Brink Productions in association with Adelaide Festival Centre present The Aspirations of Daise Morrow By Chris Drummond, adapted by Brink Productions from Patrick White’s short story ‘Down At The Dump’, featuring Zephyr Quartet Teachers’ Notes Compiled by Robyn Callan WORLD PREMIERE Space Theatre, Adelaide 10th October 2015 1 | P a g e THE ASPIRATIONS OF DAISE MORROW CURRICULUM LINKS: AC: The Arts, English SACE: Community Studies, Creative Arts, Drama, English, Music, Integrated Studies & Research Project IB: The Arts, (Theatre, Music, Visual Art), Language and Literature INTRODUCTION Prepare your students for this inspired theatrical story when you attend Brink Productions in association with Adelaide Festival Centre presenting, The Aspirations of Daise Morrow adapted from Patrick White’s short story Down at the Dump, under the direction of Chris Drummond featuring the Zephyr Quartet. The Aspirations of Daise Morrow was devised by a group of artists who embraced Patrick White’s incredible text ‘holus bolus’ creating a theatrical response. This allowed the original text to remain in its original brilliant form rather than whittling away at an adaptation. The goal of the new work is to lift this story from the page into a theatrically immersive production that allows the unlived lives hidden within all characters to become, momentarily, flesh and blood. It is hoped that the knowledge and understanding gained from the page to stage development of the work will be shared by teachers with students. By understanding this process students will be encouraged to discuss, think, and respond to the themes presented and broaden their perspectives of the hidden lives of all of the characters portrayed. These teacher’s notes will provide information on Brink Productions along with background notes on the creative and production teams and cast. The information provided relevant to the curriculum links as shown above can be adjusted by teachers according to their specific classroom and students’ needs. Teachers are encouraged to organize, prepare with pre and post production notes and accompany students to live productions. Prior to attending the performance of The Aspirations of Daise Morrow please discuss theatre etiquette with your students and accompanying adults. As a reminder: Be mindful of others- any inappropriate noise or activity can be distracting for both actors and other audience members (mobile phones are to be switched off please, not just turned to silent). Texting during a performance or checking Facebook is distracting for both actors and other audience members and reduced your enjoyment of the theatre experience. Unauthorized photography or filming in any format is strictly prohibited. We thank you for adhering to these requests. No bags will be allowed in the theatre. 2 | P a g e ABOUT BRINK PRODUCTIONS Brink Productions creates original theatre through long-term collaborations with artists and non-artists from different disciplines and backgrounds. In so doing, Brink Productions consistently strives to communicate complex ideas and feelings with simplicity and insight, in forms that are engaging, surprising, challenging, thought-provoking and enriching - a theatre of imagination where the memory outlives the experience. Founded in 1996 and based in Adelaide, Brink now operates under the dual leadership of Artistic Director Chris Drummond and General Manager Karen Wilson. Brink is a multi-award winning theatre company, best known throughout Australia for its landmark production of When the Rain Stops Falling. Other recent successes the company has commissioned and staged include Skip Miller’s Hit Songs by Sean Riley, Harbinger by Matthew Whittet and its acclaimed production of Molière’s The Hypochondriac (a new adaptation by Paul Galloway). Read more about the beginnings and philosophy of Brink Productions. http://www.brinkproductions.com/the-company Staff Artistic Director General Manager Chris Drummond Karen Wilson Producer Production Manager Lee-Anne Donnolley Françoise Piron Digital Communications Manager Admin & Marketing Coordinator Jennifer Greer-Holmes Sophie Byrne Finance Manager Theresa Williams IN DEVELOPMENT TARTUFFE In Co-Production with State Theatre Company of South Australia Orgon leads a blissful, happy life. His extravagant and wealthy lifestyle is perfectly complemented by a marriage to a much younger woman. His daughter is engaged and his son is in love. But when he welcomes the deceptively slick Tartuffe into his family, he unwittingly injects his home with a lethal dose of chaos. Nothing is off limits as Tartuffe exploits Orgon to pilfer his fortune and attempt the seduction of his wife and his daughter. Can the family fight back before it’s too late? First performed in 1664, Molière’s side-splitting classic combines adultery, betrayal, seduction, lies and deceit with the precisely organised chaos that is known as farce. Proudly co-produced with the State Theatre Company of South Australia, Tartuffe sees director Chris Drummond reunite with Adelaide comedic