We can all relate to the struggle that teachers go through when they try to teach history. Things that have happened in the past can often be a bore and leave students feeling uninspired. So, when you set out to create a “period piece” of sorts i.e. a history lesson presented on the live theatre…
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Bobbie-Jean sends the audience plummeting head-first into a time warp, with her enchanting debut cabaret Tales of a Time Travelling Songstress, which was showcased at The Butterfly Club last weekend. This talented cabaret artist is responsible for writing and producing the play as well. I travelled through a decade-spanning journey interweaving love stories, lovely songs, heart breaks, dances…
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Enter the bedazzling land of the West! On May 16th, Footscray’s Nicholson Street came alive with the rich cultures of Africa at Emerge in the West Festival. Waves of vibrant traditions washed over me as I strolled through the avenue. A potpourri of emerging top artists hailing from Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Papua New Guinea…
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WOMADelaide is not your usual music festival. Sure, there are the teens strutting in groups, with festival-appropriate attire and the right-shaped sunglasses, but there are also toddlers running around the thick grass and, later, small children asleep on their parents’ ponchos spread across the ground. There are picnics and tents for napping and a sense…
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“Whatever happened to good all fashioned, run-of-the-mill sex? People have to complicate it with all this kinky shit.” Josh Lawson makes his directorial debut with The Little Death, a sitcom-esque movie about a group of couples exploring their sexual desires and kinks. The fetishes are varied and often bizarre, but the characters are believable and…
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The Bookshelf Diaries takes a peek into the reading life of writers, readers and book lovers. What do you think of Sonia Nair‘s taste in novels? What are you reading right now? I’m reading the latest Overland issue – the 215 Winter Edition – and The Rosie Project (I know I’m extremely late to this!)….
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Artist (painter, illustrator and printmaker) Mimi Leung has a fascinating ability to make the grotesque adorable. Depending on whether the work is commissioned or Leung’s own, it exists somewhere on a spectrum of cartoony to psychedelic, but is always brightly coloured. When I attended the recent opening of her current “Australian Roadkill” show at Lamington…
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GaymerX is a convention for LGBT gamers and allies with the aim of making everyone in the community feel welcome and accepted. Like any other gaming convention, GaymerX is full of panels, parties, devs and publishers showing off their games. How it differs to other cons is in its focus on inclusion; things like gender…
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It was just another icy Friday evening in the cold heart of Canberra. The quiet of Northbourne Avenue indicated that all of the public servants had gone home to hibernate, most likely celebrating the weekend with cups of tea and what I imagine to be an endless supply of snuggies. I, on the other hand,…
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Welcome to the Magic Hour- a time of stories and dreams, where the imagination runs wild and the lengthening shadows are never too far away… Written by Vanessa Bates and performed by Ursula Yovich under the direction of Chris Bendall, The Magic Hour is a fantastic one-woman series of monologues that is rude,…
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Hollywood has opened its arms to up-and-coming film star, Teo Halm. Seven years ago, Halm was hating his first stint at theatre camp. Now fifteen, he’s found his passion in film, acting alongside a floating alien robot and James Franco in soon to be released block busters Earth to Echo and Bukowski. But what’s it…
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“I am excited to launch something that makes me creatively happy. I think you need to put some of yourself into your projects, outside of your full-time job. It keeps you inspired.” Jennifer Noorbergen’s typical week is spent designing web graphics for the University of Western Sydney. A young graphic designer, she moved in from…
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Teenagers can be bizarre creatures. They spend a lot of time operating in states of supreme self-absorption, almost casually inflicting considerable mental and physical pain on those they claim to love. And yet occasionally they come out with acts of pure bravery or selflessness. All of these capabilities and more are on display in Australia’s…
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The Found Festival was a nine-day, multi-platform arts festival. It consisted of an all women-produced art exhibition in the Magdalen Laundry and funky nightly festival events at the Shadow Electric, both within the Abbotsford Convent complex. When I asked Found’s producer Kirsty Hulm why she chose the Laundry for an all-women’s art festival, she said…
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