Art Smitten - The Podcast

Hosts Lauren and Andrew are joined in the studio with Caitlin, a jazz student at the Australian National University School of Music. She shares her story of how she feel in love with jazz and the, perhaps surprisingly, vibrant jazz scene in Taiwan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When I heard Renee Geyer was a famous international jazz singer I was thrilled to get the chance to go and see her sing. As I am an amateur singer with jazzy vocals myself it felt like it was a match made to be. However Renee Geyer was different to my initial assumptions. If I were to liken the whole experience to dating a person you met online, Renee Geyer would be a date you hade hopes for, only to have the actual date be considerably different to your expectations. Renee’s actuality contrasts considerably to the young pictures you see of her in the programs. They boast she is a proud Australian jazz talent. When I think of jazz, I think of swanky bars, dim lights and a commitment to seriousness to music as a vehicle for creative expression. Therefor, I’d constructed a vague conclusion that she was going to be refined, musically precise and like she looked in the picture. Malvern Town hall was dimmed, with fancy cheese platters on the tables to boot. It felt like the show was going to live up

Rachel attended the opening night of Malthouse Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams' classic 'memory play', The Glass Menagerie.  The Glass Menagerie is being performed on 18th May to 5th June at the Merlyn Theatre in Melbourne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosts Lauren and Andrew are joined on the line with actress ROSE RILEY.  She is playing the role of Laura Wingfield in the Malthouse Theatre’s production of The Glass Menagerie.  The Glass Menagerie is being performed on 18th May to 5th June at the Merlyn Theatre in Melbourne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosts Lauren and Andrew were joined in the studio with LENKA VANDERBOOM - Melbourne Playback Theatre Company ensemble member and Creative Director of SticksnStones on the Birrarung Marr.  The event includes a panel event with esteemed First Nations’ Victorians followed by a professional playback theatre performance.  SticksnStones is on Friday 27th May, 6pm at Deakin Edge Theatre, Federation Square, Melbourne. Photographer credit: Steven Rhall (image: Diana Nguyen, Sermsah Bin Saad)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laurent spoke to award winning dancer CHARMENE YAP, a member of Sydney Dance Company and performer in the touring production CounterMove. CounterMove will be performed at the Melbourne Theatre Company Southbank Theatre 25th May to 4th June Photography by Peter Greig (still from CACTI)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MITCHEL EDWARDS, emerging playwright, and actor AARON TREVASKIS join Lauren in the studio to talk about a new Australian and post-apocalyptic play,  Yellow Skies. Yellow Skies is produced by Baker's Dozen Theatre and is being performed at Metanoia Theatre at Brunswick Mechanics Institute, 18th -29th May.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recently I got to visit the Linden New Art Gallery. The current exhibition that is being held at the moment is the ‘Wild Lands’ exhibition with two sections following different artists and there particular styles of different wild life. When walking into the gallery on the left side is the ‘Wild Lands’ exhibition, featuring the artists: Chris Mason, Bronwyn Hack, Dionne Cazano, Michael Camakaris, Mathew Grove, and Ruth Howard. This section was particularly interesting especially when looking upon the works of Bronwyn Hack. I was immediately drawn to these pieces because of the rawness that they seemed to have. The first thought that came to mind was “why did this person only want to portray wolves?” The closer and longer I looked at the pieces, the information I gathered from each individual work was that it was telling a story of a lone wolf. The pieces may not be extremely detailed, but the pieces themselves express an emotion that can connect too many people. Another art

Adalya joins Lauren in the studio to share her thoughts about the Tinnalley String Quartet & Lior concert she attended earlier this month.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lauren is joined in the studio with DEFRON, a local Melbourne hip-hop artist and the leader behind the Walk This Way project. Defron talks about his trip to New York and the hip hop scene in Melbourne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Green Room is the latest film by Jeremy Saulnier, an American filmmaker whose two previous films, Murder Party (2007) and Blue Ruin (2013), both explore and analyse violence in various forms and settings. And now Green Room, which premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2015, extends this obsession to even darker territory. It centres on a punk band who goes to play at a small concert venue in the backwoods of Oregon, witnesses a murder, and is immediately taken hostage in the green room of the film's title and not allowed to leave. From then on, things only get worse. We start to find out more and more about the concert venue and the people behind it, the vice-like tension grows and grows and grows, and the blood of many a character is unceremoniously spilled. The cast includes Anton Yelchin and Alia Shawkat as members of the band, as well as Macon Blair, who's acted in and co-produced all of Saulnier's films. And, in an out-of-type casting, we have Patrick Stewart who excels as the owner of the venue, the

