malthouse Schelling Point, Hilt, and What Theatre Company/Malthouse Theatre); Antigone, Walking into Happened Was (Old Fitz Theatre). Theatre); Antigone, Walking into the Bigness and Blood Wedding In 2018, Sarah won a Helpmann the Bigness and Blood Wedding (Malthouse Theatre); and Meet the Wonder Woman of dance Award for Best Direction of a Play (Malthouse Theatre); and production design for the for her work on The Children which production design for the Carnival of Mysteries (Melbourne also won Helpmann Awards for Carnival of Mysteries (Melbourne International Arts Festival). 31 AUGUST – 10 SEPTEMBER | Arts Centre Melbourne Best Play and Best Female Actor. International Arts Festival).

Under 30? Book D reserve tickets from $75*

*Applies to all performances from 31 August – 10 September 2019, subject to availability. Cast & Creative Team

DAMIEN COOPER LUKE SMILES GERALDINE COOK-DAFNER Lighting Designer Composer & Sound Designer Voice & Dialect Coach Damien Cooper is a lighting Luke Smiles creates highly detailed Geraldine Cook-Dafner previously designer working in theatre, opera soundtracks for theatre, dance and worked for Melbourne Theatre and dance. For the Melbourne film, working across all areas of Company on Wild, Abigail's Party, Theatre Company Damien has lit music composition, sound design, The Children, Hay Fever, Di and Viv Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, foley and sound effects editing. and Rose, Melbourne Talam, John, The Effect and Neighbourhood Luke has composed and produced The Odd Couple, Straight White Watch. In 2019 Damien has soundtracks for many Australian Men, The Distance, Birdland, designed Madama Butterfly (Opera and international artists and The Waiting Room, Top Girls, Australia); Cinco & Neon Aether companies, including Australian The Heretic, The Swimming Club, (Sydney Dance Company); Oscar Dance Theatre, Bare Bones Dance The 39 Steps, The History Boys, and Lucinda (Sydney Chamber Company (UK), Brink Productions, All My Sons, The Clean House, Opera); Counting & Cracking and Belvoir, Chunky Move, Dancenorth, Boy Gets Girl, Take Me Out, and Things We Know to Be True Frontier Danceland (Singapore), The Glass Menagerie. Geraldine (Belvoir). Damien’s career Gabrielle Nankivell, Nederlands also works for independent theatre highlights include Neil Armfield’s Dans Theatre, Ox (Belgium/ companies, Red Stitch Actors productions of The Ring Cycle Slovenia), Rachel Arianne Ogle, Theatre and HIT Productions. (Opera Australia) and Exit the King Rambert Dance Company (UK), She trained at Middlesex University, (Malthouse Theatre/Belvoir) on Restless Dance Theatre, Sydney the Guildhall School of Music and Broadway starring Geoffrey Rush Dance Company, Sydney Theatre Drama, and she is an Honorary and Susan Sarandon; Graeme Company, Tasdance, The Farm, Senior Fellow in the theatre Murphy’s Swan Lake (Australian West Australian Ballet and department at the Faculty of Fine Ballet); Australia’s most successful Windmill Theatre Co. Arts and Music at the University of subsidised-theatre show ever Melbourne. Geraldine also works Keating The Musical (Belvoir); as a voice consultant in film, ABC and Birdbrain (Australian Dance Radio, SBS Radio, and for local Theatre), which played over 60 corporate and government bodies. venues around the world. Damien Geraldine was previously Head of has won three Sydney Theatre Voice, Head of School of Performing Awards, four Green Room Awards, Arts and an Associate Dean at the two APDG awards and is nominated Faculty of VCA and MCM, University for a 2019 Helpmann Award for his of Melbourne. work on [AB]intra (Sydney Dance Company). Cast & Creative Team

KAT CHAN ALICE QIN Associate Designer Assistant Director Kat Chan is a set and costume Alice Qin is a Melbourne-based designer for theatre, dance, video actor and theatre maker with and installation. Originally trained a strong interest in reaching as an architect, Kat worked in communities previously shut out architectural practices in Adelaide from the theatre world, with new and Tokyo before moving to works and radically reimagined Melbourne to study at the Victorian classics. She trained at Stella Adler College of the Arts. She graduated Studio of Acting in New York. Her with a Masters in Production Design interest in physical theatre led her and Postgraduate Diploma in to be apprenticed under the master Production Design receiving the teacher Joan Evans to teach inaugural Trina Parker Scholarship, her method of physical acting. the George Tallis Award and was Australian theatre credits include recently a participant in the MTC Little Emperors (Malthouse Theatre, Women in Theatre program (set 2017) and Atomic (Malthouse and costume design) in 2018. Theatre 2018, 2019). Theatre credits Beached (costume design, Melbourne in New York include Is It already Theatre Company Education); Dusk? (Herald Clurman Ensemble/ Mother (set and costume design, Irondale Theatre, New York 2013) Belvoir); The Australian Ugliness and Romeo and Juliet/Richard II/ (costume design/art direction, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Hamlet Isn’t video artist: Eugenia Lim, Open Dead, New York 2014, 2015). Alice House Melbourne); From Silence is a participant in the MTC CAAP (set and costume design, Directors Initiative. The Australian Ballet); The People’s Currency (set and costume design, Performance Artist: Eugenia Lim, AsiaTOPA/Centre for Contemporary Asian Art); The Sleeping Beauty (Design Associate to Gabriela Tylesova, The Australian Ballet). FIRST COMMISSIONS A major Australian arts project

