Art Smitten - The Podcast

Action Hero arrives in Melbourne bringing a light Americana teeny boppy show "Whatever it takes" the banner read on the gym decorated theatre. Lines like these that seemingly belonged in a Degrassi High after school special were particularly prevalent in the UK groups show. It relied on the underdog team standing up against great grief and overcoming it all. The plot relied on spectacle and capturing this culture of teen movies. This was hard at first for many of the more elite theatre goers who joked later that this "was the closest they got to a sport game in their life". Action Hero, created by Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse, is a company that focuses on theatre, performance and live art. The company has been particularly noted for their ability to involve the audience continuously. Hoke's Bluff was no different. The audience had to walk on the stage in order to get to their seats and whilst doing so the actors invited them to collect popcorn. As soon as you sat down there was a flag and the Hoke's Bluf

Christian reviews Boutique Theatre's production of The Fairytale Russian Girls (running at St Martin's Youth Theatre until May 27) for Host Adalya and Assistant Producer Thierry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Art Smitten's special Mother's Day episode, Host Maria, Executive Producer Christian Producer and Christian's mum, Helen, chat with Tegan Jones, Producer, Co-Founder and Company Manager of Boutique Theatre, about The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, on at St Martin's Youth Theatre until May 27.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Smithers interviews double bass player from the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, performing in Unfinished Romance – Rossini & Schubert on Monday 22 May, 7.30pm at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christian, Jack and Ellie chat with actor Faran Martin from North of Eight's production of Gardner McKay's Toyer, running at The Courthouse Hotel (86-90 Errol St, North Melbourne) until May 13. Click here for Christian's reviewSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christian, Jack and Ellie chat to artists Ali MC and Rushdi about their exhibitions from the 2017 Human Rights Festival - Rohingya: Refugee Crisis in Colour (on display until May 25 at the Fitzroy Library) and Reframe “Home” with Patterns of Displacement (on display from May 9-14 at the No Vancancy Gallery in QV). Click here to listen to our interview with festival director Lauren ValmadreSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack, Ellie and Christian chat with Lauren Valmadre, Director of this year's Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, running until May 14. Click here to listen to our interview with HRAFF artists Ali MC and RushdiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Federation Uni Graduating Class of 2017 I’m going to start by saying that my parents saw RENT on Broadway twice during its run from 1996 to 2008 and gushed about it to me as soon as I was old enough to understand. It’s the 11th longest running musical on Broadway when it finished and has won 4 Tony’s, 6 Drama Desk awards and The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. So, as you can tell, going in I had pretty high expectations for this production. Long story short, it blew me away. The cast, the music, the choreography, costumes, set, everything worked so well together, it’s hard to believe that the cast are University students when they have so much talent. RENT is a musical about impoverished and starving artists in New York City in 1990’s (what’s changed?) it deals with the major issues of the 90’s, like the AIDS epidemic and the lack of jobs, and shows the story of Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, his musician friend Roger, who are struggling to pay last year’s rent on their

Jack and Ellie chat to Laura Morrisby and Jonathan Reeves from the FedUni Arts Academy Ballarat production of RENT, running until May 6 at the Athenaeum 2 (188 Collins Street). Click here to listen to Ellie's reviewSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Producer Christian chats to hosts Ellie and Jack about North of Eight's production of Gardner McKay's Toyer, featuring Faran Martin and Kashmir Sinnamon, which runs until May 13 at the Courthouse Hotel, 86-90 Errol St, North Melbourne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shining a spotlight on American independent cinema The American Essentials Film Festival, now in its second year, features a range of independent works produced over the last year and timeless American Masterpieces. The Artistic Director, Richard Sowada created a program that captured the essence of American culture. The program features G-Funk, Annie Hall and feature documentaries such as The Bomb that Sowada noted “is an interesting piece… particularly at a time like now”. David Lynch: The Art Life is one of the featured works inthe festival. It uses Lynch’s artworks, archives and stories from his past to get a deeper view of his work. Within the film, he speaks of his adolescences, his search for meaning and his push to create impactful works. It is impossible to see David Lynch as dull, but Jon Nguyen's documentary about him comprises mostly of montages of the director's paintings interspersed with dramatic music that were a distraction more than anything. Some music felt car

