Music Theatre and Interactive Composition present Mongrel: “a mind-bending rabbit hole to behold”
By Sarah Hall
Next week, third year Music Theatre and Interactive Composition students will present Mongrel. ‘Mongrel’ — a series of mixed-breed, interdisciplinary cabaret and variety performances, with no predetermined styles or conventions.
Ross Hannaford, third year coordinator for Music Theatre, describes Mongrel as “watching a fish swim in the sand on a snowy mountain top inside a pyrolytic oven; a mind-bending rabbit hole to behold.”
The Mongrel collaboration between the two disciplines began in 2016, following a conversation between Head of Interactive Composition Mark Pollard and then-Head of Music Theatre Margot Fenley. They imagined that Mongrel would be an opportunity for third year students to push the boundaries of what Music Theatre and Interactive Composers could be and become together. It is an opportunity for students to make new and original works outside of stylistic expectations and foster interdisciplinary relationships.
“Each year I marvel at the creativity and ingenuity of our students as they share their perspectives on our rapidly changing world,” says Ross.
MQ, currently in their third year of Interactive Composition, is working alongside three other Interactive Composition and four Music Theatre students, on one of the four shows to feature in this year’s line-up, ‘Mars attacks the human psyche: an unauthorised sequel’.
The work is about human susceptibility to conspiracy theories and paranoia.
“We're looking at that through a lens of aliens and what the hell they've been up to on Planet Earth when we aren't watching.”
MQ says working with the Music Theater students has been an amazing collaborative process.
“I think it's really enhanced a lot of the quality of the music that we —the IC students— have been able to bring to the table. We're constantly asking, ‘what purpose in the story does this music convey? What things do we need to think about here that the audience needs to understand?’"
Mongrel brought up new and novel compositional opportunities and challenges for Interactive Composition students.
“One of the fun challenges, I guess, was … knowing what each of our group members was individually skilled at and using those to our advantage.”
“I'm personally big on writing lyrics and video game music and stuff like that. There's another member of our group, for instance, who writes a lot of big band pieces. So, we wrote into our Mongrel script, a scene that uses video game music and a scene that uses big band music.”
From a Music Theatre perspective, Mongrel pushes students to write their own music and think about the form in new ways. Music Theatre mentor Maude Davey says Mongrel invites students to “consider ways of experiencing the world we have not encountered before.”
“For some students Mongrel is their first foray into making work. For Music Theatre students particularly it’s a chance to explore their own voices – what do I want to make, what do I want to say?”
“Sometimes the collaboration between Music Theatre students and Interactive Composition students produces lasting professional relationships,” she says.
Chloe Stojanovic is a Music Theatre performer in the Mongrel show ‘Missed the Memo’, a polyphonic comedy-tragedy of errors featuring a rising jazz artist Connie Lingus and a talk show host with an ulterior motive.
Chloe says working on Mongrel has helped her to develop and expand upon her artistic perspective and style.
“This unique collaborative and generative context has allowed me to build upon my training as a performer by investigating my interests as an actor-creator.”
“Working alongside the Interactive Composition students has provided invaluable insight into collaborative practice with creatives from a wide range of artistic backgrounds,” she said.
Chloe describes this year’s Mongrel showcase as “fresh, thought-provoking and absolutely hilarious!”
In addition to ‘Missed the Memo’ and ‘Mars attacks the human psyche: an unauthorised sequel’, this year’s Mongrel program features ‘Meet us at the clocks’ and ‘The Troupe’. ‘Meet us at the clocks’ explores stories of love, rivalry and ambition you’d never noticed behind the commuter throng at the Flinders Street station.
‘The Troupe’, works on the assumption that there’s no funding for the arts and audiences want to watch content they already know. The Troupe premiere tasters from five brand new musicals making their World Debut: Dentistry’s Child, Traffic Lights, Dogs: The Musical, RENT Inspection and Lights, Camera, Hostage.
MQ suggested that being an audience member at Mongrel could be “the same energy, I guess, as seeing a streaker running past you on Elizabeth Street.”
“It's like this is something that you would not normally see in your day-to-day life.”
“It's this sort of condensed, powerful energy of something that is at once socially taboo and exciting and invigorating. I think there's a real freedom to it in a way.”
Catch Mongrel at the Grant Street Theatre on Tuesday 4 April and Wednesday 5 April. Tickets via EventBrite.