melita rowston
writer
director
painter
performer
swing girl
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MELITA ROWSTON
‘Sexy? I’m just doing bumps ‘n’ grinds on stage like I’m told. I’m Evie Jordan from 9 Commodore Court, Aspendale. I get undressed behind my beach towel, I eat meatloaf for tea and I’m not sexy!’
Melbourne. 1967. Evie Jordan sings and dances her way through the back lots of suburbia, round the cocktail bars of the city and into the intimate spaces back stage. She dreams of becoming the greatest star of Australian musical theatre! Evie’s innocence within the hard world of musical theatre is a big obstacle, but her greatest hurdle will be her mother and father’s ideas about her future. Her father, a fence builder, dreads Evie’s undoing, while her mother , a faded socialite, tosses insults at her from behind a haze of crème de menthe fumes.
The hunger that drives her and the fragility of her dreams are exposed as Evie struggles to rise above her disapproving chorus. How long will she be able to withstand the pressure?
Based on the true story of an authentic Aussie swing girl, swing girl revisits the snappy tunes, synthetic materials and energetic dance numbers of many unmemorable 60s musicals.
‘A delightful portrait of the distant world of Australian theatre half a century ago, where J.C. Williamson really was god and chorus dancers could be fired for appearing as a page 3 girlie in Truth… … McKenna gives a wonderful performance, singing and dancing her heart out... She also manages to make the pain of the family stories utterly real. Rowston directs with clarity and energy, Beautiful, nuanced, funny and necessary.’ Sydney Morning Herald
"Swing Girl is a fun and entertaining show. With any luck it will be picked up for a Playing Australia tour, because that's one place Swing Girl belongs - on tour around the regions, just to show all the isolated kids with stars in their eyes that things have changed in the last few decades, but show biz is still as tough as ever."
Q Stage
CREATIVE TEAM:
Writer/Director: Melita Rowston
Starring: Amie McKenna
Design: Cat Raven
Lighting/Sound: Allan Hirons
Choreographer: Paul Cordeiro
Dramaturg: Donna Abela
Presented by glasstheatre.
Griffin Stablemates at the SBW Stables Theatre, November, 2001
This project received dramaturgical support from Playworks - National Centre for Women Performance Writers
