Urgent

Theatre

What would you do if this happened to you?

Urgent is based on a novel written by four young women that explores their heritage and the many questions around the Stolen Generation. Urgent is a powerful story of loss and rediscovery about three young women who discover they are sisters.

This performance provides a place for young people to begin the next chapter of Urgent, a novel which discusses Aboriginal health, the Stolen Generation and reconciliation. It presents the voices of young Aboriginal people and celebrates youth and Aboriginal culture. In 2004 Urgent received an award from the Australian Medical Association for Outstanding Contribution to the Health of Young Australians.

Director Julia Torpey, one of the four original authors of the novel, has taken this inspiring story and, with the support of the Courthouse Youth Arts Centre and Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative, has created a powerful yet subtle piece of theatre, designed to prompt the audience to question their views on reconciliation and the human tragedy of the Stolen Generation, and to consider for a moment how they would react if placed in this situation. Urgent aims to project young people’s voices and to get at the core of what really is important to them as their lives unfold.

Artist/s:

Julia Torpey (Director), Richard McKinnon (Designer), Glenn Shea (Directing Mentor), Robyne Latham (Production Consultant), Tanja Beer (Design Mentor), Ben Laden (Artistic Director), Members of the Wathaurong Co-operatives Koori Young Women’s Group

[ Read more about the artist/s ]

About the artist/s:

Ben Laden (Producer & CYAC Artistic Director) has been working in the theatre industry for more than fifteen years after having initially trained in the UK in the early 1990s. There he studied for two years under Desmond Jones, a student of the mime artist Etienne Decroux. He then worked extensively on contemporary circus, dance and physical theatre productions in London before travelling from 1994 to 1997 with Colombian company El Teatro de los Sentidos (Theatre of the Senses).

In 1997, Ben returned to Australia and worked as a designer with Kaos Theatre as a freelance artist and a community arts facilitator, eventually forming his own company, The Eater Presents. Ben has an Honours Degree in Theatre from Murdoch University, WA, and a Masters Degree in Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne. He was initially appointed as Creative Producer at the Courthouse in August 2006. Since then he has facilitated a number of major events for the organisation, including its 10th birthday festival, Decadence, in December 2006.

Julia Torpey (Director) is a young Aboriginal woman living in Geelong. She is a descendant from the Eora people in New South Wales. Julia is one of the original authors of Urgent, a book developed in conjunction with the Geelong Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative, Clockwork Youth Health Services and Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people throughout the Geelong Area.

In 2005, Julia graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts degree and is currently completing her Master of Urban Planning degree also at Melbourne University. Her interests in these areas include social justice and cultural and artistic development. Julia’s studies and experience of writing Urgent have informed her of the need for projects to offer more than just a final product. Her aspiration is to offer young people the opportunity to participate in the development and performance processes of artistic production. Her hope is for this project to not only have the ability to entertain but also to assist in skill development and education of young Aboriginal people wishing to participate in the arts.

Richard McKinnon (Designer) is a young Yamaji man who was born in Wathaurong country and has been involved with the Courthouse Youth Arts Centre for the past five years. He began with the theatrical project Signatures in 2002. In 2003 Richard began work on Hidden, a project that initially started as a creative development project but progressed into a full season at the Courthouse in 2004, and a regional tour in 2005. He was a participant in the CYAC-produced short film The Camp in 2004 and in 2006, during the centre’s 10th birthday festival, Decadence; he also worked as a devisor and designer for the installation performance Lights Out By Ten. In 2007 Richard was employed by the Courthouse as a performer at various community events and festivals. He is a visual artist in his own right and it is this ability, combined with his commitment to theatrical practice, that has led to his participation in Urgent.

Glenn Shea (Directing Mentor) is a Wathaurong Ngarrindjeri man and was the first Indigenous person to hold a degree from NIDA—the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He completed his Masters Degree on the history of black theatre. Glenn has worked as a writer, director and performer and his most recent work is the role of Sergeant O’Shane in the feature film Lucky Miles. Other film credits include Harry’s War, The Sugar Factory, and Turning April.

Glenn has an impressive career in theatre with credits that include the Malthouse Theatre’s production of Stolen that toured the UK and Ireland after a successful season in Melbourne. Other credits include MTC and QTC’s productions of The Tempest, Belvoir Street Theatre’s Up the Road and STC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Glenn also worked as writer/director/performer in Possession. Glenn’s extensive television appearances include MDA, Water Rats, Wildside, Tales of the South Sea, Big Sky, and The Masters.

Tanja Beer (Design Mentor) graduated from the University for Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria. She subsequently completed a Graduate Diploma in Animateuring/Interdisciplinary Performance Making at the Victorian College of the Arts and has worked extensively over the last ten years as a designer, performance maker, director, arts worker, teacher and design assistant in Europe, Japan and Australia.

During her time in Austria, Tanja was a guest student at the Vienna Film Academy and conceived, designed and directed two short film projects, including Machine-skin, which was shown at the Biennial Film Festival, St Petersburg. In Melbourne at the Store Room in 2002 Tanja conceived, designed and directed her own adaptation of Elixir, a story in poetry by Iranian/Australian poet Ali Alizadeh. She also designed for the production of the world premiere of David Williamson’s Charitable Intent as part of 2001 Melbourne International Arts Festival. From her base in Queensland over the last five years Tanja has designed set and costumes for the QTC, Expressions Dance Company, Circa, Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts, Vulcana Women’s Circus, Kite Theatre and Contact Inc. Tanja has also worked on a number of Indigenous projects in Brisbane, involving interdisciplinary performance making and collaborative design.

Robyne Latham (Production Consultant) is a Yamaji woman from Western Australia. Her art practice spans sculptural ceramics, to bronzes, to set and costume design. Her works are included in several state galleries, and are also collected privately, nationally and internationally. She has a long and distinguished career as Coordinator and Senior Lecturer at Curtin University (Fine Art), La Trobe University (Behavioural Health Sciences), the Institute of Koorie Education and Deakin University (Visual Communication).

Currently Robyne is a Researcher at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (A.R.C.S.H.S.). Robyne Latham’s recent Set Design credits include Tribal Expressions, Black Box Design and Construction, at the 2006 Commonwealth Games; Blak Inside Season, and collaborative design work on Enuff, Crow Fire, Casting Doubts, Conversations with the Dead, Belonging, Playbox Theatre Company (2002).

[ Project website: www.courthouse.org.au ]