An eight month arts residency engaged five communities in five projects across five community hubs in Geelong's northern suburbs.
As director, I oversaw creative works in the Dorothy Thomson Respite Centre, at Cloverdale Community Centre, at Nelson Park P-12 School, at Norlane West Primary School, and at Back to Back Theatre. Works created with local artists included installations, sculptures, a performance, podcasts, dance works, an artist's book and a parade costumed in collaboration with Box Wars.
As a director and performance-maker, I worked with students from Nelson Park P-12 and a team of artists (playwright, director, sound designer/animator) to create a performance called Light Letters, presented to families.
A fishing village lies beneath smoke stacks. The catch shrinks daily, adults drink and fight. Their dark words rise like a black cloud, thick as smoke, blotting out the sun. The children leave in the night, into the ocean and across the sea and send home a message - SOS. The audience sends back 100 messages in a bottle, words the children want to hear, their Light Letters. When the children return they set fire to the smoke stacks. The flames rise high and reignite the sun.
Photos: Marcia Ferguson. Produced by Back to Back Theatre
