In this issue:

From the President

It’s a Wrap! – Rapture

Our Next Play – Things I Know To be True

Members News

Artists Away

Reviews - Rapture

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken”.

— Oscar Wilde

From the President

Hello to members and past members,

Welcome to this issue of Noises Off. Theatre life is starting to settle down after the tumultuous Covid years. There has been some residual audience reluctance across the theatre-going-public in Sydney, but this is now improving, according to the latest data.

Rapture

The season of Rapture was highly successful with audiences close to 90% capacity and with excellent feedback for the quality of the production, direction, acting and set design. Double congratulations to Director, David Allsopp who not only directed but was called in to play a substantial acting role two weeks before opening night. Please see links to Reviews later in this newsletter.

Things I Know To Be True

Our next play, Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell, will run from 17 May to 11 June 2023. Directed by Racquel Boyd, Things I Know To Be True tells of a normal Australian family through the course of one year. It’s a play about family resilience, and about love in its many forms. “A beautiful, compassionate, tender play written with great humanity” (Limelight). Bookings open 12 April.

Annual General Meeting

A reminder that the 2023 Pymble Players AGM will be held on Tuesday 18 April 2023 at 7.30pm. After the success of last year’s inaugural format, you will again be able to attend in person at the Hayward Hall or you may choose to attend by Zoom. Details are included in the AGM Notices which have been issued to all financial members.

Best wishes to all.

Warren Blood
President

By Arrangement with the author
Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama 2003

22 February – 19 March 2023                                   
Written by: Joanna Murray-Smith
Directed by: David Allsopp

So the Rapture came, and now that it’s all over, we can happily say we all survived.

More than that, we all thrived. As a team, we kept improving – constantly finding new depths and nuances. We finished the run with our best show yet, and we all left the theatre knowing we’d given it everything we had.

And it wasn’t an easy play or the most straightforward run. Everyone – from director to cast to crew – was challenged and asked to find a little more to give. And everyone took a step forward, pushing ourselves and each other to reach higher with every show, raising the bar higher for ourselves and then clearing it.

We wanted to make something that would resonate with audiences and be great fodder for a deep conversation after the show. From all the fantastic feedback and chats we’ve had, we more than succeeded in that endeavour. People have related to the characters, seeing something of themselves or people they know. And that’s what great theatre is all about.

Make them laugh, then make them cry, then leave them thinking.

It was a whirlwind at times, but always an amazing experience and one we’ll always treasure.

Thank you to our audiences for coming on this journey with us.

David Allsopp, Director

Exclusively licenced by HLA Management Pty Ltd

17 May – 11 June 2023
Written by: Andrew Bovell
Directed by: Racquel Boyd

Life is seasonal, and those seasons bring change, challenge and hope. Things I Know To Be True tells of a normal Australian family through the course of one year. It’s a play about family resilience, and about love in its many forms: sometimes comforting and supportive, sometimes stifling and destructive. But always love.

A story told with warmth and humour as each season brings a turning point and the ramifications of the ensuing changes unfold.

It’s all about love, trust and strength of character.

A Note from our Director 

I have been incredibly impressed with our cast in the first weeks of rehearsal. Everyone has worked together from the first night, the way it would normally take a cast weeks of establishing rapport, building relationships and trust. The cast have been giving it their all, being focused, creative and cohesive.

Racquel Boyd, Director

Images: The Price Family enjoying a reunion around the family table
Photos: Angelica Madani, Assistant to the Director, Things I Know To Be True

Diary Date: Final Dress Rehearsal – 8pm Monday 15 May 2023

Pymble Players extends an invitation to all financial and Life members to come to the Final Dress Rehearsal of Things I Know To Be True at 8pm on Monday 15 May 2023.

Wayne Chee - The man behind the technology

Wayne Chee and Casey Moon-Watton have both been instrumental in Pymble Players adopting new technology to enhance our productions. Last edition of Noises Off featured Casey. This edition has a focus on a man reluctant to talk about himself…but I quietly persuaded him. The following is gleaned from a ‘phone call.

Wayne has a vast depth of knowledge about lighting and sound. He tends to downplay it with “I’m not really an audio engineer…” followed by a great deal of detail, which to a layperson sounds like this… “blah, blah, blah”. Wayne is also a most patient teacher. He has been hugely supportive in helping me programme sound on QLab. He makes himself available on a regular basis…thank goodness!

