[Showtuners] MEDIA RELEASE - CILENTO and HAWKINS

Wed Jul 9 01:09:38 AEST 2008

Dear Showtuners, 

I am very excited about the recent developments with Showtune Productions
and our alignment with Diane Cilento. Diane has become a great teacher for
me, and I am very excited about where we are going with our alignment.  I
have always been attracted to UNIQUE venues, with my five years at THE KIRK
in Surry Hills and all those mad kabarett venues after that.  

To now be involved with a venue like KARNAK and to be in a place like the
Daintree Rainforest is something else, the vision that Diane and Tony have
for this place is something the arts community should embrace 100%. 

I just love the concept of going back to the roots of our artform, I
actually already practised it in Showtune's work. I took the entire team for
the original Hedwig to Katoomba and created it at The Clarendon, all staying
in the one place and creating with no outside distractions. So when the
opportunity came up to start Hedwig this time in a similar fashion I jumped
at it, then I started to realise Diane and my philosophy on our craft was
VERY aligned and the plot thickened. 

I thought it would be nice to share the media release with our list as this
is pretty special, and it WILL give birth to some wonderful stuff that I can
bring to my old hometown of SYDNEY. Plus now all our artists can experience
what a select few have had the fortune of already experiencing, creating and
performing in a totally eco environment.

I must thank LORNA LUFT for insisting we play KARNAK on her tour, she is
friends with Diane and had been to KARNAK and knew I would fall in love with
it as she had.  Below the release are a few pix of Karnak,  and one of
Diane, Jeanie Pratt and I, as a funny thing happened the other day I was in
Port Douglas and Jeanie Pratt was sitting at a cafe on the main strip, we
recognised each other and said hi and I arranged to meet and then yesterday
she came to see KARNAK and met Diane.  

It is an amazing journey we have both embarked on filled with lots of magic
and love for our art form. 

Sincerely

David Hawkins

Diane Cilento and David Hawkins present

A NEW MOVEMENT IN AUSTRALIAN THEATRE

Two Australian performers have united and are joining forces with their
unique resources. Tony Award winning and Academy Award nominated Australian
legend DIANE CILENTO with her 200 Acre property and theatre KARNAK in the
Daintree Rainforest, and DAVID HAWKINS artistic director of Helpmann Award,
Sydney Theatre Critic Award and Green Room Award winning maverick music
theatre company SHOWTUNE PRODUCTIONS.

LIVE theatre is the most ancient of rituals dating back to the beginning of
man, theatre as we know it today had its birth with the Greek Theatre.
Early Greek theatre was a month long excursion, they used to gather a troop
of players and all go to a UNIQUE, often beautiful natural amphitheatre in
the outdoors. The players would set up camp and get to work constructing,
rehearsing and discussing their performance. The audience would then be
invited to this beautiful magical place and be entertained.

LIVE theatre will always remain no matter what new fad is placed in society,
it is live now and in the moment, audience and players are united in the
ritual together and no night is ever the same.  Theatre is constantly going
through changes and new eras and more and more the commercial theatre moves
away from the roots and creation of the art form/ritual of theatre. Often
its creators wonder bemused at the demise or lack lustre response to a show
when placed in front of an audience (even shows that have had multi millions
thrown at them).  

In the commercial age we live in it is becoming harder and harder for
theatre (especially music theatre) to be adventurous and exciting in its
creation and choices. Therefore audiences and artists are missing wonderful
opportunities to explore the art form and help it grow to exciting heights
of enjoyment and entertainment. 

Cilento and Hawkins found a common ground on their philosophy during a
recent tour of LORNA LUFT in May when Showtune presented Luft at KARNAK.
Immediately the two recognised the serendipity of their meeting and since
that time have been working towards a common goal of invigorating the
Australian cultural landscape with a fresh new concept for our artists.

Showtune Productions will program the cabaret and concert seasons each year
during May and November at KARNAK with Cilento, and each year we will create
a new theatre production at KARNAK uniquely housing an entire company in one
of the four houses on the property before it tours the nation.  Not only
does this assist with living away costs that normally cripples budgets, but
it will enable the creative's and artists to be in a wonderful inspiring eco
location to create a WHOLE experience that is totally in touch with nature
and back to roots of humanity and our ritual of theatre.   

KARNAK was created by Diane Cilento and her late husband the playwright Tony
Shaffer (Sleuth), the vision always for KARNAK was for it to be a place to
nurture new work before it was presented to the world at large with a huge
wink to our Greek ancestors. Since its official opening in 1992 it has
played host to many international and local artists and many plays have been
written at KARNAK by such writers as TONY SHAFFER, and MICHAEL GOW. Michael
Gow dedicated his most recent play 'Toy Soldier' to KARNAK "For Diane and
the WHOLE idea of Karnak, where this was written". 

The theatre piece for 2008 will be the remounting of the hugely successful
and critically acclaimed HEDWIG and the ANGRY INCH in September, with a new
cast and our original creative team the show will then move to the Cremorne
Theatre, QPAC Brisbane. A series of concerts of both international and local
artists will be announced in late July.  

Cilento and Hawkins are now pulling all their resources together in the arts
industry and community to ensure seasons for the next three years are
secured. Rights to the 2009 theatre piece have been secured to a very
exciting new Australian production of a forgotten cutting edge musical from
the 1950's that will be announced later this year.

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