This week marks a yr since I began right here at Griffin as Common Supervisor.
It additionally marks 53 years for the reason that very first manufacturing on the SBW Stables Theatre came about (Biggles by Michael Boddy, Ron Blair and Marcus Cooney; directed by John Bell, for Nimrod Theatre Firm). It generally astounds me that the remaining weeks and performances left in our beloved dwelling are restricted, earlier than our theatre’s redevelopment commences subsequent yr.
It’s most likely a bit too early to begin doing the yearly wrap-up as there’s nonetheless a complete month left of 2023, however at Griffin we’ve already began the festivities, with Griff-mas, our end-of-year fundraiser, drumming up spirits this previous week. The unbelievable performer and Griffin Board member Simon Burke AO led a unbelievable group of artists by a magical sleigh trip of performances—it was a stunning, heart-warming afternoon. Because of all of the artists concerned and everybody who attended on the day!
This month we celebrated a milestone second throughout the pond within the USA, when playwright and Griffin’s Literary Supervisor Dylan Van Den Berg had the pleasure of attending the premiere screenings of his play Whitefella Yella Tree, produced in Griffin’s 2022 Fundamental Season and captured in partnership with Australian Theatre Reside. These screenings had been held on the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C. and on the Australian Theatre Pageant in New York. This was not solely an enormous achievement for Dylan however a celebration of the affect of storytelling and First Nations work reaching a lot farther than simply our shores.
We’ve now obtained our sights firmly set on 2024 with rehearsals for Jailbaby and The Lewis Trilogy kicking off subsequent week. It’s a wild paradox for us—one is re-rehearsing over a really quick interval, and the opposite is rehearsing for double the period of time as standard. However each are extraordinary works with distinctive groups behind them, working to convey you excellent experiences at our theatre in 2024.
These productions are the coda to 53 years of telling large tales on a tiny stage. I hope you don’t miss your alternative to say goodbye to the Stables as we all know it by seeing not one, however three epic productions (Summer time of the Aliens, Così, and This A lot is True)—carried out as an epic Trilogy by the identical ensemble of actors. It’s going to be fairly superb.
See you within the Stables and past in 2024, Khym x
