We Drew Thespians

Exciting times in the Scenery office as we had a full house. The show was split into two yet equally important parts, Mateo & Ryan who interviewed theatre collective Duende, and John & Alex who had a chat with artist Peter Drew.

 

Excited by last week’s chat with Jane Howard, Scenery stalwart Ryan Winter went on the search for young and vibrant theatre in our city. What he discovered was theatre collective Duende, who write, produce and perform their work right here in our fair city. The Scenery caught up with writer Alan Grace and director Kieran McNamara to talk about their efforts in re-engaging the younger, and wider audiences to new theatre.

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Artist Peter Drew returned to Scenery Studios to give us the final details of Street Dreams Festival 2012. Aiming to one up on last year’s Dumpster Biennale, this year the Street Dreams team contacted Viola to secure some actual dumpsters. Happy to oblige, Viola donated seven bins to the festival and gave artists free reign as to what they wanted to do with them.

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The festival took place on the weekend of March 3rd & 4th, with the Dumpster Biennale on the 3rd. Scenery folk Alex and John attended along with Radio Adelaide family Chrissy Kavanagh of Behind the Screens and Jennie Lenman of Streetcast.

 

Seven teams, solo and groups, took to the bins in various techniques and interpretations of street art, or art in general. Josh Twothousand and the Toy Soldiers took to their bins using traditional graffiti methods, pieces and characters, pure aerosol. My pick of the night was Kate Gagliardi, using aerosol and regular paint methods to create a colourful mural of faces that are starting to become a familiar and welcome addition to some of our city’s walls. Artist Twoone took to his bin in a installation like fashion, tipping his bin vertical to resemble a coffin, smashing a heap of beer bottles in it, and spraying a skull on the front. Figure that one out. There was a moment in the night when a punter smartly threw his empty amongst the broken bottles unaware that Twoone was standing next to him. I thought that it might provoke an altercation to perhaps blemish the night, but instead the punter was reprimanded for having not smashed the bottle, and was promptly told to do so. The oddest bin would have to go to the Screemdance team, who constructed a thorn bush of cardboard around the bin, and placed a 8 ft owl that breathed smoke from its beak in the middle. The Yarn Bombers had inconspicuously draped their bin early in the morning  in their fabulous knitting style, paying a little homage to Peter Drew himself. The winner’s of the night though were the Malt Shovels & Co team, who took to their bin with angle grinders and created a working tape deck, with over sized cassette and all.

The fumes began to set in just in time for the Pimp My T-Shirt party, soundtracked by the awesome Soundpond crew. Some might remember many moons ago the original T-Shirt party that happened atop the old Tuxedo cat down Synagogue Pl. The baton has been passed a few times, and again it has fallen to the right people. Strangers become canvases as people furiously develop their make shift stencils, eager to impress the crisp white t-shirts of friends and neighbours.

It must be said though, that the highlight of the night was indeed Peter Drew’s chilli dogs, man, the perfect heat…

Sadly we could not attend day two, which featured a tour of Adelaide’s notable street art, starting from Tooth and Nail and winding it’s way through the less walked streets of the city. Tooth and Nail also hosted various artist workshops, and ended the festival with a street art themed movie night.

A big congratulations must go out to Josh Fanning, Peter Drew and the team and artists that helped create and run this festival, with very little monies.

This week’s feature track is a little bit of a mystery. No one can quite remember who it’s by or where they found it. There are some clues in the intro to the song, it’s Brazilian and it’s by some one with the first name Theirry. But that’s the best we can do I’m afraid other than to say that it’s beachy as hell and I want a cocktail every time I hear it.

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Adios.