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A journey out of fear
The
Fremantle-based Deckchair Theatre Company
has launched its 2002 season under the
collective title Journey. Artistic
director Angela Chaplin launches the
season with these words: "As we see the
world close in on itself, frightened of
difference and avoiding adventure, more
than ever it is important to journey out
of our own small worlds into the worlds of
other." Deckchair's
journey begins with the story of an
86-year-old woman from Yarrawonga, Mavis
Taylor. The play,
Mavis Goes to Timor, is the heart-warming
story of a elderly woman so determined to
give something back that she travels to
East Timor to see if she can
help. It stars
Annie Phelan of ABC's Something in the Air
and is part of the Perth
festival. The
company's journey also heads back in time
to some of its more successful shows,
including the community project, We Are
Family, and Black and Tran with Ningali
Lawford and Hung Le, who will take their
barroom stories on the road. The
colourful world of Frida Kahlo's Mexico
returns with La Heroina del Dolor, The
life of Frida Kahlo in her own words,
starring Claire Jones. In
conjunction with DADAA, Deckchair's last
show of the year explores the history, the
fantasy and the realities of women and
madness in Hysteria. Deckchair
will continue its successful season of
cabaret evenings, its association with the
Dockers, and will host another Great
Deckchair Auction. Next year
will also see the start of a project
scheduled for 2003, Thirteen Hundred
Ashtrays. It is the story of Yang Li --
actor, movie star and collector of
ashtrays -- who survived the Tienanmin
Square massacre. For
program and theatre package details ring
Deckchair on 9430 4771. Jazzy
Josh taps his way to
Freo Joshua Hilberman The show will be a highlight of the
inaugural Fremantle Jazz Festival, part of
the Perth International Arts Festival
(PIAF). Josh's laughter rang down the phone
line from Boston at the mention of a
review that described his ability as "a
cross between the grace of Fred Astaire
and the force of Gene Kelly". "Lucky for me that reviewer didn't know
what they were talking about, but it
sounds great doesn't it!" he joked. Like most performers he's philosophical
about reviews, citing the old cliche "you
can't believe the good reviews and you
can't believe the bad ones". But he but does believe that he's
privileged to "belong to a special family
in dance history". For Josh, the reviews have not just
been good, they have verged on the
ecstatic. His jazz-influenced tap dancing is
imaginative, exuberant and, as often as
possible, improvised. Several years ago he made up a catchy
tune for his students based on his own tap
philosophy, "Be Wise, Improvise". His love of improvisation has kept the
thrill of dancing fresh for him and has
taken him travelling all over the world,
sometimes meeting his musicians just half
and hour before a solo show. On this trip to Australia Josh will
have the luxury of at least two rehearsals
with jazz singer Libby Hammer and
musicians Russell Holmes on piano, Matt
Willis on bass and Chris Tarr on
drums. "I like to keep arrangements simple,"
explained Josh. "We can't have complicated
arrangements that tie the musicians up
with their noses stuck in the pages. We
take simple jazz standards and then work
out a plan for when it'll be a vocal or
drum solo, when a tap solo...the problem
of course is remembering all that!" He recalls occasions where both he and
his band have come to a standstill because
nobody remembered whose turn it was
next. "Then again, as a group you don't know
who is going to be inspired at one time
and things might just take off in a whole
new way," he said. That's the joy of improvising. Josh began his tap dancing career when
he was in high school -- his Boston school
had an excellent musical theatre
program. Josh discovered that although he was
clumsy in the chorus line, tap dancing was
"the only kind of dancing that I wasn't
bad at. In fact, I was quite good!" Although Josh is now a choreographer
and teaches tap at a dance studio in
Massachusetts, passing on his knowledge to
both children and adults, he is rarely off
the world performance circuit. When we spoke, Josh was involved in a
jazz and tap version of The Nutcracker
Suite devised from both Tchaikovsky's and
Duke Ellington's versions of the tale. From Australia he flies to Nuremburg in
Germany for another festival of dance. "Yeah, I spend a lot of time on the
road, but I'd be in big trouble if I
didn't like teaching as well," he said.
"You've got to want to do everything these
days." Josh Hilberman is one of a number of
jazz aficionados coming from the US for
the festival. The Mingus Big Band comes from the
heart of jazz in downtown East Village,
New York. Also from New York comes
baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, and
NY-based, Australian-born pianist and
composer Barney McCall. Poet-singer Kurt
Elling comes in from Chicago and jazz
guitarist Mimi Fox comes from San
Francisco. European Boilers Quartet is from
Croatia. They all join a host of local and
national jazz musicians including the
Mackey Brothers, the Joe Chindamo Trio,
the Bernie McGann Quartet and sextet,
Blowfish. The jazz festival is one of seven mini
festivals that make up this years' Perth
International Arts Festival. Jazz festival director Helen Matthews
says it is a dream come true to be
appointed artistic director of an
international festival and to be able to
hold it in her own home town of
Fremantle. The jazz festival will be held over the
weekend of January 26 to 28. Joshua
Hilberman with Scat 'n' Tap performs at
the Fremantle Town Hall on Saturday,
January 26 at 4pm and Sunday the 27th at
4.30pm. Full program details are now available
at all PIAF outlets and tickets can be
booked through BOCS. Back
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