PLAY.3australian theatre for young people presents

animal farm adapted by Netta Yashchin from the novel by George Orwell25 April–12 May 2012, atyp Studio 1, The Wharf

all animals

are equal

no animal shall wear

clothes

Welcome to the third of five plays in Australian Theatre for Young People’s 2012 season

Netta Yashchin

Animal Farm is a project I thought of after hearing about the tragic assassination of well known Jewish-Arabic Israeli theatre practitioner, Juliano Mer in Gaza.

His youth theatre produced the play Animal Farm and soon afterwards, the theatre was set on fire. I happened to have known Juliano and this piece is dedicated to him and his courageous attempt to bring peace to the middle east.

This show is extremely relevant today as it asks questions about authority, obedience and most importantly, rebellion. When should we rebel? And over what? How? Why? When? When does one feel oppressed enough?

I feel that it is important for people to ask the questions that Orwell is posing to us about the core instinct and behaviour of human nature. What is the meaning of the world we have created around us? Should we question it? Are we happy? What is happiness? What are rules for? Should we break them? Who sets the conventions for us?

I also wished to include as many people as possible to be part of this experiential visual physical theatre. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity.

Thanks to my remarkable creative team, and the possibility to embark on a vision that was cultivated with all around me.

I am extremely proud of this work.

Netta has graduated from the Tel-Aviv University Acting department in 1993. She was an actress for one of Israel’s most innovative theatres companies the Itim Ensemble. Itim’s production Va-Yomer, Va-Yelech was presented in the 1998 Telstra Adelaide Festival.

Prior to Netta’s arrival in Adelaide, she performed in Itim’s production of Romeo and Juliet and participated in the prestigious production of the Dibuk in Habima, Israel’s National Theatre.

Since arriving in Adelaide she formed the Yashchin Ensemble, comprising a group of Adelaide Actors. The Ensemble presented the creative development A Hand Full of Earth that resulted in the full production of Mnemosyne. The Ensemble presented the creative development of The Intimate.

Netta has also been invited by Vitalstatistix for its winter play reading season, undertaken a lead role for a training video for Channel 7 and had a role in the feature film Serenades.

She led Masterclass workshops, including for Legs on The Wall, Brink Productions and NIDA. She was the assistant director for the State Theatre production The Government Inspector. She performed in the show Checklist for an Armed Robber with Vitalstatistics. Directed The Hit, by Christos Tsiolkas. Antigone with Urban Myth. Directed Talk to me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen By Tennessee Williams for STC 2007. She performed in Memmie Le-Blank in Deckchair theatre and in the 2008 Adelaide Fringe in Queen’s Theatre.

Directed and acted in I Only Came to Use the Phone By Gabriel Garcia Marquez, presented in the Queen’s Theatre by The Yashchin Company 2008. Winner of the Advertiser’s award. Netta undertook the post graduate course in Directing at NIDA 2009. Her graduating show toured to the Adelaide Fringe Festival; Through the Leaves by Franz Xaver Kroetz. She also participated in two observations: MTC with Simon Phillips on Drowsy Chaperone and Bliss with Neil Armfiled at Opera Australia. Currently she is performing a solo, A Few More Years in the Color Blind Project and directing Woytzeck by Georg Buchner for the B Sharp season at Belvoir st. Theatre. In Jan 2011 she staged her first chamber opera Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky with the Sydney Chamber Opera. In May 2011 Netta had staged I Only Came to Use the Phone for the Darlinghurts Theatre Company in Sydney and her Woyzeck will be presented in the Brisbane Festival in September this year. Netta also directed Games at The Back Yard for atyp Under the Wharf, Electronic City for NIDA and That Pretty Pretty or the Rape Play for Tap Gallery.

directordirector's notes

no animal shall sleep in a bed

Dylan James Tonkin – Designer

2012: The Light Box Animation, Illustrator / Designer (Sydney Film Festival Hub); The Importance of being Earnest Dragons and other classic tales as told by an octopus, Set / Costume Designer (Tin Shed Theatre Co); That Pretty Pretty. Or the Rape Play, Set / Costume Design (Workhorse Theatre Co) 2011: Bachelor in Dramatic Art (Design), National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Set Designer (NIDA); Richard III, Set / Costume Designer (NIDA) 2010: The Labyrinth Set / Costume Designer (NIDA) The Promise Of Sunrise, Set / Costume Designer (NIDA) Fox and a Prayer, Production Designer (A casual end Mile Triple J unearthed).

