EXCLAIM: HAIR WE ARE
Music Theatre graduates from the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney have set up a new theatre company to showcase their talents. AIM news spoke with music theatre graduate turned producer Julian Kuo recently, following their sell outproduction of the Brendan Hay directed musical HAIR.
It’s not often you’ll meet an independent Theatre Company made up entirely of musical theatre school Alumni, but then again, the Exclaim Theatre Company is not your average theatre company.
The company gives theopportunity for members to perform, develop skills in production, direction, design, writing and the technical side of the craft.
“These are all the skills we learned at AIM,” says Kuo. “Exclaim is about putting those skills into practice,” he adds, through the presentation of full productions, cabaret opportunities and skill development workshops.
In May thegroup took on the production ofHair, giving it a fresh twist for a 2015 audience.
“We wanted to try a more well known show this time round,” says Kuo.“Our first two musicals(Glory Daysand Spelling Bee) were reasonably obscure,” he adds, “Hair on the other hand is a show that most people have at least heard of, if not seen.” This wasn’t to be just any old re-hash of a 70’s musical. “Most shows people go to these days are quite a passive experience, in that the audience sits while the performers perform,” says Kuo. “Brendan (our director) wanted Hairto be an immersive experience, not only on stage, but from the moment the audience entered to the moment they left."
The productiontruly was a ‘had to be there’ experience. “We gave one audience member a private tepee experience for example,” says Kuo, where each night, a random audience member was selected and taken off into a tepee, where they became part of the story. Set ‘in the round’, the show began right from the design of the foyer entry, to the use of couches, colour, sound, whispering in people’s ears and much more. “It was very much inclusive,” says Kuo.
The challenge was to create some kind of new shock value. “Back in the day, Hair used nudity and people were shocked. These days, people are almost too used to nudity,” says Kuo, “so to create a sense of being uncomfortable and pushing an audience a little closer to their edge, Brendan went for the immersive experience, whilst still being true to the story. It worked.” The company not only made brave creative decisions, but also managed to achieve full houses.
As Producer of the show, Kuo’s role covered organising, liaising contracts, rehearsal schedules, press and PR, with his ultimate focus on making sure that the show worked.
“At the end of the day the buck stops with the producer,” he says. “I’m a performer at heart but I thoroughly enjoyed getting the show up as a producer. It was very satisfying and the pressure was kind of appealing.”
As most small independent theatre companies already know, making the most with a little, is almost a given. Not to say that Exclaim doesn’t have support. Being Alumni from the Australian Institute of Music, the members of Exclaim are also proud of the fact that they all studied at AIM and that AIM is 100% behind what they do.
“We are the only independent theatre company of our kind, made up exclusively of Alumni, that I am aware of in the country,” says Kuo. “It’s nice to have that support from the school where we studied, especially from AIM Music Theatre Head of Department Jennifer Murphy, who has given us her full support. AIM helped us with things like venues, licensing rights, rehearsal time and space, marketing and promotion.”
Audience response was extremely positive. The show also attracted the interest of well-known Australian director Darren Yap, who came on board as a directorial mentor, in addition to choreographer Bree Langridge, and vocal mentor, Andrew Bukenya. Both Darren and Bree also teach at AIM.
“Being Exclaim, and being able to put on shows like Hair, also gives us exposure to industry theatre people we would otherwise not ever meet,” says Kuo, who re-iterates how important this aspect of building a successful music theatre career is for the members of Exclaim. “For example, I received a call from Darren this morning to congratulate Exclaim on putting on The Fantasticslater this year,” says Kuo. “As theatre artists, we also get to invite whomever we want to our shows, agents, representatives and the like, to see the work we were doing.”
To champion the value of cross artist pollination and integration, Hair was also able to procure the talents of musicians from the AIM Contemporary Performance department, who made up the 6-piece band for the show. “This was a complete AIM alumni/student delivered show, from top to tail,” says Kuo, with 11 named roles and 25 ensemble members known as ‘the tribe’. As Kuo explains, Exclaim gives opportunity to not only music theatre alumni but also to others outside of the genre. “Whether you are a musician, an actor, a technician, a manager, a vocalist or whatever, Exclaim is a vehicle for others to get involved in working and building a career,” says Kuo, “it’s a dual relationship.”
“Proven ability is the hallmark of Exclaim. It’s one thing to offer and spruik a course such as Music Theatre at AIM, but another to showcase alumni through a company like Exclaim. Our company and shows provide the ‘seeing is believing’ proof that we can actually do what we have been trained to do,” says Kuo, who is a strong advocate of the quadruple threat of singing, acting, dancing and creating.
Exclaim is not just about putting on shows however. They also stage events like ‘read throughs’, ‘sing throughs’ and workshops for the continual development of members.
Kuo’s passion for Exclaim and for putting on high quality theatre is clearly evident. “Providing creative options for Sydney audiences and putting on affordable theatre is what it’s all about at the end of the day,” says Kuo. “We want to work, we want people to come see what we create, and Exclaim is our vehicle for doing that.”
So keep an eye out later this year for Exclaim’s production of The Fantastics, the longest running show in Off Broadway history.
To know more about Exclaim, its members and upcoming shows, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ExclaimTheatre
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