THREE LITTLE WORDS by Joanna Murray-Smith Welcome

Relationships and friendships are fruitful sources of comedy and drama and there are few writers who can harness them as expertly and with as much wit and honesty as internationally acclaimed playwright Joanna Murray-Smith.

Three Little Words brings Joanna and MTC Associate Director Sarah Goodes together again to take a gloriously revealing look at how we deal with the unexpected when the seemingly secure becomes insecure and our domestic lives go off-piste.

Three Little Words is also the first of four new Australian plays to have their world premieres in our 2017 season.

Melbourne audiences over the years have been outstanding champions of new Australian work and writers. MTC is committed to fostering new work by commissioning, developing and staging Australian stories not only for Victoria but for stages nationally and internationally.

In the coming months Melbourne Talam by Rashma N. Kalsie, Minnie & Liraz by Lally Katz and Vivid White by Eddie perfect will make their debut, and both Melbourne Talam and Minnie & Liraz will tour to regional Victorian venues allowing more people to experience these wonderful new Australian plays.

Enjoy this world premiere production.

Virginia Lovett MTC Executive Director

Melbourne Theatre Company acknowledges the Yalukit Willam Peoples of the Boon Wurrung, the Traditional Owners of the land on which Southbank Theatre and MTC HQ stand, and we pay our respects to Melbourne’s First Peoples, to their ancestors past and present, 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 THREE LITTLE WORDS by Joanna Murray-Smith

18 APRIL – 27 MAY Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

— Cast — Composer & Sound Designer Kelly Ryall Annie Kate Atkinson Assistant Director Elsie Edgerton-Till Curtis Peter Houghton Fight Choreographer Nigel Poulton Tess Catherine McClements Tap Choreographer Nathan Pinnell Bonnie Katherine Tonkin Dramaturgy Consultant Brent Hazelton Stage Manager Julia Smith Assistant Stage Manager Benjamin Cooper — Creative Team — Stage Management Secondment Director Sarah Goodes Amelia Trenaman Set & Costume Designer Michael Hankin Rehearsal Photographer Deryk McAlpin Lighting Designer Paul Jackson Production Photographer Jeff Busby

— About the play — Bonnie and Annie and their best friends, Tess and Curtis, have both been together for twenty years. The cosy world of coupledom has insulated them all from the challenges of a complicated world. But at an anniversary dinner Tess and Curtis casually drop a bombshell – they have decided to split up. There’s no way to predict or control the devastation that follows.

Cover photo: Justin Ridler Writing that Speaks

Joanna Murray-Smith is one of Australia’s most celebrated playwrights. In a recent interview with MTC Joanna said, ‘We all want to lead more than one life. We all want to live inside passion.’ For Joanna, that passion exists inside her head.

the time by life, by the people I meet, the conversations I have and the things that I read or watch or accidentally fall into. The other life I’d be leading? A life where I could read instead of write. Well, probably Tilda Swinton’s life in I Am Love. Basically in Italy, married to a rich Italian industrialist and having an affair with my husband.

Can you describe what it’s like when you first conceive an idea for a new play? Do you race to your keyboard at any hour of the night to get the idea out, or does it slowly brew in your mind before becoming a first draft? I usually do recognise the moment a new play is born. It’s a thought or something I see or read or hear and there’s a kind of internal flash. Then my mind zings around at a million miles an hour trying to work out if it has traction. Can I ‘see’ it? If the idea doesn’t let me go then I know I’m onto something.

If you weren’t a playwright, what other What is the most gratifying aspect of life would you be leading? What does writing for the stage? ‘living inside of passion’ look like for you? Working with brilliant people in what is The world inside my head is my passion. I’m generally a very convivial, kind and energetic lucky that my fantasies or day-dreams can workplace. Feeling connected to the people be extrapolated into a working life. The who experience the work is also lovely and magic of seeing a flicker of a thought emerge something novelists don’t get. Sitting in an into a fully fledged play, collaborated on engaged audience and watching them react with wonderful artists and watched by to my imagination is always mysterious, paying grown-ups is fantastic. I’m excited all terrifying and wonderful all at once. Catherine McClements, Kate Atkinson, Peter Houghton and Katherine Tonkin

