This morning was the final day of my adventures in the land of Playwriting Australia’s National Script Workshop. As we sipped lattes and the like in the courtyard of a nearby cafe, we sped-read and discussed the latest draft of Angus Cerini’s new play Scowl and subsequently digressed to a whole assortment of random and somewhat disconnected musings – from theatre to linguistics to jumbo jets and new plays popping into Angus’ head! I hope the afternoon session with Van Badham was just as exhilarating!
Second event for today… WE BOOKED A VENUE!!
I said to myself that I wouldn’t talk too much about Sydney Fringe Festival until everything was up and running – until there was DEFINITELY a venue, until there was DEFINITELY a show, DEFINITELY a production, an audience etc etc the list goes on ad infinitum – I’m so terrified this won’t go up! HOWEVER, if I put it all out there, if I say to myself and the team “we are going to do this!” (and it’s moreso the team telling me that) then it has to happen, right? Right. And I’m pretty darn excited about it all too – so there! And here we are. Venue booked and now I think I may just have a brain aneurysm.. or perhaps even a show to put on… in the second week of September! Watch this space!
Man, I love being in Sydney! I love the atmosphere, the sense of adventure, the vast landscape of creativity and the endless population of creative people – from the emerging to the established – whom I continue to meet and discover and learn from each and every day. I love my focus and my drive since moving here – I have the time to work, to learn, to discover, to read, to engage, to perform – I am giving myself that time and I am growing considerably and I hope that this can eventuate in sharing my work with others and in working with members of this wonderful arts community whom I can continue to learn from.
… And now Toby Schmitz is following me on Twitter, so, you know, life couldn’t get any sweeter!
Then, this afternoon, I watched some great epsisodes of Inside the Actor’s Studio. Particularly that of the incredible and vastly inspiring actors, Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett. Wow, what tour de forces! What a dream to aspire to (and forever work towards) – their level of detail, insight, intelligence, commitment and empathy in their work. Not to mention the groundedness and immense generosity of spirit they have in order to proffer such overwhelming performances that just give and give and give! Below is Cate Blanchett’s interview at the studio – I particularly love her discussion at the end of the interview concerning Laban (a detail of the Laban work that I was not previously familiar with and which I am very interested to try).
A lovely arts administrator said to me today that I have “a really positive attitude about me” – I must remember this when the chips are down – you keep on trying and you never give up. Then, slowly, gradually, you climb to where you want to be… And with Toby Schmitz following you on Twitter, where else would you want to be??
