Make Haste for Online Shakespearean Workshops

A SERIES of free online workshops will give New England North West Year 11 and 12 students, and their university counterparts, the chance to pick up Shakespearean performance techniques, historical context and language tips, and participants are encouraged to sign up fast.

Actor, facilitator and University of New England Theatre Studies graduate Alex Robson of Inverell is the force behind this skill-sharing program, which was made possible by a micro grant from Arts North West. The focus will be William Shakespeare’s enduring romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

Three Sydney-based actors will assist in the delivery of this unique learning opportunity for aspiring performing artists, which will culminate in a rehearsed reading of the play on the Zoom online chat service.

“Parts of the workshops will be recorded and made available to the public,” Alex told Arts North West. “It is also hoped that these workshops will lead to a season of live performances – featuring some of the workshop participants – across the region once the lockdown has ended.”

An actor, director and writer, Alex won an international scholarship to study the works of Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He subsequently devised two plays about the Bard and his work: A Short Guide to Shakespeare and Shakespeare's Villains: Everyone But Iago, the former appearing in the 2014 Sydney Fringe then touring the state.

After recently winning another scholarship to study at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, he was forced to change tack when COVID-19 ruined his plans.

Actors Jade Fuda, Reilly O’Byrne-Inglis and Nicholas Foustellis round out the wealth of experience of offer for online workshop participants in this unique learning experience.

Places are limited and students wishing to participate will need to complete and return an expression of interest form by 5pm Monday June 22, 2020. A media release form is also required (signed by a parent or guardian for underage participants) for all those signing up, and all four workshops must be attended.

For more information, see The Two Sticks website (https://twostickstheatre.wordpress.com/) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TwoSticksTheatre/), or email alexkendallrobson@gmail.com.

Create NSW Arts and Cultural Funding Heading to the New England North West

Congratulations to the following New England North West Create NSW Arts & Cultural Funding Program Recipients:

2 Rivers Pty Ltd Cultivating Creative Communities ($120,000)

Cultivating Creative Communities is a professional development program to develop and promote access for regional and remote artists and art workers to increase their skills and networks. This program includes mentoring and workshops with professional Aboriginal artists and art workers resulting in exhibitions and performances across the region.

Dr Alana Blackburn. Regrowth - New multimedia work for recorder ($19,000)

A collaboration between recorder player Alana Blackburn and composer Ros Bandt to provide an opportunity for regional NSW community members affected by drought, floods and fire to have their voices heard in a poetic and respectful way. The project aims to contribute to the diversity of cultural expression and audiences.

Buccaneers band together for pandemic heroes

BAND OF BUCCANEERS: (L-R) Steve Whitby, Paul Owen, Phil Weaver, Al Buchan (photo: supplied)

THE RECORDING of a David Bowie cover with a new video by a Tamworth-based group is the first project to emerge from a new initiative funded by Arts North West, created to assist local artists during the COVID-19 closure of arts venues in the New England North West region.

Musician Alan Buchan spoke to Arts North West this week and reported the project, based on ‘We Can Be Heroes’ penned by Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977, is progressing nicely, with audio engineer Nathan Kaye currently working on tracks recorded by the group known as Al and The Buccaneers.

Recorded to honour those Alan identifies as the heroes of the pandemic – supermarket staff, truck drivers, medical teams and emergency service workers – the focus of this musical project is on those he believes have kept communities going, but it also led to Alan having to pull out a few stops of his own.

“Due to the home lockdown, I approached the project very differently by recording a complete ‘demo’ of the track, myself, in my home, using a portable digital audio recorder,” he said.

“I played all the instruments myself and I sang the vocal parts and then created a rough mix of the song and sent that demo to the musicians so they could rehearse their parts individually.

“Once the lockdown was eased, I invited the musicians to come to my home and record their parts, drums, bass, piano one at a time over the course of a week. I then recorded the final guitars and vocal and these things are usually done in a day, at a professional recording studio.”

However, that setting wasn’t available due to the closure of businesses and regulations against gatherings, so despite the technical risks, Alan improvised.

“It was time consuming and somewhat nerve-wracking because I have to keep the project secure for this entire time at my home, and now I have to finalise the guide mix and send it to the engineer for the final mix and mastering,” he said.

“I will then send it to the videographer (Terence Sadler) so he can match the images to the music and we will just have to wait and see what it comes back like, both in terms of sound and vision.

“As David Bowie himself once famously wrote: ‘waiting for the gift of sound and vision’.”

Authentic ‘lockdown’

According to Alan, the founder of singer-songwriter showcase Fretfest, now that widespread quarantine conditions have been relaxed and people are able to gather in small groups, he and the other musicians have finally been able to hear what they’ve created.

“We had our first run through of the song, live in the studio,” he said.

“This would normally be done first, whereas in this case, because of the COVID-19 lockdown, we’re doing it last, so this is unusual.

“However, it has given us a renewed perspective of our performances and, as a result, we can now go back and revisit our parts to see if we want to record them again so as to better reflect our arrangement of the song, as musicians.

“Thing is, we might equally choose to leave it as it is, because that represents the compromise we each had to make. This would make it more authentic to the experience of being in lockdown, that we recorded our parts individually and not as a band might usually do, in the studio.

“The whole idea is to raise awareness of the staff, tradies and professionals who went to work while the rest of us stayed home, so my hope is that this video will receive widespread coverage and promotion,” Alan said.

This video of ‘We Can Be Heroes’ will be released on social media. Find Al and The Buccaneers on Facebook.

Art and NOT About - Arts North West is coming to you!

Meet your local Regional Arts Development Organisation on Zoom from the comfort of your own home! Executive Director Caroline Downer is eager to discuss your ideas and offer advice on a range of topics: project management, planning, budget, insurance, promotion & marketing, funding sources & opportunities post COVID-19. She can also provide feedback on grant applications including Regional Arts Fund, opening end of June. This free one-on-one meeting focuses on artists, arts and community workers living and working in the 12 LGAs that ANW covers. BOOK A 30 MINUTE SESSIONS ONLINE VIA THIS LINK https://www.trybooking.com/BJRRS