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Stork Theatre
The Stork Theatre is an independent theatre company based in Melbourne, Australia. The Artistic Director is Helen Madden. Reference Group is Tassos Pilioussis, Diane Gardiner, Lawrie Groom, Angela Lynkushka, Ross Campbell, Michael Cronin Producers are Helen Madden and Paul Madden.

History
Helen Madden’s theatre crusade began with one idea in 1983 – to bring open air classical theatre to Melbourne in a uniquely Australian way- as part of a bilingual summer theatre festival. After extensive location searches across Melbourne, it was obvious that the Yarra riverbank landscape in Fairfield Park provided a natural amphitheatre. Importantly, it was also one of the hubs of the Greek community in Melbourne.

Helen experimented with the open-air bilingual theatre concept over two years. A pop-up scaffolding theatre was erected each season, staging a comedy and a tragedy on the same night – one in English and one in modern Greek. The drama extravaganza mirrored the Ancient Greek practice of staging open-air theatre as popular entertainment.

The First 5 years of the Amphitheatre
1983 opened with MEDEA in Modern Greek, directed by Nick Skiadopoulos, and LYSISTRATA, directed by Garry Down, in English. The following year saw the two programs reversed.

Meredith Rodgers directed the tragedy IPHIGENIA IN AULIS in English, and the comedy ECCLESIASOUZI, directed by Thannassis Papastergiou, was in Modern Greek. While audiences and reviewers were delighted, The Age quipped “Muddy Yarra not quite the Blue Med”.

The success of this new addition to Melbourne’s theatre scene led to the building of a permanent theatre on the site – supported by Northcote council and state and federal bodies and philanthropic trusts…

In 1985 Edmond & Corrigan Architects designed the 500-seat ‘bush amphitheatre’ to meet the most demanding theatrical needs while still preserving the natural environment. It was modeled on the 12,000 seat amphitheatre in Epidavros, southern Greece. The Northcote Amphitheatre Board was established by the Council with representation from the arts, local community groups and the corporate sector. The first Chairman was The Hon. Brian Howe, Member for Batman.

The bluestone used at the theatre was reclaimed from material that had been removed from Northcote gutters and lane ways. Playbox Theatre opened the first season of the permanent Amphitheatre with THIS ANTIGONE, directed by the renowned James McCaughey, in 1986.

In 1987 Helen brought the Attis Theatre Company’s production of THE BACCHAE from Greece to premiere at the Amphitheatre, then to the Athenaeum for the Antipodes Festival. The show outraged some audiences with a production notable for its brevity, violence and eroticism.

The Amphitheatre, now called the Fairfield Amphitheatre, at Heidelberg Rd, Fairfield Park, is used regularly for theatre and festivals.

Stork Theatre at the Stork Hotel
From 1999 Helen and Paul Madden developed Stork Theatre at their city hotel.

Popular performance readings of ancient Roman and Greek epics anchored every season. Inspired by Dennis Pryor, Melbourne’s most-loved classics luminary, the Stork presented Homer’s Odyssey or Illiad, or Virgil’s Aeneid, every year. All starred Melbourne’s leading academics, actors and artists. Classical works by ancient playwrights, commissioned adaptations, original scripts, and keynote works of Western literature were the bases of Stork Theatre works.

The Stork’s theatrical program stimulated other philosophic occasions.

Socratic Dinners

A monthly series of SOCRATIC DINNERS were hosted by Prof Stan van Hooft. At each dinner twelve guests battled the philosophic questions such as ‘What is Happiness?’ Dinner guests were challenged directly on their moral choices and were not allowed to leave until, in the spirit of Socrates, they discovered an agreed point on the moral dilemma.

University in the Pub

The Stork also held UNIVERSITY in the PUB philosophy hours on the ethics of the information Age – led by Dr John Lenarcic. Held in an interactive chat-show format, the surreal musings of an information systems philosopher and his guests were blended with a humorous hypothetical or two.

