GLORIA - Three River Theatre
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THREE RIVER THEATRE
AND IO PERFORMANCE
PRESENT
GLORIA
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
WEDNESDAY 5th MAY to
SATURDAY 8th MAY 7:30pm
MATINEE SATURDAY 1:30pm
Directed by Georgie Todman
By arrangement with Music Theatre International (Australia), exclusive agent for
Dramatist Play Service, Inc.
Newstead College Auditorium, 30 Cypress Street, Newstead.
Welcome to Gloria...
Three River Theatre welcomes you!
On behalf of Three River Theatre, welcome to our first major production for
2021—and our first return to the theatre since the blank canvas that 2020 be-
came, thanks to COVID-19.
Gloria continues our tradition of giving the stage over to a sharply-written, witty
and confronting contemporary drama. The characters of this play navigate to-
wards, and then deal with consequences from, significant trauma, and Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins delivers us all into fascinating moral territory when it comes to
ownership of our stories and the right we have to benefit from them.
We would like to thank our good friends at IO Performance for partnering with us
in bringing this production to life. Their expertise, energy and commitment to ex-
cellence in theatre is something that Launceston’s cultural community will only
benefit from, and we have been thrilled to have worked with them again.
We hope you enjoy Gloria—please stay tuned on our Facebook page for news of
our next playreading on June 16th, featuring the debut work of an exciting local
playwright, Oliver Johns. And then in November, former Three River Theatre pa-
terfamilias Stan Gottschalk will bring the American classic Of Mice and Men to
the stage at the Earl Arts Centre.
Thank you again for your support.
Cameron Hindrum
President
Gloria
About The Play
Editorial assistant Dean stumbles into work, hungover from last night’s mortifying party
at Gloria’s house. Surrounded by his ambitious co-workers in their Manhattan maga-
zine office, the only thing that matters is how fast you can climb the journalistic ladder
of success and get your name in print. Today is just another ordinary day, until suddenly
it’s not and the stakes for who gets the story become higher than ever.
Act One: Spring 2015
Act Two (Scene 1): Autumn 2015
Act Two (Scene 2): Spring 2017
Run Time: 105 Minutes - including interval
Warning: This play contains confronting adult themes, simulated violence and is
suitable for ages 15 plus. See front of house for additional warnings/information
Cast
Gloria/Nan: Renée Bakker Lorin: Travis Hennessy
Miles/Devin: Mason Bennett Dean: Mitchell Langley
Sasha/Callie: Delia Breen Shawn/Rashaad: Jasper Tabuyo
Kendra: Georgia Heiniger Ani/Jenna: Sakura Walker
Act 1 : Miles, Ani, Dean, Kendra, Nan (voice), Gloria, Lorin
Act 2.1: Nan, Dean, Kendra, Shawn, Sasha
Act 2.2: Lorin, Nan Callie, Rashaad, Jenna, Devin
IO is back collaborating with Three River Theatre on their latest production:
Gloria.
Gloria is an incredible story of human interaction, how we navigate the re-
lentlessness of the daily grind and within that, lay our own plans for the
future. Gloria examines what happens, within us, when all of that goes out
the window in a crisis. After watching a run of Gloria, it was clear that the
cast and director, Georgie Todman, had taken the time to make each of
these people authentically real in a business that makes a profit from the
superficial. We were brought on as designers for this production and want-
ed to create this sense of mediocrity as well as hypocrisy through the set
design’s stimulus blocking aesthetic. The use of grey with the uniformity of
the space signifies the stereotypical office environment; a place where the
everyday is changeless and eternal… until it’s not.
We hope once seeing Gloria, you can analyse the human aspect of our ex-
istence and be more aware of our differences and similarities as we navi-
gate our, sometimes tumultuous, paths. You go away with the reminder of
how we treat our circumstances and each other.
Thank you for supporting Three River Theatre!
With a proud 65-year history, Three River is dedicated to the best of community theatre: Excellent
productions, energising social events and great company.
