Diversity, a big top and Australian celebrities look to be the most exciting additions to the Merrigong 2017 theatre season, launched in front of a full house at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre on Tuesday night.
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Prior to the launch, artistic director Simon Hinton told the Illawarra Mercury he’d been trying to bring the Spiegeltent – a third venue to be set up in the Wollongong Arts Precinct during April – to town for the last couple of years.
“[We’re] taking more of an approach about activating the public space and bringing new experiences into the arts precinct which aren’t just about what you do inside the buildings,” he said.
Marcia Hines will star in the headline production for the big top, the “disco-fueled” Velvet, set to be “an electrifying and nostalgic homage to Studio 54” with song and acrobatics.
The full program for the Spiegeltent will be announced next February with multiple shows per day including comedy, cabaret, burlesque and music.
The “magical tent” is the beginning of a new trend which will see Merrigong introducing “new presenting contexts” in coming years, such as mini-festivals and outdoor productions, to “diversify the offering” for the diverse community which makes up the Illawarra.
Two shows set for 2017 which Hinton is particular excited about are The Outside Man and Angel. The latter, the Australian debut for a powerful drama about a Syrian woman who finds herself the target of an ISIS manhunt.
While the other is a cabaret-style musical produced and performed by a group with perceived intellectual disabilities.
The cast of seven originate from the Altogether Drama group, a program formed by Merrigong and The Disability Trust, and wrote the script and songs during the past year with director Anne-Louise Rentell and composer Daryl Wallis.
Also in the main program, Gold Logie Award-winner John Wood reunites with his Blue Heelers co-star Julie Nikill in Bakersfield Mist.
The “clever and funny” play is based on a true story of a bartender in his 50’s who buys a painting from an Op Shop which may or may not be a Jackson Pollock?
Australian drama Diving for Pearls hits the stage next November, a play written by award-winning writer and one of the founders of Wollongong’s original professional theatre company, Theare South, Katherine Thomson.
Other notable productions include including The 7 Stages of Grieving, a play about the grief of Indigenous people written by Deborah Mailman and Wesley Enoch plus adaptions of Shakespeare and a French classic.
Kids haven’t been missed either with several productions including bringing to life the popular children’s book The Very Hungry Hungry Caterpillar.
To see the full 2017 program, head to www.merrigong.com.au