Merrigong Productions
Since Merrigong's first full-scale production in 2006 (Van Badham's Camarilla), we have produced a major work every year: Athol Fugard's Valley Song in 2007 and Thieves Like Us, a world premiere from Australian playwright Marcel Dorney in 2008. In 2009, Merrigong produced 4 Plays about Wollongong, the first project the company has developed all the way from commissioning through to production. The works were commissioned in 2008 from playwrights Van Badham, Mary Rachel Brown, Marcel Dorney, and Simon Luckhurst. In 2010, we produced Caleb Lewis' Death in Bowengabbie, a beautifully written script which won the Judge's Commendation for Best Writing at the 2009 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
On Tour
In 2008, Merrigong remounted our 2007 production of Athol Fugard's Valley Song for a NSW tour. The following year, we undertook our first Australian tour of an overseas production, Kahlil Ashanti's Basic Training, which toured to thirteen venues across the country. In association with our London-based producing partner Richard Jordan Productions, Merrigong toured Canadian Rick Miller's MacHomer to Brisbane, Sydney, Bathurst and Wollongong in 2010, and in early 2011 co-produced a new touring version of Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Funk it up About Nothin’, which opened in Chicago before commencing a six week Australian tour to seven venues, including Sydney's CarriageWorks.
Commissioning, developing and producing
In 2011 you saw the result of commissions and development, with our production of Mary Rachel Brown’s The Dapto Chaser, commissioned by the company in 2010, and The Table of Knowledge, a co-production with version 1.0.
RUFF! New Works in Progress
RUFF! showcases new work in development with the company. This is an opportunity for Merrigong to test new work in front of our audience. On consecutive Saturday nights see a different rehearsed reading and stay afterwards to tell us what you thought in an informal feedback session with the artists.
RUFF! 1: Sat 28 Apr 7.30pm • RUFF! 2: Sat 8 Sep 7:30pm • Tickets: $15
Investing in other companies' work
Merrigong also invests resources into the development and production of works by other companies, such as Soft Tread Production's Lying Cheating Bastard and Hothouse Theatre's Australia! The Show!, both of which were produced in association with Merrigong, and were part of our 2010 season. As part of the launch of Merrigong's Commissioning Program in 2007, the company co-commissioned Garry Stewart's ‘G' for Australian Dance Theatre, with the Joyce Theatre (New York) and the Southbank Centre (London).
Image 1: Jillian Burfete, JQ, Jackson Doran, Postell Pringle, GQ and Ericka Ratcliff in Funk it up About Nothin' (2011).
Image 2: Terry Serio, Adam Booth and Clare Bowen in 4 Plays About Wollongong (2009).
Image 3: Amy Usherwood in Thieves Like Us (2008). Photo: Heidrun Lohr.
