I had a dream last night. You were Sid, and I was Nancy… Six couples, twelve lives, one day and hours of games; It’s Alright, Sid It’s Alright is dark and funny, real and ridiculous, beautiful and so ugly in its stark reflection of our relationships and the games we play with them. For fun, for fear or forever, four actors on a dark stage face off against each other and the audience, capturing our darkest and most aching moments. Short, sharp and searingly insightful, this performance will leave you wondering what you’re playing for.
The debut production from up-and-coming Melbourne playwright, Jessica Stanley, It’s Alright, Sid It’s Alright opens at LaMama Theatre in Carlton, on September 4th.
Directed in this production by esteemed Melbourne theatre maker, Robert Reid, Stanley’s premiere script was originally developed within the script writing components of the Bachelor of Performing Arts (BPA) at Monash, in 2012. Stanley, 23, completed her degree last year after further workshopping the performance for the unique Honours preparation unit, Independent Theatre Project, offered by Monash’s Centre of Theatre and Performance.
Speaking about her debut role as both playwright and professional performer, Stanley says “I staged a section of [It’s Alright, Sid It’s Alright] at Monash University last year and received such positive feedback that I decided to develop it further. What better way to act than in your own play?”
Stanley will be joined on stage by James Harvy from the Victorian College of the Arts, and by fellow Monash Performing Arts Graduates, Hannah Vanderheide and Daniel Cavalcante, both regular faces in BPA and Monash University Student Theatre performances of recent years, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Terrorism, Fatima and Daniel Schlusser’s Macbeth. Now working as a personal fitness trainer, Hannah Vanderheide, continues to pursue professional acting beyond university, “My study of Performing Arts at Monash taught me to look beneath a script’s dialogue and examine the motivation behind each character-driven impulse on stage. The deeper I delve into the world of Sid, the more I am confronted with parts of myself and those I love that I’d much rather believe do not exist.”
The Bachelor of Performing Arts is designed to provide students with a multitude of diverse experiences, including, but not limited to, acting theory and practice, to support new generations of Melbourne theatre makers. Students collaborate to create, write or produce new and historical theatre, fulfilling both performance and backstage roles. It was in this capacity, that Stanley, Vanderheide and Cavalcante honed their performance skills and an understanding of the complex, demanding and unique world of live theatre in Australia.
In addition to the experienced and involved faculty of the BPA, these young actors were introduced to established and renowned Australian theatre makers, through mentoring-directorships, including Melbourne Theatre Company’s (MTC) Leticia Caceres, Daniel Schlusser and Lawrence Strangio. Through such an opportunity, Stanley was exposed to Robert Reid’s work as a director and playwright for productions such as The Well (2012, LaMama) and MTC’s On The Production of Monsters (2012). Drawn to the dark and raw nature of Reid’s work, Stanley approached him with an early script, inviting Reid to direct this performance for LaMama’s Winter 2013 season.
On working with this team of young performers and theatre makers, Reid says, “Emerging writers are incredibly important to support. Particularly for their first works, the experience of seeing their work staged is vital. I’m really looking forward to seeing the writer Jess Stanley becomes.”
Echoing this, Stanley is thrilled for the opportunity to work under Reid’s guidance, “I aspire to write like Rob and he’s already teaching me so much. There’s little things that you don’t catch yourself, and having an experienced outside eye is so incredibly valuable.”
Rounding out this talented group of Monash alumni, the production is being designed and managed by current BPA student, Jess Arthur, fresh from study abroad exchange in Leeds, UK, while Sid’s original score is composed by Bachelor of Music and Performing Arts graduate, Alisha Redmond.
Redmond’s haunting score, performed on piano, reflects the dark and unpredictable elements of Stanley’s script and of live theatre itself. Composing since high school, Redmond discovered the possibilities of combine her two passions during her time at Monash, “I liked the idea of being able to tell a story through music.” Previous compositions include scores for Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, and the Short+Sweet Theatre Festival in 2012; now studying a Diploma of Live Production at Box Hill Institute, Redmond will ultimately work as a jack-of-all-trades behind the scenes of theatre. For this production, Redmond hopes “that the music and the script can form a relationship [of] light and shade”, not dissimilar to the collaborative dance behind the scenes combining playwright, composer, actors and designers.
It’s Alright, Sid It’s Alright opens at LaMama Theatre, 205 Faraday St, Carlton on Wednesday 4th September and runs until Sunday 15th September. Tickets are available from lamama.com.au or by calling 03 9347 6142; Monash students can quote codeword ‘MONASH’ for $10 tickets over the phone or at the door. Performance begins Wednesday and Sundays at 6.30pm, Thursday to Saturday at 7pm, with a 1pm matinee on Saturday 14th September.