Where did the blueprint for Three Little idealised view of love trembled at other Words come from? people’s unhappiness? Was I jealous of I would absolutely love to buy an online change or emotional adventuring? Was blueprint for my plays but alas, none I complacent and could catastrophe be available! The structure and tone of a play unleashed at any moment, even after – and often the ideas and characters – twenty years of marriage? evolve over many drafts. A play can begin as a drama and end up a comedy and vice Do you become attached to your versa. With this play, I began with the first characters? Do you ever think your scene. At a funny, intimate, relaxed dinner characters represent elements of yourself? between best friend couples, a metaphorical Yes and yes. I lived with my version of grenade is thrown into a friendship and a Patricia Highsmith in Switzerland for a long marriage. Can I write a play about love and time and I grew to love her, even though friendship which is very contemporary but she wasn’t very loveable. also timeless, which is funny but savage, which is fast and furious but also very Being a successful playwright depends a meditative about marriage? These were the lot on other people getting it ‘right’. What questions I was wrestling with. And on a makes you trust a piece of work with a less rarefied note, I wondered why I felt so cast and creative team? upset at other people’s break-ups, even Optimism! Most of a collaboration is spent people I barely knew. Was it that my own wondering at other people’s fascinating take on the world, their creative instincts, with what I knew and admired in each their intelligence, grace and determination. of the actors. It’s an honour to work with them. You portrayed a marriage break-down Your 2004 play Bombshells was written in one of your earliest plays, Honour for Caroline O’Connor and was a huge (1995). What has brought you to revisit success. Do you often write with actors this subject 22 years later in Three in mind? Have you done this with Three Little Words? Little Words? I was married when I wrote that play and I loved Caroline in Bombshells and adored I’m still married to the same person. That’s writing for such an immensely talented a lot of material right on my doorstep. actress. It’s always fun writing to specific actor’s skills, and sometimes stretching those skills in new directions for them. Go online to see the full gallery But I didn’t have anyone in mind for the of Three Little Words rehearsal early drafts. Once the play was cast, and production images. I could tweak and re-energise the play mtc.com.au/backstage

BIOGRAPHY Joanna Murray-Smith is a Melbourne based playwright, novelist and screenwriter. Her works at Melbourne Theatre Company include Switzerland, Pennsylvania Avenue, Songs for Nobodies, True Minds, Rockabye and Ninety. Joanna’s play Honour, written in 1995, remains her most successful work to date and has been produced in over two dozen countries. Many of her plays have appeared all over the world, including on Broadway, the West End and at the Royal National Theatre in London. Joanna has won two Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for her dramas Honour and Rapture. Her 2004 play Bombshells won the Fringe Fest Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the London Theatregoers Choice Award the following year. Joanna collaborates with director Sarah Goodes for the world premiere of Three Little Words, following their critically and publically acclaimed season of Switzerland last year. Kate Atkinson and Catherine McClements; (opposite, from left) Katherine Tonkin, Peter Houghton and Kate Atkinson; Catherine McClements and Katherine Tonkin Director Sarah Goodes with Peter Houghton and Katherine Tonkin, with Stage Manager Julia Smith in background

Speak Low If You Speak Love

Three Little Words asks its audience whether the grass might be greener on the other side, how is it to live with disquiet, and if they were to act on that disquiet, what would the consequences be?

One in three Australian marriages end in ‘There’s a certain age you get to, or any ‘I don’t’. More and more couples, however, age really, where you think people are are tying the knot than ever before. rock solid in their relationship, but then it crumbles,’ Chris says. ‘Joanna Murray-Smith Joanna Murray-Smith’s new play provides a wanted to look at the phenomenon of dynamic meditation on marriage by looking people breaking up and to pose the at not just one couple, but two. A four- question: what if it is contagious?’ person, symbiotic duo of relationships, who are each reliant on the other for their social Chris believes this play is about finding that equilibrium. When one individual seeks to balance between stasis and chaos. ‘Many disrupt this balance – in the pursuit of their people will be reflecting on their own lives, individual happiness – chaos ensues. and asking ‘What is unleashed when one person says, ‘I’m done with this.’’ MTC Literary Director Chris Mead says Three Little Words scrutinises the nature of ‘It becomes an elemental, protean struggle fidelity, the sacrifices we wear when we are – not simply for identity, but a quest for the committed to another person, and the chaos meaning inside of that.’ that funnels in when a union comes undone. Peter Houghton, with Kate Atkinson and Katherine Tonkin in background; (right) Catherine McClements

