This year STC is embarking on an exciting new project based in the New England region of New South Wales. Over the next 12 months STC artists will be engaging with teachers, students and community leaders through a series of workshops, rehearsals and events to develop and stage a new production. Director Susanna Dowling will regularly provide updates on the evolution of the work, and here she shares with us some of her thoughts at the end of the first week of exploratory workshops in Armidale...
Hi there,
My name is Susanna Dowling. Along with Jo Turner, I make up
half of the core New England Project team. Nominally, Jo is
the writer and I'm the director, but since Jo is also a director,
and I spend a lot of time developing new writing for performance,
the boundaries are a bit blurry between our roles. I guess
ultimately he's responsible for getting some stuff on paper at the
beginning of the process, and ultimately I'm responsible for making
sure the lights and sound work properly at the end, but in between
time we'll be playing hot potato with ideas about what we think
this project should be.
We've just finished our first week in Armidale - or 'Da Dale' as
we've learned to call it. Our aims in going up were really
two-fold: to get to know the town a little bit better, with a
particular interest in the younger residents of the town, and also
to start getting a sense of what this play might be about.
We've been tasked with writing a show about young people, based on
the experiences and input of the young people of Armidale - NOT
writing a show about young people in Armidale. It took us a
little while to figure out what the difference is between those two
things.
In some ways Armidale is kind of a unique place. It seems to
have a school on every second corner. It has one of the
oldest universities in the country. It has the highest
percentage of young people for an LGA in New South Wales.
There isn't really any kind of major industry - beyond the business
of educating people. It's beautiful - people pride themselves
on their gardens, which were in full bloom when we were there this
time. And Armidilians love their culture with a big C - the
local Drama and Musical society is a big player in town, there are
regular local opera and choral recitals, and the New England
Regional Art Museum has some of the state's best collections of
early Australian artists. It's only 90 mins from
country-music-loving, bluer-collar Tamworth, and yet it feels a
world and an age away.
But in other ways, Armidale represents a sort of Everytown.
It's not particularly rural - there's not a lot of farming going on
there, kids spend their time playing video games and hanging out in
parks. And it's not particularly urban - there's no real
public transport option, you can walk across town in 30
minutes. It sort of sits in the middle of these extremes,
which makes it an interesting place to create a show about young
people in contemporary Australia. And as we discovered, the
issues facing teenagers there have a familiar ring to them - a
feeling of having nothing to do (even in this well-resourced city),
a desire for freedom in whatever mode that might be (expression,
mobility, or just plain leaving town), a need to connect to other
people.
Over the week we met over 100 students between the ages of 14 and
18, both in school and after school. Jo conducted a number of Lecoq
masterclasses involving the neutral mask and working with elements,
and we were lucky enough to have (STC's Voice & Text Coach)
Charmian Gradwell join us, and she took students through voice
techniques and Shakespeare workshops. And in the afternoons I
led storytelling workshops where we looked at narrative structure,
character development and how characters' objectives drive action
in story. It felt like a whirlwind, doing so many workshops
and meeting so many students in such a brief time, but we started
to get an idea of who might be the students who could best help us
in our next stage.
We also became regulars at the Goldfish Bowl cafe, and by the end
of the week, they knew our coffee orders. We inadvertently
participated in both the quiz night and a uni student night at the
White Bull, and had great tapas at the curiously named 'Coughing
Gherkin'. The highlight of the week was Friday night, when
Charmian and I got to go to the Armidale Show, and see the
under-12s rodeo - tiny cowboys riding tiny steers who really didn't
know what had hit them. The first little steer literally
pooped himself when his big moment arrived.
We came away from Armidale with lots of questions still to be
answered. We still don't have a concrete sense of what the
show is going to be yet, but the week has started to help give us
some vague ideas of what it could be. And we still don't have
a working title, so we're stuck with the 'New England Project' for
now - (my suggestion of 'The Coughing Goldfish' was shot
down). But we do have a stronger sense of what the town is
all about, and hopefully some young collaborators who can help us
define those ideas more clearly when we return in April!
Cheers,
Susanna