St Martins Youth Arts Centre is a youth-focused performing arts centre in South Yarra in inner Melbourne. It is a non-profit organisation [1] that makes contemporary theatre works for adult audiences [2] [3] and runs weekly drama workshops for young people.
In 1934, Brett Randall and Hal Percy founded the Melbourne Little Theatre and, in 1956, opened a theatre on the present site of St Martins. [4] Irene Mitchell, an established actress, joined "between engagements" during the Great Depression, and there accumulated directorial skills till she became a major force in Melbourne theatre. Operation of the theatre continued until 1977, when the Victorian Government purchased the site with the intent to establish a youth arts centre. [5] In 1978, an organisation, then known as St Martins, took up residence, and on 18 March 1980, St Martins Youth Arts Centre was established as a company and charitable institution. Finally, on 28 April 1982, The Hon. Race Mathews, MLA, Minister for the Arts opened the completed arts centre. [6]
St Martins alumni include:
Julian Day
Matt Day
Amanda Douge
Geire Kami [7]
Barrie Kosky [8]
Colin Lane [9]
Catherine McClements [10]
Ben Mendelsohn
Jonathan Messer [11]
Gina Riley [12]
Noah Taylor [13]
Mark Trevorrow (Bob Downe)
Tripod (Scott Edgar, Simon Hall and Steven Gates)
Jane Turner [14]
Madeleine West
Frank Woodley
Julia Zemiro
St Martins administers three buildings in South Yarra: a theatre complex and an administration building (on St Martins Lane) and a converted church (on Millswyn St). [15]
St Martins theatre complex contains two theatres: the Randall Theatre and the Irene Mitchell Studio. The Randall Theatre is a traditional rectangular theatre, with rows of fixed ascending seats and a standard lighting fixture. The Studio, by contrast, is a "black box" space, with no permanent stage or seating, though materials are kept that can be assembled into a seating area. The complex also has a box office and dressing rooms. [16]
The Administration building's only rented space is the rehearsal room.
The Church Hall is a rehearsal room particularly suited to dance. [16]
St Martins regularly uses a room in Northcote Town Hall for its Northcote workshops. [16]
St Martins holds drama workshops for young people at its South Yarra and Northcote locations. [17]
Workshop age groups are 5-8s, 9-12s, Teens and cross-age. St Martins has a strong focus on access and inclusion. [18]
St Martins presents works created with children for adult audiences under a model of 'Large Interactions' and 'Small interruptions'. Large Interactions are mainstage works, presented at major festivals and venues and Small Interruptions are small-scale site specific works often involving one to one audience interaction with children. [19]
Paired one-on-one with a ‘personal trainer’ between 6 and 10 years old, Fitter. Faster. Better. is a boot camp for adults run by children. [20] It was initially presented as part of Dance Massive festival in 2015. It has been subsequently presented at Junction Arts Festival in Launceston and the Commonwealth Games on the 2018 Gold Coast. [20] [21]
Soundtracks is audio commentary of artistic works by children. It can be presented with live or installed works. It has been shown as an accompaniment to the Australian Ballet's La Sylphide, [22] as an audio tour alongside Crossing Paths with Vivian Maier for the 2014 Melbourne Festival; and as live accompaniment to Christophe Bertrand's Quator No. 1 for Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music.
