The Practical Theatre Company Inc. is built on the principles of Practical Aesthetics, an acting technique and philosophy of the theatre devised by American playwright David Mamet (American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Winslow Boy) and actor William H. Macy (Fargo, Happy Texas, Magnolia).

Both Mamet and Macy are founders of the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. Many Australian actors have traveled to New York to study the technique at Atlantic, and many are now studying in Sydney with Practical Aesthetics Australia, which was founded by Andrea Moor and Melissa Bruder. Melissa is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company and co-author of A Practical Handbook for the Actor. Andrea is a well-known face on the Sydney stage, having performed over the last 22 years for STC, Griffin, Ensemble, Marion Street, and in countless television shows and films.

THE INTERNATIONALIST

SIX HOT SHOTS, A 24 HOUR THEATRE PROJECT

AN ADULT EVENING OF SHEL SILVERSTEIN

A savage and hilarious look at human relationships…

After 10 sell-out performances at Sydney's Tap Gallery in 2000, New York director Karen Kohlhaas re-staged her triumphant show: An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein at New York’s Atlantic Theater in October 2001. Now it’s finally had the Sydney season it deserves, and audiences lapped it up!

Shel Silverstein (1932 - 1999) is an American legend, most noted for his children's books, The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends. He was also prolific as a singer-songwriter (A Boy Named Sue, The Cover of the Rolling Stone, Ballad of Lucy Jordan), playwright, screenwriter (Things Change with David Mamet), poet, journalist and cartoonist (Playboy from the 1950s). An Adult Evening is a celebration of his wit and humour…

An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein is a collection of ten vivid shorts that use ingenious language to illustrate a bizarre series of relationships. A well-heeled woman is in denial about having taken the first steps to becoming a "bag lady." A husband and wife are in bed, enacting the wife's fantasy of a shipwreck in which the husband is forced to throw either her or his mother overboard. A father torments his daughter on her birthday with hints of bizarre gifts (a dead pony is just the beginning...) Silverstein creates a gleeful and macabre evening full of physical and verbal slapstick, sick twists on highly identifiable situations taken to a near psychotic fantasy level.

What the Sydney critics said:

“The Practical Theatre Company’s production is like watching an adult version of Sesame Street…see-sawing delight and utter devastation…fantastic. This show is a rollicking series of slapstick plays performed with a sense of life’s absurdity and human nature’s ridiculous foibles.”

Lenny Ann Low, Sydney Morning Herald review, June 2002.

"The acting is impressive throughout, often brilliant, matching or exceeding the writer’s talent. The difficult, diffuse, fast-moving program has been unerringly staged with New York director Karen Kohlhaas at the helm. Praise is also due to the courage and judgement of producers Melissa Bruder and Andrea Moor. This is the first venture of their newly-formed Practical Theatre Company."

Peter Morrison, The Australian Jewish News, July 2002

“It’s hilarious – a great evening at the theatre and a great laugh.”

Wentworth Courier, June 2002

“Punchy, sexy and funny…with passion and guts. Each piece was unique and refreshing, moving from the quirky and amusing in ‘Bus Stop’ to the hysterically funny in ‘Best Daddy.’ Brilliantly black wit and humour…Karen Kohlhaas’ direction was superb.”

Laura Scrivano, Vibewire, June 2002

... and the New York critics:

"Intermission sends the audience out with a clear appreciation of human nature as perverse and laughable. The show works as a fond tribute to an independent and eccentric intelligence"

Bruce Weber, New York Times, Oct 2001

"Even in the moments of bitter satire Silverstein presides and brings gentle light to the moment"

Roy Sorrels, NY, culturevulture.net, Nov 2001

"Silverstein's slight but technically polished skits cover various sexual and linguistic worries in a world that turns surreal or threatening with the least provocation"

David Cote, TimeOut, New York, Oct 2001

Cast:

Matt Boesenberg (Spurboard, ATYP/STC; All Saints), Rosie Fisher (Reclaim the Stage, ATYP; Stones in My Passway, Stables), Julian Garner (Head On; Wildside, ABC), Nick Hardcastle; (Girls’ Night Out; All Saints), Laura Keneally (BackBerner, ABC; Better than Sex), Tamara Lovatt-Smith (An Italian American Reconciliation, Downstairs Belvoir St. Theatre; Get Rich Quick), Ben Mathews (Student at Atlantic School, NYC), Asia Matthews (Academy, Channel 7; Killing Time), Shane Morgan (NippleJesus, Bondi Fringe Festival), Kate Reid (Night Mother, Darlinghurst Theatre; All Saints) Nadia Townsend (Four Dogs and a Bone, Stables Theatre; Headstart, ABC).

Set: Walt Spangler Lighting: Antony Deary Sound: Malcom Nicolls

Producers: Melissa Bruder & Andrea Moor

Director: Karen Kohlhaas

Karen recently directed the New York premiere of BOSTON MARRIAGE by David Mamet for the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, which opened in November 2002. In May 2002 she was associate director with David Mamet for RICKY JAY: ON THE STEM at the Second Stage Theatre, New York City. Karen has directed numerous other productions in New York and at highly respected regional theaters in America.

AN ADULT EVENING OF SHEL SILVERSTEIN -
Original PTC production directed by Karen Kohlhaas at
Tap Gallery, Sydney