Buy an exclusive Bondi Dreaming tee shirt, designed and hand printed by Myuran Sukamaran
One of the activities Myuran Sukamaran undertakes as part of his reformation is screen printing.
We purchased numerous tee shirts from Myuran.
On our last day at Kerobokan, we asked Myuran if he’d be keen to design us a tee-shirt for us to sell.
He very kindly agreed to this, and personally hand printed 100 tee shirts. With four colours in the tee shirts, that’s 400 screen prints.
All proceeds of the tee shirt sales will be given to The Warden of Kerobokan prison to help fund more supplies for the screen printing studio.
Here is the tee shirt.
Note the rear panel copy:
Designed and produced in Kerobokan Prison, Bali, Indonesia. Born 17.04.2005
The date being the day he was captured which is quite a profound statement in itself
If you want to purchase a tee-shirt, email bondidreaming2011@gmail.com
Tee shirts are $25 plus any donation you wish to give, plus post and packaging
You can also pick them up in person from the foyer at The Bondi Pavilion Theatre bar before or after any show during the season.
You can watch a video of Producer Nick Bolton, in Bali, showing some of the tee shirts we bought
Make a bid in the Silent Auction for a painting by Bali 9 member Myuran Suakamaran
The cast and crew were all impressed with the reformation activities going on inside Kerobokan prison, especially the Art Studio and the Tee Shirt Screen Printing activities.
We purchased numerous paintings from Myuran, and have them on display in the foyer at The Bondi Pavilion Theatre bar.
One of the paintings, a self-portrait by Myuran Sukamaran is being auctioned off.
All proceeds of the Auction will be given to The Warden of Kerobokan prison to help fund more art supplies for the studio
We got the canvas painting professionally frames by Cyrils Framing in Cammeray North Sydney
If you want to make a silent bid for the painting, email bondidreaming2011@gmail.com
You can watch a video of Producer Nick Bolton insed Kerobokan Prison describing the Art Studio
Director’s Diary – Bumping In
Monday 14th Nov. 10.03pm
Holy dooley! What an exciting first week of production we have had. It feels like an age ago but two Thursday and Friday”s ago, before we bumped in, we started running the show with Alon ‘Mangostein’ Ilsar bringing speakers into the rehearsal room and trying out his epic score. Always evolving and testing his craft, Alon continued to make subtle changes during those last couple of runs and so did I and the actors. Saturday and Sunday we’re spent chatting through the show and mentally preparing ourselves. Getting this close to opening night is an exciting but somewhat daunting prospect so after much discussion about character, intention and journeys we decided there was only one thing we could do – go to north Bondi RSL and unwind with a coldie on the balcony and do a bit of Bondi Dreaming ourselves.
Sunday was spent talking through the play again and addressing certain scenes we felt needed a bit of tweak and/or checking on the technical aspects. Greg, Wayne and Christian had been up at them early every day of the week smashing out line readings and applying various ninja memory techniques to become word perfect and confident in themselves and their character.
Greg and Christian nutting it out
More and more I could feel Frankie, Charlie and Macca becoming an entity within themselves. A force I couldn’t control and didn’t want to. They had turned into butterflies and I was just the old shell of the cocoon left on the tree. Awwwwwww, sounds like I need the world’s smallest violin to accompany that last sentence! It actually wasn’t like that at all – none of us could wait to get out of the rehearsal room and on to Tom Bannerman’s set. Although we had to build it first!
So Sunday after rehearsals were finished, the cast of Judith, the exiting show, kindly performed their bump in with super hero like speed and made their set vanish in under two hours. The stage was ours and we couldn’t contain our excitement as Christian’s mate, Strawberry, you’ll have to ask him about the nick name as I haven’t gotten to the bottom of that one yet, came in with his gigantic removal truck and out of it came the giant jigsaw puzzle that was our set.
Unloading
We had a great time transporting it up the stairs to the theatre
Good times
Before I go on, if there are any wealthy theatre lovers or patrons of the arts looking to sink an artistic investment into a worthwhile project I’m sure Tamarama Rock Surfers would be very grateful for some sort of pulley or lifting loading dock device. In saying that it wasn’t till later I realised the Bondi Pavilion does in fact have a lift. It was though, a good bonding session and I could really feel the cast and crew banding together as they wondered if Bannerman had actually used cement disguised as wood that looked like cement to build his set. It didn’t look heavy on the page:
Next thing was to build the blighter. It was tech guns at the ready and all hands on deck. Tom had come fully equipped with an arsenal of screws, tools and random bits of wood that served as braces. I was probably worst on ground in terms of DIY but was hoping by the end of our two day bump out at least be awarded most improved. Unfortunately in the final moments of building the set I was disarmed of my tech gun only to watch Wayne and Greg do the job I was attempting to do…much better. I did find something I was good at and it was a skill I shared with Nick. Buying pizza.