The Three River Theatre Committee are as follows and the Gloria team thank them for their sup-
port and tireless work in relation to producing this show:
Cameron Hindrum (President) Ant Butchart
Georgie Todman (Vice President) Johanna Breen
Pauline Robson (Financial Officer) Delia Breen
Debbie Parish (Secretary) Amanda Dawes
Jonathan PedlerFrom the Director... Three River Theatre in collaboration with IO Performance are invigorated to be presenting Branden Jacob- Jenkins multi award-winning play, Gloria. Originally slated for a season in 2020, we feel blessed to have relaxed Covid-19 restrictions and have retained most of our original team for the production you shall see tonight. Gloria is a contemporary text with something extraordinary to say about our fractured, ferociously ambi- tious, media-saturated world. The characters are beautifully nuanced and grossly dislikeable at times and it has been a challenge to unpack this whip-cracking and confronting script. The dialogue feels very au- thentic and often characters talk over the top of each other, not unlike many vibrant offices I have shared over the years. I have been awed and inspired by the exceptional skill of the acting team, who have been very generous in their delivery of Jacobs-Jenkins modern and scathing dialogue, and their commitment in developing the complex and flawed characters you will witness tonight, not to mention most actors play more than one role. I will warn you, Gloria can be assaulting as a play text. Gloria begins as a satire of 20-somethings in the office and suddenly becomes a dissection of ambition, misery and the desire to be heard. As an educator of young people and an avid consumer of media, I knew from the moment I sat down to watch a produc- tion of Gloria at MTC three years ago, that I would bring this play to Tasmanian audiences. I have found more recent debates over who should pay for journalistic content online fascinating and Gloria manages to offer a scathing insight into why we are in the place we are now (even though it starts in 2015). We are living in an increasingly user-created digital world and young people, in fact all people (through their socials such as Instagram and Tik Tok) seem to be vying for human connection and for their 15 minutes of fame and the question still remains, at what cost? GEORGIE TODMAN... Director Georgie completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts with a major in Theatre and English at UTAS and has had a long-standing relationship with theatre. Creative highlights include co-writing the musical Happy Me, which received funding to tour 13 locations in Tasmania, and publishing a co -written script One, Two Three, Home through Australians Plays. Other theatrical high points include performing in productions such as God of Carnage (Three River), The Last Five Years, When the Rain Stops Falling and Hayfever (Centrstage) and Les Mis- erables, Assassins, Little Shop of Horrors with Launceston Musical Society, Launceston Players and Encore. Georgie more recently loves to get behind the scenes and has directed Something Natural but very Childish (Centrstage), Dusty - The Original Pop Diva (LMS) and was assis- tant director for We Will Rock You (Encore). Her production of Killer Joe for Three River received the Best Production Award (Community) at the Tasmanian Theatre Awards in 2019 and she has been thrilled to return to directing for Three River with this production of Gloria. Georgie is a Drama and English teacher at Brooks High, is on the Three River Theatre committee, is the Creative Director of the Tamar Valley Writers Festival and is on the social committee for Friends of Theatre North.
About the playwright... Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a self-described ‘bookish’ child, grew up in a community in Washington DC where theatre and perfor- mance were at the forefront of the social agenda. He read every copy of The New York- er he could find, handing over a dime at the public library for old issues as often as he could. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins received a BA (2006) from Princeton University and an MA (2007) from New York University, and he is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Ameri- can Playwrights Program at Juilliard (2014). His plays have been performed at such ven- ues as Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3, Soho Rep, the Public Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, and Center Theater Group, among many others. He is a playwright drawing from a range of contemporary and historical theatrical genres to engage frankly with complicated issues around identity, family, class and race. Many of Jacobs-Jenkins’s plays use an historical lens to satirise and comment on modern culture, particularly the ways in which class, ambition and race are negotiated in both private and public settings. Although the provocation of his audience is purposeful, Jacobs-Jenkins’s creation of unsettling, shocking, often confrontational moments is not gratuitous; these elements are of a piece with the world he has established on stage and in the service of the story he is telling. With Gloria (2015), Jacobs-Jenkins returns to the naturalistic play, using the biting satire of the comic drama to explore the stratified, competitive world of the modern workplace and its sometimes fatal consequences. In these and other works, Jacobs- Jenkins’s subversive, fearless and risky approach is challenging audiences to reconsid- er the integrated spaces we share and to reflect on opportunities for sympathetic con- nection.
Production Team...