Navigating marriage and relationships is a stage in 1962 and asked American families subject that intersects all eras of drama, to question their nuclear family ideal. and dates back to the advent of theatre itself in Ancient Athenian plays such as Decades after these great works premiered, Medea. In Shakespeare’s The Taming of the topic of marriage is as fertile as ever. the Shrew, for instance, gender politics ‘The notion of what a relationship is worth are exposed in all their joy and ugliness. is never ending,’ Chris says. ‘The value of One line, ‘Tis bargain’d twixt us twain’ drama is to ventilate intractable problems defines marriage as little more than a and to look at suffering.’ business arrangement. ‘Here is a woman who is suffering: how does Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was she choose to alleviate that suffering? She revolutionary when it opened in 1879 for identifies that the suffering is her marriage; subverting 19th century marriage norms. that it is poison, for her. Three Little Words The play ends with protagonist Nora taking examines a particular version of dealing off her wedding rings and walking out on with that, and then asks who benefits.’ her husband and children. Like most drama, Joanna Murray-Smith’s Ibsen’s later work Hedda Gabler similarly play exists in the gap between what disrupted the era’s standards of matrimony characters want, what they need, and and raised the deep economic and political ultimately, what they get. ‘Joanna likes to challenges of the autonomy of women. pursue work that examines feminism in all its discontents and opportunities,’ Chris Edward Albee’s world famous play says. ‘She’s unafraid to pursue the ugliness, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? thrust the confusion and difficulty of living in our world viciousness and cruelty of marriage centre – for women and men.’ Embrace the performing arts

The Victorian College of the Arts prepares dedicated young performing artists for future careers in theatre performance, directing and writing, and is proud to see its graduates succeed all over the world. We wish Sarah Goodes (VCA alumna 1998), MTC cast and crew the best for their season of Three Little Words.

To find out more about the VCA’s upcoming Brecht Season, presented by VCA Acting Company 2017 and VCA Production, visit vca-mcm.unimelb.edu.au/events

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, presented by Acting Company 2016 and Production students. Photo by Lachlan Woods. Cast & Creative Team

KATE ATKINSON PETER HOUGHTON CATHERINE MCCLEMENTS Annie Curtis Tess

Kate Atkinson previously Peter Houghton is an actor, Catherine McClements previously appeared in Lungs, The Waiting director and playwright. His appeared for Melbourne Theatre Room, Rockabye, and Away for recent appearances for MTC Company in The Other Place, Melbourne Theatre Company. include, His Girl Friday, The Joy Cruel and Tender and Angels Her other stage credits include of Text, The Colours, The Female in America. Her other theatre Becky Shaw (Echelon); Romantic of the Species, Birthrights, appearances include The Events Comedy (UK Tour); Serial Killers Laughter on the 23rd Floor, (Belvoir and Malthouse and (Derby Playhouse); A Midsummer Misalliance, and Sweet Bird of STCSA); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Youth. His directing credits for Woolf? (Belvoir), It Just Stopped under the Stars); Thieving Boy MTC include The Odd Couple, Boy (Company B Belvoir and (Playbox); Miss Bosnia (Black at the Edge of Everything, True Malthouse Theatre), Macbeth, Swan); and Twisted Universe, Minds, Hinterland, The Recruit Suddenly Last Summer and The Egg, Alice in Wonderland, and Art and Soul. His other stage The Blind Giant is Dancing and Seadreams of Isabelle Ismay work includes performances in (Belvoir); The Crucible (STC); (Barking Gecko Theatre). Her The Beast for Ambassador Group; The Imaginary Invalid and television credits comprise The Trial and Travesties for STC; Molière (Anthill); Phèdre (Bell Wentworth, Miss Fisher’s Murder The Eskimo, Tartuffe, A View Of Shakespeare); Les Liaisons Mysteries, Jack Irish, Offspring, Concrete and Normal Suburban Dangereuses, The Winter’s Tale, The Dr Blake Mysteries, Planetary Meltdown for Shepherd on the Rocks, Much Sleuth 101, Rush, Synchronicity, Malthouse Theatre; The Graduate Ado About Nothing, and Away Sugar Rush, Doves of War, The for Kay + McLean among others. (State Theatre Company of South Cooks, Kath & Kim, CrashBurn, Peter directed Footprints on Australia). Catherine’s lead Temptation, Fat Cow Motel, Water for Griffin Theatre, Noises television roles include Rush, SeaChange, The Man From Off for Marriners and Day One A Tangle, CrashBurn, After the Snowy River and Blue Heelers. Hotel Evening for Black Swan. His Deluge, and Water Rats. She appeared in the short films plays The Pitch, A Commercial Catherine won AFI Awards for Trapped and The Coat, and the Farce, The China Incident and Best Lead Actress in a TV Drama features The Jammed, Japanese The Colours have enjoyed Series for Tangle (2010), Best Story, and The Hard Word. seasons with MTC, Malthouse, Actress in a Guest Role in a QTC, Black Swan and have toured Drama Series for Secret Life nationally and in the UK. His solo of Us (2001) and Best Actress show The Pitch played over 500 for Weekend with Kate (1990). performances in Australia and Her performance in Redheads UK winning Edinburgh Fringe won her Best Supporting Actress Awards, Stage UK and Age Pick of at the 1993 Asia-Pacific Film the Year. Festival in Japan. Cast & Creative Team

