Media Release

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Swan Hill's Pioneer Settlement has set the scene for the 2009 Fairfax Festival as students and teachers, working with industry professionals, attend workshops and rehearsals in preparation for the Gala Performance evening this Thursday.

The Fairfax Festival, held in the memory of George Fairfax and part of the 2009 Go North Arts Festival, will see regional schools across the state take part in the three-day intensive workshops, culminating in the Gala Performance evening at the Swan Hill Town Hall.

Festival Manager and Swan Hill Rural City Council's Performing Arts Director Claire Glenn encouraged members of the community to come along to the 2009 Fairfax Festival showcase.

“This is the chance for our community to see some of the great talent of our students both locally and across the state,” Ms Glenn said.

“This event will see the students and teachers unleash their creativity and imagination, promising a great evening of colour, fun and entertainment, as we witness these young stars developing skills in theatre production.”

Each group is required to have certain things in their performance – a chair, diamonds and a hero, and while their performance on the night does not necessarily have to be about these things, they must appear somewhere within the performance.

“Ensuring these subjects are in a group's performance should definitely make for creative, fun and interesting performances and is a great way to tie the performances together overall,” Ms Glenn said.

Students will be working with experienced trainers during the workshops, including Don Bridges who has had extensive experience in television and movies, Olivia Allen who has taught and directed numerous theatre productions and freelance performer and teacher Andrew Grey who is part of a Melbourne-based improvisational troupe and co-artistic Director of Melbourne Playback Theatre Company.

A number of prizes are also on offer to the participants, including a day trip to the Melbourne Theatre Company to tour their new venue, see a show and meet the cast or a visit to the Arts Centre to do a tour, see a show as well as participate in a workshop.

St Martins Youth Arts Centre has also donated a prize for two students to travel to Melbourne to participate in a week-long acting short course, while there are a number of other prizes for participants, including a spot prize for the audience on the night.

This year's Fairfax Festival, is directed by 28-year-old Aimee Blesing, a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and who has also had experience in performance and teaching, as well as a number of years training in the United States

The 2009 Fairfax Festival Gala will take place this Thursday, 29 October at the Swan Hill Town Hall from 7pm, tickets cost $10.