What is your performance/theatrical background?

Wayne began his extracurricular lighting involvement in 2004 with the Eastwood Uniting Church Musical Society Inc. He described his initial involvement as “dabbling with lighting in a theatrical environment”. We know this is code for an enormous infusion of energy, goodwill and expertise.

In addition to Eastwood UCMS Wayne has worked extensively with Hunters Hill Theatre, Pymble Players and recently with Elanora Players.

What is your occupation?

Wayne began working for the ABC after the HSC, 43 years ago. Those numbers can’t be right, unless he’s had work done!

He is currently a Technical Producer/Lighting Director at the ABC Ultimo Studios. He was for a while a Live Sport Replay Operator/Producer. Previous roles include Camerawork, Vision Control; Mixing, Editor, Colour grading.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Always listen and learn. Always have understanding of other people’s roles, especially for working in a team environment.

What would be your theme song?

I had to help Wayne with this one. I believe it would be “Listen, Learn, Read On” an obscure track by Deep Purple that summarises Wayne’s approach. He hears if something isn’t right, sources problems and familiarises himself with tech manuals on a regular basis.

Tell us about some achievements (theatrical/performance and/or personal)

Wayne talked about his first with Carousel at Eastwood. There were thirteen working dimmers, a faulty lighting desk and he had four lights on stands in the auditorium with an assistant changing gels at various times during the show.

I will add that Wayne works with people involved in a production to derive an outcome beyond expectations.

What’s ahead for you?

Wayne seems to love the challenges of helping theatre groups improve their productions via technology. Never one to rest on laurels, he bounds around with infectious energy and ideas.

Wayne has interests in other aspects of theatre, including set design, stage management and set construction. He is working with PP to further refine our technical set up. He has designed the set as well as sound and lights for Dog Logs at Hunters Hill Theatre.

Image: Wayne Chee – Happy with the fish but thought a follow-spot could work better! In any case, Wayne’s done so many murders he thinks this is a red herring!

 Geoff Jones, Membership Manager

27 October 1942 – 15 February 2023

We are sorry to advise of the death of longtime PP member Jennie Bazell. Jennie was born at Redhill in Surrey.  A Scorpio – with a sting in the tail.

Jennie came to Australia in 1963. The same year as her long term, loving partner Tim Hunter (who has himself performed in many memorable Pymble Players productions). Jennie went to Melbourne and married a man named Marriot. Evidently this soured her view of the institution of marriage, as Tim asked her to marry him several times, but she always said no – in case the same thing happened!

Jennie joined Hunters Hill Theatre in 1987 and appeared in Travelling North, A House is Built, Morning Sacrifice and The Aspen Papers in the old Elgin St Church Hall before moving to Melbourne in 1989. She studied drama and along the way achieved a BA (Hons) in Performance Studies.

In 1993 Jennie saw Tim in a production of Da at Strathfield Girls High School. Despite that, he was invited to be in Plaza Suite at Genesian Theatre. Jennie was also in the play and her character, as Tim’s wife was extremely antagonistic to his character’s philandering. But come closing night, they found themselves enjoying each other’s company so much that they talked for the rest of the night about each other’s lives. Their relationship grew from there and they became an item.

Jennie worked in event management at the time, working at the Sydney Convention Centre – Darling Harbour and invited Tim to the function with the famous announcement that Sydney had won the Olympics for 2000.

PP’s Linda Young met Jennie around 1995 when they performed together in the ironically titled Mr Hunter at the Argyle Theatre, Ryde. And so began an enduring friendship for Linda and Geoff (Jones) with Jennie and Tim.

Jennie returned to Hunters Hill Theatre in 1998 for Waiting in the Wings and over the next 20 years appeared in or was instrumental in many plays. Her last involvement was to direct Travels With My Aunt, the first play at Hunters Hill Town Hall. She directed Picasso at the Lapin Agile, by Steve Martin and sought permission from the author to change the character Elvis for John Lennon. As always, Jennie was seeking to extract the greatest depth from the text. And had the courage of her convictions to approach and gain support from the author.

Jennie and Tim were a team. If she was directing, he would be prompting at rehearsals and being part of the brains trust for each production. Jennie in turn was supportive of Tim’s many roles over a range of theatre groups. We can only imagine their lively discussions about character, text and interpretation.

