Standing There Productions has existed in some form or other in Melbourne since 2003. Our first project was a theatre production, People Watching, which was awarded second prize in the International Student Playwright Competition. In 2005 & 2006 we made a short a film called I Could Be Anybody. In April 2007, our second play, For We Are Young And Free, ran for three weeks at fortyfivedownstairs as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where it was one of three shows nominated for a Golden Gibbo Award. In 2008 our second comedy festival show Greatness Thrust Upon Them enjoyed a successful four-week season at Comedy @ Trades, at Trades Hall. We also make the occasional video (including The Receptionist) and we had an artists' residency at Arthur and Yvonne Boyd's property, Bundanon, in New South Wales, in August 2008 and 2010. For more regular updates on what else we're up to, go to the Diary.
Who are we?
In its current incarnation, Standing There Productions' three principals are Lorin, Rita and Stewart. Rita works in film and television professionally and she usually produces Standing There Productions projects and looks after the company's finances. Lorin writes and directs for Standing There Productions while maintaining a part-time job as an event coordinator at a public sector legal organisation. Stewart's first role in Standing There Productions was as a performer, playing Raj in People Watching. Since then, he has worked as cinematographer on our short film, I Could Be Anybody and he designed the For We Are Young And Free publicity campaign. Stew's role usually has to do with dreaming up solutions to questions of a visual, marketing-based, or technical nature. (And acting. It sometimes involves acting). Standing There Productions is now eleven years old and although there are only three of us who attend the weekly production meetings, there is a long list of people we consider part of Standing There Productions, including regulars such as Paul Daniel (website designer) Robin Gerardts-Gill (actor, filmmaker), Melanie Howlett (founding member and Standing There Captain of Industry), and Tim Stitz (founding member, performer).
What's our point?
We like making theatre and film that provokes people into thinking about ideas or issues, but we want the primary experience of sitting in an audience to be an enjoyable and entertaining one. Basically, we're interested in producing entertaining and intelligent film and theatre about people our audiences feel a connection to.
Lorin Clarke
Lorin Clarke is a writer, director and broadcaster with an arts/law degree from the University of Melbourne. She co-presents a weekly radio show on 3RRR called Aural Text, which is about books, writing and spoken word and is the television reporter for The Breakfasters. Lorin was commissioned in 2010 and 2011 respectively to write the CAL/Meanjin essay for Meanjin. She is the television columnist for The Big Issue.
While still at university, Lorin wrote and directed People Watching, awarded second prize in London in the International Student Playscript Competition judged by playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn. Her next play, For We Are Young and Free was one of three shows in the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival to be nominated for a Golden Gibbo Award. Lorin also wrote and directed Greatness Thrust Upon Them at the comedy festival in 2008 and has directed numerous other people’s comedy festival shows since 2003. For a few years, she worked in film and TV, as Head of Creative Development for Ruby Entertainment and Molloy Boy Productions. She was part of the on-air team and a writer/producer on national daily radio show Tough Love on Triple M and was a script editor on ABC TV’s The Librarians series one.
In July 2012, Lorin undertook a critical writing residency at Varuna The Writers’ House, with Geordie Williamson, the literary editor of The Australian and received a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship. With Standing There Productions, she was artist in residence at Arthur Boyd’s farm in NSW twice, in 2008 and 2010. A regular speaker at the Wheeler Centre, Lorin is chairing a lunch time series later in 2012.
Rita Walsh
Rita is a producer with a background in creative development and production management in film and theatre. As a founding member of Standing There Productions she has been producer on each of their stage and television projects since 2003 – including all three plays, short films, and the Bundanon Residencies. She most recently produced Billie Pleffer’s short film B I N O, which received two awards at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival – The Special Prize of the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk for the Best Short Film given by the Generation Kplus International Jury, and a Special Mention for Short Film from the Generation Kplus Children’s Jury. Rita has also produced the short films Hugo (3 Academy-qualifying festivals in the USA, AWGIE Award for Best Short Script, Gold ACS Award for Cinematography), and Hollow Bones (5 international screenings). Following her Creative Arts degree at the Victorian College of the Arts, Rita gained her experience in the Australian industry. She was Intern Producer to Jan Chapman on Jane Campion’s Bright Star, and has production credits on Kath and Kim, The Pacific, Mary & Max, Noise, Lake Mungo, Crackerjack, and others. She is currently working across production and development at Warp Films Australia (where she worked on the feature films Snowtown & Shopping).
Stewart Thorn
Stewart is a cinematographer, designer, and producer. He graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a degree in Fine Arts (Photography) in 2005, having received the Doctor David Rosenthal Photography Award. In 2004 he also completed the Creative Coverage course at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Stewart was awarded the Australian Cinematographers Society silver award for Student Cinematography in 2006. He completed a Film Victoria attachment on the film Noise with cinematographer Laszlo Baranyai ACS HSC. Since then he has worked on films, TV shows and stills shoots. His short films include the TAC Make A Film Make a Difference finalist The Price of Friendship and Robin Geradts-Gill's The Other Side, which featured at the 2008 Split International the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival. Melbourne band The Little Stevies released a music video in 2008 called Sunshower on which Stewart was cinematographer. The video was nominated for an IF Award for Best Music video and won an Australian Cinematographer Society Bronze Award for Cinematography on a music video.
Stewart shot Standing There Productions' I Could Be Anybody, which was screened at the Angry Film Festival, and performed in Standing There's People Watching (2003). He was a co-producer on the Standing There Productions play Greatness Thrust Upon Them and was the designer on that play as well as the company’s previous production, For We Are Young And Free. He is a company director and provides the company’s technical and online support. Stewart, with Standing There Productions, was artist in residence at Bundanon twice in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
