Written by Richard Tulloch
Music by Anna K. Jacobs & Adrian Kelly
When Stella’s family moves from Narrangarra to the city, she suddenly finds she has no friends. In a dark room on the top floor of Stella’s apartment block, lives a blind astronomer. Everybody says he’s weird. He can’t see the stars, but he spends all his life studying space. But Stella gets to know him. He sometimes needs her to be his eyes, and he teaches her that our greatest problems can be put into perspective by comparing them to the vast beauty of the Universe.
STELLA AND THE MOON MAN is a family show that combines music with shadow puppetry and digital video. It was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2005 in collaboration with Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image and the Australian Youth Orchestra. The production won a 2006 Helpmann Award for Best Children’s Presentation.
Audio
“Stella’s Crane Dance”
Performed by the Australian Youth Orchestra
Conductor: Simon Kenway
Press
“Contributing enormously to the work’s keen sense of wonder and play is the music of Anna Jacobs and Adrian Kelly. The musicians, led by Simon Kenway, offers a secure, arresting account of the intricate and evocative score.”
– Bryce Hallett, Sydney Morning Herald (read the full review)