Jennie and Tim travelled extensively in Australia. Their last big trip was to Queensland and included Longreach, Winton and the pointy bit in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They toured Tasmania extensively as well as the UK and Italy. Tim remembered that they particularly favoured Glasgow over Edinburgh as Jennie said it was “less toffy”.

Jennie visited the UK in September 2022 for a family wedding. Apart from this wonderful opportunity to see her family (for the last time as fate may have it) she was immensely proud of what transpired during her tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford. There was a poster on the wall of one of Juliet’s speeches. The tour guide asked if anyone could do the recitation – Jennie did it of course and received a round of applause.

Summary of Jennie’s theatrical legacy:

Jennie and Tim enjoyed a rich common ground of theatre. They performed a number of times together, notably at the Zenith Theatre, Chatswood in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Tim recalls Jennie’s exceptional performance as the wife to his titular role.

They also performed together in Katherine Thomson’s Navigating – also at the Zenith Theatre. Tim and Jennie met and spoke with the playwright.

Jennie was in five productions at Theatre on Chester, Epping from 1995-2010 – Hotel Sorrento (1995), All My Sons (1998), After September (2001), The Spook (2007) and Dinkum Assorted (2010).

At Hunters Hill Theatre, over the years Jennie appeared on stage in ten plays, directed four plays and was involved back-stage or as crew on fifteen others.

At Pymble Players Jennie performed in Wicked Sisters in 2008. She also directed The Peach Season in 2019. Jennie and Tim were involved over many years at PP and Jennie is fondly remembered.

Jennie wrote a play Love Bytes which was workshopped initially at the Genesian Theatre and moulded into a production mounted at Pymble Players for a subscriber’s season. Jennie worked with a dramaturge to further refine her play. She remained fascinated with this true-life story of greed and corruption and justice.

Jennie also wrote a short play Transparency with Linda Young and Geoff Jones performing, for the Short and Sweet Festival at the Seymour Centre.

Jennie was very supportive of Tim’s poetry writing and performances, frequently “directing” him when he read his poems to her. She was always able to give Tim good ideas to bring to the characters he played on stage. She derived great pleasure from the quality of his writing and performance.

Jennie’s enduring ability to inhabit a role was enjoyed during numerous play readings over several years with friends Jan Johnson, Tony Leadley, Jennifer Willison, Linda Young and Geoff Jones, and occasionally Liz Thomas and Catherine Potter.

Jennie and Tim had complementary skills and passion. Love for their creative work and each other. 

Quiet please! There’s a lady on stage…

The Noises Off Oscar Wilde quote for this issue, “Be yourself, because everyone else is taken” was Jennie’s sign-off for all her correspondence.

Images: Jennie Bazell, and with Tim Hunter

Maddy Dart, Christine Rule and Chris Clark are performing in Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, directed by Cate Cunningham, at Theatre On Chester, Epping,

14 April – 7 May 2023.

Todd Beilby and Faith Jessel are performing in 33 Variations by Moises Kaufman, directed by Jennifer Willison at Castle Hill Players, The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill,

Casey Moon-Watton is undertaking lights and sound design. 33 Variations - Pavilion Theatre.

2 June – 24 June 2023

Catherine Potter is directing When Dad Married Fury by David Williamson at Hunters Hill Theatre, performing at Club Ryde, Ryde

16 June – 2 July 2023.

Rapture - The Production Values Are High And The Audience Was Suitably Impressed

Three middle-aged couples appear to be reasonably happy with their lives.  That is until one of the couples reveals that they have had an epiphany of sorts and are moving on, leaving their old friendships behind. Thus begins the real drama in the Pymble Players' latest production, Rapture.

The scenery is stylish and monochromatic, with harbour views.  This is a clever nod to the success and status of the homeowners as well as a symbol of the mundanity of the lives of the 40-somethings who are gathering for a dinner party.  Their clothes, though nice, are also devoid of any colour. Have their lives really become this monotonous?

Published 25 February 2023 by Stage Whispers

RAPTURE: MIDDLE CLASS LIVES IN CRISIS

This Joanna Murray-Smith play, first produced by Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre in 2002,  sees each of her  characters take a hard look in the mirror and find themselves wanting.

Published 26 February 2023 by David Kary, Sydney Arts Guide