Choreographer Notes:
“The impetus for the creation of Happy as Larry came from my thoughts on happiness. I had become startlingly aware that people around me were perplexed by the elusive nature of happiness and its possibilities. This quandary also seemed to generate extremes. Was it an unhealthy preoccupation, or alternatively was happiness completely forgotten? For some, perhaps, all connection with happiness was seemingly lost or had become distorted. Do we know how to be happy anymore?
I had been studying the Enneagram for many years, consulting with my Kinesiologist Kim O’Brien
(a student of Claudio Naranjo’s SAT School), and I immediately drew a connection: How do the different personalities found within the Enneagram inhabit the idea of happiness? This connection formed the spring-board for our investigation into the concept of happiness.
The Enneagram maps nine distinct but interrelated personality types. Oscar Ichazo and Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo integrated the basic Enneagram system of personality with modern psychological knowledge. The nine personality types described in the ‘modern’ Enneagram model are the Perfectionist, the Seducer, the Performer, the Tragic Romantic, the Observer, the Devil’s Advocate, the Optimist, the Boss and the Mediator. These nine traits offered an insight into human behaviour on a broader scale, and informed the development of the nine performer’s characters and their individual quest for happiness. As in all my works, the performers, composers, designers, dramaturg and creative producer are fundamental to the creation of the final production, their creative minds driving the vision alongside my own.”
Shaun Parker
Director/Chereographer
“Happiness is our most singular human pursuit. It is seemingly so conditional, randomly regulated by external influences. Through the theatrical glasses of objectivity we see how absurd, futile, complex and perplexing our efforts are to hold onto something that is so elusive yet is as available to us as the air we breathe.”
Veronica Neave
Dramaturg
Biographies:
Shaun Parker
Director/Choreographer
Shaun Parker has worked as a choreographer, dancer, physical theatre performer and counter-tenor for more than 17 years. A graduate of VCA, his performance credits include Meryl Tankard’s ADT, Kate Champion’s Force Majeure, Sydney Theatre Company, Chunky Move, The Song Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Compagnie ALIAS (Switzerland), Meredith Monk (New York) and Sasha Waltz (Berlin). He has also performed in feature films including Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, Ana Kokkinos’ Book of Revelation and Bruce Beresford’s Mao’s Last Dancer.
Shaun’s self-devised physical theatre and dance works have toured to Germany, Asia, New Zealand and across Australia. His credits include Divine Harmonies (Tasdance), My Little Garden (Barossa International Music Festival), Blue Love (Sydney Opera House, La Boite, Malthouse), VAMP (Meow Meow/Malthouse Theatre), Love Installment (Sydney Dance Company), Tenebrae III (The Song Company) and the award winning short films The Love Trilogy and NO. Other work includes creative developments with Australian Theatre of the Deaf and the National Aboriginal & Islander Skills Association (NAISDA).
His choreographic credits in the commercial industries include Assistant Choreographer to Kate Champion for the World Touring Production of Dirty Dancing, the modern dance work Judas Kiss (telecast world-wide for World Youth Day), and the video clip for Broken Leg by Bluejuice (nominated Best Music Video, ARIA Awards 2009).
His awards include the Queen’s Trust Award, the Emerging Artist of the Year Award and the Robert Helpmann Scholarship 2006 to develop his work in singing, directing and choreography.
Shaun Parker’s This Show Is About People world-premiered at the Melbourne International Festival 2007 and Sydney Festival 2008. It won the Australian Dance Award for Best Independent Production and was nominated for four Green Room Awards. In 2009 Shaun was artistic director of the Captivate project, working with gifted and sometimes untrained and under-privileged performing arts students across Western Sydney; focusing on the thoughts and concerns of these raw and culturally diverse young Australians.
“If you want to be happy, be.” Leo Tolstoy
Nick Wales and Bree van Reyk
Co-composers
Nick and Bree began their musical collaboration in 2004 as members of the critically acclaimed musical ensemble CODA. In 2008 they composed and performed the score for Shaun Parker’s Love Installment for Sydney Dance Company and they have also worked together on a number of film and television projects. Nick collaborated with Shaun in his 2007 work This Show Is About People. He was musical director and co-composer for the Vivid Festival’s Firewater event, is a founding member of CODA and has created countless scores for theatre, film and television. Bree is composer/performer for Bell Shakespeare’s King Lear directed by Marion Potts in 2010. Her performance career includes collaborations with Synergy Percussion, Holly Throsby, Darren Hanlon and The Rebel Astronauts.
