The Mozart Faction

The Mozart Faction

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PRODUCTION

Playwright:
Kate Rice

Director:
Emily McLean

Details:

Having recently staged the hilarious, poignant and critically acclaimed productions of Dealer’s Choice and A Moment on the Lips, Red Ryder Productions are proud to present the inaugural season of the new Australian comedy The Mozart Faction at the Blue Room Theatre March 7-24.

A small suburban choir rehearsal is brought to an abrupt halt when Wolf storms in, demanding silence. For 10 years he’s lived next door listening to their endless, effusive singing and he’s finally cracked.
Listen mate, I don’t sing because unlike you, I know I sound like shit. -Wolf, The Mozart Faction

In the siege that follows, Mozart’s Requiem gains new meaning for them all as Wolf forces each chorister to look death in the eye.
I’m really sorry that you feel that way. Perhaps we could negotiate some kind of compensation… -Evie, The Mozart Faction

AWGIE winner Kate Rice tells us “choral singing is an archaic, specialised form of music that depends on amateurs and volunteers working together to survive. No one does it for money or glory because there isn’t any.

In this little corner of the performance world, participants are only there because the art form speaks to them. It is this spark of meaning that drives the creation of all art, and in this play, that spark is under mortal attack.”
Because it’s real, okay? It’s music. It’s the only thing I’ve got that never disappoints. Never lies. Never expects anything. You take it away, there’s nothing left. -Ari, The Mozart Faction

Emily McLean, 2006 Equity Guild Award Winner Best Director, will again take the helm. “To direct the first production of a writer's script is always an honour,” she says. “When it has a cast of nine, is about a suburban choir filled with characters you never see on stage and contains Mozart's requiem, Monte Carlo biscuits and a siege bending out of shape, it's also great fun.”

Red Ryder Productions, under director Emily McLean, has a knack for assembling tight ensemble casts that work brilliantly. -The Australian

Musical Direction for the on-stage choir will be provided by cast member Alinta Carroll who, in addition to her acting credentials, is a soprano with the internationally known Collegium Musicum Choir and the suburban choir Voiceworks.

Carroll (What a Man’s Gotta Do) will be joined on stage by Maggie Anketell (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll), Caitlin Beresford Ord (A Moment on the Lips), Brodie Caporn (On the Outside), Brendan Ewing, (Woyczek), Larissa Gallagher (Company), Jeremy Levi (The Carnivores), Phil Miolin (Shorts Are In), and Craig Williams (Big Fun Sometimes).

Start time:
8pm

End time:
9.15pm

Bookings Email Address:
di@pacs.org.au

Bookings Name:
The Blue Room

Bookings Phone Number:
9227 7005

Ticket Prices:
$20 / $15 conc. PAC Members: $15 / $10 conc.

Website:
www.pacs.org.au

Address:
53 James St Northbridge

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Choral singing archaic? - Rubbish!

Author: James McDonald
Date: 22/02/2007 - 07:01

Kate Rice tells us “choral singing is an archaic, specialised form of music"? You've got to be joking - or provocative. Somewhere today someone is at their piano writing another choral score; a choir is performing a 20th century composer such as Rutter; another is performing - yes - Mozart's Requiem. On that last piece: you don't get 500 people to a concert in a country town if it's "archaic". We did in April last year. At least two choirs in my region (Sunshine Coast) regularly get audiences of 300-500 a performance. Perform Carl Orff's 20th-century composition, "Camina Burana" set to Latin about the raunchy seduction of a maiden and you'll fill your major metropolitan auditorium every time. "The Messiah" is a guaranteed sell-out at xmas or easter. Another way to get a full audience is to sing opera choruses. And, let's start on choral scores used in films. "2001 a Space Odyssey" had some unforgettable choral music, modern and classical; "Primal Fear" used one of the choruses - "Lacrymosa" - from Mozart's "Requiem"; "The Thin Red Line" used a bit from Faure's "Requiem"; "Messiah" in "Briget Jones Diary"; etc., etc.. Then, there's the choral pieces in musicals - "Les Miserables", etc, etc.

Choral music is not archaic, but it has a history going back more than a millenium. And it is highly contemporary in its appeal even for an ensemble singing a capella pieces from the Middle Ages: the Tallis Scholars have just finished a sell-out tour around Australia!

Choral music IS glorious: people DO sing for the glory of it!!

Jim

characteristics of an earlier period

Author: dan luxton
Date: 01/03/2007 - 13:34

Dear james,
please don't be offended by Kate's comment... she meant archaic as in... "marked by the characteristics of an earlier period" as compared to popular music heard on the majority of today's radio stations.

The appeal of choral music is not challenged by her comment.

Kate in fact loves choral music (she also attended the Tallis Scholars recital) and could not possibly have written this play without an embedded knowledge of the artform... to quote from an interview I conducted for the current edition of Voicemoves...

Kate. What inspired you to write a play about a choir?
"My mother was a professional music teacher, pianist and choral conductor. I started singing in her choirs when I was about twelve and didn’t stop for many many years. I’ve now sung in over a dozen choirs, from Sydney to Germany to Melbourne and back to Lismore NSW (where I grew up). I loved the music, and found the collective experience of singing inspiring and sexy. I was also fascinated by the characters. It seemed that whatever the choir, wherever I was, the same people, the same conflicts and the same rituals kept popping up. I first had the idea to write a play about a choir in crisis seven years ago, and it’s taken me this long to get the story right."

Do any of the choristers from your past know they are fodder for you pen Kate? Would they recognise themselves?
"I think that anyone who has ever sung in a choir will recognise the characters! But I didn’t research any one particular choir, or base characters on particular people. I drew on my experience in lots of choirs."

