NORPA 2020 Season Launch Party
Friday 6 December | 6.30pm | Lismore City Hall | Free event
NORPA is throwing a launch party and they want you to crash it! The theatre company is set to reveal all the fantastic shows they’re presenting and creating in 2020, and they’re celebrating with a party on Friday 6 December, 7pm at Lismore City Hall. Enjoy live performances, music and food as Artistic Director Julian Louis, and special guests, take you through NORPA’s 2020 program.
‘2020 is set to be one of NORPA’s biggest seasons ever – it’s packed with exciting collaborations celebrating local performers, animating the stories of our region, and bringing the best of live performances to the Northern Rivers. Come and celebrate with us and find out more about what we’ve got in store for you next year!’ says Artistic Director Julian Louis.
On the night, and to keep the fun times rolling, NORPA teams up with Dusty Attic and Kate Stroud to present an exciting series of live music and performance evenings in NORPA’s recently upgraded Studio venue.
The first Studio Session will feature the foot-stomping fun of 5-piece Sofiella & The Handsome Husbands, and they kick off directly after NORPA’s 2020 Season Launch party – so the celebrations will continue well into the night! Whereas the Studio Sessions will be ticketed events going forward, this one is free entry to celebrate the launch of the collaboration.
‘This exciting collaboration means activating a valuable and untapped facility for the Lismore music scene, further strengthening Lismore’s cultural landscape by providing opportunities for artists to perform in a high-quality venue and providing a great space for audiences to come together to enjoy live music,’ said Kate Stroud.
Join Sofiella & The Handsome Husbands in the NORPA Studio, directly after the NORPA’s 2020 Season Launch for some sweet harmony-heavy front porch folk, and foot-stompin’ hillbilly barn-burners!
Free event, RSVP to [email protected] to let them know you’re coming!
Bruns Picture House Launches Summer program
Brunswick Picture House | Friday | 3.30pm
This Friday, the Brunswick Picture House invites culture lovers to their Garden Party, celebrating the launch of their biggest Summer program yet – a whole bunch of shows that you just wouldn’t expect in sleepy Bruns! Bay FM is broadcasting live from 3.30pm. With entertainment, the barbecue fired up, and their good mates at Bruns Surf and SJS Custom Surfboards throwing in an SJS Surfboard (worth $900) giveaway for one lucky guest who is present on the day.
Be there at Brunswick Picture House from 3.30pm!
Bruns’ Got Talent, Season 2
Brunswick Picture House | Saturday | 7pm | $20-25, or family of four for $80
Can You Fart the National Anthem? Then the Brunswick Picture House want to hear from you! Got a weird pet, or a party trick? If you’re ready to see your name in shiny lights, then it’s time for a chat with the good people at the Bruns Picture House. Come and check out this show – it promises to be one wacky night of entertainment!
All Ability All Stars Cabaret
Brunswick Picture House | Tuesday 3 December | 10.30am | $10
The All Ability All Star Cabaret returns in 2019 to the Brunswick Picture House to celebrate the unique and special abilities of local residents of the Northern Rivers with disabilities. Celebrating a smashing debut in 2018, this year’s All Abilities cabaret features circus performances, duo acrobatics, dance, and an inclusive workshop activity.
The All Star Cabaret celebrates International Day of People with Disability 2019 as a fundraiser for the All Ability All Star integrated circus program. This program has been delivered by Spaghetti Circus, a leading regional circus, operating from Mullumbimby for 25 years, in partnership with United Disability Care, a local disability service provider in Brunswick Heads for over five years.
Open Screen: The Salon
BSA Mullumbimby | Thursday 5 Dec | 7pm | Free
Filmmaking is one of the most challenging of the creative fields. Very often creators can spend years developing a project that doesn’t come to fruition, or get funding.
Very often creators are at the whim of funding bodies. Under that kind of pressure it’s easy to lose heart. Especially when you’ve poured your heart and soul into a project. One of the lines I remember most is from Hearts of Darkness – the film made by Eleanor Coppolla when she was documenting her husband Francis Ford Coppolla making Apocalypse Now. He says something to the effect that in the future, with the way technology is evolving, some fat little girl from Idaho will be able to make an Oscar winning film, and the need for all this money and industry to make great art will end up falling away. Well that hasn’t quite happened but the essence rings true. With Alice winning SXSW Juror’s choice, it’s evident that you can make powerful films with (almost) passion alone! That is the ethos of Open Screen and The Salon – film making and networking groups that have kicked off at the BSA. Open Screen is a non-competitive and inclusive Open Mic Night for Filmmakers. There are no gatekeepers – if you’ve made it, they’ll screen it. But the film must be presented by one of the key creatives involved. This is a chance to share your work in a venue full of interested people, on a biggish screen.
The first Open Screen is at the BSA in Mullumbimby on Thursday 5 December, at 7pm. After that comes the regular networking night of The Salon. The Salon aims to build a collaborative network. To that end, it is a relaxed, open forum, offering a sounding board and networking opportunity to give and get feedback from other creatives interested in filmmaking. A bit like speed dating for filmmakers, the conversation moves from screenplay, to casting, to production and post-production. The Salon forum is all about the process and offers a chance to screen works-in-progress, screen films to inspire technique, or take part in script read-throughs, listen to scores, or perhaps cast and crew the next short. The Salon often includes guest speakers and filmmakers showing off their skills.
