This September, SCRATCH Theatre, a new Independent theatre company will debut a fresh take on contemporary Australian music theatre with its original production of Happy presented by the St Martins’ Threshold new company program as part of the 2010 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Young composer/performer and company founder, Caity Fowler has collaborated with Melbourne based writer Chris Thompson to create a unique insight into Australian identity and the circumstances, events and choices that ultimately define who we are.

We all want to be happy... sometimes we want it so much that we deceive ourselves into believing that the pretence of happiness is better than no happiness at all.

Happy tells the stories of four women who, in the course of a family weekend, discover the destructive power of secrets, the ache of loneliness and the happiness of shared memories and laughter. But will they find that the bonds of love are strong enough to hold a family together?

SCRATCH Theatre is committed to presenting Australian stories, music and performances in innovative and challenging ways. Working in a unique collaboration of young and emerging artists with well established practitioners, Scratch Theatre promises to be an exciting new force in the independent theatre scene.

Come on a journey into the imagination of a unique boy, whose candy-coloured kooky reality is turned upside down by the arrival of two clowns who drive the boy into a fantastical world, a place far, far away.

A chilling theatrical debut from emerging theatre company 0 POTENTIAL for the 2010 Melbourne Fringe Festival. SEND IN THE CLOWNS is a multi-form theatre production that combines clowning, puppetry, and musical score while exploring the transience of innocence and the differentiation between fantasy and reality.

The creators were drawn to the dissociative worlds that children create to escape the trauma of abuse and found that predators use childhood guises, such as dressing as clowns, to create hyper-real worlds to hide the trauma or "create an element of doubt when a child shares details about the... abuse", according to child abuse lawyer Christopher Keane.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS was originally conceived as a short piece for the 3D New Theatre Festival and went on to win the Artistic Development Award, being selected for further development with Malthouse Theatre. After success at the Festival, SEND IN THE CLOWNS was commissioned to perform in the Monash University Academy of Performing Arts’ Lunchtime Theatre program to rave reviews and was a successful recipient of the St Martins THRESHOLD Grant Program.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS, devised by emerging local theatre makers Amelia Ducker, Sean Mulcahy and Emily Byrne, is a gut stirring piece of theatre not to be missed this Melbourne Fringe Festival

“I haven’t been this chilled by a piece of theatre in a long time”
- Maryanne Lynch, Dramaturge in Residence, Malthouse Theatre

A new Australian musical especially commissioned for teenagers is set to premiere at St Martins this September.

It’s the school holidays and rather than hanging out and watching DVDs, sisters Mira and Abby settle in for a less than exciting holiday break, working their rubbish part time jobs, until they met curious teenager and supermarket warehouse worker, Gary.

Gary draws the two sisters in by telling stories from his graphic novel The Dream Factory, based in a warehouse where dreams are created and sold, where his world warps into the hyper-real, full of offbeat characters and shambolic situations. As worlds of reality and fantasy collide, the character’s own personal parallels of acceptance and stigma, conformity and difference are challenged.

The Dream Factory is set to be a highlight of the St Martins production season; an honest and vivid representation of that struggle with identity we all face, fully realised through a catchy score, stunning design and performed by a cast of St Martins talented teenage members. St Martins is committed to access and will be offering Auslan interpreted and audio described performances for this season.

Written by Nick Verginis and Chris Mildren
Directed by Brienna Macnish
Musical Direction by David Peake

Black Bubble Theatre debuts Strange Currencies, a quirky, dark comedy by exciting Melbourne playwright Harley Hefford as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010.

Exploring the boundaries between love and infatuation, this new work celebrates the awkwardness and dogged determination with which we pursue someone we have absolutely no chance of getting.

According to the director “unrequited love is something almost everyone has experienced, from one side or the other”…

Neatly repressed behind warm and fuzzy love lurks the one which once turned us into fumbling fools, made us do things we regret, and inevitably led to embarrassing situations.

Desperate to fill a void in their lives, the characters’ extreme antics spiral out of control in their hilarious attempts to satisfy the universal desire to ‘love and be loved’, ultimately leaving a trail of anarchy through their once boring lives...

Cheaper than therapy, 'Strange Currencies' trades in the happily ever after to bring you the final word on how not to find love.

St Martins' drama and acting workshops are renowned for building confidence and igniting life-long passion for the performing arts. The program offers a range of pathways for young people to develop as actors and theatre makers lead by professional teaching artists of the highest calibre.