Media releases

Graduating students from the Federation University Arts Academy are set to deliver a double bill of productions during September at the Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre in Ballarat.

Warp and Woof by Edith Lyttleton opens Thursday, September 7 and is a naturalistic play in three acts, which is set in a dressmaker’s London salon and surrounds. The play stages the social concerns and romantic intrigues of the glittering classes, set against the lives of the young women whose labour makes their nightlife possible.

Later in the month, Motor-Mouth Loves Suck-Face an ‘apocalyptic musical’ written and directed by Federation arts lecturer Anthony Crowley opens on Wednesday, September 20. The production is billed as a musical comedy about hope, love and rebellion.

Motor-Mouth began as a play at St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre in 2007 and was developed as a musical at the Arts Academy in 2015. The show was produced at Chapel off Chapel in Melbourne in 2016, La Mama Courthouse (2018) and is published by Currency Press. So far, the show has employed over 16 Arts Academy graduates and emerging artists.

These productions mark the final time that the current cohort of graduating performing arts students from the University’s Arts Academy will perform on the public stage during their studies.  

Both productions will have daily shows over a six-day run at the Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre at Federation’s Ballarat Campus (Camp St) on Lydiard Street North. Tickets for both Warp and Woof and Motor-Mouth Loves Suck-Face can be purchased on Eventbrite.

Quote attributable to Federation University Arts Academy Director, Associate Professor Rick Chew

“We are delighted to present Warp and Woof and Motor Mouth Loves Suck Face as our final productions for our graduating performing arts company this year. These works will show the range and talent of our students in the best possible light as they progress in their various creative journeys.”