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MTC gratefully acknowledges our visionary donors

MTC LIFETIME PATRONS Acknowledging a lifetime of extraordinary support for MTC. Pat Burke Allan Myers ac qc and The Late Dr Roger Riordan am Caroline Young and Peter Clemenger ao and Maria Myers ac Maureen Wheeler ao and Derek Young am Joan Clemenger ao The Late Biddy Ponsford Tony Wheeler ao

ENDOWMENT DONORS Supporting the long term sustainability and creative future of MTC. Leading Endowment Donors $50,000+ $20,000+ $5,000+ $1,000,000+ Geoffrey Cohen am Tony and Janine Burgess R & P Harkness Jane Hansen and Paul Little ao Orcadia Foundation Anne and Mark Robertson oam Jane Kunstler The University of Melbourne The Late Biddy Ponsford $10,000+ Renzella Family Andrew Sisson ao and Prof Margaret Gardner ao and Anonymous Tracey Sisson Prof Glyn Davis ac $1,000+ Virginia Lovett and Rose Hiscock

MTC’S PLAYWRIGHTS GIVING CIRCLE Supporting the Next Stage Writers’ Program. Louise Myer and Martyn Myer ao, Maureen Wheeler ao and Tony Wheeler ao, Christine Brown Bequest Allan Myers ac qc and Maria Myers ac, Tony Burgess and Janine Burgess Dr Andrew McAliece and Dr Richard Simmie, Larry Kamener and Petra Kamener