As Nick always says, a well fed crew is a happy crew. Finally after one and half days and a pond of blood sweat and tears we had the set bumped in. Then it was time to shine for Nick Rayment, our lighting designer. And shine he did with a one the quickest plots I’ve seen. They say it’s all about preparation and Nick R came ready to go. We were dragged out of the theatre crying and screaming that night because we wanted to finish our tech run and didn’t quite get there but it was for the best as we probably would have stayed to ‘stupid o’clock’ talking about the advantage of having the shadow of Wayne’s head after scene nine.
We returned the next afternoon well rested and with clear heads, well I’m not sure any of us had clear heads to begin with so I guess that’s debatable. We did manage to finish off the tech and we’re able to get stuck right into a dress run with our illustrious photographer, John Dunn, snapping away throughout the run. Things we’re really coming together and it was exciting to see the set come to live, to hear the steel bars reverberate as the guys gripped a hold of them.
All of a sudden Tim Burns, our stage manager, lighting op extraordinaire:
was calling “!5 minutes” and I could hear our preview audience outside. I’m not one to ask magician’s to divulge their tricks as I like the mystery but there is something super exciting about the final minutes before you open the doors to a show for the first time and I’d like to share it with you. I imagine it’s like standing with a bride or groom as they prepare to walk down the aisle. There’s a myriad of emotions flying around and inevitably someone has forgotten the ring! In our case the computer system that Alon and Tim had worked tirelessly on to implement the cues that would run the video element of the show had decided to forget it even existed. As the minutes ticked by Alon and Tim tried every trick in the book to get my ibook to remember that it was no longer a laptop I used to tap away the meanderings of my thoughts on but cog in a machine that was our show. It was a member of the crew and we needed it to come to the party…we we’re staring down the barrel of one minute before the doors opened and after exhausting every bit of recoding, searching forums and almost throwing the computer across the stage someone suggested the age old apple remedy: “Turn it off and on again”. We did and waited for what felt like an eternity to hear the restart ping. At the 30 sec mark and waiting for the circle of death to disappear as the usher poked her head in the door. None of us dared to look at her, all eyes on the machine. We opened Qlab, our naughty program, with trembling fingers Alon pressed the mouse and a miracle unfolded. The missing vision had re-appeared and we were good to go. In unison we grabbed our last bit of sushi, turned out the lights and waved at the usher to bring them in. Preview was a go and the show was up and racing.
Peter Lloyd and ‘Inside Story’
For this run of Bondi Dreaming, we’ve upped the level of research we’ve done, and talked to people with first hand experience in the Bali Nine, or imprisonment
The acclaimed ABC journalist Peter Lloyd spent time in a Singapore jail for drug possession.
We met up with Peter for a drink to discuss his experiences. It was a fascinating and honest discussion, and the actors in particular were grateful to get some insight of how Peter got though his ordeal in prison.
L-R: Christian Willis, Sam Atwell, Peter Lloyd, Greg Hatton, Wayne Bradley
Peter wrote an extraordinarily compelling account of his very public fall from grace on drug charges in Singapore.
Peter lloyd – “Inside Story”
Free post show panel and Q&A session – Thursday 17th November
Bondi Dreaming continues to provoke debate and change opinion.
When the Bali Nine were sentenced in 2005, Australia was split between those who felt they deserved everything they got, and those that feel the death penalty exceeds the crime and should be abolished.
Bondi Dreaming examines the role of capital punishment, the effect incarceration has on the guilty, and their family and friends.
Yet young people continue to flaunt with danger by drug trafficking.
Our panel all have first hand experience and will debate the issues at stake.
Moderator: Nell Schofield
Panel:
Michael Chan, brother of Andrew Chan from The Bali Nine
Peter Lloyd, ABC Journalist, sentenced to jail in Singapore for drug possession, Author of ‘Inside Story’
Mark Davis, SBS Journalist, Dateline Correspondent on the Bali Nine, Walkley and Logie Award winner
Sam Atwell, Writer and Director of Bondi Dreaming
Date: Thursday 17th November
Venue: Bondi Pavilion, Bondi
Time: Post theatre show for 30minutes, 9.30pm approx
Cost: Admission is free with your ticket for the evening’s performance of Bondi Dreaming
This panel session will be filmed.
Biographies:
Nell Schofield:
Website: http://www.nellevision.com
Nell is a NIDA graduate who, since 1997, has worked as a writer/on-air presenter with the subscription television channel Showtime. In 2007/08 she was the film reviewer for Channel 9′s flagship program Sunday. On CNN International she appeared as the Australasian presenter of The Art Club and Hot Spots. For five years she worked as a reporter for ABC TV’s weekly arts program Review and her voice is still heard on that channel’s popular program Media Watch.
In 2010 Nell produced, directed and presented Film Crème, an hour long documentary on contemporary French cinema which was screened on the Ovation Channel. In the summer of 2009/2010 she curated her first major public exhibition, ‘Wax On’ for the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery.
The driving force behind the guerilla art collective ‘The Stoked’, Nell has produced several video works including Chasing the President (2009) featuring Jose Ramos Horta, Hell (nipple rash) (2009 Hazelhurst Regional Gallery), Les Deux Redux (Bondi Short Shorts Film Festival 2010), I ♥ NYC Cycleways (2010 Monstrosity Gallery), Sea Hags Ahoy! (Bondi Short Shorts Film Festival 2011) and Brokeback Mountain Bikes (2011) .
