Kat Stewart and Maude Davey Join New Play Readings at Arts Centre Melbourne's Famous Spiegeltent, April 2013

Following the sold-out presentation of musical development Ava (At The End of The World) by Eric McCusker, stars of Australia's stage and screen will help shine the spotlight on two new Australian plays being workshopped in The Famous Spiegeltent this month. Maude Davey takes on Kit Lazaroo's surreal Bright, Shiny at 2pm Saturday 13 April, and Kat Stewart will play the lead in Kylie Trouson's Merman at 2pm Saturday 20 April.

Known for her exploits in Finucane & Smith's The Burlesque Hour and ABC's Summer Heights High, Maude Davey will join Jack Finsterer (Kokoda) in the rehearsed reading of Bright, Shiny. Written by Kit Lazaroo, whose previous body of work includes the Green Room-nominated Hospital of the Lost Coin, The Vanishing Box and True Adventures of a Soul Lost at Sea, Bright, Shiny takes place in an alternate reality where the human world has been turned into a series of interconnecting snow-domes.

When two Bunnings employees discover a secret door in a storeroom, it takes them to wild places - forests, swamps and oceans - all connected by glittering snow-domes. Transforming the real world into a series of miniature globes, Bright, Shiny encompasses satire, romance and wonder through its surreal vignettes. Directed by Jane Woollard.

Kat Stewart from Melbourne's Red Stitch Actors Theatre and TV's Offspring and Mr & Mrs Murder will lead the cast of Merman. Blending mythology and psychology, Merman is set in the mind of its protagonist Serena, a novelist suffering from writer's block. As Serena's psychologist begins to uncover the source of her troubles, it becomes apparent that writer's block is just the tip of this Titanic-sinking iceberg.

Directed by Petra Kalive and written by Kylie Trounson, Merman was shortlisted for the PatRick White Award in 2011. Kat Stewart joins other cast members, including Chris Brown, Carole Patullo and James Saunders, as they perform this new work with scripts-in-hand for the first time ever in front of a live audience.

The series of rehearsed readings in The Famous Spiegeltent is presented as part of Arts Centre Melbourne's Artistic Development program. Designed to give audiences an insight onto how work transitions from the page to the stage, everyone has the opportunity to be a part of the creative process by discussing the work afterwards with the creative team during a Q&A.

Arts Centre Melbourne presents

Bright, Shiny - A Rehearsed Reading
Arts Centre Melbourne, The Famous Spiegeltent
2pm Saturday 13 April

Merman - A Rehearsed Reading
Arts Centre Melbourne, The Famous Spiegeltent
2pm Saturday 20 April
Tickets: $15