Patron: Tom Uren AO
"New Theatre's ability to showcase as well as nurture both mainstream and fringe elements of theatre is a rare gift to be treasured by the Australian arts community." Drew Sheldrick, Inner West Courier
"New Theatre has an admirable tradition of staging plays that commercially focused companies wouldn't touch" Time Out Sydney
New Theatre is an intimate 154-seat venue that is home to one of Australia's oldest continuously producing community theatre companies. Founded in 1932, New Theatre has progressed from its beginnings as a left-wing political Workers' Theatre to become one of Sydney's leading independent theatre companies.
New Theatre produces a diverse range of quality Australian and international works, both classic and contemporary, across many genres including drama, comedy, 'gay' plays and musicals, whilst still retaining its humanist ethos and political edge.
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New Theatre Gift Vouchers available from Administration: 9519 3403 / 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
Little Shop of Horrors
Book and Lyrics by Howard AshmanAs far as productions go, this is the best I've seen. - aussietheatre.com
New Theatre is ending the year with a production of one of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows of all time - Little Shop of Horrors.
Shy and insecure Seymour Krelborn has a dead-end job in Mushnik's Flower Shop, a rundown establishment on Skid Row, and an unrequited crush on his co-worker Audrey.
When Seymour acquires a strange and exotic plant he names it 'Audrey II' in honour of his secret love. But gradually the harmless-looking succulent morphs into a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivorous monster with an insatiable appetite for flesh and blood.
As the mean, green mother's hungry demands increase, its sinister agenda for global domination is revealed and Seymour must choose between the promise of fame and fortune and saving everything he holds most dear
Featuring a score by the song writing team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin), this hilarious tongue-in-cheek homage to B-grade sci-fi movies and 1950s pop is a perennial favourite.
Director: Stephen Colyer
Musical Director: Mark Chamberlain
Set and Costume Design: Rita Carmody
Lighting design: Gavan Swift and Hugh Hamilton
Cast: Stephen Anderson, Brionny Fagan, Ellissa Fry, Sam Haft, Vanessa Raspa, Jeremy Rosenstrauss, Tony Taylor, Andrew Threlfall and Sophie Webb
13 November - 13 December 2008
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets $30 / $25 / $22 (groups 10+)
Bookings 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
Industry performance: 7pm Monday 8 December 2008. All Tickets $25, proceeds will be donated to the Actors Benevolent Fund. Phone: 1300 306 776 or mca-tix.com.au
Kids' ClubThe last Kids' Club for the year, so we'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Featuring magic, fun and games, storytelling, lots of audience participation and music from the acoustic ensemble Loosely Woven. You'll even get the chance to help create a Christmas radio play. Dress up as your favourite Christmas character. Special guests include Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox - and who knows - there may even be a visit from Santa! Suitable for ages 4 - 10.
1pm Sunday 14 December 2008
Tickets: $12 Bookings: 9519 3403
Curoo Curoo is Loosely Woven's Christmas Concert for 2008. The program will include beautiful arrangements of some lesser known Christmas carols together with the usual wide variety of material that you expect from a Loosely Woven concert.
4pm Sunday 14 December 2008
Tickets: $15/$10 Bookings: 9519 3403
Summer Holiday Family Fun
The Witches
By Roald Dahl - adapted by David WoodFollowing the success of our 2007 production of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, New Theatre will be presenting this scary, funny and imaginative tale of a seven-year-old boy who has a run-in with some real-life witches!
In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches. Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs. That is why they are so hard to catch. Witches, as our hero learns, hate children. With the help of a friend and his somewhat-magical grandmother, our hero tries to expose the witches before they dispose of him.
Directed by Paul Appleby & Spiros Hristias
Set Design: Mignon Miller
Lighting Design: Spiros Hristias
Sound Design: Mike Newtown
Cast: Lindsey Chapman, Harley Connor, Emma Harris, Ruth Horsfall, Alice Keohavong, Amy Robertson, Martin Schultz-Moller and Sandy Velini
The Witches
10 - 24 January 2009
Wednesday - Friday @1pm, Saturday & Sunday @ 11am & 2pm
Tickets $17 (Groups 10+ $14)
Bookings 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
In Association with 2009 New Mardi Gras Festival
Take Me Out
By Richard GreenbergDarren Lemming is a sporting god – and he’s just told the world he’s gay.
When the New York Empires’ star centre fielder comes out at a press conference, the tight-knit macho world of professional baseball is thrown into chaos. His business manager is horrified; the fans are staggered; the coach goes into damage control; and his team-mates are confused, angry and hostile.
Set entirely in a locker-room over the course of one season, this funny, sexy, touching and ultimately tragic play examines themes of masculinity and identity and throws a spotlight on the homophobia, racism and class warfare that lurks under the shiny veneer of America’s most popular sport.
New Theatre is proud to present the Sydney premiere of this critically-acclaimed play. In 2003 it swept the prize pool, winning the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
“A dynamic, involving play” New York Post
“Extravagantly smart, touching and engrossing ... an enormously enjoyable work” Newsday
Directed by Barry French
Set Design: Tom Bannerman
Cast: Henry Chapple-Cox, Nick Curnow, Peter Flett, James Forbes, Kengo Hasuo, Michael Howlett, Andrew Johnson, Terence Priester.