Nell has been a Board Member of Object – Australian Centre for Craft and Design, and currently sits on the Board of the Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre Company. She is also one of Al Gore’s Climate Project presenters, the 2010 City of Sydney Cycling Ambassador and the media officer for the Running Stream Water Users Association Inc.
Peter Lloyd – ABC
Peter Lloyd is a journalist and senior producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation‘s news and current affairs program Lateline. Lloyd previously was the ABC’s South Asia correspondent where, based in New Delhi, he reported for the Australian national broadcaster across all national and international radio and television news and current affairs programs.
Lloyd was due to return to Australia to co-host ABC News Breakfast with Virginia Trioli on ABC2 from October 2008, however, he was arrested in Singapore on drugs charges.
Ten months after his release in mid-2009, Lloyd was re-hired by the ABC for his current Lateline role.
Peter wrote a candid and honest account of his ordeal in hos book ‘Inside Story’
Mark Davis – SBS
Dateline presenter Mark Davis is also one of Australia’s foremost video journalists.
He’s won a Logie and five Walkley Awards, including the prestigious Gold Walkley for Blood Money, a Dateline report in 2000 on the funding of pro-Indonesian militias in East Timor.
During 2010, he gained unprecedented access to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, secured the first interviews with two of the Bali Nine and gained worldwide attention via the Dateline website for his profile of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders.
Over his 12 years with Dateline, Mark has also won acclaim for reporting on the trial of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks; was just metres away from the bombings that greeted Benazir Bhutto’s return to Pakistan in 2007; and was in the thick of the action during Madagascar’s coup in 2009.
His interviews have included Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed and Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf.
Mark shares presenting Dateline with Yalda Hakim, as well as continuing to travel the globe as a video journalist.
First radio interview – today Live at 5 on Eastside FM 89.7FM
Sound Designer Alon Ilsar and cast member Greg Hatton will be interviewed on EastsideFM this afternoon at 5pm
89.7FM on your dial, or it streams live online at http://eastsidefm.org/
Alon wil be talking about how the trip to Bali changed his thinking about the sound design and tone of the play, plus enabled him to capture true and real audio to be incorporated into the production.
For Greg, this is the third season he has performed in Bondi Dreaming.
Greg wrote a poignant and emotional account of his trip in Bali here
Mercy Campaign Article
We have joined together in support with the awesome folk at Mercy Campaign
http://mercycampaign.org/
Please check out their website and consider signing the petition.
“Sydney theatre director Sam Atwell is currently directing a play – Bondi Dreaming – which explores issues around the death penalty.
He writes in support of the Mercy Campaign:
“After the events of the Bali Nine played out on our television screens in 2005 a multitude of thoughts and questions entered my mind. I set about writing a play to explore the complex themes brought up by their ordeal. My goal was to humanise their plight as I feel it’s easy to sometimes become desensitised by what we view in the news media. In order to explore this territory I used three fictional characters from Sydney’s western suburbs who found themselves incarcerated in a random prison cell somewhere in a foreign land. Searching for redemption, the three men play out moments from their past and what their future could have been…..
Rest of article at http://mercycampaign.org/
1st run with tunes
Thursday 3rd November 11:27
We did our first full run today without scripts or prompts and with Alon mixing in his score. It was so inspiring to see the guys really start to trust themselves, each other and jam. It’s been a huge week of rehearsal and everyone is pretty dang tired but we all know it’s going to be worth it once we get that set in and the lights come up.
It’s a strange phase of rehearsals, this one, because for me it’s really about letting go. I don’t have children but I imagine it’s like when your they are just about to move out of home – You’ve accepted it and know it’s happening, it’s hard to let go but you know you have to. Not that I’m saying the three burly blokes in the cast are anything like my children. They’re all older than me (I love that) so that would be weird.
I was so pumped tonight to hear Alon’s score supporting the show, it really added that magical element and I think will take our audience to another world or, at the right time, smash them back to reality.
Had a thrilling moment with Anthony Beach today, our video editor. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been fairly concerned about the sound quality of our filmic segments. The night we filmed it was incredibly windy and I didn’t have the benefit/budget of being able to hear sound from the microphone. All I could hear was live action and most of the time, from where I was standing, all I could hear was wind. But today, when I listened to the clips, the sound was clear. I was so thrilled as all the actors we used did such a terrific job and I was dreading asking them in to re-voice.
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, things just seem to be miraculously coming together. I hope all our work gives the audience a powerful experience. And if you haven’t yet please check out the Mercy Campaign.
Article in The Australian, November 2nd
Writer and Director Sam Atwell was interviewed by Bridget Cormack about our recent trip to Bali.
Read more about the trip with Sam Atwells ‘Director Diary’ reflecting on the trip here
and actor Greg Hatton shared his thoughts on the trip as well