The Stork Hotel was no chichi café bar. It was an historical, unpretentious, Art Deco-style pub offering hospitality, budget accommodation and meals for travellers, locals, workers and students.

Programed by Neddwellyn Jones, The Stork had live music in the front bar five nights a week and for years the Stork front bar was a prolific breeding ground for up-and-coming artists such as Wally De Backer (Gotye).

Post Stork Hotel
With the hotel sold, the Stork Theatre was invited for a three-year residency in the grand mansion of the Alliance Francaise de Melbourne, the French language and cultural institute in St Kilda.

“The Stork Theatre has relocated from its longtime venue in the Stork Hotel in Elizabeth Street to the Alliance Francaise. The lines of sight in the space were not always perfect, and the seating was fairly basic, but there was something fundamentally and nakedly theatrical about the wonderful productions we saw there”. The Age Melbourne Magazine – April 2009 From 2009 – 2011 the Stork Theatre continued its channelling of great works of literature into finely tuned theatrical experiences and with the commissioning of new plays.

In 2013 the Stork Theatre returned to inner Melbourne, with a new Margaret Atwood playing having its Australian premiere at La Mama Courthouse.

Venues
The Fairfield Amphitheatre - set in the midst of Fairfield Park, is an impressive venue for performances and ceremonies. Alliance Française The Stork Hotel La Mama Courthouse

The Penelopiad
lling
 * La Mama Courthouse
 * Written by Margaret Atwood
 * Directed by Greg Carroll
 * Designed by Peter Corrigan
 * Starring Carolyn Bock, Jane Barry, Mia Landgren and Andi Sne

“5 out of 5 stars… a highlight of the year”. Time Out Magazine

Helen. Euripides

 * Alliance Française
 * Directed by Greg Carroll
 * Designed by Peter Corrigan
 * Starring Nicholas Colla, Adriana Bonaccurso and Wendy Bos

Anna Karenina

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Leo Tolstoy
 * Adapted by Judith Armstrong
 * Directed by Greg Carroll
 * Designed by Peter Corrigan
 * Starring Annie Last, Philip Hayden, Chloe Armstrong and and Nick Pelomis

“… as ambitious as it was impressive” The Age Melbourne Magazine

Marcel and Albertine

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Marcel Proust
 * Adapted by Colin Duckworth from In Search of Lost Time
 * Directed by Greg Carroll
 * Designed by Peter Corrigan
 * Starring Chloe Armstrong and Andrew van Oosterom

Crime and Punishment

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky
 * Adapted by Judith Armstrong
 * Directed by Alex Menglet
 * Starring Denis Moore, Benedict Hardie and Rebecca Bower

“4 out of 5 stars….Another admirable production from the Stork Theatre” The Age “4 out of 5 stars” The Herald Sun

Simone de Beauvoir

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Judith Armstrong
 * Directed by Justine Campbell
 * Starring Caroline Lee, Julia Harari, Ezra Bix and Merran Wickham

“… the femme fatale of feminism whose work is as pertinent now as when it was written” The Age Melbourne Magazine

The Red and the Black

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Stendhal
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Greg Carroll
 * Designed by Peter Corrigan
 * Starring Kate Kendall, Andrew Bongiorno and Hannah Norris

“4 out of 5 stars… a theatrical triumph” The Age

The Battle for Troy. Homer's Iliad

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Homer
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor
 * Read by Kate Kendall, Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Phil Cameron-Smith and Stewart Morritt

The Outsider

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Nicholas Pollock
 * Starring Lachlan Woods

“This is a new production of Duckworth’s lucidly direct and simple translation…” The Age Melbourne Magazine

Who Killed Emma Bovary?

