What began in 2009 as a small theatre group on the Mornington Peninsula – running acting and dance classes and hosting several productions – has grown to a company on the brink of a relaunch and some fantastic events on the horizon.
The mastermind behind the relaunch of the Little Theatre Company (LTC) and its new home as company in residence at The Alex Theatre, is artistic director, Kaarin Fairfax. “I prefer to think of myself as the artistic dreamer,” she laughs. “I don’t know if I can direct it but I can certainly dream it.”
With her very supportive partner in theatrical crime, Associate Artistic Director Ryan A. Murphy – and the massive accolade of experience between them – the duo are set firmly on reinventing the way in which actors and audiences involve themselves and access theatrical productions and workshops with a unique manifesto. It all comes down to experience as Murphy explains. “I’m only 26 and Kaarin, slightly older,” he jokes. “She’s had a career I aspire to have.
“This [LTC] is about pairing a wealth of experience, talent and enthusiasm, and mixing it all together to bring a new perspective. Theatre at times seems to be pretty shut up to new and emerging voices and it tends to be, especially with people my age, these wacky and weird plays that are performed in small theatres and you work with [only] other young people.
“Whereas the older more established artists tend to keep to themselves and work on their own stuff – there’s not a lot of crossover. The crossover between us [Murphy and Fairfax] will filter down into the company. We want to work with established actors and put them in plays with actors who haven’t even had the chance to even audition for a major theatre company, or don’t have an agent but have the talent.”
Regardless of a person’s experience in the industry LTC offer an open-arm opportunity with highly interactive events as well as productions that aim to broaden the abilities of everyone involved. “That’s what we’re really trying to bring to the LTC is how we can facilitate the forward progress of the world we inhabit together,” says Fairfax. “The arts are a free space at this point – don’t tell too many people – but we’re still not gagged too often. A spoken word artist can say what they like, a playwright, a singer can pretty much say what they like, so it’s a great gift to have this avenue in which to hopefully facilitate some change and support the change.
“It makes the choice of work we’ll be doing a little tricky, some of them don’t suit where we believe humanity is at and what story we believe we need to be telling. So LTC will be finding its way and trying to create opportunities to fill the void artistically –that might mean doing a very varied selection of work.”
The variety which Fairfax and Murphy strive toward has already begun to take a hold. “The difference with us is we didn’t want to be like every other theatre company, we want to launch a number of different events and programmes throughout the year, start to bring people into the theatre, get to know us as a company. We have an extended open-arm policy – come along have a chat, get involved.
“Currently we’re running a spoken word night at the theatre. [Attendees] are given a prompt from bathroom graffiti, curated by Jess Fairfax, who’s taken quotes from bathroom walls in bars and pubs. We have a philosophical chat at the end.”
Given the volume within all areas of the performing arts which people are discussing current socio-political events and global dissatisfaction, one may wonder if Fairfax is of the opinion that LTC needs to add to the noise or if they would not prefer to offer an escape. “I think we want to offer both,” she says after some reflection. “People I know from my experience,” adds Murphy, “Friends my age, older or younger, if the play doesn’t target the social consciousness of today, people feel let down. It doesn’t have to be a big dramatic piece; even if it’s a comedy and it’s not saying something about here and now, people feel disheartened.”
