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The Echo In Our Walls – Performance Outcome – Hay, April 2016

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“Outback Theatre has been a wonderful experience for my children…the team were very professional and passionate about the artistic development of kids in our isolated community. Thank you.” Participant’s Father

The Echo in our Walls Project ran throughout 2015 & 2016 and engaged the young people of Hay in the local and oral histories of their town. Where can we find local history in places other than books and newspaper articles? We were interested in excavating stories from less obvious sources: an uncaptioned photograph, the wild asparagus that grows by the riverbank, the words of an elder, the language of Hay’s original inhabitants.

This project centred on the idea that we have to be intentional and creative in remembering this history. If we don’t make a concerted effort to preserve these stories and this language, they could get lost.

There were a few unexpected moments during the process.

We were continually impressed by the camaraderie within the ensemble of young people from Hay. In particular, the older performers looked after the younger kids and helped them rehearse and learn their lines.

We were delighted to witness the pride and ownership of the work by the ensemble, as well as the confidence they gained in public speaking and singing. We were impressed by the honest and candid storytelling of the kids, sharing feelings about their life in Hay and how they see the town and its social hierarchy. The ensemble were braver than we could have ever expected, in sharing their honest perspective of their life in a small rural town, without fear, shame or censorship.

After our six week development period, we were ready for our performances which were held on Saturday 2nd April at 7.30pm and Sunday 3rd April at 3pm. Our Saturday night show featured stunning outdoor projections by Vic McEwan which gave the night a particularly magical quality and all shows were sold out with a waiting list.

When watching the show, it was like these young people were offering their parents and community a gift. They were giving them insight into their heads and hearts. What they feel, what they see, how they navigate the world. By making a show about history, we managed to tap into the present day, and hopes for the future.

The show we made was honest, brave and unflinching. Often, young people and especially teenagers can mask their true feelings, thinking they won’t be understood or properly listened to.

This show gave them the ability to share themselves and their perspectives, without irony or shame. To connect to their history, their family, their traditional country, their townspeople and each other.

The creative outcome of this show was a sprawling, huge, ambitious production – but we were happier with the personal achievements we witnessed. A young woman processing her grief. A young man learning his identity can be a source of strength and pride. A young boy learning to speak to a crowd without tears running down his cheeks. A young girl learning to speak the language of her ancestors.

These are the memories that will echo on within the team, within the young people involved, and within the walls of Bishop’s Lodge, forever.

Jessica Bellamy, Artistic Director

 

Our stories are the dreaming stories.
What you live is your story.
Dreaming is our voice.
Our life is connected to country.
Our life is connected to place.
We live according to our stories.
If we lose our stories, we live for the wrong things.
If we lose our stories, we don’t know how to live.

Raymond ‘Splinter’ Woods, Cultural Advisor[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Echo in our Walls 2015 – Stage 1 – Hay

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The Echo In Our Walls 2015 – Stage 1

The Echo in Our Walls is a project that uses the historic house and garden Bishop’s Lodge as venue and inspiration for a promenade theatre piece.

The Echo in Our Walls launched with a creative development in Hay this September. The young people of Hay and Booligal, in consultation with Artistic Director Jessica Bellamy, Director Lara Kerestes, Sound Designer and Composer Vic McEwan and Cultural Liaison Ray Woods, devised the first stage of the project.

During the creative development process, participants were engaged in workshops on family history, devising work, drama process activities, shadow puppetry and more. They were encouraged to bring along artefacts from their families, and items that meant something to them to inspire their theatre making. Ray and Gubba Woods led a walk along Bushy Bend at the Murrumbidgee River to explain the Indigenous murals and the history of Indigenous people who lived in Hay and surrounds.

For the showcase at the end of the development, the key ensemble of young actors performed short scenes and monologues inspired by different aspects of the history of Bishop’s Lodge and the community of Hay. It was a festive afternoon in the Lodge that also included installations, audio stories, roving performance, audience participation (“Build your town”) and a cake stall!

The close-knit community of Hay rallied around this project, Jessica summaries her experience, “As a city-slicker, I’m used to museums and heritage houses being carefully quarantined institutions. It was therefore very exciting to see the ways in which the Bishop’s Lodge committee turns their museum into a living, breathing, still-relevant institution! For example, when Erin Shalders wondered what costume to wear in her monologue set in the 1910s, a member of the committee offered her a lace apron from the turn of the century and said, “How about this?” It was incredible to know that a community could be so close that a 13 year old was trusted with this artefact.”

OTYP will return to the plains of Hay in February 2016 for Stage 2 of The Echo in Our Walls.

 

We acknowledge the First Nations peoples as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters where we live, learn and work, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.