The world of musical theatre Suddenly! takes a turn

BY SANYUKTA NATH

A musical created entirely for the screen and conceptualised during Melbourne's lockdown has debuted on Youtube. 

From online planning, auditions and rehearsals, Melbourne's Suddenly! A Short New Musical has re-imagined the world of theatre, as the 30-minute project is designed to never be seen by a live audience.

Award-winning short filmmaker and first-time Creative Producer, Dean Gild, said the show was inspired by the various ways the arts fought to stay alive during the lockdown period.  

“We just wanted to take the idea of what people were doing with Zoom concerts and play-readings online and take that to an actual theatre and shoot it like a short film,” Mr Gild said. 

Australian actor, songwriter and first-time Director, Jordie Race-Coldrey, said it was difficult creating a musical meant for the camera as they did not have the guidance or previous experience to inform them.

“We opened ourselves up to all of the good parts of theatre and the good parts of film and tried to make a hybrid that we hadn’t really seen before,” he said.

The movie-musical’s story revolves around a mother-daughter relationship that reaches its breaking point, but circumstances force them to face their problems and deal with past traumas.

Lead actors Kara Sims and Conor Putland said they were excited to work on a project so out of their comfort zone as theatre performers.

However, they said the project was not without its challenges, with the majority of rehearsals taking place and being recorded over Zoom. 

Mr Race-Coldrey said the recorded rehearsals allowed the actors to review their work whilst simultaneously experimenting to find a balance between a theatre and film performance.

“We had to keep in mind that it was for film, keeping the acting quite internal instead of out-there performing to a large audience,” Ms Sims said.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, only 48% of arts and recreation services were functioning in August last year, resulting in major financial losses and unemployment for the industry.

Mr Putland said, “having anything like a goal coming out of lockdown was nice because the industry was so up in the air”.

“Having something concrete and solid...was definitely a sense of relief and something to strive towards.”

Mr Gild said the uncertainty of lockdown rules presented as one of the biggest challenges and the show was “on the line 'till the very end”.

The film is now available on Youtube and the team are in the process of applying to have it available on a streaming platform.