Cirrus@Austlit

'A debut novel from one of Australia's most internationally celebrated playwrights, The End and Everything Before It is a kaleidoscopic story about the way love and loss shape a community.

'Emma watched her mother's kayak disappear among icebergs in the Arctic Sea. Six years later, her brother, who had not spoken since their mother was lost, warns Emma of the curse of death that she brought to anyone who looked on her face-before tragedy befalls him too.

'Emma consigns herself to a solitary life at sea, where she can do no more harm. After years alone, she is mysteriously drawn to land. And she docks at an island, afraid of what her arrival might mean for the welcoming man and his daughter waving from the jetty.

'But who knows where our stories begin and end or how they are entwined? Who knows whether now, on the island, she begins a new tale-or takes a role in a story that began generations ago with a feast in the forest, or a chest of gold coins plunged into the sea, or an orphan in a bookshop beguiled by an elusive and troubled woman? (Publication summary)

'Finegan Kruckemeyer's astonishing debut, The End and Everything Before It, is a sweeping, joyous novel about love, loss and the power of stories-an uplifting journey into our deepest humanity.'

'Join 8 year old Grace and her family on their adventurous and often funny expedition around Australia!

'Following CDP's successful national tour of Magic Beach, Alison Lester AM's classic book comes to life on stage, with songs, fun, (and quokkas!) for children aged 3-10 and their adults.

'From the team behind The Gruffalo and The 13-, 26-, 52-, 78- and 91-Storey Treehouses, this new adaptation from multi-award winning playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer is a celebration of family, love, and the diversity and beauty of Australia.'

Source: Production blurb.

'It was Joanie’s Mum who sang the bedtime songs. Now she’s gone and Joanie can’t sleep. Encouraged by her dad, Joanie begins to tell a bedtime story of a village where sleep has ceased to settle.

'Can a young girl guide her community to the safety of Mount Torg Berg? Can the songs return, and can Joanie and Malley finally find sleep?'

Source: Production blurb.

'It’s the year 2030 and there is an immediate climate crisis. With little choice remaining, world leaders make a collective, pragmatic decision to save the planet. For an entire year, all 8.5 billion humans on Earth will hibernate.

'Gas will be launched into the atmosphere and the human population will be immediately plunged into a deep sleep, leaving the natural world to reset. The reset of the human world is not what was expected.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In For We The Young, a collection of plays by one of Australia’s most beloved writers of theatre for young people, Finegan Kruckemeyer offers a glimpse into worlds of quiet sorrow and deep joy, daring feats and ingenious leaps. His quirky humour and surprising stories release the imagination and let it run wild, trailing images and words behind like so many footprints in the snow.

'In My Robot, pieces of junk and pieces of people form the cure to a young inventor’s homesickness. In Love, a big-hearted boy tries to save the most precious things in his town from a huge storm. In The Snow, a ‘tiny child’ tackles mean birds and deep darkness to find a way through the mountain of snow that has cut off his village. In This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, three sisters traverse the globe to find their true selves. And in the dystopian world of Where Words Once Were, our hero learns the damage words can do, along with their power to heal.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'This is real, honest, intimate theatre.

'It begins simply enough, mapping the twists and turns of one man’s unremarkable life. But the course he has charted is not the one that unfolds, and he ends up in places – some quite dark – that were never part of his plan. The fortunes, mishaps, and joys of his years provide a life-long reminder that happiness and comfort can be found in the seemingly insignificant. That the unremarkable can in fact grow to something rich and rare.'

Source: Theatre Royal.

'When Ophelia moves with her family to the seaside, she’s not impressed. She doesn’t like the beach, misses her old home and thinks the people in this town are pretty strange. While unpacking her room she discovers a mysterious box full of gadgets, parts and pieces, and a strange note that reads ‘You. Make. Me.’ Her curiosity gets the better of her and she spends all night assembling the objects into Olivetti, a robot with a typewriter chest and an alarm clock heart. Made up of pieces, but more than the sum of her parts.

'Together Ophelia and Olivetti take on the local bully and make friends with a child so worried about allergies that he never leaves the house, all while trying to keep her dad from discovering that Olivetti is really a robot. But a bigger challenge is coming – can the pair save their friend and reunite him with his mother?

'My Robot takes audiences of all ages on a rambunctious adventure filled with robot antics, laughter, daring rescues and bewildered parents, all told with the care and artistry synonymous with Barking Gecko’s award winning shows. Children will discover that we’re all just made from pieces, and that when we feel less than whole we can find – or make – a part that fits!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'‘Hate is a tiring thing. It is a commitment one must make, and invest in. It demands long hours and plenty of overtime. There are few perks, but wonderful camaraderie and an appreciation that everyone is working just as hard as each other’. An enquiry into the spread of hatred in today’s society, created with high-school students and performed to their peers, this play turns negativity on its head, presenting a how-to guide for the hopeful.'

Source: Author's website.

'Time. It slows when you’re in love.

'Stopping you dead in your tracks, when you first catch sight of her. Stretching for an eternity, as you wait for that phone call. Speeding up and evaporating over an afternoon together. Beating so quickly it just might burst.

