notes to a goldfish

Can you remember the instant you forgot the event of your birth? I cannot remember ever having been here before. I have always been here. Yes, I believe you. It seems to be about faith. In front of you, of course, you remember. Here I am, always being born. Watch me be born. I believe you! Yes, time is so swept up and for us, here, simply an ornament, where we are. In this dark, without windows, time serves to add decoration to a stage of untraceable events. And you must forget. Forget so that we can be born, together. I see through the glass. You must forget. Is that my purpose? To forget everything that has gone before, forget that things will keep happening after, to forget that I forget. Is forgetting possible in the water? The water will remember for us, remember so that we can forget. We ask that you truly forget your birth every minute to be born. And keep being born and untraceable and forgetting. Things will happen, you can be sure, but know there is nothing more than you and I, surrounded by the chaotic game of song and language tracing untraceable, unpredictable events.

TOMAS WEBER

understudy goldfish

Your understudy

Today your understudy will be playing you.
Do not be alarmed.
Your understudy will attempt to replicate your physical appearance
but please be patient.
Despite the best endeavours of the costume and make-up departments
your understudy may not quite achieve perfect physical verisimilitude
but, as time and budget will allow,
your understudy will aim
to give a reasonable number of people a reasonable impression of you.

Your understudy may make mistakes - please be patient.
S/he may not quite get your manner of greeting
the way you swing your bag as you walk
the way your hair curls gently on your shoulders
the way you sometimes snap or flirt
shade your eyes from the sun
or scrunch your face when you don't know something.
Your understudy has strict instructions
not to try to impersonate you but
to try to find your essence
not to wander off-script
not to compromise you with friends, lovers, family
by going in directions you would never explore.
Those that know you well may notice
some slight errors in your understudy's performance
(in the timbre of voice, in the delicacy of movement)
but please ask them to be polite.

And would it actually be so terrible
if your understudy stepped slightly
out of your careful little life
out of your tight routines, patterns, scenarios?
We've watched you exiting your house at 7:27 each morning for example
for precisely the same journey to work/school
sitting next to the same shy boy who smiles
but to whom you never say hello.
Say you are a B+ student and your understudy is an A?
Say you are a virgin and your understudy is
shall we say, a little more friendly in that department?
Would it be so terrible?

Let's face it
we've given you a perfectly good life
and maybe you're not using it properly
maybe you don't deserve this perfectly good life we've given you.
Maybe your understudy will be better than you at being you?
Do not be alarmed.
Today your understudy will be playing you.

JACQUELINE MEZEC

shalom 48

Photo: Bruce Liron

Dear Mr Wicks
Janette, Yildiz, Rachel, Jack, Andy,
Francesca, Lucy, Teal, Aaron, Craig,
Nathan, Steven, Robert, Josh
and Lawrence

THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH

I loved acting / performing / dancing / running / talking / improvising / playing / rehearsing / creating / doing / debating /and being scared - but good-scared - ALL OVER AGAIN.

It was a truly intense / experimental / exciting / experience for me; it had been too long...

I hope it was all as incredibly creative for you as it was for me.

SHALOM

D A N I E L

48 hrs

thou shalt not say i can't
thou shalt not say no
thou shalt not be unkind
thou shalt not die

thou shalt not not take my calls
thou shalt not not speak to me
thou shalt not not make thy peace
thou shalt not die



21:00 hrs 10/09/09 - 21:00 hrs 12/09/09: 48 hours

12 performers
1 choreographer
1 director
1 production manager
1 deputy stage manager
1 assistant stage manager

a rehearsal room
a car park: green street car park
a car
a 70 minute performance / production / experience

• opening sequence
• meet and greet
• thou shalt not - craig
• first kiss
• thou shalt not - yildiz
• afghanistan
• thou shalt not - dan
• toy boy
• thou shalt not - aaron
• car nick
• thou shalt not - janette
• suicide
• thou shalt not - nathan
• fix
• thou shalt not - andy
• do you get it
• salsa
• thou shalt not - fran
• shoplift
• thou shalt not - rachel
• male rape
• thou shalt not - lucy
• thou shalt not - lawrence/gary
• finale
• plain song - yildiz
• closing sequence

Photos: Bruce Liron

48 hrs : the company

Photo: Bruce Liron

gallery

What can you do in 48 hours?

Fly to Australia and back?
Knit a jumper?
Prepare an Indian meal?
Sail to Italy?

But can you creat a dynamic and original piece of theatre from scratch?

An experiment in time!



opening sequence


suicide


fix


thou shalt not


did you get it

Photography: Bruce Liron

of being

Agapanthus africanus /  "Peter Pan" / Lily of the Nile

Image: Pender Nursery, Inc.

How do you begin to cast 39/possibly 42 young people from 140+ auditioning? Only one-in-four possibilities and thus three-in-four potential disappointments for people.

The criteria is complex, almost indefinable, and changes slightly from person to person because of the mix of natural skills, neverland skills, personalities and presence: 'of being'.

What has impressed was the incredible commitment of body, voice and thought; the listening, the watching, the thinking - the concentration and focus; and everyone's ability to communicate something so very honestly and refreshingly. Everyone laughed a lot! A good sign.

You got a great sense of the responsibility and prestigiousness of it all.

This year there were two-hour workshops onto which people had booked themselves - thus doubling the play time. This meant that time pressures were completely dispelled together with the self-imposed and imposed pressures of auditioning.

These did not feel like auditions. They were definitely workshops with the by-product being the casting. This was incredible. There was even a great sense of self-selection - v. complicated to explain.

There were many, many young people who we did not know and a handful who were in Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.

Tonight we meet to put in place our three teams: THE NANAS, THE CROCODILES and THE MERMAIDS.