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Zen Zen Zo is a Brisbane-based physical theatre ensemble at the forefront of contemporary performance and training in Australia. Founded in 1992, the company has continually produced edgy, innovative theatre experiences ranging from radical interpretations of classics to original new works.
Zen Zen Zo’s work is accessible and adventurous, drawing new audiences to the theatre. Their aesthetic was forged partly from the ancient Asian dance-theatre traditions, in which spirituality is at the fore, and partly in contemporary pop culture, where sound, light, movement and spectacle communicate meaning and ‘experience’ is the god.
The company has been at the forefront of the physical theatre movement in Australia for the past 15 years. They have drawn inspiration from the SITI Company, the Suzuki Company of Toga, La Fura Dels Baus, Dairakudakan, Complicite, Theatre de Soleil, The Sydney Performance Front, and Barrie Kosky.
They have developed a methodology that draws on many traditions in world theatre, primarily from the Artistic Directors' years spent living in Japan, as well as from the Australian peak-performance sporting world. The Suzuki Method of Actor Training, Butoh Dance-Theatre and The Viewpoints remain the core training systems taught by the company.
Lynne Bradley and Simon Woods have inherited these methods through extensive first-hand experience with the creators of these forms, and have been at the forefront of disseminating these innovative actor-training techniques around Australia.
Since 1998 Zen Zen Zo has been one of the providers of in-school training in Queensland, working with around 5000 school students annually.
In early 2005 Zen Zen Zo relocated to the Old Museum in Spring Hill with the assistance of a Brisbane City Council grant which acknowledged the company's ongoing contribution to the cultural life of Brisbane. That year Zen Zen Zo launched the annual IN THE RAW Studio Season program, designed to allow the company to get back to its raw and experimental roots. The first IN THE RAW Studio Season was the Butoh-inspired Those with Lucifer, performed at Sub-Station 4 (with Strut & Fret Production House). 2005 also saw Romeo & Juliet tour to Hong Kong.
2006 and 2007 brought the large-scale promenade performances of Sub Con Warrior 1 and the Matilda Award-nominated production Dracula, both playing to sold-out houses.
During this time the company also performed at the 8th World Shakespeare Congress, the Australian Business Arts Foundation State Awards, the Drama Australia Conference, the Coolum Kite Festival, iOrpheus at Southbank, The Golden Show with Dairakudakan in Japan, and in concert with the American band The Dresden Dolls in both Brisbane and London.
In 2008, after 16 years of operation and in acknowledgement of the company's contribution to the arts, Zen Zen Zo was awarded infrastructural funding from Arts Queensland.
In 2009, Zen Zen Zo presented three major works and five youth productions. GAIA was part of a collaboration with the oldest and largest Butoh company in the world, Dairakudakan, who Zen Zen Zo brought to Brisbane for the first time in early 2009. The Tempest was remounted in Brisbane to critical acclaim and included guest artists Bryan Nason and Emma Dean. The production went on to win the Matilda Award for Best Independent Production in 2009. In August Zeitgeist made its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, receiving a record seven 5-star reviews (more than any other show at the festival that year) and played at the popular C Venue for a month to mostly sold-out houses.
Over the progression of the company, Zen Zen Zo has developed a series of innovative, intensive programs, as well as offering year-round actor training classes for adults and young people. Zen Zen Zo's In-Schools Program, which has been in operation since 1998, is now one of the largest providers of drama workshops and residencies in Queensland. The company’s weekly actor-training classes, currently held in both Brisbane and Melbourne all year round, include Physical Actor Training (the Suzuki Method & Viewpoints), Butoh Dance-Theatre, and Youth Physical Actor Training (for 14-18-year-olds). Also, the Training Centre hosts Master Classes and short intensives with Guest Teachers in a range of performance training methods across a number of genres.
THE TEAM
Michael Futcher, Artistic Director
Helen Howard, Artistic Director
Drew Der Kinderen, Associate Director
Lynne Bradley, Training Centre Director
Merlynn Tong, Training Centre Manager
Damian Alexander Bernardo, Melbourne Training Centre Manager
Hannah Fox, Melbourne Training Centre Manager
Jena Prince, Senior Teacher
Lisa Worthington, Senior Teacher
Frances Marrington, Senior Teacher
Melissa Budd, Senior Teacher
Merlynn Tong, Junior Teacher
Oliver Skrzypczynski, Junior Teache
The Old Museum
Cnr Bowen Bridge Rd and Gregory Tce
Bowen Hills, Brisbane 4006
Queensland,
AUSTRALIA
info@zenzenzo.com
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.
“It has not been definitively proved that the language of words is the best possible language. And it seems that on the stage, which is above all a space to fill and a place where something happens, the language of words may have to give way before a language of signs whose objective aspect is the one that has the most immediate impact upon us.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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'M A Haridy' is an Egyptian Australian writer and theatre director, born in Cairo, Egypt. Now, he lives with his family in Melbourne, Australia. He is the executive editor, ‘ETO’ The International Experimental Theatre Organisation.
He had several published plays in Arabic, his play ‘Che Guevara' Preformed and produced in several countries. He directed several plays for the theatre in the United Kingdom and Egypt.
He is the first to introduce the modern American Theatre to Egypt. His production of Edward Albee play the ‘Everything in the Garden’ for the Egyptian theatre early 1970, won the acclaim and recorded by the Egyptian, TV and broadcasted through Middle-East.
He started his career as a journalist, worked for the leading two newspapers in Egypt. First 'El-Akhbar, as a police reporter, moved to become a roving reporter covering the nine upper of Egypt governorates from Cairo to Aswan to the border with Sudan.
Then as a roving reporter for North Africa and middle-East working for ‘El Ahram’ the largest newspaper in Middle-East. He was the first to report on the Libyan revolution and had the first interview with Muammar el-Gaddafi.
Arrested while he was visiting Libya for his writing about Gaddafi. Released after an international campaign led by Amnesty International.
After the success of his play 'Guevara’ he offered a scholarship to study theatre directorship in London, UK. After finishing his course, he joined TAT, Triple Action Theatre in London, and worked with Steven Rumbelow as assistant director and associate director in many productions such as; Faustus, Julius Caesar, Oedipus, Hamlet, Everyman, The Deformed Transformed, and many other. His production of Bertolt Brecht's 'The Baby Elephant’ at London, won the acclaim. He returned to Egypt to work in the theatre, during which he directed Edward Albee play the ‘Everything in the Garden’.
Later, he left Egypt and settled in Melbourne Australia. Now, he is a freelance writer and the executive editor for ‘ETO’ The International Experimental Theatre Organisation.
His English novel ‘FAITH'; the first in his trilogy, about Egypt and the Arab Spring ‘EL BAB’ will be published next year.
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