Director: Georgie Todman
Stage Manager: Shawna Collins
Lighting Design: Chris Jackson
Set Design: Georgie Todman and Grace Roberts
Set Construction: Grace Roberts, Chris Jackson, Shawna Collins
Sound Design: Georgie Todman and Chris Jackson
Original Composition: Travis Hennessy (Glitter Witch)
Special Effects: Chris Jackson and Grace Roberts
Vocal Coaching/Accents: Travis Hennessy
Technical Operators: Chris Jackson, Grace Roberts, Shawna Collins
Program: Debbie Parish
Photos: Grace Roberts
Publicity Manager: Georgie Todman and Pauline Robson
Ticketing: Pauline Robson
Front of House Manager: Cameron Hindrum and Three River Theatre
Bar Manager: Cameron Hindrum and Three River Theatre
Ushers: Cameron Hindrum, Sheryl Neasey,
Nick Cummings, Joh Breen, Jonathan PeddlerGLOSSARY OF TERMS
Gloria is set in the world of publishing a media and mentions some American places
and abbreviations that might be unfamiliar. Below are some terms that might assist.
Edit: department that prepares edition for Harper Collins: HarperCollins Publishers is
publication, by correcting, revising, or one of the world's largest publishing compa-
adapting. nies.
Copy: written material, in contrast to photo- YA Crossover: YA is abbreviation for the
graphs or other elements of layout. Copy Young Adult novel genre, novels are consid-
Editor checks readability, fitness, facts. ered crossover when the publisher is hop-
ing to reach not only teenage readers, but
Sample Sale: where brands sell their trial-
adult readers as well.
run clothing to consumers for a very limited
time, also includes overstock and past sea- Cortado: drink of espresso coffee with a
son merchandise small amount of steamed milk.
By-Line: a printed line of text accompanying Option: an option is an agreement where a
an article, giving the author's name. writer (of a novel usually) gives a production
company/network/screenwriter the exclu-
Editor In chief: the editor-in-
sive rights to try and produce/shop the
chief determines the look and feel of the
movie version
publication, has the final say in what is pub-
lished and leads the publication's team Packaging: tying multiple creative elements
of editors, copy editors, and writers. to a film project to assist in gaining $$.
Those elements can be actors, directors,
Associate Editor: the next step af-
producers etc.
ter Assistant Editor. Associate Editors are
usually responsible for writing and/or as- Profiling: a written portrait of a person. Of-
signing stories to other writers, ten, a profile is published as a narrative non
-fiction article in a magazine. The story is
Ghost Writer/Ghost Editor: A ghost writer or
based on facts discovered through research
editor creates or edits written content that
as well as interviews.
is published in another person's name.
FSG: abbreviation of Far-
Pasadena: Pasadena is a city in Los Ange-
rar, Straus and Giroux. An American
les County, California, United States.
book publishing company,
. LSATs: initialism for Law School Admission
Test.
J School: abbreviation of Journalism School.The Cast...
RENEE BAKKER... Gloria/Nan
Renée Bakker studied Performing Arts at the Water-
front Theatre School in Cape Town, and then pursued
a postgraduate degree at the Guildford Conserva-
toire, UK. Her multicultural and multilingual upbring-
ing allowed Renée to pursue numerous roles on
stage, and in front of the cameras.
Her stage credits include Oklahoma!, Sailor Beware,
Canterbury Tales, and recently, the award-winning
Anatomy of a Suicide with IO Performance. Alongside
her acting career, Renée’s been teaching drama for
fifteen years, and has directed numerous plays and
musicals across three continents.
Since moving to Tasmania, Renée has been the Jun-
ior Company Director at LYTE, and founded Bakker
Productions; a company that runs theatre programmes for children. Renée brings a breadth of
experience in acting and directing children’s theatre and is passionate about the role theatre
can play in the development of young people.
MASON BENNETT... Miles/Devin
Mason has just recently graduated from Scotch Oakburn College in 2020, studying dra-
ma and theatre in his final two years.
Whilst at Scotch Oakburn, Mason was a part of a
number of shows such as A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (2017), Avenue Q (2018) and Away
(2019).
During 2020 Mason was a ensemble member in
Encore Theatre’s Mamma Mia, that was sadly
postponed due to COVID-19.
