the imperial panda festival

THE IMPERIAL PANDA FESTIVAL 2011 (4-20 MARCH)

2009-09-21T05:53:00.001-07:00

Go to our brand new website- www.theimperialpanda.com for the full program.

After two surprising sell out seasons in 2008 and 2009, Sydney's favourite milkcrate seat festival, The Imperial Panda, is back! Two and half weeks jam-packed with seven new performance works, a whole lot of awesome events, two exhibitions, some switcheroos, buckwheat pancakes, bbq'd stuff, dancing, free talks and many fancy drinks. In a club/a townhall/ a backyard/ a warehouse/a gallery/ a loungeroom/a barbers shop/a pub/ some surprise places and with a miracle ticket booth and heaps more at GOODGOD we are very excited. We are not sleeping.

With at least a 100 of Australia's most incredible new makers- performers, artists, writers and chefs taking part, the festival aims to support new work and attract new audiences by presenting the shows in 'non-traditional' spaces, keeping all tickets as inexpensive as possible and passing all profits onto artists.

Emerging from the ashes of LanFranchis Memorial Discotheque, The Imperial Panda Festival is a celebration, a showcase, a cheap night out and knock on wood - a good time! Launched in 2008 by Rosie, Mish, Eddie and Zoe and run off the smell of an oily rag ever since, this year ArtsNSW and the City of Sydney gave us some money (thanks so much!!). So we went overboard and launched the biggest and most ambitious festival yet.

nick coyle's 'kittenbone bridge'

2009-09-17T23:37:00.001-07:00

Serial Space - 33 Wellington St, Chippendale
10-13 Feb 2009 @ 7pm

Something nasty happened to the world. Where did everyone go? The Scientist and his Perfect Daughter seek refuge on a jungle island. The Scientist goes about his experiments on their brand new caged gorilla. Suddenly, one normal day, a handsome 3rd year Science Student arrives to assist the Scientist in his work. The Perfect Daughter falls for him.
As the father delves deeper into the brains of the jungle, his Perfect Daughter and the Science Student creep into the branches of the trees, only to discover that dark magic rules the island. Can anyone be trusted in the next world? No.
Presented in 2007 as part of STC’s Wharf 2 Loud Push program, Kittenbone Bridge is being rewritten and remounted for Imperial Panda Festival.

Nick Coyle is one third of the company Pig Island and the writer of The October Sapphire (New York Fringe 2006), Kittenbone Bridge (Wharf2Loud, STC 2007) and Hammerhead (is dead) (Griffin, 2009). Pig Island are fast becoming an unstoppable force on the emerging theatre scene. They have performed at Tap Gallery, The Old Fitz, Downstairs Belvoir, STC, Carriageworks, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe, New York fringe and Edinburgh Fringe, all to great acclaim. Their productions include The Glass Boat (Golden Gibbo award winner, Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2007) Parties 4eva, and Simply Fancy.

"Utterly refreshing and a little bit foreign...a combination of clever, even poetic, writing that delivers thigh-slapping laughs."
Drum Media
"Charmingly Dizzy" Village Voice (NYC)

“Deliciously mad…Be witness to the birth of some new comedic superstars in the making” Australian Stage

“The delivery is superb, ranging from hilariously sustained deadpan to energetic inanity...woven into an ineffably kinky and imaginative whole" the age

Wed –Fri Feb 11-13 @9pm,
and 18-20 @ 7pm

Back to 2009 program

rhubarb rhubarb's 'The mad max remix'

2009-09-17T23:36:00.003-07:00

Helen Rose-Schausberger Laboratorium

Level 1/17 Waterloo St, Surry Hills

Wed - Fri Feb 11-13 @ 9pm

and Feb 18-20 @ 7pm

The MAD MAX remix is the much anticipated new show from the team behind the outrageous cult phenomenon ‘WONKA! A live cinema remix’. Using re-edited, re-animated footage from the entire original Mad Max trilogy, the MAD MAX remix follows the story of Max, the greatest dancer of all time, on his quest to join Miss Tina’s prestigious Bartertown Dance academy. The re-edited film plays silently while actors, musicians and foley artists recreate the new dialogue and soundtrack live. This is a re-scripted singing, dancing, cinematic experience. This is a live video remix. This is Mel as you’ve never seen him before.