“I myself almost don’t know which season I like best;  I believe all of them equally well” -Van Gogh London 1873 The NGV has done it again.  The NGV has pulled off one of its most ambitious plans for the 2017 collection. The Winter Masterpieces exhibition, which started in 2004, features a beautiful array of Van Gogh pieces; some of which have never been on Australian soil. The exhibition featured the contribution of, a deeply devoted Van Gogh scholar and curator. Sjraar found seasons a proper title for a collection of Van Gogh’s work. She stated that within Van Gogh’s work “seasons become a representation of life itself”. Seasons reflected his sporadic passions and pain within his life. The Exhibit makes note of many aspects of Van Gogh’s life that aren’t as widely known.  The exhibit reflects on Vincent’s relationship with his brother Theo and how he inspired Vincent to become an artist. It also reflects on his time in Nuenen which h

I often find myself unable to articulate what I feel, think and experienced after seeing a Rabble show, and JOAN was no different, so here’s my best shot at trying to speak about it. JOAN is an experimental theatre production exploring the story of Joan of Arc. It has no plot or story and very little dialogue, and it is made mainly of images inspired primarily from Joan of Arc. A lot of the show is quite visceral, not only in the performers' bodies, but also in all the elements of production, including sound design and stage design, it was very uncomfortable in it’s imagery but also very beautiful. It speaks to and explores why Joan of Arc has been retold so many times and why she is so significant. And to my understanding the story of Joan of Arc is also used as vessel to explore women’s/females bodily autonomy, and violence. As always in The Rabble shows, the direction, light, sound, and design of this work was impeccable, some of the most beautiful lighting design and a beautiful use of t

Smithers and Samara chat to CEO and co-founder of CLIMARTE Guy Abrahams about the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 festival, now running until May 14.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 2 of Samara and Smithers' interview with Rebecca Rosengrave about her debut young adult fantasy novel, Gumtree Gargoyles.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CONTENT WARNING: Mental illness Part 1 of Samara and Smithers' interview with Rebecca Rosengrave about her debut young adult fantasy novel, Gumtree Gargoyles. Click here for Part 2!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Intimate look into Brett Whiteley's life and legacy Whiteley uses Brett Whiteley's art and interview archives to take you on a journey into his inner psyche. Within the footage he tells of his relationship with Wendy,  his search for meaning and his push to create art that serves a purpose for the public. His life is summed up with tension and brooding that Brett unsuccessfully attempts to get away from. The film starts off strong, playing with the biographical art piece of Brett, incorporated with the amazing score of Ash Gibson Greg. However, as the movie progressed, the fun of the first few minutes of the film had vanished.  It became another story of a brooding artist going to overseas to find himself,  coming back to Australia when he lost himself and feeling generally as lost in his life. This contradicted with the tagline from the movie "if there's no meaning to life then you might as well make it extraordinary." Where was the fun, bold character of Whiteley? A similar frustration was

Samara and Smithers chat to Olugbade Okunade from the Nigerian afrobeat band Alárìíyá about their debut album launch on Saturday April 29, 7.30pm at The Toff (Level 2 Curtin House, 252 Swanston St) with Headphones Jones.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Smithers reviews Comedy Zone Asia, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival show featuring Jinx Yeo, Neeti Palta, Sumit Anand, Rizal van Geyzel and Douglas Lim that runs until April 23. Click here to listen to Smithers' interview with Douglas!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the Mens Interesting look into the expansive Australian male psyche. The show is a number of monologues dedicated to generations of male Australians. It highlights the weird, quirky and uncomfortable experiences felt in our own backyard. Characters included “shirtfront” the jockey addicted to cheesecake, a ex-greyhound racer, a stockbroker stuck between the bliss of the sea-change and the agony of work, the oldest man in Australia, and a businessman breaking up with his fiancee due to his supposed infidelity. The show felt at first difficult to approach. Introducing this short enthusiastic Jockey and his pursuit of racing success and love was completely different from my experience. He was the epitome of who I could not care about unless I personally knew him. This was similarly seen with the greyhound racer. However, I was taken aback as the ex-racer’s story took a turn with the dog’s eventual death.   Ben Maclaine and Ben Grant’s depictions of loneliness and stress with