Pink Ladies part of the Awesome Improv Festival, Roxbury, 16 Jun 2011

Linda Calgaro and Karina Francis.
Photograph Dennis Mitchell,
Menace Photography 2010 

Yes!!
You can see the Pink Ladies doing a version of their mockumentary upstairs at the Roxbury, 182 St John's Road, Glebe, 2037, on June 16th, 2011.
It's part of an improvisation festival running every Tuesday and Thursday in June.
Come see us!!
Cast includes: Linette Voller, Cindy Tonkin, Sophie Long, Jess Mallett, Karina Francis, Lucie Booker, Linda Calgaro,

PInk Lady - the Japanese experience

Of course we called ourselves Pink Ladies because of the connection to the breast cancer network logo, and we were aware of the link to Grease's Pink Ladies, but not of this 70's pop duo called Pink Lady from Japan.
Thanks to Tomomi Takahashi for the heads up!

Pink Ladies are go!



Back stage at the Pink Ladies 27 September 2010.
Cloockwise from left: Linette Voller,
Lucie Booker, Karina Francis, Sophie Long, Linda Calgaro, Erin Foy,
Cindy Tonkin, Karena Thomas



So Pink Ladies first season has come to an end.

Behind every successful woman there is sometimes a huge number of people to thank.

When all was said and done, we sent $1189 to the Breast Cancer Network and had an enormous amount of fun doing it.

And we need to thank these people who donated money directly to the BCNA because of our show:

Mario Seifreid

Lisa Every

Anne Grunseit

Rod Matthews

John Bastianon
and the 105 people who paid to see the show (we don't know all of your names, but we love you!).

And the behind the scenes people who made the production work.

John Barnier and Jon Williams and the IA Committee at Impro Australia, who donated the cost of our show's insurance, and their cut of the Roxbury Late Show door.

Jason Dunn, Jim Fishwick and Glen Bell who did our lights.

Matt Pilkington who did the door for us during the Late Show.

Our mothers and mothers everywhere, who gave us so much material for our show. We're hatching a plan for a mothers' day show in 2011, so watch this space.

Del Close: an Experience we share with the audience

Pink Ladies' Improvisation is inspired by Chicago-based improvisation, as epitomised by iO Theatre Chicago. The guru of Chicago-based improv is Del Close.
The glory of you tube brings you a 1986 interview with Del, back when it was all brand new. We like the idea that the players don't entertain the audience as such: we have an experience on stage that the audience shares.

What the Show was about - a review from Whatsonsydney

Philippa Bird of Whatsonsydney reviewed the Pink Ladies show on October 8th.

There are still 3 more weeks in October to see our watchable show - October 15, 22, 29 2010 Upstairs at the Roxbury, 182 St John's Road, Glebe, from 10pm for 45 minutes.

Be there or be surprised!

This Friday 15th October 2010 our cast includes Chloe Paul, Lucie Booker, Jane Simmons (as the documentary maker), Jess Mallett, Louise McManus, Karina Francis and Linda Calgaro.

Photo: Taken at one of our Sydney Fringe shows: Linette Voller lights a fire in a forest. Photographer Michelle Ho

What's the show about?

What are Pink Ladies' shows about? It's always hard to say, because we treat the themes that emerge from our brains as we play.

Michael Chabon's afterword from Gentlemen of the Road, defines the themes of other stories he had written prior:

"disappointment, misfortune, loss, hard enlightenment, moments of bleak grace. Divorce; death; illness; violence, random and domestic; divorce; bad faith; deception and self-deception; love and hate between fathers and sons, men and women, friends and lovers; the transience of beauty and desire; divorce - I guess that just about covers it. Story, more or less, of my life".

And a lot of what Pink Ladies cover in our shows are like that:

In the preview at Full Body Contact No Love Tennis and our four Sydney Fringe shows we have treated themes like:

• aging, senility, body image, delusion
• loyalty, celebrity, stalking and fading fame
• ambition, dreams and entrepreneurialism
• turkey basters
• schadenfruede (pleasure at the misfortunes of others)
• how our mothers make us (or not)
• who is God? How do you become a god? Do the gods play poker
• what lengths will you go to in order to please a mother
• organ harvesting
• when sleeping with your friends' future husband is OK (or not)
• the importance of mothering
• divorce and getting on with it

So what are our shows about? We don't know now, but we will know when it happens, and you'll be there to see it happen.

Here's what one audience member said:

"I really enjoyed the sensation of a new story unfolding right in front of me".

Photo: Linette Voller, Erin Foy, Jess Mallett, Sophie Long, Louise McManus - who's sleeping with Rick? Photographer Michelle Ho

The Fringe has been and gone... now on to the Roxbury

Despite good intentions to add to the blog during the Fringe Festival, other priorities (like actually doing the show) took over.

Good news is we have video of most of the shows (yes, it will get to the site eventually), and photos by Karina's friend Denno, Karina's friend Paula as well as Michelle Ho, an official Fringe photographer.

We'll put some up here when we work out how to do that!!

In the meantime, the Pink Ladies are off to the Roxbury, 182 St John's Road, Glebe, for our October Season. Come see us every Friday in October at 10pm. The show is upstairs, admission $10 at the door, or from Whats on Sydney.