Danielle O’Keefe – Sound Designer

Danielle is currently the Director of music for Sydney Theatrical Productions and the conductor of the Australian Youth Choir in Sydney. Finishing her studies in London in 2004 Danielle has performed in musicals and operettas around Europe, the USA and Japan. After returning to Australia Danielle created an electronic opera that was performed in the atyp 2011 season. Danielle is currently directing a new Australian musical Wonderland, which is in its third stage of development. In 2012/13 Danielle will be creating Reverberate, a new electronic opera with youth for Outback Theatre for Young People.

Nicholas Rayment – Lighting Designer

Nicholas graduated from NIDA in 2011. Recent work includes assistant for La Traviata Opera on Sydney Harbour, Vernon God Little with the cast of Love Never Dies, I Have Had Enough (Sydney Chamber Opera) Bondi Dreaming (TRS) Pictures Of Bright Lights (Little Oneʼs Theatre/TRS), The Corrick Project development workshop (Legs On The Wall) and The Daughters of Venice Kambala School. NIDA credits include Idiot (Dir. Max Lyandvert), The Lover (Dir. Jemma Gurney), Salome (Dir. Stephen Nicolazzo), Medea: The New Dead (Dir. Kat Henry) and The Ugly One. Upcoming projects include A Return to the Trees (Strings Attached/CarriageWorks), Can You See Me (Cerebral Palsy Alliance), Minus One Sister (New Theatre), and The Lighthouse (Sydney Chamber Opera).

Dymphna Carew – Choreographer

Dymphna began her training at the Premier Dance Academy in Queensland at the age of three and for the past 20 years has studied ballet, jazz, contemporary and tap. While in Brisbane she performed with The Ballet Theatre of Queensland for three years and then moved to Sydney to study performing arts at ED5International. Dymphna has spent the last five years in Sydney dancing in numerous commercial, corporate and contemporary shows and in 2008 and 2009 she spent the year performing with Tokyo Disney in Japan. While spending the last two years studying acting she has choreographed for Sydney Chamber Opera Company, Premier Dance Company and Big Steps Little Feet.

Peter Hayes – Dramaturg

Peter Hayes has worked in Australian theatre, televison and film since graduating from London's Webber Douglas Academy in 1984. After graduating from the NIDA Directing course in 1992 Peter has also done the occasional bit of directing, writing, dramaturgy and designing and helped Drayton Morley establish Parnassus' Den.

Asha Watson – Stage Manager

Asha developed her love of theatre while performing as Edith in her schools production of Pirates of Penzance. Since that time theatre has become an integral part of her life. After high school she went on to study Communications (Theatre/Media) at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. Over the next three years Asha worked on more than 30 different projects with professional and amateur companies in the roles of stage manager, tour manager, production manager, performer, writer and director. After graduating with distinction at the end of 2010, Asha moved to Sydney and completed her internship as a production assistant with the Sydney Opera House. Since that time she has worked at a range of events including Sydney Festival, Chinese New Year and the Sydney Fringe Festival. Most recently she worked as a Stage Manager for Cry Havoc’s production Titus Andronicus.

