Last week we brought you all the best youth performing arts-focused shows on offer in the Adelaide Festival Centre's 2011 season. All the best shows up until the end of May, that is. Read on to see what's in store for the rest of the year...
Fans of dance won't want to miss the world premiere of Side to One by Lisa Griffiths and Craig Bary, plié-ing across the Space Theatre floor from July 27-30.
Exploring the concept of soul mates and human connection, Side to One follows two individuals destined to connect. Attracted like magnets they are never static but constantly evolving.
The chance to find one's soul mate is a journey that all people go on at some stage in their life - the struggle of being accepted and even loved. Some find their soul mate quickly while others search eternally - just look at the Ben Folds/Nick Hornby track 'From Above' for proof.
Last seen at the Space Theatre in Tanja Liedtke's construct in 2009, the Adelaide Festival Centre welcomes the lithe Lisa Griffiths back to perform her own work. Adelaide audiences will recognise Craig Bary from his work with Australian Dance Theatre and Leigh Warren & Dancers.
From August 10-13, Australian Dance Theatre and Adelaide College of the Arts present Gary Stewart's Worldhood at Her Majesty's Theatre.
This unique collaboration sees the phenomenal dancers of ADT and Adelaide College of the Arts interact with visionary live performance illustrator Thom Buchanan, who will create dramatic charcoal drawings live on stage. In an explosion of creative energy, Buchanan's illustrations will create a series of imagine worlds that will transform and evolve throughout the performance.
Thom Buchanan started drawing live in Adelaide nightclubs, accompanying bands and DJ's. Inspired by the music and the environment he now uses his powers for good, creating wild, transient drawings expressed in the moment.
August also sees the much-anticipated presentation of The Book of Everything, presented by Adelaide Festival Centre & Windmill Theatre and adapted by Richard Tulloch from the novel by Guus Kuijer.
Commissioned by Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image and co-produced by Company B, director Neil Armfield puts his big short pants on again for this special presentation of The Book of Everything.
Thomas is nine and he's started writing a book. His father says all important books are about God. Even so, Thomas writes down all the interesting things he sees that other people seem to ignore: tropical fish in the canal; a deluge of frogs; the Son of God popping in for a chat...
He also writes down his greatest determination: "When I grow up, I'm going to be happy."
Featuring Jesus, the angels, the Bottombiter, the startling Mrs Van Amersfoort and a beautiful girl with a leather leg, this is a totally magical story about a child learning how to act when faced with fear and wrong. Acclaimed children's author Guus Kuijer's magnificently humble story grabs your heart, challenges your mind, and makes you laugh, no matter how old you are.
Boasting a sold out season in Sydney, The Book of Everything features a stellar Australian cast including Alison Bell, Iain Grandage, Deborah Kennedy, John Leary and Matthew Whittet, taking to the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre from August 17-27.
As if that wasn't enough excitement for August, Adelaide Festival Centre and Mobile States will be presenting a mini festival of performances from August 23-28.
Showcasing the best new work from Australia's hottest independent artists, you can choose to either chomp through all four shows in one evening, or spread the tasty morsels out over the week.
On offer are the South Australian premieres of Vivaria (Place of Life), a distinctive dance film installation which takes you into a Kafka-esque world of pocket video camera dance imagery; Insite Arts' The Harry Harlow Project, an invitation into the laboratory of Harry's mind - a place where this extraordinary life and work unravel to illuminate one of the most profoundly influential, but publicly vilified pioneers in scientific history; and I Left My Shoes on Warm Concrete and Stood in the Rain, a visual poem composed by Gabrielle Nankivell that expresses and reinforces the exhilaration for life that exists in every individual.
The mini festival also heralds the return of En Route, presented by one step at a time like this & Richard Jordan Productions. With an iPod and your mobile phone, discover the spontaneous choreography of the city around you as streetscapes become the set and passers-by the performers. Winner of five awards including the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Best Theatre Award and straight from sold-out performances at the Edinburgh Festival 2010, En Route combines musings, broken narratives and a pulsating soundtrack into a unique theatre experience. Dress for August weather and walking, and be prepared to rediscover Adelaide.
The year rounds off with two outstanding pieces of theatre for young people: The Gruffalo's Child and Urban Myth Theatre for Youth's The Girl who was a Hundred Girls.
If you loved the 2010 production of The Gruffalo in the Dunstan Playhouse (and, let's be honest, who didn't), you won't want to miss the sequel - The Gruffalo's Child. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's bestselling book has once again been adapted for the stage by London's award-winning Tall Stories Theatre Company (the team behind The Gruffalo).
One wild and windy night the Gruffalo's Child ignores her father's warning and tiptoes out into the snow. After all, the Big Bad Mouse doesn't really exist...does she?
Songs, laughs and scary fun will be had for children aged 4 and up, and their adults, from October 11-15.
Celebrating their 30th anniversary, Urban Myth Theatre of Youth will round out the year with a theatrical thriller, combining the tales of the past and present to reveal an unexpected truth.
A play with music, The Girl Who Was a Hundred Girls is the story of eight women from differing times and places, borne from one woman. Each has a task that seems too great for an individual - liberation, victory, to conquer, to love. But each has hope.
Written by award-winning playwright Finnegan Kruckmeyer (Man Covets Bird, The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy and ex Urban Myth member) The Girl Who Was a Hundred Girls marks his 50th commissioned play.
Laced with music composed by ex The Whitlams guitarist and acclaimed composer Ben Fink and featuring the energy of Adelaide's finest young performers, The Girl Who Was a Hundred Girls will transport you to a familiar magic world defying time and place. Let it sweep you away from the Space Theatre from October 18-22.
Think that's all? Well, think again: tune in to the third and final part of Lowdown's epic coverage of the Adelaide Festival Centre's 2011 season to find out more about some free art forums, some inSPACE developments, some Rooms that are Green and some things that happen on Saturdays...
In the mean time, visit the Adelaide Festival Centre website to find out more.