Take Me Out
5 February - 7 March 2009
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets $27 / $22 / $20 (groups 10+)
Bookings 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
The Herbal Bed
By Peter WhelanDirector TBA
The Herbal Bed is a brilliant re-telling of a scandal involving Shakespeare's eldest daughter, the upstanding and virtuous Susanna Hall. This passionate human drama, inspired by the few documented facts available, explores the clash between the desire for personal freedom and the need to conform in order to survive in a judgemental and oppressive society. The play is recognised as a modern masterpiece of the theatre due to its imaginative mix of romantic and literary traditions within a contemporary post-modern style.
19 March - 11 April 2009
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets $27 / $22 / $20 (groups 10+) / $17 (school groups 10+)
Bookings 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
Cosi
By Louis NowraDirected by Travis Green
Cosi is the touching and hilarious story of Lewis, a fresh-faced theatre director, in his first job: leading a group of patients at a Melbourne mental asylum in a production of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. But he's got a little problem: no one involved, including ringleader Roy, can either sing or speak Italian. Meanwhile, the pressure on Lewis from his university friends to organise Australia's largest Vietnam War protest makes him question where true madness lies: inside or outside the asylum.
23 April - 16 May 2009
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets $27 / $22 / $20 (groups 10+) / $17 (school groups 10+)
Bookings 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
By Ray LawlerDirected by Rosane McNamara
Design: NIDA 3rd Year Design Students
For 16 years, Queensland cane-cutters Roo and Barney have traveled to Melbourne to spend their summer layoff with two barmaids, Olive and Nancy. Each year, they bring a kewpie doll as a memento of this unconventional “arrangement”. But time and circumstances have moved on. Nancy has recently married and been replaced by the skeptical Pearl; young dreams have become middle-aged disillusionments; and the needs of these men and women are changing. The summer of the seventeenth doll will mark a turning point for all and no-one will emerge untouched, not even Olive’s naïve young neighbour Bubba.
This legendary play is both a masterpiece of Australian theatre and a benchmark in our country's cultural history. It was stylistically new and different, with working-class characters, colloquial language and controversial subject matter, which shocked the conservative audiences of Menzies’ Australia. Today, 'The Doll's' is universally beloved and admired, the themes and issues still relevant 50 years' on.
4 June - 4 July 2009
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm, Sunday @ 5pm
Tickets $27 / $22 / $20 (groups 10+) / $17 (school groups 10+)
Bookings 1300 306 776 / mca-tix.com.au
Education Staged Readings
New Theatre's Education Staged Readings are designed to support your classroom discussion, facilitate your students' understanding of the plays and appreciation of the theatrical genre, and expose them to the many and varied ways a dramatic text may be approached. Each staged reading will be followed by an open forum, where your students can ask questions of directors and performers and participate in detailed discussion of the play's themes, directorial choices, actors' approach and interpretation of character, and other pertinent subjects. These forums stimulate lively and engaged debate, and provide a chance for interaction with students from other schools.
Performance Times: 6.30pm
Tickets: $10 each (1 teacher free per 10 students)
Bookings: New Theatre - 9519 3403
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
6.30pm Tuesday 24 February 2009
The Country Wife by William Wycherley
6.30pm Tuesday 24 March 2009
Diving for Pearls by Katherine Thomson
6.30pm Tuesday 7 April 2009
A Man with Five Children
by Nick Enright
6.30pm Tuesday 5 May 2009
Educating Rita by Willy Russell
6.30pm Tuesday 19 May 2009
SUMMER HILL WINE SHOP
PASTIZZI CAFE, NEWTOWN
New Theatre is able to receive tax deductible donations under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (s 30-15).
Email: mail@newtheatre.org.au
Telephone: 9519 3403.
NEWS FEED
The Plays, People and Events of 75 Years of Sydney's New Theatre
'The New has reflected the concerns of ordinary Australians for 75 years and the list of plays produced by New Theatre stands as a history of Australia's concerns. For the list alone, the book is invaluable.' - Aubrey Mellor, Director of NIDA
A concise 75 year history of New Theatre, including a full list of every production since 1932.
Only $15 at Bar or (+ $2 postage and handling for Orders over the phone on 9519 3403 or email mail@newtheatre.org.au)
Mainstage Productions: 1300 306 776 or mca-tix.com.au ( credit cards only)
Kids' Club and Readings: 9519 3403
Tickets can be purchased in advance through MCA Ticketing ( mca-tix.com.au) or from the New Theatre box office one hour before the scheduled starting time. Cash, Visa and Mastercard accepted.
New Theatre reserves the right to sell any unpaid-for tickets not collected 20 minutes prior to the scheduled starting time.
New Theatre offers concession tickets to most major productions for the following: unwaged, pensioners, school students under 18 and full-time tertiary students, students at accredited drama schools, MEAA, AWG, NEPA. Current id required.
The new theatre welcomes the submission of new scripts.
Please address them to the Theatre Manager and include a stamped reply envelope (if the script is to be returned).
Scripts are assessed by the playreaders and artistic director against the Theatre's criteria.
If a script is considered to have merit, but the new theatre is unable to stage it, other suitable venues may be recommended
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