Sydney Festival launched at Seymour Centre

The University of Sydney is in partnership with the Sydney Festival.

Watch out Sydneysiders: The Slutcracker is coming to the University of Sydney.

So too are Six Characters In Search Of An Author; nine Happy As Larry dance theatre performers; a UK cast of actors determined to be comic and Party; and a cast of thousands performing in various theatre, debate and performance acts as part of the 2010 Sydney Festival.

The University of Sydney has entered into a partnership with the Sydney Festival for the first time, which will see it play host to events at its various locations, including its Seymour Centre and celebrated 150-year-old Great Hall. Of the 58 programmed events and productions for 2010, 17 will be held at University of Sydney venues.

As part of the 2010-2012 collaboration University artists, students and academics from faculties from Architecture to Music to Indigenous History will also be involved in off-campus events.

Importantly for the University community there will be discounted adult tickets for the 2010 programme for students, staff and alumni to ensure they make the most of the University's involvement. A special webpage has been created to explain how to take advantage of this discount, along with program and booking information.

The launch of the 2010 Sydney Festival program was held at the University's Seymour Centre today. Announcing the 2010 programme Festival director Lindy Hume said the line-up reflected "a sense of communal and individual catharsis but also ideas of happiness and optimism after the upheavals of the last year."

University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Dr Michael Spence said he was thrilled with the role the University would play to help connect art and ideas and attract new audiences to the Festival.

"We are delighted to be a partner with the Sydney Festival and to contribute the University's creative energy for the enjoyment of wider audiences," Dr Spence said.

Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore MP said the University partnership would "…position the Festival as a forum for debate and discussion."

The 2010 Sydney Festival runs from 9-30 January. Events to be staged in the University's Great Hall include a fragile and exotic work on the theme of glass called Fractured Again. Created by Damien Ricketson the work is described as a "multi-faceted experience combining a unique sonic environment with aspects of installation art, lighting design and choreography."

Also in the Great Hall, Graduate School of Government director and former WA Premier Dr Geoff Gallop will lead an inaugural World Café discussion on the pursuit of happiness called Are We Happy Yet?Involving several of the University's academics the event promises a rich discussion on the nature of human happiness with perspectives from the worlds of art, psychology and spirituality.

Other events for which the University will help connect art and ideas include a free Pacific thought symposium - the first to be held on this side of the Tasman -and a keynote panel address on Crisis, Catharsis, Renewal.

Live show highlights include The Manganiyar Seduction - an Indian theatre spectacle with 43 Rajasthani musicians housed in a magic box structure, to be performed at the Seymour Centre.

Ruhe is another expected highlight, a theatrical event exploring the dark and light sides of European experience through song, monologues and video. In a room of mismatched chairs where audience and choristers sit together a beautiful Schubert song will be interrupted by two people who want to talk about their voluntary enlistment in the SS.

The University of Sydney announced it would become a Leadership partner of the Sydney Festival for 2010-2012 in June this year. Dr Spence said the arrangement was a natural fit for the University of Sydney, bringing together some of Sydney's most creative minds with the possibility of generating really fascinating and stimulating ideas and attracting new audiences as the Festival broadens its focus.

Media contact: Sarah Stock 9114 0748/ 0419 278 715 or sarah.stock@usyd.edu.au. Out of hours contact: 0434 609 790.

Or go to the University of Sydney's Sydney Festival information page.