Paolo Montoya – Production Assistant

Paulo was born in Costa Rica and has lived in Sydney since 2001. He is an emerging director as well as a professional opera and classical music writer and lecturer. Paulo has studied Social Science at UNSW and Directing at NIDA under Netta Yashchin. In 2011 he worked with director John Cox on Opera Australia’s production of Capriccio and upcoming projects include assistant director at the Sydney Conservatorium’s production of Gluck’s The Pilgrims of Mecca, Sydney Independent Opera’s double bill of Holst’s The Wandering Scholar and Puccini’s The Cloak, followed by Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at Rockdale Opera.

Tom Ringberg – Fight co-ordinator

Tom Ringberg works as a professional Actor and Fight Choreographer in the United States. As a Fight Choreographer, Tom shares the world of violent story telling, and to captivate the audience into believing that the fight that they are seeing on stage or on the screen is real and raise the adrenalin of the audience so that they feel like they were in that fight with that actor. Tom's work is inspired by combining not only real historical fighting techniques but also the stage combat techniques to give the fight real sense of danger but insuring the safety of the actors. Tom also worked as an Intern for 3 months.

Michael Twomey – Sound Technician/Engineer

Michael Reginald Twomey is a Production Intern at atyp. Passionate about sound he has used his time with atyp growing his skills and making a fantastic contribution to our productions so far. We look forward to seeing his work as Sound designer of The Dwarf Revue atyp Play 5. He doesn't believe anybody reads these things and doesn't understand what a print deadline is. He is scared of balloons and small dogs.

animal farm creatives

Michael Brindley

Michael's previous acting experience lies mostly in short films and amateur theatre. In the past, he has performed in productions of Pygmalion, Back to the Eighties, Twelfth Night, Under Milkwood, A Lie of the Mind and The Good Doctor. Animal Farm marks Michael's second performance with atyp; in 2011 he performed in Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs.

Elena Burger

Elena is so excited to be in this production of Animal Farm. Previous credits with atyp include Click: Strangers Project and Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs. She has also appeared in two Short and Sweet 10-minute plays (Hyacinth Court and Rebel Hell). In the Washington D.C area, Elena has performed in many musicals, including lead roles in Annie and Peter Pan. She also took part in a play development with award-winning playwright Dan Lefranc.

Airlie Dodds

Animal Farm is Airlie's second atyp production. After completing screen workshops at atyp with Felix Williamson and Lyndelle Greene, in 2010 she performed in the Sydney Theatre Company/atyp production Tusk Tusk by Polly Stenham, directed by Shannon Murphy. In 2011 she completed two short films, Purple Flowers for Druid Films and The One Who Broke Your Heart for Jungleboys. With the smelly ol' HSC out of the way, Airlie has taken a gap year with plans to travel and is currently shooting an episode of ABC's Rake as a guest star, and working for SCEGGS drama department as an assistant. One day she'll do Arts at Sydney University in the interest of pleasing the parents.

Patrick Harrison

While this is Patrick’s first production with atyp, he has been studying drama for the last 6 years, performing in plays such as Alice In Wonderland, Joseph’s Technicolour Dreamcoat and an adaptation of The Canterbury Tales. He has recently joined a theatre sports team and is looking forward to the competition ahead. Music is one of Patrick’s other interests, particularly classical and jazz piano. He would like to study music and drama at university. Having played a lion, a beast, a dog and a pigeon he hopes to secure some more human roles in the future!

Ziad Hindi

Ziad knew he wanted to be an actor when he was cast as The Maniac in a school production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Ever since, Ziad has acted in productions such as Playhouse Creatures, The Small Poppies, The Arabian Nights and was also the Head of Drama at his high school. This is Ziad's first atyp production and hopefully not his last. Ziad will be travelling through Europe and America this year auditioning for theatre schools and acting programs.

