Comedy Crackers
Don’t miss a cracker night of comedy at Ocean Shores Tavern this Thursday, hosted by the hilarious Fiona McGary.
Fiona has performed all over the country alongside Australia’s best comics and appeared on the ABC, The Comedy Channel and recently Channel Seven’s FMVTV comedy series. In 2006 she was one of only a dozen comics throughout the country to be chosen to audition for The David Letterman Show.
Also featured on the night are Ellen Briggs, Paul McMahon, Ting Lim, Jenny Burke and more! Free from 8pm.
Kids on Film
Crabbes Creek Public School had a unique idea two years ago, which was formulated after a chat with two year-6 girls. Linda Parlet told Seven, ‘They had gone all through school together and were off to high school the next year. They were very nervous about it as they were going to be going to different high schools. So from a school of fewer than 80 pupils into high schools of more than 700 – and they didn’t know anyone.
‘I walked away from that conversation thinking how daunting that must be! It got me wondering if there was any way (outside of sport) that the smaller local schools could get together and interact so as to make their transition to ‘big school’ a little easier and give them the possibility of knowing others when they are thrown into a huge school.
‘Being involved in Crabbes Creek Community Film Society I thought that a film festival might fill that gap.’
Using Tropfest as an inspiration, the students were given an item that must appear in the film. Last year the item was Crab.
‘Most of the films entered were set along an environmental theme or bullying. This year we decided to continue with the pupils’ interest in the environment and made the theme Rain,’ says Linda. This year six schools have entered films: Carool, Dungay, Stokers Siding, Burringbar, Crabbes Creek and Fernleigh. The quality of the films this year, like last year, is fantastic.
I am completely blown away at the talent such youngsters have and their grasp of current events and the world around them. It gives me faith that these kids will be smarter than we have been with looking after each other and the world they will inherit from us!’
The Red Carpet Night is at Crabbes Creek Hall this Friday and is open to the whole family. Running from 6 till 9pm, teachers, VIPs, judges and guests will be welcomed to the newly renovated Crabbes Creek Hall, which will be transformed into a ‘Hollywood’ cinema.
Like an opening night there is a red carpet for the students (and everyone else) to walk down. All the students dress up either in their ‘good clothes’ or fancy dress.
Photos are taken, fingerfood is served, entertainment is provided by local musicians and fire-twirlers and then everyone is ushered into the cinema. Best of all the pupils get to see their work on the big screen.
Prizes this year include iPads and Go Pros for them to use at their schools. Tickets are sold at the door. $10 a family, $5 a single, kids younger than 12 free!
Bell Shakespeare’s Henry V
In an incredibly exciting new production of Henry V, Damien Ryan directs his first main stage production for acclaimed theatre company Bell Shakespeare.
Henry V will be coming to NORPA for three performances only on September 19 and 20.
Ryan’s contemporary take on this classic tale about a king who unites a nation with his eloquent words and ideas is inspired by a true story; for 57 consecutive nights during the Blitz in 1941, a group of boys stuck in a bunker started a boys’ club, where they would rehearse a new play each week, including Shakespeare’s works, and then perform it for the other people in the shelter.
A single character opens all five acts, preparing the audience to think of the stage as the fields in France.
The play begins with the young king of England, Henry V, in an angry dialogue with King Charles of France, an argument that escalates into war. This is a story of religious manipulation, loose justifications for pre-emptive conflict, betrayals of trust, the slaughter of prisoners, the possession of women as pawns of imperialism, and the final futility of the exploits of war.
Tickets Adult $47 / Senior $42 / Concession $40 / Under 18 $20 / Groups of four or more $40 per ticket.
Hot Lovin’
Fancy a trip to Lismore for a hot night out in spring? The latest production of Lismore Theatre Company at the Rochdale Theatre, Goonellabah, is the ageless comedy Last Of The Red Hot Lovers by Neil Simon, one of the most-performed playwrights in the world.
It tells the story of Barney Cashman who, in the middle of a mid-life crisis, decides he is going to have one last red hot affair before he dies. A gentle soul with no experience in adultery, he is charting new territory.
He picks up three very different women, one by one takes them back to his mother’s apartment, and the results are hilarious. Last Of The Red Hot Lovers opens on Friday and runs until Friday 26 September at the Rochdale theatre.
Tickets are $20/$15 from Noah’s Arc or online at the LTC website www.lismoretheatrecompany.org.au.
Ecstatic Dancing
The global network of ecstatic dance comes to Byron Bay. In so many cities all over the world you can find weekly sessions of people dancing freely to amazing music in an alcohol-and-drug-free space. Well, two longtime local dance facilitators, Hamilton Barnett and Madhu Honey, are connecting Byron Bay with the global dance community.
Ecstatic Dance Byron Bay is a new dance offering happening every Thursday 7–9pm at the Byron Scout Hall.
Orchestral Collaborators
Some of Southern Cross University’s most talented musicians will collaborate with members of Australia’s premier large ensemble for improvising, the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO), during a free public workshop at Studio One29, D Block Theatre, Contemporary Music Building, SCU Lismore campus. on Tuesday 16 September 2-4pm.
The Australian Art Orchestra’s innovative approach fits perfectly with the core values of the SCU contemporary music program, which is to offer music students a range of creative pathways into a career in music.’
The music and improvisation workshop with SCU music students is free and open to the public.
It’s All in the Pitch
Screenworks brings Miriam Stein, the winner of the 2013 International Pitching Competition, to the northern rivers to run Paper to Pitch, a one-day workshop on Friday at Byron Regional Sport and Cultural Complex from 9.30am till 4.30pm.
For more info and tickets visit www.screenworks.com.au or call 6687 1599.
Art Up, Up and Away
If you happen to be passing through or visiting the Ballina Byron Gateway Airport in the coming months, you are in for a treat with the Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina (NRCG), presenting its fourth instalment of Art at the Airport by Indigenous artist Frances Belle Parker.
This evocative series of works will be on exhibition during September and October.
SNIPPETS
ADFAS
ADFAS (Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society) Byron Bay Presentation: Travels in Rajasthan with Rudyard Kipling: palaces and temples, monuments and forts, a talk by Elizabeth Merry. Monday 15 September at 6.30pm at the A&I Hall, Bangalow. Doors open at 6pm. ADFAS members free, guests $25 (includes glass of wine and light snack).
‘The Message’
Lone Goat Gallery presents Harley Gale, who uses colour field technique to illustrate the Chinese belief ‘the universe is in my heart and my heart is in the universe’. The Message opens 6pm September 12 till the 24th.
Mark Willacy talk
Mark Willacy, noted ABC journalist, will speak about his time in Japan reporting on the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the following nuclear meltdowns, at Byron Community Centre Sunday 14 September 2–4pm. Sponsored by Friends of ABC.
Tantra demystified
Six public talks, clearly explaining the mystical practice of sexual tantra, every Sunday, 10am, beginning 14 Sept, at Clear Health Centre, 6 Byron Street, Byron Bay. Free of charge. Gnostic Society 0412 020 234.
Orchid show
The Byron District Orchid Society Annual Show Friday 12 September 9.30 to 5pm and Saturday 13 September 10am to 4pm, Ex-Services Club, Mullumbimby. Entry fee $2, children free. Enquiries Penny 0266 801 600.
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