Earlier this week, Beth interviewed Next Wave festival artist RANI PRAMESTI and her show Sedih // Sunno.  Sedih // Sunno is being performed as part of the NEXT WAVE festival and is on until May 15th at the North Melbourne Town Hall.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Earlier this month, Andrew had the opportunity to speak with Michael Williams, head of The Wheeler Centre, about the event: Paul Kelly does Shakespeare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosts Lauren and Andrew chatted to GUY ABRAHAMS, CLIMARTE CEO and co-founder & THORNTON WALKER, one of the 10 commissioned artists from CLIMARTE Poster Project 2016.   The CLIMARTE Poster Project Forum is on Tuesday 17th 6pm at Carlton Connect Initiative LAB-14, 700 Swanston St Carlton, and the Exhibition is on at the same location until May 28th.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosts Lauren and Andrew were joined in the studios by two very special guests - their mothers!  Lee and Janet discuss their experiences of motherhood and how the media portrays motherhood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia's first production of The River, by Jez Butterworth, called for a complete revamp of the Red Stitch Actors Theatre. To make a small fishing cabin by the river feel like an arena, the audience is seated on two sides of the stage as they watch a devout fisherman entertain his novice fisherwomen guests. Sometimes you are getting a monologue delivered straight to you, at other times the actor with all the lines is facing away from you, so you're watching much more of the reacting than the acting, as it were. The action and setting of this play are so markedly mundane that every tiny detail comes under the microscope. At one point, we are simply watching the fisherman clean and cook the fish that his current housemate has caught for a good few minutes. The music playing from his radio hells to lull the audience into an easy, meditative state that is far from boredom. If anything, these quiet and sometimes completely silent moments are a welcome relief in between the deep-and-meaningfuls about life out in

Saturday April 23, 2016 marked 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare, and exactly 452 years since his birth. You have to appreciate the perfect symmetry of being born and being taken on the same day of the year, apparently due to some overzealous celebrating at his favourite pub. It also gives his global fanbase a reason to have two big celebrations each century. The latest of these, held at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, is now being screened at Cinema Nova up until Wednesday May 18, accompanied by a short film about the history of these celebrations, which announces an intention to be more than just a collection of the bard's best known couplets and soliloquies. This gala is also a showcase of his extraordinary influence across so many different artforms. For instance, it was no surprise to get a performance of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, with Mariah Gale as a particularly histrionic Juliet, but what I wasn't expecting was to see that same scene then danced by the Royal Ballet, with a

A Room of One’s Own is an extended essay written by Virginia Woolf. It is based on a series of lectures Woolf gave at two women’s colleges at Cambridge University in 1928. The lectures employ a fictional narrator and narrative and they explore the idea of ‘women and fiction’. It argues space for women writers, both figuratively and literally, in the world of literature that is often dominated by men.  Sentient Theatre’s inaugural performance of A Room of One's Own is directed by, and translated and to stage, by Peta Hanranhan. Virginia Woolf's essay was beautifully bought to the stage in this production performed by Anna Kennedy, Jackson Trickett, Carolyn Bock and Marissa O’Reilly The ideas and arguments were successfully portrayed and it was amazing to see how relevant Virginia Woolf's writings are still today. However, I felt it often delved too deeply into the intellectual and the academic in an attempt to make it more accessible to people unfami

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a film written and directed by Taika Waititi, based on the book Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Trump. It opened in New Zealand on March 31st 2016 and set box office records, which is no surprise because the film is phenomenal.  It follows the story of Ricky Baker played by Julian Dennison, a young delinquent from the city. He is sent by child welfare to live deep in the country with foster parents Bella, played by Rima Te Wiata, and Hec, played by Sam Neill who Ricky calls Aunt and Uncle. Bella is very fond of Ricky and they quickly form a strong bond, but Hec clearly doesn’t want to be part of Ricky's life. Shortly after Ricky is settled and loving living with Bella, she is found dead by Hec. Child welfare send them a letter informing them that Ricky will have to be sent to another foster home. Ricky runs away into the bush because he wants to stay, Hec follows him to bring him back. Child welfare arrive to find a house empty and presume Hec has kidnapped Ricky. &nb

Will had the opportunity to review 3 shows from the Next Wave festival: microLandscapes, Ground Control and Voices of Joan of Arc.  All shows are being performed at the Northcote Town Hall until May 14th except for microLandscapes, which finishes on Sunday May 8th Image: Janine Gibson from Voices of Joan of Arc, Next Wave Festival 2016  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.