KATHERINE TONKIN SARAH GOODES MICHAEL HANKIN Bonnie Director Set & Costume Designer

Katherine Tonkin has previously Melbourne Theatre Company Michael Hankin recently designed appeared for Melbourne Theatre Associate Director Sarah Goodes the set for MTC’s production of Company in The Cherry Orchard, directs Three Little Words Jumpy. Some of his other stage Cloud Nine, The Apocalypse Bear following her critically acclaimed credits include The Glass Trilogy (co-produced with Stuck direction of John earlier this year. Menagerie, Angels in America, Pigs Squealing/MIAF), and, for MTC Sarah’s reputation as a leading Ivanov, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Education, Explorations: A Streetcar director of new Australian and Jasper Jones, Twelfth Night, Named Desire. Her other stage international work has been built The Great Fire, A Christmas Carol, appearances include Elektra/Orestes on wide-spread praise and The Dark Room, and Fool For Love (Belvoir); The Wild Duck multiple award nominations. (Belvoir); Tartuffe(STCSA); Lake (Belvoir/PIAF); Conversation Piece Formerly Resident Director at Disappointment (Carriageworks); (Belvoir/Lucy Guerin); You and Me Sydney Theatre Company, Sarah Othello and As You Like It (Bell and the Space Between directed The Hanging, Disgraced, Shakespeare); The Aspirations of (Terrapin/Malthouse/MIAF); Tame Orlando, Battle of Waterloo, The Daise Morrow (Brink Productions, (Malthouse); The Histrionic and Baal Effect, Vere (Faith), The Splinter, Adelaide); Ich Nibber Dibber (Malthouse/STC); OT: Chronicles of and Edward Gant’s Amazing (Sydney Festival); Dirty Rotten the Old Testament (Malthouse/Uncle Feats of Loneliness. Her other Scoundrels (Theatre Royal); 247 Semolina); The Eisteddfod directing credits include Elling, Days (Chunky Move/Malthouse/ (Malthouse/Stuck Pigs Squealing/B Black Milk, The Sweetest Thing, Netherlands tour); Ugly Mugs Sharp Belvoir); I Heart John McEnroe and The Small Things (B Sharp (Malthouse Theatre/Griffin (Uninvited Guests/Theatreworks); Belvoir); The Colour of Panic Theatre); Songs for the Fallen The Man with the September Face (Sydney Opera House); Vertigo (Sydney Festival and New York (Univited Guests/Arts Centre and the Virginia, The Schelling Music Theatre Festival); The Melbourne); Smashed (Griffin Point, Hilt, and What Happened Peasant Prince (Monkey Baa); Theatre), Star Chaser (Arena/Arts Was (Old Fitzroy Theatre); and Rust and Bone, The Ugly One Centre Melbourne); Duets for Lovers The Unscrupulous Murderer (Griffin Theatre Company); and Dreamers (fortyfive downstairs/ Hasse Karlson Reveals the Miracle City (Hayes Theatre); Insite Arts), 3xSisters (The Hayloft Gruesome Truth about the The Lighthouse, In The Penal Project); Gilgamesh (Uncle Woman Who Froze to Death on Colony (Sydney Chamber Opera); Semolina/MIAF/Sydney Opera a Railway Bridge (Darlinghurst and Deathtrap, Miss Julie, House/Barbican, London); Jet of Theatre Company). In 2015 she The Paris Letter, Macbeth Blood (Ignite Productions/Adelaide was the recipient of the Gloria (Darlinghurst Theatre). Michael Festival Centre); and Actors at Work Payten Travel Scholarship. has been nominated for several (Bell Shakespeare). Screen credits Sydney Theatre Awards for Best inlcude Winners and Losers, City Stage Design, winning twice for Homicide, Neighbours, Snake Tales, independent productions of Kick, Blue Heelers, and feature films Truckstop in 2012 and Of Mice The BBQ and Macbeth. Katherine is and Men in 2015. He is currently a proud member of Actors Equity. Associate Lecturer of Design at NIDA. Cast & Creative Team