ANNUAL GIVING Donors whose annual gifts help MTC enrich and transform lives through the finest theatre imaginable. BENEFACTORS CIRCLE The late Noel Mason and Tom and Ruth O’Dea ■ Gaye and John Gaylard $250,000+ Susanna Mason ▲ Leigh O’Neill ◆ Heather and Crown Resorts Foundation Kendra Reid Dr Kia Pajouhesh Bob Glindemann oam Packer Family Foundation Craig Semple ▲ (Smile Solutions) Henry Gold $50,000+ Luisa Valmorbida ▲ In loving memory of Richard Park Roger and Jan Goldsmith The Joan and Peter Anonymous (2) Bruce Parncutt ao Lesley Griffin Clemenger Trust $5,000+ Prof David Penington ac and Ballandry (Peter Griffin Family) The Cybec Foundation Sandy Bell and Daryl Kendrick Dr Sonay Hussein Fund (a sub-fund of the John Higgins ao and Bill Bowness ao Jeanne Pratt ac Australian Communities Jodie Maunder Dr Andrew Buchanan and Janet Reid oam and Allan Reid Foundation) Maureen Wheeler ao and Peter Darcy Renzella Family Fiona Griffiths and Tony Wheeler ao Ian and Jillian Buchanan The Robert Salzer Foundation ◆ Tony Osmond ◆ Sandra and Bill Burdett am Andrew Sisson ao and Tony Hillery and $20,000+ Tracey Sisson Warwick Eddington Betty Amsden Foundation Lynne and Rob Burgess Pat Burke and Jan Nolan Trawalla Foundation Trust Peter and Halina Jacobsen Krystyna Campbell-Pretty am Ralph Ward-Ambler am and Irene Kearsey and Michael Ridley Dr Geraldine Lazarus and John and Robyn Butselaar The Janet and Michael Buxton Barbara Ward-Ambler Rachel Kelly ◆ Greig Gailey Anonymous (5) Elizabeth Laverty Jane Hansen and Foundation Barry and Joanne Cheetham Leg Up Foundation Paul Little ao ● ADVOCATES CIRCLE The Dowd Foundation Alex and Halina Lewenberg Louise and Martyn Myer ao $2,500–$4,999 Virginia Lovett and Victorian Department of The Gjergja Family John and Lorraine Bates Leon Goldman Rose Hiscock ● Education and Training Marc Besen ac and Kim and Peter Monk ◆ The Vizard Foundation Robert and Jan Green Eva Besen ao Jane Hansen ◆ Ging Muir and Caroline and Derek Young am ▲ Jay Bethell and Peter Smart David and Lily Harris John McCawley ■ Anonymous Wendy and Paul Bonnici ◆ Sandy and Sandra Murdoch Jane Hemstritch Diana Burleigh $10,000+ Bruce and Mary Humphries Jane and Andrew Murray Joanna Baevski ● Jenny and Stephen Charles ao Dr Paul Nisselle am and Karen Inge and Sandy and Yvonne Constantine Erica Bagshaw Dr George Janko Sue Nisselle The Bonnici Family ● Debbie Dadon am Anne and Mark Anne Le Huray Ann Darby ● The Cattermole Family Marshall Day Acoustics Robertson oam ◆ Tom and Elana Cordiner ● Dr Anthony Dortimer Hilary and Stuart Scott ● (Dennis Irving Scholarship) and Jillian Dortimer Christine Gilbertson ◆ Ian and Judi Marshman Lynne Sherwood and the Linda Herd ■ ● Melody and Jonathan Feder ■ late Tim Sherwood Matsarol Foundation Dr Helen Ferguson Macgeorge Bequest Ian and Margaret McKellar Jennifer Steinicke Grant Fisher and Helen Bird Richard and Debra Tegoni ◆ ● George and Rosa Morstyn Bruce Freeman ■ Cheryl and Paul Veith Katharine Derham-Moore Fiona Kirwan-Hamilton Christopher Richardson Price and Christine Williams Amanda and Mark Derham ◆ and Simon E Marks qc Phillip Riggio Margaret and Ray Wilson oam Katie Dewhurst ◆ Doris and Steve Klein Roslyn and Richard Rogers Gillian and Tony Wood Robert Drake Larry Kornhauser and Family ● Laurel Young-Das and Bev and Geoff Edwards Natalya Gill ■ Sue Rose Heather Finnegan George and Eva Ermer Josephine and Anne and Laurie Ryan Anonymous (7) Anne and Graham Evans ao Graeme Kraehe ao F & J Ryan Foundation LOYALTY CIRCLE Dr Alastair Fearn Pamela Lamaro ◆ Edwina Sahhar Cathryn Findlay Joan and George Lefroy Margaret Sahhar am $1,000–$2,499 Jan and Rob Flew Alison Leslie Guy Sansom and Prof Noel and Sylvia Alpins am Rosemary Forbes and Peter and Judy Loney Treena Quarin Valma E. Angliss am Ian Hocking Lord Family ◆ Susan Santoro James and Helen Angus Heather Forbes-McKeon ■ Lording Family Foundation Kaylene Savas ◆ Kate Aplin Elizabeth Foster Elizabeth Lyons Graeme Seabrook Margaret Astbury Glenn Fryer ● Ken and Jan Mackinnon Marshall Segan and Ian Baker and Cheryl Saunders John Fullerton The Mann Family ● Ylana Perlov John and Dagnija Balmford Nigel and Cathy Garrard Helen Mantzis ◆ Prof Barry Sheehan Heather Bamford Diana and Murray Gerstman Chris and Bruce Maple and Pamela Waller Jenny Barbou ◆ Gill Family Foundation Dr Hannah Mason Jacky and Rupert Sherwood Angelina Beninati Brian Goddard Margaret and John Mason oam Diane Silk Tara Bishop ◆ Charles and Cornelia Goode Don and Sue Matthews Dr John Sime Diane and Graeme Boyer Foundation ◆ Garry McLean Jane Simon and Peter Cox Steve and Terry Bracks am Isabella Green oam and Elizabeth McMeekin Reg and Elaine Smith oam – Jenny and Lucinda Brash Richard Green Emeritus Prof Peter McPhee Earimil Gardens Charity Bernadette Broberg John and Jo Grigg and Charlotte Allen Tim and Angela Smith Tania Broughman ◆ Jane Grover ◆ Robert and Helena Mestrovic Annette Smorgon ◆ Beth Brown and the late Ian and Wendy Haines John G Millard Diana and Brian Snape am Tom Bruce am Charles Harkin Ross and Judy Milne-Pott Geoff and Judy Steinicke Hugh Burrill and R & P Harkness ◆ Susan and Michael Minshall Dr Ross and Helen Stillwell Dr Meridee Flower Mark and Jennifer Hayes ● Felicity and Des Moore Suzy and Dr Mark Suss ■ Julie Burke The Hon Peter Heerey am qc Luke and Janine Musgrave James and Anne Syme Katie Burke and Sally Heerey Barbara and David Mushin Rodney and Aviva Taft Pam Caldwell Jane Hodder ◆ Jacquie Naylor ◆ ● Frank Tisher oam and Alison and John Cameron Sandi and Gil Hoskins Nelson Bros Funeral Services Dr Miriam Tisher John and Jan Campbell Emeritus Prof Andrea Hull ao Nick Nichola and Ingrid Moyle Graham Wademan Jessica Canning Ann and Tony Hyams am Susan Oliver am ● Kevin and Elizabeth Walsh ■ Clare and Richard Carlson Peter Jaffe Tony and Margaret Pagone ◆ Anthony Watson and Fiona Caro Amy and Paul Jasper Dr Annamarie Perlesz Tracey McDonald Chef’s Hat Denis and Elissa Joachim Peter Philpott and Pinky Watson Chernov Family Ed and Margaret Johnson Robert Ratcliffe Marion Webster oam ◆ Keith Chivers and Ron Peel Prof Shitij Kapur and Prof Hannah Piterman ◆ Penelope and Joshua White Assoc Prof Lyn Clearihan and Dr Sharmistha Law Betty and George Pizzey Ursula Whiteside Dr Anthony Palmer Malcolm Kemp Dug and Lisa Pomeroy Ann and Alan Wilkinson Dr Robin Collier and Neil Collier Janette Kendall ◆ Noel and Gaylene Porter Jan Williams ■ Prof Barry Conyngham am and Julie and Simon Kessel John and Joan Pye Mandy and Edward Yencken Deborah Conyngham ● Sally Redlich Greg Young Mark and Jo Davey Victoria Redwood Anonymous (30) Natasha Davies Julie and Ian Reid

