infinity & beyond

"The thing about performance, even if it’s only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities." - Daniel Day Lewis

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Fifty posts...

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One Eyed Girl Poster Character Campaign

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One Eyed Girl Poster Character Campaign

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G'day LA

My North American tour of Grug has come to an end. It's been an incredible 5 months and certainly an adventure I'll never forget. The five-year-old Matt could never have dreamed of performing in New York, with the haystack from Down-Under he loved so much.

Highlights included our month in New York, performing on 42nd Street with the wonderful people at The New Victory, relaxing in Savannah, and a week consumed by Chicago.

Now I've arrived in LA. I am currently fulfilling the dreams of fifteen-year-old Matt and loving it. Staying in Santa Monica was a definite win. I'm planning on an early morning beach run and a stroll by the pier. Having said that I'm absolutely exhausted and all I feel like doing is slipping into the land of nod. The weather isn't overly hot yet either. Despite it being June, apparently consistently warm weather won't kick in for another few weeks. According to locals, the mornings stay overcast until around 2pm when the sun peaks out from behind the clouds for a few hours. This pattern is affectionately known as June-Gloom.

Next week I'll be moving up into West Hollywood.

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Living The Dream

It's the first of March, the second leg of our tour, now in the United States and our third week living in New York City.

Apologies in advance for the humble bragging to follow. The only word I continue to fall upon when describing it to people is surreal. This city pules with energy and enthusiasm, with attitude and aplomb. One can't help but be affected and inspired by it.

We're performing on 42nd Street at the New Victory, right in the thick of it. It's utterly surreal waking up and walking ten minutes to work, on 42nd past bagel shops, specialty cafés, endless theatres, bright lights and billboards, steaming grills and street performers battling the snow.

I'm feeling very lucky to be living the dream at the moment.

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One Eyed Girl Teaser Trailer

The OEG Teaser Trailer is online and beginning to circulate. Get it out there and spread the word!

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The Next Adventure Begins

2012 was a year of the unexpected, filled with many highs and lows, twists and turns, new found friends and new experiences. When the year began I found myself working full-time in a music store, occasionally jumping into the odd corporate gig. By the end of the year I had moved house, performed in a series of challenging school shows, collaborated with some amazing artists on two other wonderful productions, completed a feature film, seen independent theatre company fivepointone move into a new exciting era, begun rehearsals for a future show and was still working in the music store. Back in January I would never have expected the year to end how it did. Having said this, being a freelance artist often means you will have a surprising year

Now we're a month into 2013 and I'm embarking on this year's first adventure. An ensemble of four artists are heading to The US and Canada with Windmill for a 5 month tour of Grug. Last year I was lucky enough to be offered a spot in this 2013 ensemble line up and jump straight into a weeks intensive rehearsal with Hamish, Ellen, Lisa and Sam (DIrector extraordinaire).

I'll be keeping a travel blog of all our american adventures. Check it out below... mattsamericanadventures.tumblr.com

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"Dirty, Urban, Cowboy Jazz"

If you live in Sydney, or happen to find yourself there in the next few weeks... you need to see The Share by Daniel Keene. It is an incredible play and certainly a unique theatrical experience. Directed by Corey McMahon and produced by Peter Gahan in association with five.point.one, The Share is a gritty and poetic glimpse at life on the streets for Tex and Sugar. Tex and Sugar are best mates. They’ve lived as vagrants together since they were kids. They are broke, bored and looking for trouble. Following a tip from a mysterious one-eyed kid, they plan a violent attack on a drug dealer and his dog. But who will get a share of the spoils?  The Share marks award-winning director Corey McMahon's Sydney debut. I've been lucky enough to work with Corey in the past, and I think Sydney is in for a treat! The cast is equally as exciting, featuring the talents of five.point.one ensemble member Scott Marcus, (returning to the role of Tex), the wonderful Tom Conroy as Sugar and Tim Spencer. In a recent GNN article, written by Garrett Bithall, Scott described The Share as "intense as it is funny.  The audience is placed very close to the action, which ranges from hilarious to brutal. It's like dirty urban cowboy jazz. The atmosphere is enveloping, but be prepared to feel uneasy.” The play by the award-winning Daniel Keene is accompanied by a live music score by Luke Greenhalgh. It runs from Nov 21 until Dec 8 at The Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. For more visit... http://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/the-share 

For Bithall's article The Share - GNN Image by Lauren Smeaton

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"If you are going to do stuff then you should be getting strong reactions. I don't want audiences to be going, 'Yeah, that's all right."

