Download All My Love Program - Riverside Parramatta

A production by Christine Harris & HIT Productions
Australia’s Premier Theatre Touring Company
ALL MY LOVE
By Anne Brooksbank
All My Love is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative
Victoria
CAST AND CREATIVE BIOGRAPHIES
DION MILLS – Henry Lawson
A member of the Red Stitch ensemble since 2002 his credits include
Wet House, Eurydice, The Flick, Herding Cats, Penelope, Stop. Rewind,
Good People, Day One. A Hotel, Evening, Princess Dramas, The City,
Creditors, That Face, Fatboy, Yellow Moon, Pool (No Water), Motortown,
Harvest, Fewer Emergencies, Hellbent, The Country, Pugilist Specialist,
Outlying Islands, The Day Room, The Night Heron, Raised in Captivity,
Jesus Hopped the A Train and Where’s My Money?. Other stage credits
include The Trouble with Harry (MKA), Black Box 149 (La Mama), Acts
of Deceit (La Mama), Weary and Under Milk Wood (both McPherson
Touring). TV includes It’s a Date, Woodley, Conspiracy 365, City
Homicide and Stingers. Film is Killer Elite.
KIM DENMAN – Mary Gilmore
With an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts, Kim continued her
training with Stella Pulo of the Actors Studio, Leonid Verzub of the
Moscow Arts Theatre, and most recently with Ivana Chubbuck. Kim has
worked in theatre, film and TV for over 20 years. Theatre includes The
Rivers of China for Don’t Look Away, Truth & Brutality for La Mama,
Debrief for Theatreworks, The Fire Raisers for Wax Studio, Macbeth for
Arthouse Theatre Company, and The Good Woman of Setzuan for
Fabricated Theatre Ensemble. In QLD, Kim performed with The Edge
Theatre Company in Medea and Dusa, Fish, Stas & Vi. She also played
Anita in West Side Story for Twelfth Night Theatre. Film includes Spring
Rhapsody and Living Color and many award winning short films. TV
includes Blue Heelers, Eugenie Sandler P.I., most recently Rhonda
Brooks in Neighbours.
CHRISTINE HARRIS & HIT PRODUCTIONS – Producer
Christine Harris is the Managing Director of Melbourne based company
HIT Productions Pty Ltd. In 2015 Christine celebrated her 22nd
anniversary as a significant Australian producer. Since Christine’s first
touring production of Hotel Sorrento in 1999, she has delivered some of
the most extensive tours ever staged in Australia such as Menopause
The Musical®, David Williamson’s The Club, Travelling North, Let The
Sunshine, When Dad Married Fury and Managing Carmen, Louis
Nowra’s Cosi and Joanna Murray-Smith’s Love Child. Recognised as
Australia’s Premier Theatre Touring Company, HIT is committed to
touring outstanding mainstream productions, with a major focus on
Australian playwrights, to metropolitan, regional and remote venues
Australia wide.
ANNE BROOKSBANK – Playwright
Anne’s first play, Down Under, co-authored with her husband Bob Ellis,
was produced at the Stables Theatre in Sydney and published by
Currency Press. All My Love represents her second full-length play. Her
extensive portfolio of television and film writing credits has seen her
receive six AWGIES, and includes another collaboration with Denny
Lawrence on a television film, Army Wives, evolved from a series of
newspaper articles. She is the author of eight books including Marriage
Acts which was adapted from a screenplay, and the novel of All My
Love, first published by William Heinemann. She has an MA in English
Literature and has taught writing for performance including at the
Sydney University, UTS, Macquarie University, TAFE and AFTRS.
DENNY LAWRENCE – Director
Denny has worked in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, U.K. and USA as
an actor, writer, producer and director in film, theatre and television. His
many screen credits include four feature films, numerous telemovies and
miniseries and literally hundreds of hours of series television. Many of
his productions have won nominations and awards, including at the
Australian Film Institute and BAFTA Awards. He was producer and
director on the ABC series MDA, which gained an International Emmy
Award nomination and won an AFI Award for Best Series and Best Actor
and Actress. He has also won a number of awards for screenwriting. He
continues to work regularly in theatre where his credits include the
award-winning. Sky (Ensemble Theatre) The Old Boy (Ensemble) A
Woman Knows (Tisch New Theatre, NY) A Soldier Dreams (Theatre
East, NY). For Red Stitch in Melbourne he directed Loyal Women,
Belleville and the recent acclaimed production of Love Love Love. His
next production for HIT will be Educating Rita.