Stephanie King

Stephanie is an actor, dancer and writer armed with a Certificate IV in Performing Arts (Brent Street) and a Bachelor in Writing (UTS). Stage credits include Leap Deprivation (Sydney Fringe), Hamlet, Medea (Marcus West), MTV Music Awards, Sydney Olympic Ceremonies and the Franklins Musical which toured NSW. On screen, she hosted a series for South Korean Tourism and appeared in feature Sweet Marshall. With a view to deterring starvation and nourishing her acting career, Stephanie postponed her thesis and now freelances as a writer-editor. She launched her first co-edited anthology The Life You Chose at the 2011 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Leo King Hii

Leo was born with a craving for attention. As a child, he could be seen calling for an audience at parks, or just making noise. At the age of 16, Leo discovered an outlet for his energetic self, the Performing Arts. Since then, he’s been throwing himself at every opportunity that comes his way. Having been in a few high school productions, Rainbow’s Ending is a first for Leo, allowing him to learn and experience more about the creative and technical process that goes into productions. Armed with his trusty pair of rollerblades, Leo cruises to atyp three times a week in the hope of presenting you with as enjoyable an experience possible.

Brendan Layton

Brendan is a recent graduate from the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA), having switched to the performing arts after a brief stint as an eccentric and occasionally controversial journalist. During his time at AADA, he was fortunate to study under industry peers such as Marcelle Schmitz, Iain Sinclair and Andrew Davidson. He has performed in devised and text-based pieces such as Physical Stages – Car Park, Pool (No Water), The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, Tut-Tut Child, and Electronic City. Outside of the world of AADA, he played Malcolm in Shakespeare by the River’s production of Macbeth.

Vanessa Londoño

Vanessa Londoño is a Colombian actress with an incredible energy and love for theatre. Before moving to Australia, Vanessa completed a degree in psychology, which has had a major influence on her work as an actor. During this time she was also a part of Altergesto theatre ensemble, a university ensemble that encourages its students to develop their passion for theatre making. Having recently completed a Bachelor of Performance degree at the Australia Academy of Dramatic Art, she has developed a passion for physical theatre. Whilst at AADA, she performed in Physical Stages, directed by Anca Frankenhauser, Pool (No Water) directed by Andrew Davidson, Tut-Tut Child directed by Melissa Brownlow, The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol and Electronic City directed by Iain Sinclair. She hopes to continue developing her skills in Physical theatre, whilst being a part of this animalistic ensemble.

animal farm cast

no animal shall drink alcohol

Julia McNamara

Julia McNamara is fourteen years old. Prior to this performance, Julia has recently had lead roles in The Grandfathers (a NIDA production – part of the Connections festival produced by the National Theatre, UK) and in Click (a joint production between atyp and Strangers2). Julia has been a member of multiple drama ensembles (devising and performing), including two consecutive years in the NSW Public Schools State Drama Ensemble. Julia hopes that you enjoy the show, and if not, that you have left any rotten tomatoes in the car.

Paul Musumeci

Paul is a very accomplished actor/improviser and at the age of 18 has represented Australia twice as an Australian National Improv team member in the Canadian Improv Games in Ottowa and in the second year he captained the team. His previous productions include atyp’s Desiree Din and the Red Forest, Are You Funnier than a 12th Grader? for the Sydney Comedy Festival and The Crucible. Paul has also toured to Los Angeles multiple times where he studied at Young Actors Space, Second City and Improv Olympic. Paul is represented by Ignite Elite Artists and he hopes that you enjoy Animal Farm!

Dominica Nicholls

Dominica Nicholls has never acted before. In fact, she has spent hours on end loudly making fun of actors, particularly those who have played Batman. She’s a writer, poet and educator, winner of Wordstock, featured on FBI Radio, friend to cephalopods, maker of pie crusts, baker of brownies, possessor of obfuscating business cards. She has opinions about Brecht and is very bad at swimming. This acting is some kind of frankly surprising anomaly.

Patrick Richards

Patrick is currently studying Roman History at Macquarie University and subsequently is aware that being an actor hasn’t been a wise career path for nearly two thousand years, nevertheless his credits are as follows; For Griffin Theatre Company: Stoning Mary (2008). For Sydney Theatre School: The Beau Defeated (2011). For atyp: The One Sure Thing (2012), The Voices Project; To Be (2011), Tell it Like it Isn’t (2011), House on Fire (2010), The Laramie Project (2010), Bookends (2008), Battlegrounds (2008), Words Are Weapons (2007), The Hot and the Bold (2006). Patrick has appeared in so many of atyp’s productions that someone recently suggested changing the company’s name to ‘Australian Theatre for Young Patrick.’ He was not amused.