favourites Nathan O’Keefe (The Importance of Being Earnest), Paul Blackwell (Volpone) and Rory Walker (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) for the first time since their collaboration on the scintillating production The Hypochondriac. Molière’s wicked and prescient original will be pulled sharply into the ‘age of entitlement’ by the acid humour of 2014 Jill Blewett Award winning playwright Phillip Kavanagh (Jesikah). WORLD PREMIERE ADAPTATION Commissioned by State Theatre Company and Brink Productions 4 Nov 2016 - 20 Nov 2016 Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre 3 | P a g e THE VAUDEVILLE PROJECT The Vaudeville Project will be a solo work developed by, with and for Adelaide actor/singer Rory Walker, inspired by the life of his great grandfather George W Walker who was a vaudevillian performer, vocalist, manager, impresario and theatre proprietor of the early 20th Century. A friend and colleague of Sir Harry Lauder and Charlie Chaplin, George Walker’s recorded life began as a newborn in a shoebox on the front step of what was to become his family home. Throughout his life George was always given to travel, perhaps because he never knew where really came from. Then one night, coming off-stage in his home town of Aberdeen, George was informed that his greatest fan (a woman who, unbeknownst to him, had not missed a performance whenever he was in town) had fallen ill and missed the show. Struck by the strange coincidence of her description – her age, loyalty and location – George hurried from the theatre and made his way to her address where he was let into her room to sit by her side until she passed away. Family legend suggests that on this night she revealed she was George’s mother. ‘The Vaudeville Project’ will be an episodic series of sketches – songs, dances, comedy routines, trained animals, impersonations, magic, acrobatics, juggling, athletics, movies – all performed by one man. George’s life and his connection to his great grandson Rory are the springboards into a dazzling display, a spectacular extravaganza, a heterogeneous wonderment of splendour all designed to educate, edify, amaze and uplift! Development of ‘The Vaudeville Project’ will begin in June 2015 with the kind support of the State Theatre Company of South Australia. CURRENT PRODUCTION THE ASPIRATIONS OF DAISE MORROW CREATIVE TEAM DIRECTOR- Chris Drummond DESIGNER- Michael Hankin MUSIC DIRECTOR- Hilary Kleinig LIGHTING DESIGNER- Nigel Levings COMPOSERS- Belinda Gehlert, Emily Tulloch, Jason Thomas, Hilary Kleinig CAST-Paul Blackwell, Lucy Lehmann, Kris McQuade, James Smith and Zephyr Quartet IMAGE- Creative Direction: Yianni Hill, Illustration: Chris Edser PRODUCTION MANAGER- Françoise Piron GENERAL MANAGER- Karen Wilson STAGE MANAGER- Stephanie Fisher WHAT: Adapted by Brink Productions from Patrick White’s short story Down At the Dump, featuring Zephyr Quartet WHEN: 10-24 October, 2015 WHERE: Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre TICKETS: Tickets from $38 (transaction fees apply) Book at BASS: 131 246 or bass.net.au DURATION: 1 hr 20mins (no interval) –suitable for ages 15+ 4 | P a g e DIRECTOR’S CONCEPT – CHRIS DRUMMOND One of the first acts of adaptation is simply changing the title of Down at the Dump to The Aspirations of Daise Morrow. This new title, taken directly from the text, immediately focuses the adaptation – dramaturgically, thematically and conceptually – cutting to the heart of the raison d'être for the production concept and motivation for undertaking the adaptation in the first place. To my way of thinking, Patrick White’s Down at the Dump is a timeless story about the seizing of the day; about following one’s instincts, taking a chance and not letting the bastards grind you down. It's an evocation of the wonders of small beginnings, the complications of compassion and the grace and majesty of love. It's a story of small communities and all the complexities that come with that. And, perhaps most pertinently, it's about a darkness that lies at the heart of so many: a fear of the outsider, of the unknown, of the uninhibited and of the unattainable. Ultimately though, I believe Down at the Dump is an ode to the opposite; a paean to courage, to reaching, to yearning and to the ache for something bigger. By relooking at Patrick White’s short story through the prism of the title The Aspirations of Daise Morrow, I believe the interior lives of all the characters are framed as a universal and unifying experience. The goal of our adaptation is to lift this story from the page into a theatrically immersive production that allows the unlived lives hidden within all the characters to become, momentarily, flesh and blood. This fundamental ambition for the piece (wedded to the unique capacity of the theatre) is the crucial departure point from the page to the stage. Thematically, Down at the Dump is a story that places us on the cusp of many things, set as it is in a time heading into the 60s in a world, itself on the cusp of massive cultural and political change.