Theatrical wolves howling creatively in South Australia’s regions
A response to the collapse of Mount Gambier’s Mainstreet Theatre Company two years ago has turned into an innovative theatre residency for professional performing artists and the local community in Mount Gambier. Adelaide director, producer and theatre programmer Steve Mayhew, well-known for his work with the Fringe and Cabaret Festivals, has been engaged by Country Arts SA as creative producer in an initiative called Local Stages. It has the backing of the Australia Council and Arts SA and also involves artists in Port Augusta.
“The residency in Mt Gambier is incredibly exciting because there are so many dimensions to this project. It began last year and is all about raising the skill base of the local communities and producing new work for touring across the state,” Mayhew says.
Mayhew has commissioned the Adelaide professional theatre company Slingsby to work among the locals to create a theatre work called Wolf. It is aimed at families and anyone from 10 years upwards, says Mayhew, and is all about dark places and our fascination with scary fairy tales.
“The forest industry is big around Mount Gambier, so the creative team has been working with employees of Forestry SA, in getting access to forests to film sections of the work that will be projected onto three large screens surrounding the theatre space. "
Country Arts SA’s director of art programs, Tricia Walton, says the work will be of a high professional standard and will tour across the state in 2009. “The plan is to perform the play in a huge inflatable tent, creating the experience of being in a real theatre. Many children in more remote country areas have never been inside a theatre – their closest experience has been the school gym,” she says.
Steve Mayhew says the creation of Wolf is just one part of the Local Stages program which also involves mentorships and residencies, where emerging theatre workers are cross-matched with more experienced professionals to upgrade the skills of everyone. “The skills exchange works both ways. For city-based arts organisations to get to create work from the ground up like we are doing here with Local Stages, then to get it up to the stage of touring, is a big opportunity for everyone.
Mayhew says Local Stages has also sparked the creation of a large scale sound installation in Port Augusta which was performed this year as the opening event of South Australia’s Regional Centre of Culture program and the 2008 Adelaide Fringe's regional program.
The CEO of Country Arts SA, Ken Lloyd, says Local Stages is one of the most exciting projects he has worked on. “It has provided real impetus to regionally-based artists to be engaged in professional development programs and to develop new work. Importantly, it has also established strong ongoing partnerships with major metropolitan-based companies which will ensure that the work created will be presented in both regional and metropolitan centres.”
