For those of you who are fans of the iconic, ABC TV multi series, “Mother and Son” here is your chance to see the fabu-lous Henri Szeps live at our own theatre.

In conjunction with The En-semble Theatre, NTC is proud to bring Henri Szeps to our theatre for his one man play “Wish I’d Said That”.

All the world’s a stage, but not everyone is a star. Joe Bleak-ley (Henri Szeps) is an actor who, despite being forced by his daughter into the Fog-gadieu Retirement Village, can’t quite retire. Determined to continue performing he has devised a show wherein he will get to deliver the greatest speeches of all the parts he hasn’t played.

Join Joe in his apartment as he

November 2010 Pre Summer Edition

Repartee

Special points of interest:

Book early for

“Wish I’d Said

That” 6th Nov.

Next NTC pro-

duction opens

Friday 26th No-

vember

Inside this issue:

Review

Sisters In Law by Emma Wood

2

2011 Season Launch

Christmas Club Night 2

Farewell Party to Old

theatre 3

Wrong Turn At Lungfish

New Theatre News 3

Short + Sweet

Workshop for actors 4

November Birthdays

Night Out

4

prepares for his world pre-miere performance at the retirement village’s monthly concert with excerpts from Shakespeare, Death of

A Salesman, Long Day’s Jour-ney Into Night, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and many more.

But behind the quotes, anec-dotes and jokes we learn of a father whose difficult rela-tionship with his daughter is a source of great pain. Writ-ten and performed by the Ensemble’s own Henri Szeps, this is an honest and insight-ful look at an actor’s life and a father’s regret.

For one day only, 2 perform-ances 2pm and 8pm Satur-day 6 November at NTC, book your seats Adults $40 Concession $30.

“ The

world

hates

change,

yet it is

the only

thing that

has

brought

progress ”

Henri Szeps at NTC

Henri Szeps in ―Wish I’d Said That‖

Review by Emma Wood—Sisters In Law

“ You

must be

the

change

you wish

to see in

the

world”

Page 2

Repartee

The outstanding box

office sales of Sisters in Law

have spoken loud and clear

over the last few weeks. The

planned shows have been so

overflowing with enthusiastic

patrons that an extra show

was scheduled to accommo-

date more enthusiastic view-

ers. So what is it about this

show that has resonated so

strongly with audiences?

Neither the play nor

the author are particularly

well known, neither were

many of the relationships rec-

ognisable templates that we

are used to, so the answer I

think lies in some of the terri-

fic qualities of the production

itself.

The play is a curious

mix of naturalism and artificial

theatrical devices such as cho-

rus elements and frequent

soliloquy's. I personally found

this to be a little bit jarring,

and yet the transitions be-

tween the very different

stages were artfully achieved

through lighting design, but

most importantly, the seam-

less transitions of the actors

from one style to another.

The actors were required at

different times to observe the

mythical fourth wall, then

drop it completely in order to

confide with intimacy and of-

ten great sorrow to the

audience, and then segue into

song and even dance routines

– the Bingo routine was par-

ticularly amusing and well exe-

cuted.

Janet Nelson clearly

brought her immense experi-

ence in directing to bear in this

show. She united a large num-

ber of actors of many different

ages and levels of experience

to uniformly bring to the stage

colourful, energetic and totally

committed performances.

I thought the uniform

ability of the cast to present a

very difficult accent and speech

pattern of working class

French Canada an astonishing

achievement. Even fairly com-

monly known accents such as

upper class English can be

brought to the stage with

mixed results by many casts,

but the work that had gone

into this French Canadian ac-

cent, tone and harsh manner of

delivery was outstanding. It

was a real shock to be seated

in the audience with such unfa-

miliar sounds at first – but the

consistency and commitment

of the actors made it work.

Compliments also

must go to the set designer

Robyn Greenwell who used

the small space creatively not

only to comfortably house fif-

teen actors, but also succeeded

in blending elements of reality

with representational touches

such as the zig zagging lines of

clothes hanging above the

heads of the audience to give

us a sense of a cramped but

colourful neighbourhood.

I thoroughly enjoyed

this show, and compliment all

who were involved in their

energetic and memorable inter-

pretation of a bold and unusual

play.

Friday 5th November

is our Season Launch for 2011.

This year as a special guest

we’ll have the pleasure of

Henri Szeps company. Be sure

to book with Viv to attend the

evening 6:30pm—8pm .

Christmas Club Night

this year, Wednesday 15th

December at 7pm, will be a

replica of 2009 with a Christ-

mas dinner evening at 2 Blend

Restaurant in Elders Street

Lambton.

You will need to book

and pre pay for the evening

with Viv at the theatre before

3rd Dec There are limited

spaces (50) so book early, cost

is $35 per person for a 2

course dinner and drinks may

be purchased at the restaurant.

