|
BREAKING NEWS -
POLYGLOT PREMIERES MUCKHEAP IN CHINA!
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of our most enduring and popular shows, Polyglot Theatre is pleased to present a special Muckheap edition of our monthly e-newsletter.
On Saturday, Polyglot premiered a brand new, Chinese-language version of its hit show at the prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Over a thousand local people enjoyed this fast and funny story of two people trying to clean out their shed. In the process the show's characters find that everything they thought of as junk is too interesting, too useful or too full of sentimental value to throw away.
"Muckheap continues to be just as relevant and entertaining today as when it was first created in 2001" says Artistic Director Sue Giles. "The success of the show in China this week shows Muckheap has a universal message which is relevant across languages and cultures. The show encourages children to become their own story makers and encourages imaginative play through whatever they have at hand at home".
As part of Muckheap's 10th anniversary year, a new production was created in partnership with Chinese artists based in Shanghai. Muckheap is known in Mandarin as La Ji Da Bian Shen.
It was translated from English for a Chinese audience as a result of a 4 month collaboration with the Shanghai International Performing Arts Centre and Reckless Moments, an independent Shanghai based production company specialising in international collaborations. This exciting project was supported by the Australian International Cultural Council, an initiative of the Australian Department of Foreign Trade and Affairs.
Muckheap was written by Polyglot's Artistic Director Sue Giles with Megan Cameron and Sarah Kriegler in 2001. Careful attention was paid to the translation and tailoring of the script to suit a Chinese-speaking audience and the casting and hiring of local performers to reproduce the work. Shanghai Locals Liu Zixiao, Sun Xinhong, Zhang Tian, Zhou Yanyan headed up two separate casts for the show, which the company anticipates will stay on and tour Chinese-speaking territories into the future.
Melbourne-based Director Merophie Carr spent four weeks in Shanghai developing the new production in collaboration with local Translator, Dramaturg and Assistant Director Hu He.
"Working in Shanghai was exciting, challenging, and liberating," says Merophie. "Their theatre-making culture is very different but the cast and crew were intrigued by our creative process and dedicated themselves to creating an extraordinary show."
Kathryn Sproul created a new set and costume designs, working with set-builders at the Shanghai Theatre Academy to realise her vision, which they first saw via a miniature to-scale pop-up cardboard set model sent through the post. New Zealand-based artist Jim Fulton created the sound design.
Polyglot literally means "many languages" and we're living up to our name by performing three different versions of Muckheap around the world in 2011: the brand new Chinese-language version, an Auslan (Australian sign language) adaptation and an English language version to tour the United States later this year.
"Performing Muckheap in three different languages in the one year is incredibly exciting," says Executive Producer Simon Abrahams, "and premiering at Beijing's prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts continues Polyglot's extraordinary international trajectory which has seen us perform at national theatres across the globe over the past two years including London's Royal National Theatre, Washington's Kennedy Center and the National Theatre of Korea."
Award winning Muckheap has been playing continuously for the past ten years and its English-language and sign language versions have been seen by over 90,000 children around the world. Muckheap is more popular than ever as it delights new audiences in new languages! |
Where's Simon and Sue?
Polyglot CEO's Simon Abrahams and
Sue Giles have been overseas spreading
the word about Polyglot! Sue was
invited to present at the 17th ASSITEJ
World Congress and Performing Arts Festival for Young Audiences in Malmoe,
Sweden. Sue was a guest presenter on
a panel of leading Australian arts
organisations speaking on theatre for
and by young people. She and Simon
also checked out the latest in children's
theatre at Imaginate Festival
in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Simon has kept us up to date
- here's a selection of his travel tweets:
>> Sue Giles presented on a brilliant
panel at #ASSITEJ2011 in Malmoe Sweden
this afternoon - great dialogue amongst
Aussies and others (27 May)
>>Connecting with old and new friends
at #ASSITEJ2011 festival in Copenhagen,
catching up with people from USA,
China, Korea, UK, Macau... (25 May)
>> Congrats to all at @imaginateuk for
a brilliant festival, ending with an
amazing scottish barn dance!
#scottishrandomnessaye (15 May)
>> Great day 1 at Imaginate Festival
in Edinburgh. Caught up with colleagues
from the UK who saw We Built This City
here last year (11 May)
> Click here for more tweets
|
