I Love Todd Sampson

Billie is a young girl, clinging to her mothers’ coat, trying to piece together the story of her abandonment. Real, imagined and distorted events display the confusion of her private world. After several suicide attempts Billie emerges as Laura as she constructs a fragile new reality. She befriends a cellist and a horse before searching for her panacea – television identity Todd Sampson’s voice – to cure her need for intimacy and comfort. She lurches between her real and imagined lives - her past, present and uncertain future - until she discovers him bathing in her tub.

Deftly weaving together an enigmatic film and sound score, Michelle St. Anne delicately performs as the young girl, the woman her mother, the girl pretending to be the woman, and the girl becoming a woman. Immersed in visually rich territory and imagined confusion, a horrifying tale unfolds and questions too awful to consider are posed. The onlookers too are woven into the journey as the characters explore the boundaries between performer and audience, public and private.

I Love Todd Sampson is the reimagining of the Living Room Theatre’s two most renowned performances, I Love Todd Sampson - Voices of the Vulnerable and Billie.

Preview Tuesday 9 August

Shows | Wed 10 August | Thurs 11 August | Fri 12 August | Sat 13 August | Sun 14 August

Bios

ANIMATEUR & PERFORMER

Michelle St Anne is the Artistic Director and founder of The Living Room Theatre.  As a theatre-maker she has created 13 ambitious productions and has received the 2013 national IDEA (Interior Design Excellence Awards) Award in the Event Category. Her work has been performed in various venues in Sydney and Melbourne.

As a freelance actor she has worked for independent theatre companies, performing at Performance Space, The Stables Theatre, Belvoir St, Museum of Contemporary Art and a regional tour of Queensland.  Michelle has also enjoyed stints on film, television, commercials, corporate videos, short films and radio.

She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts 2003.

EQUINE TRAINER & PERFORMER

Kate Fenner has been around horses all of her life and has wide and varied experience in competing and training around the world. She began riding as a very small child in Crookwell, country NSW, and later took her horse (an off the track thoroughbred) to school with her in Armidale. Kate then spent many years riding, training and competing around the world from Hong Kong (dressage), UK (dressage, show jumping and eventing), Singapore and Malaysia (dressage, show jumping and polo), to the USA (dressage and John Lyons Certification Program). She completed her Bachelor of Equine Science in 2013 and is currently working on a research honours project, is a Level 1 British Horse Society Instructor, Pony Club Chief Instructor for many years, Working Equitation Judge and Instructor and has extensive competing and judging experience in Australia, Europe and the USA.

Her credits with LRT: She Only Barks at Night

COMPOSER & MUSICIAN

Alister Spence has long been one of the leading lights in contemporary original jazz and improvised music in Australia, as an outstanding composer/performer. Spence has toured nationally and internationally extensively for the last 20 years, performing with his own trio and with bands such as Clarion Fracture Zone, Wanderlust, The Australian Art Orchestra and The Laughing Clowns. The Alister Spence Trio has enjoyed critical acclaim both here and overseas, being nominated twice for Best Australian Jazz Album at the ARIA Awards (2004/2007). Their most recent release fit was voted in the Top Jazz/Impro releases worldwide for 2009 (Wire Magazine, UK).

Alister’s compositional and improvisational engagement with texture and atmosphere lends itself very well to film and theatre. His film composition credits include the feature film, Beneath Clouds (Director Ivan Sen, AFI nomination for Best Soundtrack 2002) as well as many short films and documentaries.

Alister’s theatre credits include sound design for Angela’s Kitchen - Griffin Theatre, Winterreise - Malthouse (performer, composer/improviser)

His credits for The Living Room: She [Still] Cries at Night - I Love Todd Sampson (2013) - A Little Room

COMPOSER

Lawrence English is composer, media artist and curator based in Australia. Working across an eclectic array of aesthetic investigations, English’s work prompts questions of field, perception and memory. English utilises a variety of approaches including live performance and installation to create works that ponder subtle transformations of space and ask audiences to become aware of that which exists at the edge of perception.

His credits with LRT: She Only Barks at Night - She only Cries at Night - I Love Todd Sampson (2013)

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Matt Osborne has a diverse background covering a range of productions and events including:
theatre, live broadcasts, television, dance parties and large corporate events.

Matt's long history in the theatrical side is often evident in his approach to other forms of production and events.

His credits for LRT as technical director, production manager & lighting designer: They come for them at night - She only barks at night – She [Still] Cries at Night – She Cries at Night – Fellini Fun -  I Love Todd Sampson (2013)

COSTUME

Lian Loke is a performer, designer and researcher, with the body as the central focus of her interdisciplinary practice. She is co-founder of the Pork Collective, a group of artists working in performance installation and is currently training in the Bodyweather performance methodology. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Design Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney.

Her credits for LRT as set designer: I Love Todd Sampson (2013)
As performer: They Come for Them at Night – She Only Barks at Night

MEDIA ARTIST

Imogen Cranna is a multi-disciplinary artist. In 2009, she joined youMove Company, and has had the opportunity to work as a dancer with both established and emerging Australian choreographers such as Kay Armstrong, Emma Saunders, Anton, Tony Osborne, Ian Colless and Sarah Vyne-Vassallo. Following her desire to create hybrid art with the interactive media program, Isadora, Imogen held an artist residency with Eramboo Artist Environment from 2009 to 2012. In 2010, her multimedia work Tyche appeared in the Sydney Fringe Festival as part of the triple bill, Three Steps Towards.

In 2012, she toured nationally as the new media artist on Vicki Van Hout’s critically acclaimed production Briwyant and in 2013, she collaborated as both a performer and media artist for The Living Room Theatre’s premiere of Michelle St Anne’s award winning theatre work, I Love Todd Sampson. She also appeared in her own work, wItness bench, as part of AIOP/Australia/2013. In 2014, Imogen presented ĭn-dwĕl′ for Dance Meets Music and created a public interactive sound installation, entitled play, as the inaugural recipient of the Enliven Pittwater Artist in Residence.

She collaborated as composer and media artist in 2015 for Cloé Fournier’s full-length work, Dining [Uns]-Table and undertook a one week full time Curated Residency at QL2 to develop her work WiTNESS, which looks into the potential of merging interactive media and authentic movement. Imogen also appeared in Michelle St Anne's contemporary performance theatre work, She Only Barks at Night and most recently, she performed in Victoria Hunt’s multi-disciplinary work Tangi Wai, as part of LIVEWORKS 2015.

ARCHITECT

Genevieve Lilley graduated from Sydney University in 1991 with the University Medal. After working for 8 years for British architect David Chipperfield, she opened her own practice in London in 1999 and in Sydney in 2005. She runs a small practice, specialising in a range of odd and unique projects. Genevieve has taught final year design at universities in Bath UK, Sydney, Tasmania and Newcastle and has also been a guest speaker and critic on various occasions.

Her design work has featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, Inside Out Magazine and Vogue Living. She has written for the Fifth Estate, the Architectural Review, and Houses Magazine. She also designs jewellery for Venerari in Sydney’s Strand Arcade, which makes modern jewellery using coloured gems.

Genevieve is the Chair of The Living Room Theatre. Her credits with the LRT:
I Love Todd Sampson (2013)