PAUL JACKSON KELLY RYALL ELSIE EDGERTON-TILL Lighting Designer Composer & Sound Designer Assistant Director

Paul Jackson’s recent lighting Kelly Ryall is an award-winning Elsie Edgerton-Till has worked designs with Melbourne Theatre composer, musician and sound in New Zealand and Australia as Company include Endgame, Miss designer for theatre, dance and a director and actor. She has Julie, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, film. Kelly’s recent work with directed for The Court Theatre, Double Indemnity, The Ghost Melbourne Theatre Company The Ensemble, The Sydney Writer, Ghosts, Frozen, The includes composition and sound Conservatorium of Music, Speechmaker, Enlightenment, design for Double Indemnity, The Forge and New Zealand Madagascar and Private Lives. Rupert, Peddling, The Crucible, Playhouse. Directing credits He has worked as a lighting On the Production of Monsters, include a national tour of designer for the Australian Ballet, Return to Earth, Dead Man’s Cell Phone A Friend (New Zealand Royal New Zealand Ballet, West Phone, God of Carnage, and Playhouse); The Fairy Queen Australian Ballet, Victorian Savage River. His other stage (The Sydney Conservatorium Opera, West Australian Opera, credits include Title and Deed, of Music), The Great Piratical Sydney Theatre Company, Kill the Messenger, Cinderella, Rumbustification, Antarctic Bell Shakespeare, Playbox, Nora, and Hedda Gabler Adventure (Court Theatre), Book Malthouse, Belvoir, Ballet Lab, (Belvoir); Romeo and Juliet, of Days (New Theatre), Moira Lucy Guerin Inc, World of As You Like It, Phèdre, Henry IV, McKenzie’s Wheel of Fortune Wearable Art New Zealand, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The (World Buskers Festival), La Mama, Chamber Made Opera, School for Wives, and Tartuffe A Midsummer Night’s Dream and many others. His work has (Bell Shakespeare); Boys Will be (The Canterbury Young featured in festivals in Asia, Boys, The Trial with Malthouse Shakespeare Company); Europe and the United Kingdom, (Sydney Theatre Company); The Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and he has lectured in design House on the Lake, Emerald City, (Canterbury Repertory Society); at the University of Melbourne, The Boys with Sydney Festival, and Boys, Rausch and The Red RMIT University and Victorian And No More Shall We Part, The Shoes (NIDA). As Assistant College of the Arts. Paul has Floating World, Dreams in White, Director, she has worked on received a number of Green (Griffin); Edward II, The Shadow Opera Australia’s touring Room Awards and nominations King, Dance of Death, The Trial production of the Barber of for Lighting Design, as well as with STC (Malthouse); Piece for Seville and Handa Opera on receiving a Sydney Theatre Award Person and Ghetto Blaster with Sydney harbour production and a 2012 Helpmann Award. Nicola Gunn; Animal with of Aida; for Sydney Theatre Paul was named in the Bulletin’s Suzie Dee; and Savages at Company’s All My Sons and Smart 100 for 2004 and was the Fortyfivedownstairs. Kelly’s first Children of the Sun as well as Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill chamber opera The Bacchae assisting with Auckland Theatre Fellow for 2007. Paul was an premiered to critical acclaim Company and Chamber Opera Associate Artist at Malthouse at Melbourne Festival and toured Sydney. Elsie graduated from the Theatre from 2007 to 2013. to Dark MOFO. National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in December 2013. LIFE LOVE SHARING FRIENDS SURPRISES