16 Girls is a promenade work that presents the image of a large group of pregnant teenagers engaging in regular everyday activities. It was initially performed in 2015 at Castlemaine State Festival. [23] The work takes inspiration from a real event in 2008, a group of teenagers at Gloucester High School, Massachusetts made a pact to become pregnant and raise the children collectively. [24]
I saw the second one hit is a theatre work developed in collaboration with twin girls born on September 11, 2011. [25] It explores the world that these twins, now teenagers, inhabit through their beliefs, their fears, their politics. [26] It was first presented at the Malthouse Theatre in 2015. [27]
The Bacchae is a theatre work directed by Adena Jacobs, made collaboratively with the female ensemble cast of teenagers. [28]
Gonzo is a theatre work directed by Clare Watson, about teenage boys and porn – specifically, how often they watch it, who they watch it with, and why. [29] Gonzo was performed at Malthouse Theatre in 2016. [30]
Genius is a theatre work that creates "an intimate hour with six young performers from a neurological minority, encountered on their own terms.". [31]
For The Ones Who Walk Away was called a "piece of collaborative brilliance". [32] The work invites audiences to roam its many rooms in search of the traces of the ones who walked away. [33]
Richmond is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km (1.9 mi) east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Richmond recorded a population of 28,587 at the 2021 census, with a median age of 34.
Alphington is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km (4.3 mi) north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Darebin and Yarra local government areas. Alphington recorded a population of 5,702 at the 2021 census.
Birrarung Marr is an inner-city park between the central business district in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the Yarra River. It was opened in 2002. The name refers to the bank of Birrarung, the 'river of mists', in the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people, the Indigenous inhabitants at the time of European colonisation of the Melbourne area.
Constance Lalage "Lally" Katz is an American and Australian dramatist writing for theater, film, and television. She now resides in Los Angeles.
Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as Artistic Director. Richard Mills is the current Artistic Director. The company is supported through government funding, patron contributions and corporate sponsorship.
The Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne.
Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD.
The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements. Since its founding as a British settlement in 1835, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by European culture, particularly that of the British Isles. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades the immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture. Over time, Melbourne has become the birthplace of a number of unique cultural traits and institutions, and today it is one of the world's most multicultural cities.
Osamah Sami is an Australian stage and screen actor, writer, spoken-word artist, and stand-up comedian of Iraqi origin. His critically acclaimed book Good Muslim Boy, was the winner of the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Award. It was also Highly Commended at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards that same year.
Next Wave is a biennial festival based in Melbourne, which promotes and showcases the work of young and emerging artists. Next Wave encourages interdisciplinary practice and fosters the creation and presentation of works by emerging artists working across a broad range of art forms, including dance, theatre, visual arts, performance, new media, and literature.
Vanessa "Van" Badham is an Australian writer and activist. A playwright and novelist, she writes dramas and comedies. She is a regular columnist for the Guardian Australia website.
Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Melbourne, a UNESCO City of Literature. The Festival runs during early September each year. Melbourne Writers Festival is part of the Word Alliance, a partnership of eight international literary festivals which support and showcase the work of writers.
Rites of Passage is a music theatre work written by the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe in 1972–73. It is often categorised as an opera, but it does not conform to the traditional concept of opera. It is written for dancers depicting the ritual of initiation of the Aranda people, an indigenous tribe; double SATB chorus singing words from Boethius and others; three percussionists, two tubas, piano (echoed), six cellos and four double basses; but no parts for individual singers. Sculthorpe drew on the approach espoused by Jean-Baptiste Lully, in which dance, drama and music are not separated.
Kip Williams is an Australian theatre and opera director. Williams is the current Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company. His appointment at age 30 made him the youngest artistic director in the company's history.
Dancehouse is a centre for independent contemporary dance in the Carlton North area of Melbourne, Australia.
The Melbourne Queer Film Festival is an annual LGBT film festival held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Held in November, the festival is regarded as the largest queer film event in the Southern Hemisphere. The festival attracts around 23,000 attendees at key locations around Melbourne.
Melbourne Little Theatre was a theatre company in Melbourne, Australia, founded by Brett Randall and Hal Percy in 1931.
Anne-Louise Sarks is an Australian theatre director, writer and actor. She has been the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company since October 2021. Her partner is journalist Sean Kelly.
ActNow Theatre is a theatre company based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 2007, it is a community-based company whose work focuses on social justice issues and techniques. From 2007 until 2020, the artistic director was Edwin Kemp Attrill.