Cowra, NSW, Dec 2011

CHALLENGE:
Tallstoreez’ Change Media and Bell Shakespeare Company have collaborated with a selection of artists from recent refugee / asylum seeker backgrounds, and explored the creation of a cutting edge inter-artwork that speaks to the global issues of forced migration.
Located at the Corridor Project near Cowra, this laboratory trained all 18 participants in digital media while developing creative responses to the current refugee debate through Shakespeare and Shakespearean equivalents from other cultures. We explored what unites and divides us in a rapidly changing world. Forced migration means millions of people are displaced to somewhere else. This global phenomenon affects us all. How do we live and share these stories? What is our vision for the future?

It is said Shakespeare speaks to the core of the human condition, but what role does ‘Shakespearience’ play for young refugees far from home, war and their own influential storytellers and cultural heritage? This 3-year project provides a framework for them to create their own stories, engaging with a Shakespearean filter.

Our key aim for this collaboration was to develop a high quality multi-art project in collaboration with Bell and various artists and mentors, most of whom have been refugees, to creatively re-frame the public discussion about refugee issues. It is in our interests that everyone collaborating in the Cowra lab has this as their core aim, and we will do everything possible to establish an inspiring, creative container to explore these ideas.

We are aiming for a deliberate collision of CACD and the ‘high arts’ sectors, facilitated through digital media, CACD and theater professionals, who bring a diverse range of skills and experiences. This exploration included ‘classical’ training [both digital media and theater] and ‘performing emergencies’ to develop a framework for representations of ‘Other’ and cultural difference. We want to create equitable relationships for a non-exploitative, safe yet high-risk creative collaboration. Our process playfully acknowledges our diversity of experiences [whiteness, racism, colonialism, classics vs new art etc] while pushing for fun, excellence and high quality outcomes. Out of the 14 concepts developed, we made 9 films during the 5-day laboratory, which will be available for online viewing soon.
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PARTNERS: Australia Council for the Arts Creative Community Partnership Initiative; Bell Shakespeare Company – Mind’s Eye; STARTTS NSW; members of the Melbourne Asylum Seeker Resource Centre theater group; Tallstoreez Productionz, the Corridor Project Cowra

IMPACT & FEEDBACK:
We have collated our introductory statements for all 10 works below. In the comment section you can also find a selection of the participants’ feedback and comments from our secure blog site, where the work-in-progress was available for review and comments during the post production stage of the project.

1 – Sir Thomas More: This was our first attempt to explore viral messaging through a Shakespearean lens – a strong piece emerged in a few creative hours…it was fun that each person chose their own location to express their line. Not much has changed on this clip since Cowra, we added some music, let us know what you think.

2 – Behind The Scenes (Yomal’s Movie Moments): We think this is an extraordinary piece that speaks to the heart of the issue: representation… We decided to present the initial pitch up front, to quickly set up the premise, and removed the Scarface reenactments (sorry Paul), as it was too difficult to explain to anyone who wasn’t at Cowra… And some golden rules of editing: remove anything that doesn’t advance the story; and leave any attachments to the footage at the door (but I shot that…) We created a vintage TV template that is possibly too clunky, but kept it in to clearly signpost the different levels of media and representation, that we generally take for granted. We think there is potential for this piece as a short film with a film festival audience. It could also be developed further and included in to the game show performance or mockumentary concepts.

3 – Game Show Mirhat: We dropped the satirical torture underwear advert, it just wasn’t working. Mirhat’s performance of the tortured/torturer was the more profound version in comparison to the underwear ad-spoof. We created this draft format to demonstrate how the game show idea could be integrated with individual performances. We wanted to highlight the dexterity of the performers and dive into the pathos of the issue. We also included some of the feedback session, to present the intentions of the performers, for the benefit of viewers who weren’t at Cowra. The game show clips and performance rehearsals are in-development, we have prepared them to demonstrate the potential for a x-art performance. We think the game show format is a powerful tool to engage audiences playfully with complex issues, and it allows for high drama – and it’s structure allows the artwork to go anywhere… Please remember we filmed the rehearsal without knowing what would be presented, purely for documentation purposes, so when we say these are draft pieces, we want viewers to ignore shaky-cam / edit glitches, they are ideas generators, to be further developed and re-shot etc if the media was to be broadcasted. For us, the 3 game show examples represent one of the strongest ideas we could pursue as a group, with the support of a playwright.

4 – Game Show Elvan: In this piece, we attempted to combine Shakespearean text/ performance (A Winter’s Tale) with Elvan’s story, to create ‘A Woman’s Tale’. The text at the end might be a bit blunt, but we included them as a place holder for messaging if we want to explore that concept further.

5 – Game Show Reyaz: In this piece we explored experimental performance and integration of Shakespearience with text segments from Macbeth, again using the game show as a story device to move us from rehearsal performance to the more elaborate, experimental artwork.