STUDENT DIRECTORS' 
PRODUCTIONS

Opening this week in the NIDA Theatre & NIDA Studio are the long-awaited Directors' Plays. The Directing course at NIDA is a one-year Graduate Diploma course, and as the climax of their final year at NIDA, each director will present a play that explores dynamic, challenging and thought-provoking possibilities. This is one of NIDA's most popular and entertaining annual events.

The Directing course aims to provide developing directors with a comprehensive knowledge of acting, design, and stage management; to nurture their leadership and management skills; to enhance their ability to collaborate with various professionals within the arts environment; and to provide a foundation on which to build careers in the arts entertainment industry.

PROGRAM A

15 May 2003 | Parade Studio | NIDA Theatre

Due Monday

by Lachlan Philpott
directed by Luc Mollinger

A woman is convinced she is turning into a little grey bird. Feathers keep appearing inexplicably. Her doctor doesn't believe her. Do the answers to her trouble lie in her medical records? Or will she find what she is searching for in the tattoo parlour? Meanwhile, her Year Three class are meowing and licking their lips with increasing alarm... This intimate and frenetic piece explores the fear and lonliness of modern life.
A world premiere.

A Hand of Bridge

by Samuel Barber | libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti.
directed by Brendan Moffitt

A rarely performed chamber opera by the American composer Samuel Barber - best known for his Adagio for Strings. Two New England couples play bridge together; each in turn has a fantasy sequence revealing the hidden yearnings of middle America.
First performed in 1959, this acerbic opera still holds a sting in its tail.

91% are Happy

by Tom Maclachlan
directed by Brooke Webb

Sydney, Australia's "premier city" glitters with sun-drenched attitude and seduces with beaches and bodies beautiful. But what happens when cloud cover traps the heat and there's no sign of a storm? For one, a chorus of people and animals go mad. Will their madness threaten Sydney with ugliness?
A world premiere of a new Australian play.

PROGRAM B

7 August | NIDA Studio

Junction

by Justin Fleming
directed by Katy Alexander

Two sets of old train tracks converge deep in Australia's outback. Two young travellers plan to spend the night in a long-abandoned railway station.

As darkness falls, strange things begin to happen. The travellers realise they must make a crucial choice as the shadows of the past re-emerge.
A world premiere.

The Share

by Daniel Keene
directed by Lee Lewis

Two men in a confined dark space slowly mutilate and then devour each other, urged on by the destructively passionate need for companionship. Cannibalism as a metaphor for love.
A Sydney premiere.

The Possibilities

by Howard Barker
directed by Paul Godfrey

A series of short and shocking vignettes all linked by the theme of terrorism and political violence against civilians. Set in a variety of periods and places, the plays pose disturbing yet ultimately humanist questions. What is the cost of human dignity?
Is refusal the only possibility for freedom?