Ensemble Theatre

The Ensemble Theatre, as viewed from the water at Careening Cove. The skyscrapers of North Sydney are visible in the background.

The Ensemble Theatre is an Australian theatre company, situated in Kirribilli, New South Wales. It is Australia's longest continuously running professional theatre group,[1] having given its first performance in Cammeray Children's Library on 11 May 1958. It relocated to the current premises in the old boatshed on the shore of Careening Cove in 1960.[2] The theatre was founded by Hayes Gordon AO OBE along with the Ensemble Studios acting school, which introduced Stanislavsky-influenced method acting to Australia. Ensemble Studios was Australia's longest surviving acting school when it closed in 2009. Gordon passed on the position of Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre to Sandra Bates in 1986, but remained Principal of the acting school until his death in 1999. Bates was joined by Mark Kilmurry first as her deputy and then as co-director, with Kilmurry replacing Bates upon her retirement in 2015.

The most successful play in the theatre's history is Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, a two-hander which in 2006 paired Todd McKenney, in his first non-musical play, with Nancye Hayes.[3] The pair reprised these roles ten years later, reuniting with Sandra Bates in her final directorial role.[4][5] The play was taken on tour, in collaboration with Christine Dunstan Productions, and won the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Production.[6]

The complex also incorporates Bayly's Restaurant, named in honour of the actress Lorraine Bayly, in recognition of her long-running commitment to the Ensemble Theatre (she was a founding member), to mark her retirement from the stage in June 2003.[7]

In 2016, the Ensemble produced the Sydney premiere of Jane Cafarella's e-baby, a two-hander "quietly feminist play that asserts a heartfelt approach towards matters of infertility, adoption and motherhood."[8] Caferella's first full-length play[9] which was world premiered in 2015 at the Chapel Off Chapel theatre in Melbourne.[10] The Ensemble production was directed by Nadia Tass, multi-award winner for her films Malcolm and Amy, and starred Danielle Carter and Gabrielle Scawthorn; Carter and Scawthorn were described as bringing "such life to their roles" and being "utterly believable – in equal parts loveable and frustrating – [so that] the heartbreak, when it comes, is visceral."[11] Tass, described e-baby as "a play for today – the advances in medicine create a new world that allows new possibilities – in e-baby we enter that world and explore the raw truth, the unbridled joy and the paradox of surrogacy through a carefully woven story of love, generosity and a newborn child."[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Ensemble Theatre 2014 season: The Ensemble unveils a season a blockbusters". Time Out Sydney. First published on 25 Nov 2013. Updated on 3 Dec 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ↑ "About Ensemble". Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Huntsdale, Justin (17 February 2016). "Theatre legends Todd McKenney and Nancye Hayes unite for heart-warming play". ABC News. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  4. ↑ Hallett, Bruce (13 February 2006). "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Hook, Chris (3 February 2016). "Ten years later, McKenney and Hayes bring Six Dance Lessons play back for another spin on stage". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  6. ↑ "Helpmann Awards – Past nominees and winners". Helpmann Awards. 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  7. ↑ "About Bayly's Restaurant". Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  8. ↑ Tobin, Patricia (16 March 2015). "Review: e-baby". performing.artshub.com.au. Performing Arts Hub. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Blake, Jason (20 October 2016). "E-Baby review: Gestational clock ticks on tale of ethical complexity". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  10. ↑ My, Myron (8 March 2015). "REVIEW: Jane Cafarella's E-BABY: A tale of two women". theatrepress.com.au. Theatre Press. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  11. ↑ Sebag-Montefiore, Clarissa (27 October 2016). "E-baby review – an endearing but haphazard romp into the complex world of surrogacy". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  12. ↑ Tass, Nadia (2016). "Director's Note". In Ensemble Theatre. Ensemble Theatre Program (13 October 2016 – 13 November 2016): e-baby by Jane Cafarella (PDF). Ensemble Theatre. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
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