Acknowledgement of Country

We wish to acknowledge the traditional people of this land we perform on today. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging. We also wish to acknowledge the Wiradjuri Language from Wellington, Australia and its people, as it features in this production - sung by Wiradjuri Soprano, Shauntai Batzke.

About Forgiveness

What do we forgive? Who do we forgive? Do we really “forgive and forget”?

Forgiveness is an immersive theatre-music experience in which the audience is engaged in encounters, explorations and conversations on this theme. Forgiveness is presented by Monash University’s Centre for Theatre and Performance as part of our production investigation unit, where students work with professional artists to create new theatrical works.

Credits

Creators:

Artistic Director & Production Design: Penelope Bartlau

Composer & Music Director: Shauntai Batzke

Associate Artist: Ashlee Clapp

Lighting Design & Technical Support: Jason Lehane

Producer: Daniel Lammin

Assistant Director: Simran Giria

Dramaturge: Tove Due

Sound Design: Ryan Mangold

Performers: Tove Due, Kieren Gregory, Amelia Kruyt, Catherine Malam, 

  Daniel Nieborski, Casuarina O’Brien, Gretel Sharp

Deputy Director, CTP : Stacy Holman Jones

About the Creators

Penelope Bartlau (Director)

Penelope specialises in visual theatre, to interpret and create stories across a range of mediums. She is a director and visual creator with a background in puppetry and performance, as well as being an award-winning creative writer. Penelope has worked professionally in the arts

for over 25 years. She has generated, collaborated and directed works with museums and galleries, for theatre, site-specific works, community arts projects, schools’ residencies, works for radio and roving pieces. As a part of her practice, wherever possible she works with community members as equal creative collaborators and innovators.

Ashlee Clapp (Composer & Music Director)

Ashlee Clapp is a composer, conductor, musical director, theatre maker and workshop facilitator. Ashlee graduated from UWA with a Bachelor of Music Composition, under the tutelage of James Ledger with the Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize of Musical Composition. She then successfully completed her Master of Fine Arts, Contemporary Music, Composition at VCA with the Australian Postgraduate Award and the Jim Marks  Postgraduate Scholarship for her Ballad Opera in five languages, two being Australian Aboriginal languages. As a composer Ashlee is known for her works for theatre, choral writing and for working in languages other than English. Ashlee’s commissioned choral piece ‘Nintiritjaku Nganampa Ngurraku’ was awarded second place at the Aspire International Music Festival, 2019. Ashlee has also worked in commercial fields such as film trailers, TV shows, web series, commercials and also more classical works for symphony orchestra, chamber groups, avant-garde

theatre and choirs. Ashlee is passionate about social outreach and has conducted multiple music programs in India, Nepal, Kenya and all over Australia in remote Aboriginal communities.

Shauntai Batzke (Associate Artist)

Wiradjuri Soprano, Shauntai Batzke is touching the hearts of Australia and overseas with her luscious Soprano and strong stage presence. A principal artist with Short Black Opera, an alumna of the Melba Opera Trust and daughter of late Australian Boxing Champion Wally Carr. Nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in an Opera at the BroadwayWorld Australia Awards, some of Shauntai’s highlights include; singing at the inauguration of the Victorian Governor the honourable Ms Linda Dessau in 2015. In 2015 and 2016, travelling to New York to participate in Belle Arti’s intensive music program, making her European debut in 2018 in Amsterdam with Australian Dance Theatre’s Beginning of Nature and has debuted in some of Australia’s most prestigious houses, such as the Sydney Opera House, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, and Melbourne Recital Centre, to name a few. In October Shauntai will be presenting new compositions as part of EMERGENCE: Port Fairy Spring Music Festival 2019 and in November Shauntai will be performing in Australia’s premier of Ragtime The Musical with The Production Company. Alongside Shauntai’s opera career, she and her husband head Soul4GIVE sharing the message of Forgiveness as a healing agent to the community through music and poetry workshops, performances and events.

About Monash Centre for Theatre and Performance

Monash Centre for Theatre and Performance is a school within the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. The units offered by Centre for Theatre and Performance explore theatre and performance in theory and practice, balancing performance opportunities with a challenging academic program. As part of the Performance Investigation unit offered to third-year students, these students have the opportunity to collaborate with guest professional artists to create new theatrical works. Forgiveness, created as part of their production season in 2019, is one of those new works.