Clovelly Fox Productions

Elegies: A Song Cycle

Uncovering Elegies

When it came time to eventually create my own company, I was never going to do “My Fair Lady”.

Don’t get me wrong, I love ‘My Fair Lady’ (and my parents would’ve been thrilled), but so many of those shows feel too rigid in form to truly engage with, in a new way. If I was going to get creative and collaborate with our best artists on something I believed in, I knew it would be on a piece that allowed us the space to reinvent it.

ELEGIES was performed for the first time in 2003, at the Lincoln Centre in New York, sung by five Broadway performers around piano in cabaret gowns and Broadway sized hair styles. The genesis of the piece can be traced to a particular song, requested of William Finn by a dying friend to sing at her funeral. It’s hard to say what led Finn to expand this idea into an evening of commemorative songs for so many people who had touched his life, but certainly the immense loss associated with the September 11th terrorist attacks, proved the catalyst to bring them all together.

A song cycle is made up of a series of songs hung together thematically, not narratively. Elegies centres around loss and community, whether it be the Korean restaurant that held a familial space, the loss of a mother, the collective loss of the AIDS epidemic or even the loss of literature! This is a series of stories, captured through an artist unfettered by a rigid form, to represent the people who have shaped him. We likened it to uncovering the artifacts of one’s life in an abandoned warehouse. Various communities are created and captured, be it defined by artistic pursuits, common sexuality, religious boundaries or familial connection and though specifically written, they could be our own communities.

Having loved this show, for many years, it was only when considering a sixth role in the show that I became intrigued in how to stage it.

I was drawn to the question of why someone would create something like this? And that someone is the composer – William Finn, an artist who narrates this piece with one perspective, shared across five actors (often at the same time!). He is referred to by name- and frequently given license to reflect on the writing of the very show we are watching! (Finn literally critiques the form from within it, with lines such as, “Whatever THIS is, he’d hate it!”)

I come from a family of artists. My younger brother, Grant is a successful visual artist, my older brother Trent is a much acclaimed photographer – whose images are used in tonight‘s performance. All three of us became artists when we suffered the childhood loss of our mother. It was in that moment that we went from people who could draw, sing or photograph, to people who had something to say through drawing, songs, and photography.

There is a particular idea of death and dying that is attributed to traditional Mexican culture. In it, a person is described as dying three times; the first, when they take their last breath, the second when laid to rest, and finally, when the last person alive utters their name. At that point, a person is lost to time. This is all too familiar to me. It’s a sobering thought but in some way, we are kept alive by the people who remember us, and I think that is what Bill Finn- consciously or not – is doing here. He is actively holding on to people and keeping them alive through this music. Each person’s essence is embodied in a song, and the pursuit of this, is central to our production.

Song List

Looking Up Quintet – Full Company
Mister Choi & Madame G – Anton Berezin and Company
Mark’s All-Male Thanksgiving – Glenn Hill and Company
Only One – Nadine Garner
Joe Papp – Marty Alix, Anton Berezin and Glenn Hill
Peggy Hewitt & Mysty del Giorno – Marty Alix and Company
Passover – Kerrie Anne Greenland and Company
Infinite Joy – Nadine Garner
The Ballad of Jack Eric Williams (and other 3-named composers) – Anton Berezin with Marty Alix and Glenn Hill
Elevator Transition – Full Company
Dear Reader – Nadine Garner and Kerrie Anne Greenland
Monica & Mark – Marty Alix, Anton Berezin and Glenn Hill
Anytime (I Am There) – Kerrie Anne Greenland
My Dogs – Marty Alix
Venice – Glenn Hill
14 Dwight Ave., Natick, Massachusetts – Nadine Garner and Marty Alix
When the Earth Stopped Turning – Marty Alix
Goodbye/ Boom Boom – Full Company
Looking Up – Anton Berezin
Goodbye (Finale) – Full Company

Cast

Marty Alix

Marty Alix

(he/they)
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Anton Berezin

Anton Berezin

(he/him
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Nadine Garner

Nadine Garner

(she/her)
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Kerrie Anne Greenland

Kerrie Anne Greenland

(she/her)
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Glenn Hill

Glenn Hill

(he / him)
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Creative Team

Tyran Parke (he/him)

Tyran Parke (he/him)

Director
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Vicky Jacobs (she/her)

Vicky Jacobs (she/her)

Musical Director
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Freya List (she/her)

Freya List (she/her)

Movement / Musical Staging
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Mikailah Looker (she/her)

Mikailah Looker (she/her)

Set / Costume Designer
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Tom Vulcan (he/him)

Tom Vulcan (he/him)

Lighting Designer
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Jack Scandrett

Jack Scandrett

Sound Designer
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John Scandrett

John Scandrett

Sound Consultant
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Martyn Coutts (he/him)

Martyn Coutts (he/him)

Projection design
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Lara Gabor (she/her)

Lara Gabor (she/her)

Projection Design
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Production Team

Lexie Jaensch (she/her)

Lexie Jaensch (she/her)

Stage Manager
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Jasmine Doak aka ‘Cool Plane Lady’ (she/her)

Jasmine Doak aka ‘Cool Plane Lady’ (she/her)

Production Manager
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Zan Reynolds

Zan Reynolds

Sound Assistant
Pella Gregory

Pella Gregory

Producer

Production Images

Photography Credit to Ben Fon

Thank Yous

Pella Gregory, Professor Emma Redding, all at the Victorian College of the Arts, particularly the Music Theatre Department, Simon Mumme, Cool Plane Lady, Queenie van de Zandt, Rowan Witt, Kim Ransley, Cameron Lukey and all at 45 Downstairs, Cool Plane Offspring, Zan Reynolds, Sam Leaman, Finn Woodlock, Lyndall Dawson, Bridget a’Beckett, Company 23 VCA

Why Clovelly Fox?

Storytelling is pretty much a religious pastime to me. As long as I can remember, I have wrapped my world inside of certain narratives – those conscious and unconscious – and then spent my life excavating the stories of others.

A good deal of my time developing as a director was spent in the beach-side suburb of Clovelly. Late at night, after a long day’s rehearsal, I would often record notes – my fingers can’t keep up with the speed of my thinking when I try and transcribe the thoughts! The problem was that I had various flatmates during this time, and I would unintentionally wake them with midnight mumblings, snippets of singing and snippets and highlighted bold, dramatic enquiry. So, being the respectful young person that I was, I would travel to the nearby beach regularly, and it was there that I would record my notes.

In several of these early morning note sessions, a certain Fox would make an appearance. I would find myself grappling with a problem and articulating it to an actor through a voice memo, and this Fox – the Clovelly Fox – would come by, have a moment of sizing me up, and then travel on its way.

And often the thrill of the visit would inspire a new way into creative problem solving!

I’ve always found my resting place in nature, and there was something about this Fox, the inquisitive look, the driven energy and the alertness to the world around him, that meant he became a symbol of creativity for me.

And as legend goes, to others as well.

Actors woke to voicemails full of notes and these occasional, intriguing interruptions. It’s not unusual to this day to receive images from people, all over the world, claiming they have just had an encounter with the Clovelly Fox, a symbol of great creativity.

This company was created so that I could tell collective stories in a particular way, through something that feels bigger than myself and share them in the kind of community that theatre encourages.

Long may we follow the Fox…