The Street Theatre brings to the stage the world premiere of The Girl Who Glows by Zeeko and Jo Turner for a limited season from 18 July 2024.
Grown and made in Canberra, the awesome musical adventure about a girl who glows that is part pop concert, part theatre show, part foley studio and part audio-visual playground is an unmissable live performance for the whole family from 5 years old+ to enjoy during the July school holidays.
In 2021 Zeeko – renowned musicians Jess Green, David Hewitt and Jess Ciampa – combined with award winning theatre maker Jo Turner to create The Girl Who Glows, highly commended in the 2022 Shane & Cathryn Brennan Award for Playwriting for theatre for young audiences.
“Inspired by our frustration at generational inaction on climate change and Julia Baird’s beautiful book Phosphorescence, which invites us to look at the world in a state of awe, we set out to create a story with meaning for all ages,” says Jess Green, who is also currently working with Emilie Collyer on The Signal Makers, a new performance work commission for The Street.
“Created over three Covid interrupted years, via a collaborative process of play, improvisation and writing, the result is this genre busting, entertaining piece of social justice pop theatre for family audiences.”
Canberra-born, Jess is highly regarded for her work with young women in jazz at ANU and Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Pheno performances and recordings, We are the Skywhales (commission by Patricia Piccinini) and as music director of Boys Will Be Boys (The Street).
The Girl Who Glows tells Luna’s story – a girl who glows a bit more brightly than everybody else – and invites audiences into a wonderland of original songs and magical light puppets and to meet rapping platypuses, operatic tortoise frogs, and mystical little curlews on an epic trans-Australian journey in search of a solution to the spreading darkness that Luna feels because of her glow.
It’s magical. It’s meaningful. It’s joy-filled. It’s fun. It’s a playful journey full of twists and turns, songs and jokes. It’s a little bit scary and with the help of kids in the audience Luna discovers something truly powerful. She is not alone. She’s just one kid who glows.
The talented trio Zeeko perform and play on stage. With a multitude of instruments and noise making devices all wirelessly amplified and mobile, they travel unencumbered around the stage in characters creating a sense of play and adventure.
Using the latest in audio and visual technology Zeeko and Jo Turner and a brilliant creative team including award-winning designers have created a world of deceptive simplicity. The Girl Who Glows is a story to share and one that can be told by kids when they get home.
Zeeko have created environmentally and socially conscious music performances for children, touring with Musica Viva Australia since 2009. Moving into theatre-music, don’t miss the magic of The Girl Who Glows at The Street.
Director: Jo Turner | Featuring: Zeeko (Jess Green, Jess Ciampa, David Hewitt) | Designer: Kathleen Kershaw | Sound Designer: Kimmo Vennonen | Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson | Video Design: Laura Turner
The Girl Who Glows
The Street Theatre, 15 Childers Street, Canberra City West
Season: 18 – 21 July 2024
Information and Bookings: www.thestreet.org.au
Image: The Girl Who Glows – design by Pip Runciman