Xmas Club Night

2011 Launch

“ Acting is

all about

honesty. If

you can

fake that,

you've got

it made.”

Page 3

Pre Summer Edition

New Theatre The good news is that we now

have a brand new electricity line run into

de Vitre Street for our extra power

needs. Providing the hook up goes to plan

we’ll be able to use the foyer for NTC’s

2011 Launch on 5th November. A big

thank you to the working bee-ers who

lent a hand with moving gear, Alan

Gordon, David Ebert, Michael Fiddian, Ray

Bell, Adelle Richards, Lee Loudon, Horst

Mohr, Gerald Lawson, Noel Grivas, Stew-

art McGowan, Howard Rawlinson & Bob

Wiles.

The tiered seating is well under-

way, the toilets are operating (the girls

from ―Sisters‖ are most grateful) and the

new landing and stair rail are in. We are

well on target for the 16th March opening

next year.

George Burns

There is going to be a big send off

party for the old theatre, and we want all

the NTC members & partners and those

who have been a part of our long history

to be there. It will be on the last night of

our last production at NTC ―Wrong

Turn at Lungfish‖ on Saturday 11th De-

cember. We encourage you to purchase

your ticket to see the play on this last

night and we’ll follow it with the farewell

bash at the theatre and possibly put Kam-

brook to bed as well!! Bring along some-

thing to drink and NTC will supply the

party food.

Please encourage your friends

and family to come to the show earlier in

the season rather than on this particular

night .

Send off and Party for the Old Theatre

Want to be part of history? Then

make sure you get along to NTC's final

production, Wrong Turn at Lungfish, in the

current theatre.

Wrong Turn at Lungfish is from the

creative minds of Garry Marshall (Laverne

& Shirley, The Odd Couple) and Lowell Ganz

(City Slickers, Splash). It is a play that is

funny, sad and thought-provoking.

Occupying a hospital room is Pe-

ter Ravenswaal, gruff and cynical. Other

than being blind you'd never guess he was

ill. His young nurse will probably be a good

nurse one day.

Anita Merendino comes to read to

Peter, supposedly to cheer him up. Her

boyfriend is Dominic, funny and charming

one minute and mean the next.

Wrong Turn at Lungfish directed by

Isobel Denholm, features Lindsay Carr,

Alison Cox, Phil McGrath and Amy Ed-

wards and plays Nov 26 - Dec 11.

Last Play in old theatre

Repartee submissions Please email to the Editor:

leslie.wiles@internode.on.net

November Birthday Babies

90 de Vitre Street

Lambton NSW 2299

Phone 4952 4958

Fax 4952 4958

email

newrep@bigpond.net.au

Newcastle Theatre Company

Happy November birthday to the follow-

ing members, Leonie Anderson-Smith,

Clifford Danglasan-March, Suellen Hall,

James Hall, Greg Hall, Craig Hallinan,

Jen Masson, Anika Means, Robyn Green-

well, Adelle Richards, Emma Wood, and

Diane Williams.

Committee Meetings 1st Monday of each month be-tween 7:30-9:30pm in the theatre foyer. All welcome .

Treat yourself to a great night out with a dinner and theatre deal. A superb 2

course dinner at our sponsor The Mark Hotel followed by exciting theatre,

―Wrong Turn at Lungfish‖, $50 pp, bookings & payment a week in advance.

Short + Sweet

NTC member Debra Help is directing one of the plays for Short+Sweet .

The season of 10 Plays is at the Civic Playhouse Nov 10th—13th ,7:30pm.

For further information visit the website :www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/

news__and__events/cultural_development/short__sweet

“Humor is the

affectionate

communication

of insight”

7:30pm Monday Dec. 13th

Tutor Janet Nelson. A

physical workshop on Laban

Technique as taught by Ru-

dolph Laban & Jean Newlove.

Laban is to move-

ment, what Stanislavski is to

acting; he, Laban, devised the

first wholly successful system

for recording human move-

ment, a system which is in-

creasingly influential in the

training of actors to aid charac-

ter transformation.

Jean Newlove was La-

ban’s first assistant when he

came to England and she subse-

quently became movement

specialist to Joan Littlewood’s

Theatre Workshop and has

trained several generations of

performers.

Janet Nelson worked

with Jean Newlove as an ac-

tress for over three years and

uses the technique in the train-

ing of actors to develop spatial

awareness and the production

of a definitive expressive move-

ment quality for the character,

as demanded by the playwright.

NTC members confirm

your participation by booking

with Viv at the theatre by De-

cember 6th.

Actor’s Workshop

Night Out

with

2 Perform

ances only

90 de Vitre Street Lambton

Bookings 4952 4958

Adults $40 Concession $30

Saturday 6th November 2pm & 8pm

Proudly presents