Allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate my good friend John Marc Desengano on his appointment to the co-artistic director of Western Edge! He had me join a team to present a series of Shakespeare workshops for the year 9 and 10 students at Victoria University Senior College and it was an absolute blast. He’s going to be incredible in the role and I can’t wait to work with them more in the future.
Artists being very serious and making tableaus
After a year and a half of sporadic developments, both in person, on zoom, pre and post pandemic, we have finally made it to first day of rehearsals. Being in a room with the incredible Rawcus ensemble, led by my favourite humans and makers Kat Cornwell and Morgan Rose was the most satisfying and soul fulfilling experience. We have put together a group of just the most empathetic people. The young people in this ensemble, who I am ostensibly here to support, are all so supportive of each other and utter professionals. Working with a deaf young person and a team of Auslan interpreters full time means we can build the Auslan into the show in a way I’ve never experienced before. We walked away from day one with a sense of calm and was then immediately told that we had a positive case of covid in the cast. No matter, we will persevere. We are all resourceful heroes.
After a rocky term half in lockdown and half in person, St. Martin’s finally got the go ahead to do our annual Hatched performance in person! This year, because of the capacity limits, we have decided to create immersive experiences and it was a glorious day. The love I have for my group of teens is immeasurable. I made props. Kmart decided to cancel my order of costumes without informing me so we had to go without costumes other than the skirts I made every young person wear regardless of gender identification and they danced and twirled in the glorious sun and made me very happy.
AHOY! We have opened! After a stormy and wet tech on the Malthouse Outdoor stage where we had to take 2 hour breaks every night to wait for the rain to pass, and one of our cast was sick at home with gastro so I had to step in to be their stand in, our opening night was a gorgeous day and it was exactly what this post lockdown Melbourne needed. I’ve had so much fun on this production, made so many new friends. It was a show on which all 4 of the current Besen placements actively worked and contributed and it was very gratifying to have it come to life.
Now that we’re back in full swing my second Besen placement is going ahead and lucky me, I get to work on S.S. Metaphor directed by Sarah Giles. With a cast consisting of the astounding Natalie Gamsu and Ash Flanders, it’s going to be laugh riot.