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Gustave Flaubert
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth from Madame Bovary
 * Directed by Suzanne Chaundy
 * Starring Emmaline Carroll and Adrian Mulraney

Razing Hypatia

 * Alliance Française
 * Written by Jane Montgomery Griffiths
 * Directed by André Bastian
 * Starring Jane Montgomery Griffiths
 * Designed by Peter Mumford
 * Lighting by Stelios Karagiannis

The Odyssey

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Homer
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor
 * Read by Helen Morse, Jane Nolan, Rod Mullinar and Humphrey Bower

“…Helen Morse anchors the reading with her lustrous cadences” The Age

The Iliad

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Homer
 * Read by Helen Morse and Kate Kendall, Rod Mullinar and Richard Piper

The Outsider

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Laurence Strangio
 * Starring Matt Kelly

“4 out of 5 stars… Duckworth has extruded the crystalline beauty of Camus’ style” The Sunday Age “This fine production continues the Stork Hotel’s excellent program of intellectually challenging dramatic works” The Age “4 out of 5 stars… a marvellous production” The Sunday Age

The Lover

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Marguerite Duras
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Greg Carroll
 * Designed by Peter Corrigan
 * Starring Kate Kendall

“4 out of 5 stars…a monstrously gripping performance… breathtaking” The Sunday Age “fires with pain and passion” The Age

The Plague

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Alex Pinder
 * Starring Adrian Mulraney

“4 out of 5 stars” The Sunday Age

Marcel and Albertine

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Marcel Proust
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Emma Valente
 * Starring Nicola Gunn and Pier Carthew

“4 out of 5 stars” The Sunday Age “…genuinely moving” The Age

Sappho

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Jane Montgomery Griffiths
 * Directed by Alex Pinder
 * Starring Jane Montgomery Griffiths

“… Sappho speaks to the modern heart” The Age

The Iliad

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Performance Reading
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor

The Outsider

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Laurence Strangio
 * Starring Matt Kelly

The Fall

 * The Stork Hotel and the Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Adapted by Michael Cronin
 * Directed by Emma Valente
 * Starring Drew Tingwell

“…this is theatre at its most brilliant and evocative” The Age

The Plague

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Alex Pinder
 * Starring Adrian Mulraney, Josh Ryan and Jono Burns

“… Adrian Mulrany radiates the sort of magnetic serenity usually attributed to saints” The Age

Troy. The Iliad

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Homer
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor
 * Read by Dennis Pryor, Richard Piper, Caroline Lee, Kerry Greenwood and Ross Campbell

Dido and Aeneas

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor from the Aeneid by Virgil
 * Read by Caroline Lee, Neil Pigot, Ross Campbell, Chris Halliwell and Melissa Chambers

The Outsider

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Translated and Adapted by Colin Duckworth
 * Directed by Laurence Strangio
 * Starring Matt Kelly

The Odyssey in two parts

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Homer
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor
 * Read by Neil Pigot, Dennis Prior and Kerry Greenwood

La Douleur

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Marguerite Duras
 * Adapted by Laurence Strangio and Caroline Lee
 * Directed by Laurence Strangio
 * Starring Caroline Lee

“… another outstanding collaborative dramatization from Strangio and Lee” The Age

The Iliad

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Homer
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor
 * Read by Brian Lipson, Kerry Greenwood, Dennis Pryor, Alexander Madden and Christopher Halliwell

The Fall

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Albert Camus
 * Adapted by Michael Cronin
 * Directed by Amanda Douge
 * Starring Daniel Schlusser

“…the performance by Daniel Schlusser is marvellous, the text fascinating” The Age

Art and Eros

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Iris Murdoch
 * Directed by Lois Ellis
 * Composedby Lorraine Milne
 * Starring Michael Pearce, Rebecca Anderson, John Jacobs,
 * Deborah Robertson and Tina Forster

“It’s just terrific… a really interesting piece of theatre” ABC Radio 774 – The Sunday Show “Callistos takes on Plato in the back bar of The Stork… a notably gender-blind production” The Age

The Odyssey in three parts

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Written by Homer
 * Adapted by Dennis Pryor
 * Read by Neil Pigot, Dennis Pryor, Kerry Greenwood, Nicholas Whittington and Ross Campbell