Given that WA "has more choirs per head of population than just about any other place in the known universe" (according to http://www.voicemoves.com.au/groups.htm), the creative team fully appreciate this comedy will have wide appeal. If choral music were not popular, we would have no audience.

If you live near Perth, I hope you have the opportunity to see the play, if not, hopefully the play is picked up by other companies around Australia, and it will be performed at a theatre near you. The play's theme is I think, unique.

yours,
Dan Luxton
media liaison for The Mozart Faction

Arch'ing up

Author: crgwllms
Date: 06/03/2007 - 23:50

James McDonald said:
>Choral music is not archaic, but it has a history going back more than a millenium.

You sound confused by the use of 'archaic'. Are you disputing Kate's statement that choral singing is a specialised form of music? Or that it was performed as an artform in eras that would be considered archaic?

I don't think anyone's disputing that modern composers have used the choral form, nor are they claiming that people aren't interested in early, archaic work.

You are confusing form with content, as well as form with popularity.

I'm sure 'The Messiah' is popular at xmas and easter....two observances that are archaic in their origin.

Would it be too upsetting to you for me to state that theatre is an archaic artform? Because it is - it existed in ancient civilizations, probably far earlier than the choral singing we are talking about. And yet we still find ancient plays relevant and popular - Greek tragedies for instance. We are still fascinated by the form and keep reinventing the content. But at its root level, it's archaic.

I hope you get to see the play and judge for yourself ! There's a rather talented bloke playing the tenor.....

Look, I hope that Red Ryder

Author: James McDonald
Date: 08/03/2007 - 10:02

Look, I hope that Red Ryder Productions have success with their play, "The Mozart Faction". And, writing plays myself, I wish Kate Rice every success with the play. Having sung Mozart a number of times and - unfortunately - been all too familiar with choral politics, I'd love to see it myself, if I didn't live around 3,000km away!

I'm not the least bit fazed by the use of "archaic" - in the right context. I don't want to get into semantics here, but the Macquarie dictionary defines "archaic" as "old fashioned"; "no longer used in ordinary speech or or writing; and "marked by the characteristics of an earlier period...." The American Heritage dictionary defines the term as "Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period, especially one that develops into a classical stage of civilization: an archaic bronze statuette; Archaic Greece. 2. No longer current or applicable; antiquated: archaic laws...." So, I think I was right to question the use of the word in relation to choral singing, because it has a sense that conveys more than merely belonging to an earlier period. The music could be quite old - Mozart was born 1756. CHOIRS today might be heard singing Palestrina (born over 480 years ago, Gregorian chant (8th century onwards), Monteverdi (born 1567, his "Elijah" is sung often). But, as I said in my previous post in this thread, there are also modern choral composers. Samual Barber, Arvo Part, Stravinski (being performed by a local choir in a couple of months) and Henryk Gorecki were all 20th-century composers for choral music in addition to some of the others, whom I mentioned earlier. In addition, there is a whole heap of popular music transcribed for choirs. So, to describe choral music as "archaic" is a plainly wrong generalisation. You might be right to say some MUSIC is archaic, but stick to Gregorian chant or the repertoire from the middle ages. Indeed, some of the music is ageless. Mozart's "Requiem" is one of those pieces. It certainly could not be described as "archaic".

Jim

Giving up

Author: James McDonald
Date: 08/03/2007 - 10:04

This took ages to load up - sorry about the duplication. Frankly I'm finding the site pretty well unworkable. Even the email I sent to theatre at theatre dot asn.au as a return email to one that had been sent to me was returned with the reason, "Service unavailable", "Over quota". I suggest - as I did in my private email (and I'm not going to go through the awful wait now to make another post in a more relevant thread) - you drop the program you're using and start again! I am afraid the site has become unworkable. Whatever the reasons for the dysfunction on the site, I've given up............

It's not the fault of the

Author: Na
Date: 08/03/2007 - 12:41

It's not the fault of the program. It's probably just too much site traffic and not enough web space, etc.

The Prompt Copy
www.thepromptcopy.com

Sticky Apple Legs
www.freewebs.com/stickyapplelegs

Puppets in Melbourne
www.freewebs.com/puppetsinmelbourne

Treading the Boards
www.treadingtheboards.thepromptcopy.com

08/03/2007 - 17:58 Grant Malcolm Giving it up

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na baby give it up

Author: crgwllms
Date: 18/03/2007 - 03:49

Grant said:
> If only life's problems could be solved by giving up.

Some of life's problems can be solved if someone ELSE gives up.

Cheers,
Craig

~<8>-/====\---------

11/03/2007 - 14:24 the angry wolf (not verified) If anyone in Perth would

Standards

Author: James McDonald
Date: 12/03/2007 - 05:13

It's a matter of standards, Mr anonymous, angry wolf. Accuracy about the use of words applied to choral music and choirs in this case. And the quality of posting on this site in your case.

Jim

wolf ; wood ; dog

Author: dan luxton
Date: 14/03/2007 - 07:47

Just to be sure you get the point James,
the last post was written in the character of the the gun wielding Wolf, the protagonist who demands permanent silence.

See the reviews James...
perhaps think about seeking the rights for mounting a production in your neck of the woods...
amateurs beware though... it is a very difficult play to pull off... 9 actors on stage talking over the back of each other's lines. 8 actors who have to be able to sing Lacrimosa PROPERLY (and unaccompanied). It needs lots of rehearsal or it will be a dogs breakfast.

archaic = characterstics of an earlier age
I said it, you said it James, enough said.
Within the context of the sentence, it is a legitimate use of the word and implies that particular definition.
I'm now going 'away' (to depart), and I hope we can put this argument 'away' (place somewhere).
"you know sometimes words have two meanings..." Led Zeppelin
Dan

March, 2007