Ylaria Rogers took on a challenge not for the faint of heart. Using her own money and funds raised through Kickstarter, she established the semi-professional Heart Strings Theatre Company to give work to theatre people in Canberra.
The company's first production will be the award-winning Broadway satire Urinetown: the Musical.
Rogers, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Music, is both producing and directing the musical. Her aim was to pay those involved - including the band and cast - a flat fee and a share of any profits. To this end, ticket prices will be on multiple levels: audience members can pay extra with a designated amount at each price point "guaranteed to go to artist", according to the ticketing site.
The production was one of many disrupted by COVID last year.
"Lockdown happened three weeks before we were due to open," Rogers said.
Four of the 12 cast members had to be replaced but rehearsals began anew several weeks ago and, all going well, the show will open on schedule.
Urinetown is set in a world that has undergone a 20-year drought. To save water, people must pay to use public toilets owned by a giant corporation, Urine Good Company. But there are signs that rebellion against the repressive regime is imminent.
"It's a takeoff on musical theatre," Rogers said, adding that even those who don't like musicals could enjoy the show's sociopolitical satire and mockery of cliches of the genre.
Among the cast is Karen Vickery, who was trained and taught at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Vickery will play Officer Lockstock, the show's quasi-narrator. Having formed her own profit-sharing theatre company, Chaika Theatre, recently and like Rogers, having worked as a professional actor, Vickery was supportive of Heart Strings and happy to be a part of the production.
"I like that it's a thinking person's musical," Vickery said.
"I think it's the fourth musical I've done in my career."
She was attracted by the self-aware and satirical nature of the show.
Joel Horwood, trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Art, and Petronella van Tienen, a Victorian College of the Arts graduate, play the show's leads, Billy and Hope.
Both have worked in profit-sharing theatrical ventures interstate that made money and paid those involved.
Horwood hoped that Heart Strings would succeed and inspire similar ventures to bolster the local theatre industry so actors didn't feel they had to leave Canberra to pursue professional opportunities.
Although profit-sharing productions tend not to be lucrative or numerous enough provide a living wage, van Tienen said, "It's something you do for the love of it- I've learned so much working on plays with different directors."
- Urinetown: the Musical is on at the Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre from July 14 to 16 and 20 to 24. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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