DIRECTOR
Presented by Left Bauer Productions
fortyfivedownstairs, August 2014
fortyfivedownstairs and Hayes Theatre Co, August 2015
Inspired by Maria Callas' 1971 visit to New York's Juilliard School of Music, Terrence McNally's Master Class is a searing, funny and touching look behind the mask of operas most beloved and controversial diva. Directed by Daniel Lammin, Master Class features stage and screen star Maria Mercedes as Callas.
Maria Callas: Maria Mercedes
Manny Weinstock: Cameron Thomas
Sophie De Palma: Georgia Wilkinson
Tony Candolini: Robert Barbaro (2014 Season) & Blake Bowden (2015 Season)
Sharon Graham: Anna-Louise Cole (2014 Season) & Teresa Duddy (2015 Season)
Producers: Cameron Lukey and Michele Bauer
Costume Design: Owen Phillips
Lighting Design: Brendan Jellie
Sound Design: James Hogan
Poster Photography: Sarah Walker
Sharon's costume for 2015 season constructed by Bryn Meredith
WINNER
Female Performance (Independent Theatre) for Maria Mercedes
Green Room Awards 2015
NOMINEE
Direction (Independent Theatre) for Daniel Lammin
Green Room Awards 2015
★★★★★
"Master Class will delight opera and theatre lovers alike, and audiences will long cherish the memory of Mercedes’ marvellous performance."
Cameron Woodhead, The Age
★★★★½
"This is independent theatre at it’s finest, and you don’t need to be an opera buff – or even minor enthusiast – to walk out completely spellbound."
Byron Bache, Herald Sun
★★★★½
"This is a must see for anyone who’s ever trained to become a singer, actor, dancer or musician. You will spend the evening on the edge of your seat, desperately hoping that Callas won’t pick you as her next ‘victim’."
Jo McEniery, Arts Hub
★★★★
"It’s hard to imagine anyone giving a better performance as Maria Callas in the hit Broadway play Master Class than Maria Mercedes does here; in fact, it’s a role she seems born to play."
Sunday Telegraph
"When seasoned, highly respected industry professionals speak in an awed hush about a production in terms of “the best version of this show I’ve seen”, this is indeed a most significant production of a significant play."
Classic Melbourne
Photography: Clare Hawley (for 2015 Sydney Production)
Directors Notes
from the 2015 production
It’s not often you get the opportunity as an artist to show an audience exactly what it is that you do, to strip back any sense of glamour or romance and reveal the blood, sweat and tears that you pour into it. As Stephen Sondheim wrote in his own classic work on an artist, ‘Art isn’t easy.’
When we decided to tackle Terrence McNally’s Master Class last year (and ‘tackle’ is a good word for it), we did so for that reason, to show an audience what it is that we do. The cast and crew of this production come from so many corners of the performing arts, from independent theatre, professional theatre, musical theatre, opera and classical music, and together we wanted to say something about this great passion of ours, through the voice of a woman who represents the ultimate that art and its sacrifices can be.
In the year since the first production, our Arts Minister has taken an axe to our great passion. He has deemed the work of Australian artists unworthy of his definition of art and decided to cripple us. In bringing back Master Class, we want to respond to this. It offers us the chance to show what we do, how much we give to it and why, and with Maria Callas at the centre, to say so through the story of a woman in the arts, a powerful woman who refuses to be defined by the men in her life and her industry. If we’ve been deemed inadequate, then like Callas, we intend to bark back.
Being an artist is like any career. It requires skill, dedication and resilience. It might be harder to understand it for those on the outside (and I’m wary of anyone within it that says they understand it), but it doesn’t make it any less vital. Where on earth would the world be without us?
Poster image by Sarah Walker
Poster design by Daniel Lammin