Manbaggery
Drill Hall Mullum | Monday 2 Dec | 7pm, Doors and food from 6pm | $20 with your name as the Reference
In Manbaggery, Mark Swivel gives a warm hearted response to an ex wife’s memoir… a remembering of a mate who died, and some stories from the community. A natural storyteller, Mark is able to walk that line between humour and pathos. In this fundraiser for Barefoot Law, his low cost legal service to assist DV and homeless clients, he is joined by Smokey Fields, and his mates James Dods and Mat Gulliford doing their Woodstock Revisited show.
To book donate at least $20 and put your name please in the Reference here:
https://mdnc.org.au/donate-
Dance This Mess Around
Byron School of Art’s 2019 Graduate Show Opening | BSA Mullumbimby | 6pm | Friday
Dance This Mess Around is the title of the Byron School of Art’s 2019 Graduate Show. It conveys something about the complex, sometimes joyful and frequently difficult process of learning how to become an artist.
The eight graduating students whose work comprises painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and installation, have all been willing to question themselves deeply, and in the process, have unearthed the motifs of their own personal experiences and histories.
BS’A Teacher Emma Walker says, ‘They have all challenged themselves by investigating materials and techniques, as well as developing the capacity to think creatively. The results of this sometimes-messy dance are works of great depth that are rich with meaning and demonstrate each artist’s commitment and ability to push, explore and persevere’.
The exhibition runs from 10am to 2pm. Open night 6pm, Friday 29 Nov–Saturday 7 Dec, at the BSA Project Space, 112 Dalley Street, Mullumbimby until 17 Dec.
Stand up Comedy Virgin Sacrifice, with MC Mandy Nolan.
Mullumbimby Ex Services | Monday 9 Dec | 8pm | $10/15
Come and catch some of the funniest new comics in the Shire. From Wendy, the matriarch of the group – who is wonderfully outrageous – to Matty, a well known Byron Bay surfer and local, to Liam, a respectable school teacher, to Cameron… a Jetstar pilot. Over the last six weeks 14 fabulous people have shared their stories, searched fearlessly for their defects and downloaded on the world.
Catch their first performance at The Virgin Sacrifice on Monday 9 December. Doors open 7pm, show 8pm. Tickets $10/15 at the door or from mandynolan.com.au
Mick Neven, with Mandy Nolan MC and Jeremy Sexton as support
Country Club Comedy – Ocean Shores Country Club | Tuesday 3 Dec | 7pm | Free
Mick Neven has done everything, and been everywhere a comedian can, it seems; TV, radio – numerous comedy festivals around Australia and Europe – he just can’t keep up with the crowds wanting to see him perform. Sharp, insightful and with a quick wit, Mick dazzles his audiences with his unique take on everyday life and the world. Like all great comedians his mind works differently to ‘normal people’s’ – active, moving, probing, searching for the setup and punchline in the everyday events the rest of us don’t even notice.
It’s this comic gift which has seen him perform in almost every high-end comedy room and dusty, rundown tin-shed pub across Australia, winning multiple awards and accolades along the way. Mick has been the author and performer of four solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, eight solo shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and twice his show has been nominated for Best Comedy at Fringeworld Perth. Mick has also completed three tours of duty to entertain Australian, British and American Armed Forces serving in the Middle East.
This month, Mick is coming to perform at Country Club Comedy; a real treat for the audience to have someone as accomplished as Mick Neven come along and bring his unique and hilarious comedy to The Club. Don’t miss this opportunity to see Mick live on stage before his tour takes him far away to other adoring comedy fans.
You can catch Mick Neven when he headlines the Big Gig at the Ballina RSL with MC Mandy Nolan, and Ellen Briggs as support, on Thursday at 8pm (Free show), or at Country Club Comedy, Ocean Shores Country Club at 7pm (also for Free) with Mandy as MC, and Jeremy Saxton as support.
Drawing Nudes for Victims of Fire
Brunswick Heads Picture House | Wednesday, from 6–8.30pm and Thursday, 10am–12.30pm | $20 one session, $30 both
The last few weeks of fires in our community have bought people together to brainstorm what they can do to help. Sketch Appeal at Brunswick Picture House is fighting fire with the inspired, by donating money raised from life drawing sessions to National Parks and Wildlife, Animal Rescue Craft Guild (they make pouches etc), and the local Fire Brigade.
On Wednesday, from 6–8.30pm and Thursday, 10am–12.30pm everyone is welcome to turn up to draw! In the spirit of the event Mandy Nolan has offered up her nude body as one of the eight that artists will get to draw! You don’t have to be a pro – just do it for fun!
Please RSVP to [email protected] if you intend to come – this will assist with setting up adequate space, tables etc. Pay on the night/morning, $20 one session, $30 both.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