Julia Rorke

Julia has been studying drama since the age of 8. As well as school drama classes, Julia has also trained with Australian Institute of Performing Arts. Her credits for St Maris College include: The Wiz (2007), The Return of the Forbidden Planet (2009) and Pirates of Penzanze (2009). This is Julia’s third production with atyp.

Charlotte Tilelli

Charlotte Tilelli is a drama student of three years at her school Loreto Kirribilli and is currently undergoing her HSC. Having performed in various school drama festivals, her favourite role to date has been to play Jiminy Cricket for a contemporary rendition of Pinnochio. Charlotte has also participated in atyp’s senior student ensemble in 2010 & 2011 and is now focusing on developing her skills as an actress with a view to applying to Sydney’s most esteemed Performing Arts Schools for 2013.

Sebastian Wang

Sebastian has been acting in school productions since he was 10, starting in Joseph & His Technicolour Dreamcoat, and going on to do Romeo & Juliet, Cabaret, Equus and Oleanna. In 2009 he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is currently a background artist for MCTV, which in 2012 earned him an Oscar nomination for “Best Extra”. There are numerous reasons for why he acts – some noble, some perverse – but first, foremost, and above all else: he does it for the lulz.

Grace Whitehead

Whilst Animal Farm is Grace's first atyp production, she has always been dramatic. At school she completed year 12 drama and participated in numerous house plays and junior productions. Among these Grace played 'Vic' in the Sydney Grammar School production of Away by Michael Gow. This year Grace aims to enjoy her post HSC freedom gallivanting across the world and dabbling in her passion for theatre. She looks forward to being more involved with the atyp family in the future.

Luke Willing

Having just graduated from the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art's (AADA) Bachelor of Performance program, Luke feels he deserves a long rest. However he has been unable to tear himself away from the thrill of performance. His career highlights to date include: wearing a dress as Lucie Cabrol in Theatre de Complicite's adaptation of John Berger's novel, The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol directed by Iain Sinclair and being spat on, choked and beaten mercilessly by his cast mates in Yesterday, an Incident Occurred by Mark Ravenhill, directed by Jason Langley.

animal farm cast

no animal shall kill another animal

whatever goes upon four legs or has wings

is a friend

whatever goes upon two legs

is an enemy

atyp would like to thank Heidi Holmes from Aerialize and Digital Media Intern Sunday Gullifer.

atyp visionTo be the national centre of excellence for youth theatre practice.

atyp Board of DirectorsMichael Ihlein (Chair), Fraser Corfield, Claire Duffy, Nancy Fox, Alexandra Holcomb, Nick Marchand, Cathy Robinson, Edward Simpson and Simon Webb.

atyp Foundation Advisory Committee

Angela Bowne SC (Chair), Antoinette Albert, Carolyn Fletcher, Olev Rahn, Rob Rich

atyp staffArtistic Director Fraser Corfield

General Manager Aaron Beach

Development and Philanthropy Manager Peter Murray

Marketing Manager Claire Harris

Education Manager Heather Clark

Workshop Manager Sarah Parsons

Fresh Ink Manager Dan Prichard

Production Manager Liam Kennedy

Administrator Jenna Keevers

Administration Assistant Chrissy Norford

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Australian Theatre for Young People is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts

funding and advisory body.

Australian Theatre for Young People is assisted by the NSW

Government through Arts NSW.

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Australian Theatre for Young People (atyp)

The Wharf, Pier 4/5 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay NSW 2000Tel: 02 9270 2400 Email: atyp@atyp.com.au www.atyp.com.au

Cover photo by Angelo Sgambati