Radclyffe Hall Gaily invites

 * The Stork Hotel
 * Created and Performed by Lois Ellis and Sara Hardy

The Bacchae. Euripides

 * Northcote Amphitheatre
 * The Attis Theatre Company, Athens
 * Directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos (in modern Greek)
 * Set and Costume Design by Giorgos Patsas
 * Starring Sophia Pitchal-Michopoulou, Kaliopi Tachsoglou, Kaludis Sakelariou, Giorgios Simeonidis, and Dimitris Siakaras

This Antigone. Sophokles

 * Northcote Amphitheatre
 * Translated by Julienne O’Brian
 * Directed by James McCaughey (Playbox Theatre Company)
 * Assistant Director Lois Ellis
 * Set and Costume Designer by Michael Pearce
 * Lighting Design by David Murray
 * Starring Terri Waddell, Catherine Lynch, Merfyn Owen, Alan Knoepfler, Reg Evans, Peter Finlay, Susie Fraser

Ecclesiasouzi. Aristophanes

 * The Amphitheatre.
 * Directed by Thannassis Papastergiou (in modern Greek)
 * Designed by Barbara Ciszewska
 * Music by Christos Ioanides
 * Starring Irene Pappas, Athanasios Makrigiorgos, Tereza Loizou, Rozalia Leonardou, Harry Tjives, Nikos Paidoussis and Xenia Groutas

“… an unrepentantly, high-spirited comedy – which provides no comprehension problems for an English speaking audience.” The Age

Iphigenia in Aulis. Euripides

 * The Amphitheatre.
 * Directed by Meredith Rogers (In English)
 * Designed by Barbara Ciszewska
 * Music by Christos Ioanidis
 * Starring Mary Sitarenos, Evdokia Katahanas, Peter Finlay, Chris Gaffney, Bernadette Ryan, Bernadette Fitzgerald, Karen Paton, Bruce Knappet, Alan Lovett and Christopher Barry

“It is an atmosphere – charged moment when dusk is falling, the first scene opens, the stage is bare and all the audience can hear is the sound of singing voices, far off down the river and the hypnotic sound of water swishing… and then canoes come round the bend. The messengers for the Greek army disembark and arrive on stage.” The Herald Sun

Lysistrata. Aristophanes

 * The Amphitheatre.
 * Written by Aristophanes
 * Directed by Garry Down (in English)
 * Music by Gary Down
 * Lighting Design by David Cohen
 * Set and Costume Design by Pierette Dudley-Hill and Gwenda Wiseman
 * Choreography by Marilyn Rodgers
 * Musician Ken Hutton
 * Starring Suzanne Dudley, Shane Bourne, Janet Andrewartha, Marilyn Rodgers, Denzil Howson, David Ashton and Fiona Spence

“Greek plays shine under the stars” The Age “.. Juxtaposing these two plays in different languages is a bold move…demanding of its audience …but a stimulating approach to popularizing Greek drama for a wider audience” The Age

Medea. Euripides

 * The Amphitheatre
 * Written by Euripides
 * Directed by Nick Skiadopoulos (in modern Greek)
 * Choreography by Lena Zamboura
 * Music by Dimitris Dragatakis
 * Set and Costume Design by Pierette Dudley-Hill and Gwenda Wiseman
 * Lighting Design by David Cohen
 * Starring Chantal Contouri, Michael Zachariou, Irene Cassimatis, Dimitris Kallis, Harry Tjives, Con Lara, Con Tsicaderis, Spiros Zachariou, Michael Karakaltsas, Dominic Grillo, Helen Christodoulou, Lee & Andrew Christodoulou and Danny & Chris Dellaportas
 * Chorus Tereza Loizos, Gina Grammatikou, Julia Gardiner, Eleni Tzaros, Susanna Lobez, Magdalena Simonis, Flo Maitland, Margaret Maragoudakis, Christine Gavrilidis