In June, I was an artist-in-residence with Opera Australia and Polyartistry, directing mini, deconstructed versions of La boheme & Don Giovanni for their Polyopera project. The final performances were filmed and are now live on youtube, check them out below.

In news from the film world, my short film Hairpin has been accepted in the Hollyshorts Film Festival in Hollywood and the Budapest International Short Film Festival, which is very exciting for myself, the cast and crew!

In the coming months, I’ll be teaching at NIDA (as well as running some open masterclasses – details soon!), taking my site specific project Rapid Response to TINA and attending the Australian Theatre Forum in Brisbane. Hope to see many of you at Sweet Bird, in a class or at TINA in September!

The end of May also sees the launch of Polyopera, three short, live opera experiences across Sydney. It also involved me playing reluctant dress ups in the OA costume store in April (see picture)! I’m directing the La Boheme and Don Giovanni mini operas. La Boheme is happening on 8 May at Curiousworks  - we are turning their studio into Rodolfo’s garrett and inviting the bohemians of Sydney to join us for re-mixed opera, a party and some live art. So please come along!! Don Giovanni is happening in Blacktown and we want you to contribute to the libretto via twitter. Just tweet us @polyopera using the hashtag #thedon and we’ll incorporate your ideas into our hip hop vs opera battle on 17 June! For more follow us on facebook.

Finally, we are crowdfunding for our set (designed by the amazing Hanna Sandgren) for Sweet Bird andsoforth (part of ATYP’s under the wharf season in August). If you can spare even $5 to help us out, it will make a wonderful difference! Click here to see the project and donate.

This blog will eventually (sooner rather than later I hope!) become my website with news and info on projects. To that end I’ve started a creative blog with my photos, writings and influences on Tumblr, for those keen beans who wish to follow my artistic ramblings.

Hopefully, see you in Dungog – if not look out for a blog post and some snaps.

Over and out.

In the meantime, check out the DFF trailer. Super!

Dungog Film Festival 2011 Trailer from Dungog Film Festival on Vimeo.

At the same time, I’ve also started preliminary work on the inter-arts project with Opera Australia. As we lock in our artists, recording times with ABC classic FM and concepts, we’ll be launching the crowd-sourcing side of the project in April…

And I’m working on the design concept and marketing for Sweet Bird andsoforth, opening in August. Right, back to it!

After Zebra, I’ll be heading to the University of Wollongong to direct their Third Year Acting students, and then I’ll be working with Polyartistry in a new colloboration with Opera Australia on three new, site specific, YouTube-streamed Operas. In July, I kick off rehearsals for Sweet Bird andsoforth, the world premiere of Laura Naumann’s beautiful play about the uncertain transition to adulthood. I’ll be directing and co-producing the piece as part of ATYP’s Under the Wharf season. Ticket details to come soon.

In between all of this, I’m planning to write my second short film, start a feature script and continue to shoot trailers and web content for Sydney Theatre Company and other arts organisations. Keep an eye out for the In the Next Room trailer hitting cinemas and YouTube very soon!

If you are interested in collaborating with me on a project – theatre, film or web – you can get in contact at laura.scrivano@gmail.com.

As I accepted the invitation I wondering how I would feel at the event – guilty for not doing more? Powerless? Frustrated? Confused? Above all I wondered what could actually be achieved by a bunch of artists and scientist sitting round discussing a problem that, thanks to increasingly gutless political leadership, is beginning to seem insurmountable.

Arriving at CarriageWorks, I immediately threw myself at the coffee cart downing much need caffeine; signalling to my brain that it needed to wake up and get with the program. This was SCIENCE. I needed to pay attention. However, the day didn’t kick off with doomsday figures about rising sea levels or incomprehensible graphs, rather, we were told to pick a partner and go on a date. And so the speed-dating began. Artists and scientists rapidly paired up and tried in 3 minutes flat to explain who they were, why they were here and what they did. I found myself explaining “cross-artform collaboration” while my scientific counterpart helped me learn that CSIRO could actually be said as a word (CSIRO = sci-row). In all seriousness, it was a great way to meet the other participants – particularly those from the scientific side of the coin.

Then it was time for Science from the Frontline with Stephen Pekar (NYC) and Donna Green (AUS). As Stephen started his presentation, I thought right, this is where a second coffee would come in handy! However, as complicated as the science was, Stephen managed to present it in such a way that left me with two distinct impressions: (1) We are in much more trouble than any of our governments are letting on; no matter what we do now the need for climate adaption will be inevitable and (2) Scientists are actually much cooler than artists. My second impression was confirmed when Donna Green got up to present. Donna seriously appealed to my inner geek – not only an amazing scientist but she has also co-authored a book on climate policy (See Screw Lightbulbs here) and started a video project documenting the impact of climate change in the Torres Strait. Donna’s work-in-progress video was one of the most arresting moments of Tipping Point, and has planted seeds for a video project of my own.

Then it was onto to the creative task – in groups of five we had until the next day to pen a 50 word ‘story’ in response to climate change. My group consisted of the lovely Hayley Forward (sound artist), Dan Cass (climate consultant), Liane Rossler (Dinosaur Designs) and Gareth Stringer (Climate Institute). We threw around some ideas, and seized on the loose theme that our 50 words would somehow be a love poem to the Earth from the human race. We agreed to meet for our collective writing session the next day, and hurried out for some great veggie lunch (haloumi is always a fabulous addition to any conference sandwich).

The afternoon was the first of the Open Space sessions. I must admit, although I loved the philosophy around Open Space, I found the lack of focus in some discussions frustrating, particularly on the second day. I’m a solutions orientated person so I found I was most useful in groups that had concrete aims. Some of ideas with legs included community edible gardens, an iphone app, a web series and resources for arts companies to become carbon neutral.

One of the highlights of Day 2 had to be the presentation of the creative tasks. Our ‘love poem’ somehow turned into short scene depicting the crumbling relationship between humans (HE) and the Earth (SHE). Working in theatre and film meant that my group immediately cast me as SHE, despite my protestations of being a director and NOT an actor and Dan Cass got lumped with playing opposite me (Despite his protests, I think he secretly loved performing – and was pretty good at it too!). You can read our script on Dan’s blog here.

Day 2 ended with drinks in the CarriageWorks foyer… The drinks session reiterated my discovery that: scientist are actually much cooler than artists, and led me to another: scientists also make excellent drinking buddies, and can probably drink most artists under the table. Through the fog of organic pink champagne, I realised I was brimming with ideas; Tipping Point had engaged me, inspired me and invigorated me. Despite the gloomy scientific outlook I was more convinced that ever that our communities can find ways to adapt, evolve and invent our way out of the climate crisis. And personally, I have a bunch of ideas, stories and projects which sprung from seeds planted at Tipping Point. I’ll be busy developing them throughout 2011.

Come along an experience techniques to enhance your theatrical storytelling! It’s free and you can register here.

Excerpts from Leviathan, which I assistant directed in September will be being performed by The Residents AND you can see my band, The Hungry Mile play from 6:30pm, supporting The Paper Scissors to cap off the day.

More info about all the activities here. Hope to see you there!

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