Dom Broadhurst, Zoe Coombs Marr, Will Mansfield and Eddie Sharp are a disparate team who create hybrid video and performance works (sometimes under the name Power Media Industries). Their previous work "Wonka! A Live Cinema Remix" has performed critically acclaimed sell out shows in underground theatre venues throughout Sydney and Melbourne.

"This is the definitive Willy Wonka" JJJ
"Incredible" SMH
"The execution is tight and inventive. The writing is clever and dark. WONKA! Was one of the best live performances this town has seen to date…underground, adventurous, absolutely hilarious, original and above all entertaining. Five Stars!"
The Brag
"This was the best thing that happened in Sydney in 2005"Urthboy, The Herd- 3D World

Back to 2009 program

Brown Council's 'six minute soul mate'

2009-09-17T23:36:00.001-07:00

SYDNEY - 302 Cleveland St, Surry Hills

Sat Feb 14 @ 9pm

Sun - Mon Feb 15-16 @ 5pm & 9pm

Six Minute Soul Mate is a performance work by the artistic collaboration Brown Council that explores the nature of love and romance within a contemporary quick fix culture. Short performative vignettes are spun into an absurd conveyer belt of images that spiral out of control like a barn dance doped up on cocaine.
Utilising the structure of a real speed-dating night, Brown Council examines modern modes of courtship and investigates how it is that we attempt to perform intimacy in a society obsessed with speed. The audience will find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of speed-dates, clichés and conventions of romance, desire and love, all played out and repeated like an old broken record.

Brown Council are Kelly Doley, Kate Blackmore, Fran Barrett and Diana Smith and have been working collaboratively since they met at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney in 2004. Brown Council make performance and video works that appropriate, imitate and remix a range of disparate images and ideas from popular culture, cinema, video clips and television. Through this cut and paste application as well as an overt theatricality and costuming they subvert and challenge dominant gender stereotypes and interrogate how it is that we should perform.

Nominee, Best New Artist, SMAC Awards, 2008

“A sardonic dissection of the human need for companionship… a sadomasochistic pleasure” Real Time

Back to 2009 program

the suitcase royale's 'The Ghost Of Rickets Hill'

2009-09-17T23:35:00.001-07:00

coming soon!

EROTIC FAN FICTION 09

2009-09-17T23:34:00.002-07:00

coming soon!

EROTIC FAN FICTION 08

2009-09-17T23:34:00.001-07:00

coming soon!

CAB SAV #6

2009-09-17T23:33:00.002-07:00

coming soon!

CAB SAV #7

2009-09-17T23:33:00.001-07:00

coming soon!

Rhubarb Rhubarb's 'WONKA! a live cinema remix'

2009-09-17T23:32:00.002-07:00

coming soon!

pig island's parties 4 eva

2009-09-17T23:32:00.001-07:00

coming soon!

the suitcase royale's 'ballad of backbone joe'

2009-09-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

SYDNEY - 302 Cleveland St, Surry Hills

Sat Feb 14 @ 9pm

Sun - Mon Feb 15-16 @ 5pm & 9pm

A dollar fight gone wrong, a classy Sheila with a mind for revenge and a private detective hot on her heels. The Ballad of Backbone Joe is an austere tale of the apparent murder of Messy Dimes Dan, the owner of the town’s abattoir and boxing emporium. This jigsaw-puzzle narrative is told through visual trickery, film, bone-crunching physical theatre and filmic lighting.
Set in the roaring carnival days of pre-war Australia, this tin pan alley opera features the unique Rag ‘n’ Bone music and junkyard aesthetic of Melbourne-based trio the Suitcase Royale. Contra bass, banjo, guitar, accordion, drums and the ghostly voice of a red-dressed vixen carry this broken-down truck of a musical down the windy road of revenge
From the creators of the acclaimed “Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon” and “The Ghosts of Ricketts Hill” comes a toe-biting junkyard opera to that will hold you in the cradle of suspense until the final red curtain is drawn.

