Author: aagiron

Thunder’s Mouth Theatre had a wonderful opening season.  The Geoffrey Rush Drama Studio is a small, intimate venue, tucked away in the heart of the University of Queensland’s St Lucia Campus, next door to the Schonell Theatre.

Now that the dust has settled, the post-show blues have subsided and we are all moving onto our next projects, it is wonderful to reflect upon the creative journey that led us to this point, and to signal a few possibilities down the track.

First up is the Arizona Women’s History Project, which has invited Thunder’s Mouth Theatre to present “The Fall of June Bloom” in Phoenix, Arizona next March, as part of their celebration of the creative work of women. We will be working with a local actor, director and producer – all multi-talented women based in Phoenix who are as excited as I am by this international collaboration.

Then there are murmerings in the air about a possible venture to Sydney later in the year, to work with Sydney-based creatives, as well as the faintest of whisperings in the wind about possibly taking part in the Manchester (UK) NotPartOf Fringe Festival. We are following up all of these leads, holding onto our metaphorical hats so as not to lose our actual heads in the excitement.

And of course, if you would like to see Dame June Bloom and experience her inimitable teaching style and take part in her journey towards self-realisation at a venue near you, just say the word…

It’s over, but it’s only just begun. Heard that before?

Thunder’s Mouth Theatre has closed its first production, but we are planning to tour just as soon as we can get the funds, the venues, the gigs, the organisation generally and that will take time, but it will happen.

Our thanks to everyone who contributed, in any way, to this production, especially –

the June in November company: Tony Brockman, Jeff Turpin, Rebecca Li, Jason Glenwright, Sue Smith, Matthew Higgins, Therese Collie;

the delightful ushers who volunteered their time and energy to making our patrons comfortable;

those who volunteered to come onstage and perform a few lines of Shakespeare in return for a little bit of Dame June’s idiosyncratic coaching –

Brett Heath, Thomas Bishop, Matthew Higgins and David Keirnan;

our generous sponsors –

Joanna Cazden, Brett Heath, Sue Hillman, Heather Jones, Iain Kennedy, Jessie Kennedy, Owen Kennedy, Natalie Kennedy, Arthur Conias Real Estate

all who contributed to our fund-raising event, the CupCake Cabaret –

Kieran Davey, Joanne Loth, Jacqueline Ozorio, Glen Schafer, Andrew Wadley, The Magnificent Object Workers featuring Mrs McMinimum and Lyle, and Anna Greble, Nicole Matthews and Daria Wain (otherwise known as Anna Belle La Belle, Lillian Lace and Smashin’ Dash), Caitlin  Browning, Lexie Boyle and The Fringe Bar team, and SideEffect Theatre (for the shout-out!);

all those who contributed to the development of the play, from its inception as a short sketch to its presentation at the Geoffrey last week –

Nigel Bell, Bernadette Cochrane, Micha Espinosa, Jennifer Flowers, John Graham, Gillian Kehoul, Judi Lehrhaupt,  Vanja Matula, Mark Metzger,  Aole T Miller, Sue Rider, Ira Seidenstein, Krystal Sweedman, Anna Yen, Brisbane Magdalena, ASDA, VASTA, EMSAH;

My advisory team at UQ –

Dr Joanne Tompkins, Prof. Richard Fotheringham and Dr James Smith

those who helped facilitate this production –

Stephen Martin and Kubler Auckland Management, Kris Plowman, Laboite Theatre Co, QTC Theatre Co, Stormy Wehi and the staff at EMSAH,

and finally, to all our audience members, who joined in the fun of the adventure, engaging with June’s lecture and the unfolding narrative of her disintegrating memory and her possible re-integration into her family – or whatever you thought the narrative involved. Thank you for bringing your imaginations and your enquiring minds to the party.

Thunder’s Mouth Theatre has just applied to be one of 19 companies offering rehearsed readings online – live-streaming on the internet – via 2AMT.  We’ll let you know how that goes, and trust that you will join us on yet another exciting new venture, sharing our craft and making theatre that gets you thinking, and dreaming.

Heading into our last performance, of this run, tonight, and the glorious answer to that question is, yes! and no!

Yes, because we are doing it, the script is being realised in voice and body, with light and sound to enhance the moments, in the company of an audience. Yes, because each performance is completely itself, the result of all the work that has gone into its preparation combined with the energy and delight that we and our audiences bring to it each night.

No, because there is – as Gertrude Stein once said – “no There there”. No, because it is always about the journey, it is always a process of creation, never a result. Of course, there are results, there are certain conclusions that each member of the audience will draw about the ideas expressed, the stories told, the relationships revealed (or concealed). That doesn’t mean we have to close off the journey, and hopefully there are enough questions posed and ideas proposed to keep us all pondering, imagining and finding even more questions well after the bump out happens later on this evening.

As I begin my preparations for tonight’s performance, I wonder where it will take me and my fellow performers, how we will be changed by the way our characters’ lives will evolve in the space with the particular people who will be in the audience on this occasion.  I know it will be somewhere else, a ‘there’ I have never visited before, and it will be somewhere from whence another journey will emerge.

Enjoy.