As a keen acting and film enthusiast, Mason
hopes to pursue acting in the future. He is cur-
rently working through 2021, in hopes to support
himself through acting school, possibly in 2022
on the mainland.The Cast...
DELIA BREEN... Sasha/Callie
Delia first fell in love with the theatre at the ripe
old age of four thanks to Launceston Youth Thea-
tre Ensemble. Since then, she has seldom missed
an opportunity to be on or near the stage.
She has appeared in 11 years’ worth of produc-
tions with LYTE- including The Wizard of Oz,
Around the World in 80 Days, and Animal Farm.
Her other acting credits include Flashdance, Ar-
gonautika (Launceston College), The Season at
Sarsaparilla and Our Town (Three River Theatre).
She has also appeared in various play readings
for Three River and is a current board member.
Delia has assistant-directed several works for the
junior company of LYTE, most recently Twist! un-
der Renée Bakker. She is set to appear in Grease as Miss Lynch (Launceston College)
and Kill Climate Deniers (IO Performance) later this year.
GEORGIA HEINIGER... Kendra
Georgia Heiniger graduated from the University of Tasmania’s Tasmanian College of the
Arts (TCoTA) in 2013 with a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts Theatre. Extending her act-
ing training in Sydney, she graduated from
Screenwise in 2016 with a Diploma of Screen
Acting.
Georgia’s experience spans multiple mediums
from theatre festivals Short + Sweet Sydney
(2017), Mudlark Theatre’s One Day (2013,
2019, 2020) to musical The Hard Boiled Egg
(2014), stage Motel (2014), feature length film
The Grey Areas (2015), short film Lies (2016)
and voice over Janet King (2016). This is Geor-
gia’s first time on stage with Three River Theatre
and her second time working with IO Perfor-
mance following 2019’s Very Still and Hard to
See, directed by Caitlin McCarthy.The Cast...
TRAVIS HENNESSY... Lorin
Travis is a graduate of the Victorian College of the
Arts (PG Dip Voice) and has a BA and MA in Theatre
(UTAS). He is the recipient of two Tasmanian Theatre
Awards for acting in community theatre (Outstanding
Supporting Actor - Killer Joe, 2018; Outstanding Lead
Actor - 1984, 2019). Travis works as a freelance pro-
fessional Actor, Musical Director, Musician, Compos-
er, Voice Coach, Tutor and Arts Educator in Tasmania.
Already in 2021, Travis has appeared in Caravan
Boat Treehouse (Mudlark Theatre), and following Glo-
ria, Travis will appear in Become The One (IO Perfor-
mance). Travis is also one of the core creatives for
Launceston College’s major musical Grease. Previous
acting credits include: Angry Men (Three River,
2016), I am a Lake (Mudlark, 2016), Wicked (Encore, 2017), Killer Joe (Three River, 2018),
1984 (Launceston Players, 2019), It Happened One Day (Mudlark, 2019), The Gloaming
(Stan Network, 2019).
MITCHELL LANGLEY... Dean
Mitchell has been involved in the local theatre scene for the last decade and credits his
passion for performing to his degree, the Bachelor of Contemporary Arts, where he ma-
jored in theatre.
Since graduating, Mitchell has been an active
member of the Launceston theatre community.
Some of his past acting credits include Killer Joe
(Three River/IO Performance), Disclosed (Three
River) and Twelve Angry Men (Three River),
Something Natural But Very Childish
(CentrStage) and Bengal Tiger at The Baghdad
Zoo (CentrStage).
Mitchell has thoroughly enjoyed sinking his teeth
into the role of Dean and hopes the audience en-
joys this gritty piece of theatre.The Cast...
JASPER TABUYO... Shawn/Rashaad
Jasper Tabuyo graduated Launceston College in
2019 where he started his acting career. Since
then Jasper has been involved in numerous plays
and musicals such as Launceston Colleges’ Pro-
duction of Matilda the Musical, where he played
Bruce Bogtrotter, and in the previous year’s Jesus
Christ Superstar as a featured role. Jasper has
also performed in the Australian Musical Theatre
Festival and Festivale as a singer/songwriter for
numerous years.
Gloria is Jasper’s first play experience outside of
school. He has had such an enjoyable time in the
rehearsal process and is very excited to share this
story with you. He hopes you have just as good a
time watching tonight’s performance.