JACOB BATTISTA – Designer
Jacob Battista completed a Bachelor of Production at the VCA. Design
credits include, The Lonely Wolf (Set) – Dirty Pretty Theatre/MTC Neon;
Therese Raquin (Set) - Dirty Pretty Theatre; Avenue Q – The Musical
(Set and Costumes – Trifle Theatre; Carrie The Musical (Set &
Costumes) – Ghost Light; Love, Love, Love (Set), Jumpers for
Goalposts (Set and Costumes), Belleville (Set &Costumes) and Out Of
The Water (Set) – Red Stitch; and for HIT Productions - Love Letters
(Set & Costumes), The 39 Steps (Set) and They’re Playing Our Song
(Associate Designer) and Just The Ticket (Set).He has also had
positions with the MTC, The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia and The
Production Company .
CHRIS HUBBARD – Sound Designer
Chris Hubbard has enjoyed an extensive career as a sound designer
and operator, having worked on more than 60 plays and musicals over
two decades in Australia and London, including The Producers, Les
Miserables, West Side Story, Into The Woods, Guys and Dolls, Sweeney
Todd, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar, The King and I, The Boy From
Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Chicago, Mary
Poppins and Rock Of Ages. For HIT Productions: Motherhood The
Musical, Menopause The Musical®, The Sum of Us, Menopause The
Musical® IN CONCERT, Let the Sunshine, When Dad Married Fury,
Diving for Pearls, It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To), They’re Playing
Our Song, Managing Carmen, Love Letters, Just The Ticket, The One
Day of the Year and Australia Day.
SOPHIE WOODWARD – Wardrobe Coordinator
Since graduating from Victorian College of the Arts, Sophie Woodward
has made a distinct contribution to a diverse range of productions,
recent work Includes: set and costume design for Letters from the
Border (Director: Travis Dowling) at Hot House Theatre; set and
costume design for Wet House (Director: Brett Cousins) and costume
design for Love, Love, Love. (Director: Denny Lawrence) at Red Stitch
Theatre; set and costume design for Patient 12 (Director: Don Mackay)
at La Mama Courthouse; and, wardrobe stylist for Life is Better Blonde’s
video clip Mine.
SYNOPSIS
At the urging of Henry Lawson’s mother Louisa (a famed early feminist),
Henry becomes a guide to the young Mary Gilmore, who arrives in
Sydney from the country. What follows is a story of a friendship destined
for true love and preparation for a likely marriage. Sadly the partnership
is thwarted by a deception.
Henry: And if it wasn’t for the letters...
Mary: Ah yes, the letters.
Henry: You’d have waited for me till I came back?
Mary: I wrote to you that I would.
Henry: And I replied that my lover’s heart leapt so I thought it’d never
settle back.
Mary: Do you think your mother kept that letter or threw it away?
Henry: Do you wish you’d seen it?
The theft of their love letters by Henry’s mother is not revealed for years
to come, by which time their lives have moved in separate directions.
But the love remained and is the essence of their story. Their letters to
each other form the heart of the play. These letters are on record and
have not been altered (other than shortened) although much of the
dialogue contained in the script between the characters is surmise.
A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR
The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is
sentimental, it is not realistic.
In memory everything seems to happen to music…
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
I love the combination of intense emotion – albeit often suppressed –
with the verbal frisson of two articulate people, ahead of their time in
their thinking and writing. The poetry of the protagonists – and of course
extracts from their letters – make for a highly evocative work that is very
theatrical in the best sense. It has been a real pleasure to develop this
work with two long-time collaborators, the writer Anne Brooksbank and
composer Jack Ellis.
MUSIC CREDITS
All My Love Theme by Jack Ellis
By Arrangement with the Licensor, Jack Ellis, c/- Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty
Ltd
Friendly Day & Barroom Ballet by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Pleasant Moments by Scott Joplin
Seminary Music Co. New York, NY 1909
THIS PERFORMANCE CONTAINS A 20 MINUTE INTERVAL
Christine Harris & HIT Productions would like to sincerely acknowledge
and thank The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith for their
support in presenting the World Premiere of All My Love.