'Those Who Fall in Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon the Ocean Floor is a love story that transcends time – moving from a Cold War Russian submarine, through a Parisian street, to an Appalachian snow field. It follows four stories and eleven characters as they navigate that timeless act of falling in love.'

Source: Griffin Theatre.

'When an epic snowfall imprisons the residents of the tiny village of Kishka, young Theodore Sutton proposes the villagers build a catapult to fling him and six of the village’s bravest and strongest out in search of a solution. The catapult hastily assembled, Theodore and the heroes are launched over the snow and into the grandest of adventures. Whimsical and humorous, dark and mysterious, heartfelt and sincere, this play weaves a fantastical Grimmsian tale for the entire family.'

Source: Author's website (http://finegankruckemeyer.com/works/young/the-snow/). (Sighted: 26/06/2017)

'Young Orhan lives in a world where words are both very precious and very dangerous. Only 1,000 of them can exist: new ones are forbidden, and anything newly invented takes the place of an existing word, which is then illegal to say. Those who disobey the rules are punished in the strongest way possible. They lose their right to speak and to be spoken of; they become only "…" – a condition that causes them to slowly fade away. When Orhan accidentally takes a pen (a mighty weapon indeed!) from school, he sets in motion an adventure to reclaim lost words.'

Source: Kennedy Center (http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/KRTBA).

'“In the ocean stood an island. At its every side was the sea, and the tides found its top and its tail. This land was so small, and this ocean so large, that the people who lived there did not even know that it was an island. They just saw a vast blue, beyond that which they knew, and never even thought of what might be out there.

'But one didn’t. On the island, in a house, on a hill, grew a girl. And she knew what she was told: that this island held all that there was. But still she found herself wondering sometimes, about all that there wasn’t – things that weren’t facts, but things that were maybes, and could-bes, and ifs. Could there be another place, say, where the stars right above her could be seen from the left, but the ones to her right could be looked at straight up?”

'When the island of The Proud Circle springs a leak, its citizens must find a solution to stop their home disappearing forever. But it’s going to take all the ingenuity of their youngsters to ensure they don’t lose their way of living in the process.'

Source: Terrapin Puppet Theatre (http://www.terrapin.org.au/project/you-and-me/). (Sighted: 26/04/2017)

'In the middle of his over-scheduled 12-and-a-bit-year-old life, Simon Ives dreams of a place where he can just stop and be. Meanwhile, at the farthest point in the universe, The Boy at the Edge of Everything lives by himself, lonely and bored. When Simon is rocketed into space (through an unlikely series of events involving ‘lots and lots of fireworks’), their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same.'

Source: Author's website (http://finegankruckemeyer.com/works/regular/the-boy-at-the-edge-of-everything/). (Sighted: 14/9/2015)

'It started around the time he turned 16. Everyone and everything started grating on Connor’s nerves. His mum, his dad, his teachers, even his best mate. Lately he just can’t help picking fights, slamming doors and flipping desks. Then his parents decide to dump him alone in a forest for a week.

'As unpredictable as Connor himself, 'The Violent Outburst That Drew Me To You' tackles the ticking time bomb of teenagerdom. Behind its sly and smart-arsed exterior is a searching exploration of adolescent anger, bound to strike a dissonant chord with anyone who’s ever caught a whiff of teen spirit.' (Source: Griffin Theatre Company website.)

'There are many important issues that demand our attention in the 21st Century. This trio of extraordinary plays by three exceptional Tasmanian writers, explores contemporary masculinity and the impact it can cause.

'These writers weave through the maze of ideas concerning fallen masculinity, isolation, communication and disconnection. They have stepped outside their own comfort zones and styles to examine the damage wrought by, and to their gender.

'Born from Animals will bring together the expertise and experience of one of Australia’s leading directors of new Australian theatre in Aidan Fennessy, the amazing design talents of Peta Heffernan and Elvio Brianese from Liminal Spaces and some of Tasmanian’s most experienced actors.

'This is strong, original, contemporary Australian theatre.'

Source: Tasmanian Theatre Company.

'Dale, a Tasmanian Aboriginal boy living in the bush, and Pete, in urban Hobart, wake up one morning having had the other boy's dreams - shadow dreams of a place not their own. Traditional storytelling blends with digital communication in this astounding children's production.

Staged simultaneously in two theatres hundreds of kilometres apart, the production uses broadband technology to stream live orchestral music and vision between the venues. This world premiere, written by acclaimed playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, is an enchanting story of two Tasmanian boys from different worlds who discover they dream each other's dreams.

Shadow Dreams is an extraordinary collaboration between two of Tasmania's famed arts companies - digital puppet specialists, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, with an original score by Australian composer Graeme Koehne. Ideal for children five and over, and their families, the show explores and plays with a better understanding between two different worlds. This adventurous, complex production involves artists filming live sequences as they happen and streaming them in real time to the other venue, effectively creating a single, digital stage.

This is a new and exciting way of storytelling never attempted before and made possible through the National Broadband Network.' (Source: Ten Days on the Island website www.tendaysontheisland.com)