SAKURA WALKER... Ani/Jenna
Sakura is originally from Burnie, Tasmania and moved to Launceston three years ago to
complete her UTAS Bachelor of Contemporary
Arts Degree. She was a part of many shows with
UTAS such as ITechnical Crew...
SHAWNA COLLINS... Stage Manager
Shawna grew up in and around the Launceston theatre community. This
was fostered when she began studying and performing with LYTE, where
she starred in shows such as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
(White Witch) and Alice: Through the Looking Glass (Tweedledumb.) In
2015, she was awarded best actress at the Deloraine Theatre Festival
and following her graduation from SOC, she performed in A Midsummer
Nights Dream (Titania) and The Laramie Project (Various) under the
guidance of Georgie Todman and Marcus Bower. Shawna went on to do
work with the University of Tasmania, where she discovered her passion
for technical theatre. Shawna has had a close working relationship with
IO Performance and Three River Theatre for around 3 years now and
cannot wait for you to see what they bring to the office, with this produc-
tion of Gloria.
CHRIS JACKSON... Technical Designer
Chris holds a BCA Theatre, MCA performance-making and theatre, and
MFA performance/theatre-making and actor training. He has worked in
various capacities across the theatre and performance sector including:
Directing, Writing, Acting, Performance Art, Production, Designer and Mu-
sic. His work has seen local, state, national and international stages. He is
co-founder and co-artistic director of IO Performance.
His highlights include: Actor - Dancing Back Home (JUTE/Mudlark), Per-
former - Borders (Ihos /Junction), Assistant Director - Barbarians (Ihos /
MONAFOMA), Actor - Savages (Persona Collective/Junction); Performer -
Artaud Defacteau (OzFrank), Vision Designer - Relax The Chimp
(TasDance/JUNCTION), Actor - Islamophilia (NextStage/MTC); Performance
Artist - PANOPTICON-Horizons (Dark MOFO), Actor - Blood Brothers (Encore). Chris has also been
recognised by the Tasmanian Theatre Awards in 2017 for Best Design Professional Theatre - I
Am A Lake (Mudlark), and in 2020 for Outstanding Direction - Anatomy of a Suicide (IO) and Out-
standing Sound Design - Iron (IO).
GRACE ROBERTS... Technical Designer
Grace is a past graduate of the UTAS theatre course. She recently com-
pleted her Masters of Fine Arts in post-dramatic theatrical design and
scenography, focussing on audience placement within a design in 2017.
Grace’s jobs in the industry include: Production Manager for Launceston
Youth Theatre Ensemble, Lecturer at the University of Tasmania, Former
Lecturer at Charles Sturt University and Co-Artistic Director/Producer of
IO Performance. Grace has also been involved in many other theatrical
productions in different capacities, from Lighting Designing for O; The
Tragedy of Ophelia (2018), Set designing and acting for Killer Joe (2018),
Projection Design, Stage Manager and Assistant Director for I Am a Lake
(2016-2017), Acting for Wild (2018), Acting for Anatomy of a Suicide
(2019) and for several productions worked as the makeup artist. Grace
has worked with such theatre companies as Three River Theatre, Relevant Theatre, Launceston
Players, Mudlark Theatre and Blue Cow Theatre.Acknowledgements...
Three River wishes to acknowledge the following individuals and organisa-
tions for their invaluable assistance:
Lyndon Riggall TasVillas Group
Newstead College Gill and Fred Todman
Examiner Newspaper Alicia Mueller
Dana Andrews Tom Butler
ABC Northern Tasmania Richard Cetti
BJ King Launceston College
Chilli FM Stuart Heiniger
Dan Taylor Coopers Brewery
Alarna Hingston Michael Mason
Debra Scott Cafe Mondello
Simone Rigby Original cast members: Rae
Smith, Tansy Gorman, Troy
Christine Gilmore
Ridgway and Anne Riley
Nelson Clay
And all those unknown at the time of printing.Keep up to date at
www.facebook.com/threerivertheatre/
https://www.facebook.com/ioperformanceco
CONTACT THREE RIVER THEATRE
Three River Theatre Inc.
PO Box 1377, Launceston, TAS, 7250
3rivertheatre@gmail.com
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