The Suitcase Royale is a Rag n Bone band of three from Melbourne that has been creating and performing work since mid 2004, creating theatre out of the junk left on the kerb side, out of the refuge of the city dump and the carelessly placed materials of your local construction site.
The company have toured both nationally and internationally to great critical acclaim, selling out shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide as well as seasons in the Pittsburgh Arts Festival, Edinburgh fringe, Ruhrfestspiele festival, Germany, Dublin and the Soho theatre in London.

Winners, Golden Gibbo award
(Melbourne Comedy Festival 2008)

Winners, Best of the Melbourne Fringe Festival

‘***** Possibly one of the best shows I have ever seen ...
A wonderful bit of theatrical genius
that should not be missed'
- the Montreal Gazette.(2004)

"Visionary, emancipated and transformational...
The Suitcase Royale create works of theatre
achingly undiluted, joining the soul of
madcap anarchy found in the best
of the Marx Brothers to the self-sufficient
purity found in travelling tent shows”
Pittsburgh City Paper

Back to 2009 program

post's 'Gifted and Talented'

2009-09-17T19:32:00.003-07:00

coming soon!

about the imperial panda

2009-09-17T19:32:00.001-07:00

coming soon!

imperial panda festival 2010

2009-09-17T19:31:00.003-07:00

stay tuned...

imperial panda festival 2009

2009-09-17T19:31:00.001-07:00

KITTENBONE BRIDGE, by Nick Coyle
Serial Space - 33 Wellington St, Chippendale
Tue - Fri Feb 10-13 @ 7pm

more....

THE MAD MAX REMIX, by Rhubarb Rhubarb
Helen Rose-Schausberger Laboratorium
Level 1/17 Waterloo St, Surry Hills
Wed - Fri Feb 11-13 @ 9pm
and Feb 18-20 @ 7pm

more....

EROTIC FAN FICTION
Penguin Plays Rough - 1/475 King St, Newtown
Sat Feb 14 @ 8pm

more....

SIX MINUTE SOUL MATE, by Brown Council
SYDNEY - 302 Cleveland St, Surry Hills
Sat Feb 14 @ 9pm
Sun - Mon Feb 15-16 @ 5pm & 9pm

more....

THE BALLAD OF BACKBONE JOE, by The Suitcase Royale
Bill + George - Level 1/10-16 William St, Redfern
Tue - Fri Feb 17-20 @ 9pm

more....

CAB SAV #7
(with special guest houseband The Suitcase Royale)
Serial Space - 33 Wellington St, Chippendale
Sat Feb 21 @ 8pm

more....

imperial panda festival 2008

2009-09-17T19:30:00.002-07:00

GIFTED AND TALENTED, by post
Chalk Horse Gallery - 56 Cooper Street, Surry Hills
Thursday 31st January – Sat 2nd February @ 7:30pm

more....

THE GHOST OF RICKETT’S HILL, by The Suitcase Royale
Chalk Horse Gallery - 56 Cooper Street, Surry Hills
Thursday 31st January – Sat 2nd February @ 9pm

more....

EROTIC FAN FICTION
Chalk Horse Gallery - 56 Cooper Street, Surry Hills
Sunday 3rd February @ 5 pm

more....

PARTIES 4 EVA, by Pig Island
(With Special Guest Zoe Coombs Marr)
BlackandBlue Gallery – 302/267-271 Cleveland St Redfern
Tuesday 5th – Wednesday 6th February @ 8pm

more....

WONKA! ALIVE CINEMA REMIX, by Rhubarb Rhubarb
BlackandBlue Gallery – 302/267-271 Cleveland St Redfern
Thursday 7th- Friday 8th February @ 8pm

more....

CAB SAV #6
BlackandBlue Gallery – 302/267-271 Cleveland St Redfern
Saturday 9th February @ 6pm

more....

erotic fan fiction

2009-09-17T19:30:00.001-07:00

coming soon!

cab sav

2009-09-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

coming soon!

contact

2009-09-17T19:28:00.002-07:00

email: theimperialpanda@gmail.com

links

2009-09-17T19:28:00.001-07:00

coming soon!