-Daniel Craig

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River Water

One of the great things about starting an Acting/Directing/Arts career in Adelaide is the amazing, tight-knit friendships and support network that you build. No matter where you go, there are always connections directly linking back home. Adelaide is also always reliable for bringing people back to collaborate and create work together again. Working on One Eyed Girl is wonderful for many reasons, one of them being that I have the chance to reunite and collaborate with people I haven't seen and worked with in years. Sara Jane West is one of these people. Over the last year her production company, Salvage Productions has been working on a brand new Short... River Water. Written and directed by Sara, with the generous support of the Flinders Drama Centre and the Helpmann Academy, River Water was shot in April 2012. This ambitious yet authentic film captures the best and worst of isolated South Australia in the 1970's. Set on the banks of the River Murray; River Water follows the story of Pigeon; a young girl trying to escape her family while trying desperately to find them.

With Richard Back as Director of Photography and a stunning new-comer cast, the team hope to gain exposure and send it to festivals around the world.  They are currently running a Pozible campaign to raise funds for finishing the sound mix and to help get it seen by as many people as possible. Visit the link below to find out more and lend a hand... http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/11177/description/0/0 

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One Eyed Girl

One Eyed Girl is a dark thriller about a thirty-something psychiatrist, Travis who is haunted by the death of his girlfriend. On the brink of a nervous breakdown he stumbles across a church run by a charismatic leader, Pastor Jay. In search of answers Travis is led deeper and deeper into the underworld of religious fanaticism, home to a Doomsday cult and a mysterious teenage girl named Grace. Directed by Nick Matthews, written by Nick Matthews and Craig Behenna and Produced by David Ngo, this is Projector Films' first feature.  Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be cast as Marcus, a 19 year old who has been living on the streets, enduring a tough life and personal traumas, only to be taken in by the church and promised salvation. The casting call went out via social media and casting agents for numerous roles. Marcus was one of them... since then Marcus has evolved into a pivotal role, fraught with a harrowing emotional journey and I'm thrilled to be working on it.  Filming has already begun. In fact it's about to begin it's third week. My first shoot date was a couple of weeks ago. It was exhausting but still a fun and cathartic experience. I'll keep the blog updated with pics and news as we go. For more visit www.oneeyedgirlthemovie.com  

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THURSDAY

Brink Productions joins forces with English Touring Theatre on a powerful new collaboration, Thursday. In Australia exciting new works of scale and ambition are rare because they are expensive and this is a reality we cannot ignore. To help Brink finally enter rehearsals confidently and fully-resourced they need your help to raise a further $13000. I’ve just made a pledge myself. Show your support for this incredible group and help them tell this story.

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THE 2012 READING SESSIONS

five.point.one decided to do something a little different this year. A project that had been discussed and engaged with much trepidation... something like this hadn't been done before. It was a mammoth undertaking... but too exciting to pass up!

The Reading Sessions: 14 play readings by 13 playwrights over 14 consecutive nights in September 2012 and run by a skeleton crew... But somehow fivepointone and our collaborating artists involved emerged out the other end of it unscathed and in fact reinvigorated. The process was this... In July we ventured into the land of social media, various arts and word-of-mouth channels to put out a call for exciting works by Aussie playwrights. The response was overwhelming, especially given the initial lack of information given about the project. We were looking to highlight and expose a myriad of Aussie pieces that hadn't been seen here and eventually uncover our 2013 season. It was also a chance to see and hear some gems performed by Adelaide talent. I have made many new friends and read a plethora of amazing plays by some incredible playwrights. Thank you to everyone who came and supported the project. Thank you to the playwrights for sharing your work. I look forward to fostering relationships with all the new artists I've met along the way and I'm very excited for next year!

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WATCH THIS SPACE

An article from today’s Adelaide Advertiser discussing the upcoming feature film One Eyed Girl and it’s young cast, including myself, Katy Cheel, Sebastian Freeman, Nic English and Lachie Wilson. This was taken during one of our first rehearsals, at the Japanese Gardens. 

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THE SHARE BY DANIEL KEENE

[artsquare]

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HELP SEND THE SHARE TO SYDNEY

EDITED BY  MATT CROOK

MUSIC BY MATT CROOK BASED ON LUKE ASHBY'S 'Misery Guts' and 'Leave It To E'

PRODUCTION STILLS BY CASSANDRA BACKLER, BEN FLETT & LAUREN SMEATON