Favourite Shorts 08
Favourite Shorts 08.
Beyond Empathy was one of the partners of this year’s Favourite Shorts 08, an annual short plays’ festival held in Armidale. Sixteen plays were performed over three weeks, with a different program each week. Two of the sixteen plays were performed in partnership with the BE Leaders’ Program.
Tjum’s Story was written by Jaluka Rose Quinlin, Valerie Quinlin’s (BE Leader) Aunt, and was based on the story of the young boy who was impaled on a fence in Redfern. BE leader, Adam Williams, played the role of Tjum in his debut stage performance. He was also Assistant Director, working alongside director, Margaret Anderson. At Adam’s suggestion, Steve Donovan, well known to BE participants and personnel for his work as a cultural and traditional dancer at the camps, was invited to be part of Tjum’s Story. BE funded his participation in this play through our Artists Development Program as part of the BE Leaders’ Program. His dance added the important traditional framework to the play. From the first scene, where Tjum (Adam) is presented to the audience as a modern young boy through the use of the hiphop dance Adam learnt from Travers Ross, Steve used traditional dance to circle young Tjum and represent the protection of his ancestors. Steve’s didgeridoo playing underpinned the emotional scene following Tjum’s death as his mother grieved. The play concluded with a traditional cleansing dance performed by Steve and Adam. This powerful and evocative piece showed how a simple story simply presented could touch the hearts of the audience.
Botox Avenue was written by Adam Williams, along with Tessa Thorne and Anna Fullerton. Adam expressed a desire to see it realized on stage, so his BE mentor, Phoenix Valore, took on the task of directing with Adam again Assistant Director. Adam and Phoenix worked with the young cast, Anna Houlahan, Brittany Roach and Joey Brown, exploring through improvisation and workshopping the limits and possibilities of the piece. The play grew to twice its size through this process. The enthusiasm and great ideas from Adam and the young cast made this truly a piece written by young people, performed by young people for young people – but not limited to young people. Many of the issues raised in the piece reflected realities that everyone could relate to. One scene, where one of the girls has split up with her boyfriend, opens with her sitting on a sofa sobbing and eating a tub of icecream. An audience member was heard to remark, ‘As you do!’ There were many such moments.
The plays were filmed by the Armidale Film and Television school and a DVD of the performances will be made available in the near future.
The collaboration between BE and Favourite Shorts offered opportunities to BE participants and also raised public awareness of BE and its work in community, specifically in Armidale. We hope that this can be an ongoing collaboration and look forward to next year’s season.
For further inquiries click here to email Pheonix Valore
Adam Williams, played the role of Tjum.
Steve Donovan (left) and Adam Williams used traditional dance to circle young Tjum and represent the protection of his ancestors.