Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) is thrilled to announce the five outstanding producers selected for the NEWPRINT 3 program! Selected by industry veterans thndo, N’fa Jones, Neda Rahmani and Kily Safari, we’re welcoming five incredible producers from across Naarm/Melbourne with talents and experience across multiple areas in the music and arts industry!

Alkitsi Pitsaki's reimagining of the tale of Αριάδνη / Ariadne, in their eponymously titled play, re-centres the Cretian sister of the Minotaur in an ancient yet timeless production that parallels the feminine struggle for identity, voice, and to be remembered, that persists today.

How it is that, even though future brings us opportunities, we still cry and miss for the past? Why does our attachment to people and things affect some of us profoundly? The play People, what have you done? written by Alek Silber and adapted by Kristof Kaczmarek, doesn’t provide answers, but it certainly makes you think about them.

The Field of Forgotten Dreams, written and directed by Ricardo Magno, premiered at La Mama Courthouse in Carlton as part of La Mama’s Festival of Mother Tongue. This new children’s play, featuring music and puppetry, draws inspiration from Philippine folklore and mythology. It stands as a testament to the diversity of storytelling within Australia’s multicultural landscape, offering a fresh perspective on themes of freedom, identity and the transformative power of dreams.

Set in the barren fields of Dakila, The Field of Forgotten Dreams follows Laia, a young girl who awakens each day to toil alongside her friends in hopes of reviving the desolate land. 

“Per fare tutto ci vuole un fiore” (to do anything you need a flower). So recites the matriarchal figure of I Topi Non Avevano Nipoti (The Mice Had No Grandchildren) in an extended funeral sequence mourning her son, who she seems to have smothered to death with her overbearing presence. She references a poem by Gianni Rodari, later put to music by Sergio Endrigo and transformed into one of the most famous Italian nursery rhymes. The absurd sequence captures a core contradiction explored in the play: how family norms can both create and constrict life, planting its seeds and containing its flourishing.