Life Drawing with a Comedian
PHOTO: Gemma Fitzgerald gets some hands on learning with instructor/model, Shaun Michaels, at Sunday’s Life Drawing With a Comedian show.
“This is the first show back at the Plaza for five years, and it’s a full house!” announced comedian Sean Michaels as he welcomed everyone to his Life Drawing with a Comedian on Sunday afternoon.
“When I walked in I couldn’t believe it – what an amazing place.”
Eighty people (including three men) lined up to take part in a ‘Sunday sesh’ featuring the curious combination of live comedy and a loosely-instructive drawing class that ran from 4 to 6pm on March 3 at the Plaza Theatre in Castlereagh Street.
Jamie-Lea Trindall said the organising team from the building’s new owners, Outback Arts Inc, were more than pleased with the response.
“We didn’t want to wait for a big official launch to start using the theatre,” she said. “We thought people would enjoy this so we just went ahead.”
“We sold out our allocated tickets and then approached Sean to see what he thought about involving more people.
“He was up for it so we bumped it up to eighty.”
Audience members were provided with snacks and drawing materials and invited to suggest poses for their live model.
A series of about eight drawing exercises saw everyone sketching madly and giggling at each other’s creations while Mr Michaels kept up the banter against a backdrop of music.
He would then display a selection of his favourites from each exercise with a commentary on his take on each wildly diverse rendering.
In the final act the proposed pose was a scene from a movie and an audience member was invited to take the stage to assist Sean create an iconic scene from ‘Titanic’.
Gemma Fitzgerald was volunteered for the job by her friends and almost got “her turn” on the front page of the Coonamble Times as a result.
Those attending were encouraged to contribute donations to the future renovations of the theatre.
“We are so lucky to have this beautiful venue back in community use,” said one participant. “I can’t wait to see what comes next.
“It will bring so much life back into the main street.”
Mr Michaels is continuing his ‘outback’ tour with shows every night this week in Warren, Nyngan, Cobar, Bourke, Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge.
The tour is funded by Create NSW Rescue Program.