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ANNUAL GIVING Donors whose annual gifts help MTC enrich and transform lives through the finest theatre imaginable. Benefactors Circle David and Lily Harris ● Lesley Griffin $250,000+ Jane Hemstritch Tony Hillery and Warwick Eddington Crown Resorts Foundation Linda Herd Bruce and Mary Humphries Packer Family Foundation George Klempfner and Rosemary Leffler Yolanda Klempfner ao ● Alex and Halina Lewenberg $100,000+ Marshall Day Acoustics Virginia Lovett and Rose Hiscock ● Maureen Wheeler ao and Tony Wheeler ao (Dennis Irving Scholarship) Carol Mackay and Greg Branson $50,000+ Ian and Margaret McKellar Dr Sam and Belinda Margis and The Joan and Peter Clemenger Trust George and Rosa Morstyn NEST Family Clinics ◆ The Cybec Foundation Daniel Neal and Peter Chalk Ian and Judi Marshman Tom and Ruth O’Dea ■ Dr Sue McNicol qc $20,000+ Dr Pajouhesh (Smile Solutions) Sandy and Sandra Murdoch The Late Betty Amsden ao dsj Alison Park Jane and Andrew Murray Tony and Janine Burgess Prof David Penington ac and Tony Osmond and Fiona Griffiths Dr Geraldine Lazarus and Greig Gailey Dr Sonay Hussein Peter Philpott and Robert Ratcliffe Dr Andrew McAliece and Jeanne Pratt ac Max Schultz Dr Richard Simmie Janet Reid oam and Allan Reid Tim and Lynne Sherwood Louise and Martyn Myer ao Christopher Richardson Trikojus Education Fund – Australian The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Anne and Mark Robertson oam ● ◆ Communities Foundation ● Caroline and Derek Young am ▲ Trawalla Foundation Trust Cheryl and Paul Veith The Vizard Foundation Anonymous (4) Ralph Ward-Ambler am and Anonymous Barbara Ward-Ambler $10,000+ Advocates Circle Anthony Watson and Tracey McDonald ● Erica Bagshaw $2,500–$4,999 Price and Christine Williams Mary Barlow Marc Besen ac and Eva Besen ao Margaret and Ray Wilson oam The Janet and Michael Buxton Foundation Jay Bethell and Peter Smart Gillian and Tony Wood The Cattermole Family Grant Fisher and Helen Bird Laurel Young-Das and Heather Finnegan Christine Gilbertson ◆ Bill Bowness ao Anonymous (6) Petra and Larry Kamener Sandra and Bill Burdett am Macgeorge Bequest Lynne and Rob Burgess Loyalty Circle Malcolm Robertson Foundation Pat Burke and Jan Nolan $1,000–$2,499 The late Noel Mason and Susanna Mason ▲ Diana Burleigh Dr Katie Allen and Malcolm Allen Craig Semple ▲ Jenny and Stephen Charles ao In memory of Nicola Andrews Luisa Valmorbida ▲ Tom and Elana Cordiner ● Jennifer Andrews Anonymous (2) Debbie Dadon am Valma E. Angliss am $5,000+ Dr Anthony Dortimer and Jillian Dortimer James and Helen Angus John and Lorraine Bates Shaun and Michelle Factor ● Margaret Astbury Sandy Bell and Daryl Kendrick Melody and Jonathan Feder ■ ● John and Dagnija Balmford Dr Andrew Buchanan and Peter Darcy Dr Helen Ferguson David and Rhonda Black Ian and Jillian Buchanan Rosemary Forbes and Ian Hocking Marc and Orli Blecher and Family ● John and Robyn Butselaar Bruce Freeman ■ Steve and Terry Bracks am Barry and Joanne Cheetham Gjergja Family Beth Brown and Tom Bruce am Joel Dodge and Family ● Heather and Bob Glindemann oam Pam Caldwell The Dowd Foundation Henry Gold Alison and John Cameron Robert and Jan Green Murray Gordon and Lisa Norton John and Jan Campbell Clare and Richard Carlson Tony and Ann Hyams Robert Renzella Fiona Caro Peter and Halina Jacobsen Sara Renzella Kathleen and Harry Cator Peter Jaffe Dr S M Richards am and M R Richards Chef’s Hat Ed and Margaret Johnson Rogers Family ■ Chernov Family Irene Kearsey Sue Rose Sue Clarke and Lindsay Allen Malcolm Kemp Rae Rothfield Assoc Prof Lyn Clearihan and Janette Kendall ◆ Patrick Rundle and Damien Mulvihill ■ Dr Anthony Palmer Fiona Kirwan-Hamilton and F & J Ryan Foundation Dr Robin Collier and Neil Collier Simon E Marks sc Edwina Sahhar Sandy and Yvonne Constantine Doris and Steve Klein Katherine Sampson and Michael Jaboor Jane Simon and Peter Cox Larry Kornhauser and Natalya Gill ■ Susan Santoro Dr Cyril Curtain Ruth and Michael Kurc ■ Hilary and Stuart Scott ● Ann Darby Elizabeth Laverty Graeme Seabrook Mark and Jo Davey Joan and George Lefroy Claire Sheed Jocelyn Davies Anne Le Huray Prof Barry Sheehan and Pamela Waller Jessica Denehey Alison Leslie Steven Nicholls and Brett Sheehy ao Mark and Amanda Derham Peter and Judy Loney Diane Silk Katharine Derham-Moore Neil and Vida Lowry Dr John M Sime Jan Dircks Dr Peter and Amanda Lugg Reg and Elaine Smith oam – Robert Drake Elizabeth Lyons Earimil Gardens Charity Bev and Geoff Edwards Ken and Jan Mackinnon Tim and Angela Smith George and Eva Ermer Alister and Margaret Maitland Annette and Graham Smorgon ◆ Dr Alastair Fearn Joyce and Bernard Marks Diana and Brian Snape am Jan and Rob Flew Garry McLean Jennifer Steinicke Heather Forbes ■ Elizabeth McMeekin Ricci Swart Elizabeth Foster Brenda and Don McRae Rodney and Aviva Taft The Gordon Frost Organisation ■ Robert and Helena Mestrovic Sylvia Taylor John Fullerton John G Millard Richard and Debra Tegoni Kate Galvin ◆ Dr Jenny Miller and Alistair Hay Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher Nigel and Cathy Garrard Ross and Judy Milne-Pott Kevin and Elizabeth Walsh ■ Diana and Murray Gerstman Ging Muir and John McCawley ■ Pinky Watson Gill Family Foundation Barbara and David Mushin Marion Webster ◆ Brian Goddard Julie Nelson Ursula Whiteside Leon Goldman Nick Nichola and Ingrid Moyle ● Ann and Alan Wilkinson Roger and Jan Goldsmith Dr Paul and Sue Nisselle John and Myriam Wylie Foundation ◆ Charles and Cornelia Goode Foundation ◆ Leigh O’Neill ◆ Mandy and Edward Yencken Isabella Green oam and Richard Green James Ostroburski Graeme and Nancy Yeomans John and Jo Grigg Dr Harry and Rita Perelberg Greg Young Jane Grover ◆ Dr Annamarie Perlesz Roz Zalewski and Jeremy Ruskin Ian and Wendy Haines Dug and Lisa Pomeroy Ange and Pete Zangmeister Glen Harrington and Robyn Eastham Sally Redlich Anita Zeimer ◆ Sandi and Gil Hoskins Victoria Redwood Anonymous (19) Emeritus Prof Andrea Hull ao Anthony Renzella Sarah Hunter ◆ Jessica Renzella