LEGACY CIRCLE Acknowledging supporters who have made the visionary gesture of including a gift to MTC in their will. Mark and Tamara Boldiston Peter and Betty Game Dr Andrew McAliece and Max Schultz Bernadette Broberg Fiona Griffiths Dr Richard Simmie Jillian Smith Adam and Donna Cusack-Muller Linda Herd Peter Philpott and Diane Tweeddale Irene Kearsey Robert Ratcliffe Anonymous (11)

LEGACY GIFTS Remembering and honouring those who have generously supported MTC through a bequest. The Estate of Leta-Rae Arthy The Estate of Gordan J Compton The Kitty and Leslie Sandy The Estate of Prudence The Christine Brown Bequest The Estate of Betty Ilic Bequest Ann Tutton The Estate of Ron Chapman The Estate of Bettie Kornhauser The Estate of James Hollis The Estate of Freda E White Minson The Estate of Dorothy Wood

Acknowledging Donors who join together to support innovative and inspiring programs for the benefit of our community. ▲ ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE ■ YOUTH AMBASSADORS ◆ WOMEN IN THEATRE ● EDUCATION GIVING CIRCLE GIVING CIRCLE GIVING CIRCLE

To find out more about supporting MTC please call 03 8688 0959 or visit mtc.com.au/support Current as of July 2019 Thank You

MTC would like to thank the following organisations for their generous support

Major Partners

Major Media Partners

Production Partners

Premium Season Partners

Season Partners

Marketing Partners

Southbank Theatre Partners

If you would like to join our corporate family or host a private event, please contact [email protected] 2019 Partners current as of July 2019. The home of new work

From our NEON Festival of Independent Theatre to our Cybec Electric play reading series, studio seasons and our annual Education production, the Lawler has been home to it all over the last 10 years.

Ash Flanders in Lilith: the Jungle Girl (2016); Anchuli Felicia King in rehearsal for Cybec Electric (2018)

The Lawler has seen new writers develop their skill and their plays workshopped in their earliest stages, and helped open up MTC to independent artists like never before.

It is where writers like Anchuli Felicia King, Declan Furber Gillick, Jean Tong and Rashma N. Kalsie were first introduced to the Company through Cybec Electric, and later went on to be part of other MTC programs like NEXT STAGE and MTC Education. And plays like The Waiting Room by Kylie Trounson, 8 GB of Hardcore Pornograhy by Declan Green and Counting and Cracking by S. Shakthidharan – which recently took home four Helpmann Awards – were developed before being programmed on the mainstage of major theatre companies.

Through NEON, incredible independent productions like SHIT (Dee & Cornelius) and Dangerous Liaisons (Little Ones Theatre) burst into life on the Lawler stage before touring nationally. The Lawler theatre is also where Sisters Grimm and Nicola Gunn first worked with MTC before being commissioned through NEON NEXT to present new productions in our annual seasons.

Look back on highlights from the Lawler as we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Southbank Theatre. MTC.COM.AU/SOUTHBANK10