LEGACY CIRCLE Acknowledging supporters who have made the visionary gesture of including a gift to MTC in their will. Mark and Tamara Boldiston Irene Kearsey Dr Andrew McAliece and Bernadette Broberg Fiona Griffiths Dr Richard Simmie Adam and Donna Cusack-Muller Max Schultz Anonymous (4) Peter and Betty Game

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

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

Current as of March 2017 To find out more about supporting MTC please call 03 8688 0959 or visit mtc.com.au/support 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] What’s On

WINTER IS COMING … This June and July, MTC presents two unmissable productions back-to-back. William Shakespeare’s epic tragedy Macbeth and Michael Frayn’s side-splitting comedy Noises Off. Acclaimed director Simon Phillips (North by Northwest, Ladies in Black) returns to MTC to direct a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s most popular play, starring international screen sensation Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad and The Water Diviner), while Sam Strong (Jasper Jones, Private Lives) directs a superb cast of comedians in Noises Off – a hilarious backstage comedy of errors that many have said is the funniest play ever written. Macbeth plays at Southbank Theatre from 5 June and Noises Off plays at Arts Centre Melbourne from 8 July.

INDIGENOUS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM Nine young people have been selected to MTC 2016 Indigenous Scholarship participate in MTC’s Indigenous Scholarship recipients Lateisha and Program for 2017. Participants will receive Jon-Paul on the set of Egg. one-of-a-kind learning opportunities with industry professionals, and be supported by teaching artists Lenka Vanderboom and Sermsah Bin Saad, to devise their own performance. Meet our 2017 Indigenous Scholarship recipients at mtc.com.au/backstage

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