This Heaven
Belvoir presents
This Heaven By NAKKIAH LUI Director LEE LEWIS This production of This Heaven opened at Belvoir St Theatre on Saturday 9 February 2013. Set & Costume Designer SOPHIE FLETCHER with ALICE BABIDGE Lighting Designer LUIZ PAMPOLHA Composer STEVE FRANCIS Sound Designer NATE EDMONDSON Production Manager NEIL FISHER Stage Manager KHYM SCOTT With Sissy JADA ALBERTS Ryan JOSHUA ANDERSON Ducky TRAVIS CARDONA James EDEN FALK Joan TESSA ROSE
Thank you Blazey Best (Reporter voiceover); Anthony Gee. Photography Brett Boardman DESIGN Alphabet Studio
Writer’s Note Nakkiah Lui This Heaven was never the play I expected to write. But I did. And when I read it after a night of feverish writing, I wasn’t surprised. This story had been simmering within me for a long time. There was a tribute for a young girl who had passed away out the front of some housing commission flats. I passed it most days and then one day it was gone. Someone had burnt it down during the night and just the remnants of the burnt fence remained. I couldn’t get the image of the fire burning along the fence during the night out of my mind. I started dreaming about it. I would wake up with the smell of smoke in my hair and nose. I knew I had to write about it. That’s when everything came rushing out. The love, anger, hate and loss of a life that seems so big and so small. Of having all the possibilities in the world, to feeling like you are never going to get out of a place. Wanting to change the world and realising that change is actually a really difficult thing. This has been living in me for a long time. This Heaven is about the loyalty of a place and how it can destroy you. It’s about how we exist in a world beyond the individual but it’s the tiny intricacies we remember. It’s about people on the verge of committing great loss and great love, about people trying to find any means they can to change the world around them.
One afternoon during the first week of rehearsals, Lee, Anthea Williams (Belvoir Literary Manager) and I were looking over the final scene. Anthea turned to me and said: ‘I’m really happy you chose to write this play instead of throwing a Molotov cocktail.’ This Heaven is my Molotov cocktail. I want to throw it and burn things down. Having the support of Belvoir from the very beginning of This Heaven has been such a blessing. To be a part of the Belvoir family has really given me a voice and made me more insistent about my relevance in theatre. Being a part of a journey that has involved so many brave, engaged and giving people and creatives has been amazing. No-one could wish for more for their first production. This show is for my family, in particular my nana, Joan Beale. She was one of the strongest, most intelligent, funny and brave women I have ever known. She had such a tough life but she never lost her capacity for love. And for me, in the midst of tragedy, that’s the one thing that gives hope. Through all the viciousness, hate and apathy, we can love. We can love.
Director’s Note Lee Lewis I wish this play didn’t have to exist. I wish that a young woman wasn’t driven by the state of this nation to write it. I am glad she has chosen to write about the genesis of a martyr instead of becoming one herself. Because I want to take that as a sign that she believes that stories can change our world. Because I want her to write more plays about the better country she is helping to create. Because I think her comedy is really something to look forward to. For everyone.
Lee
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Indigenous Theatre at Belvoir supported by The Balnaves Foundation
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Biographies NAKKIAH LUI Writer Nakkiah grew up in Dhurag community in Western Sydney. She believes this is where her passion for writing came from; sharing the contemporary Indigenous experience through performance. She is currently finishing her Arts/Laws at the University of New South Wales. Nakkiah was an associate playwright at Belvoir in 2012 and a resident in ATYP’s Fresh Ink Playwright Residency 2010, where she wrote for the show Tell It Like It Isn’t. Nakkiah has been the inaugural recipient of both The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award and the Australia Council’s Dreaming Award. She is currently under commission by Belvoir for her next play, Koorioke.
LEE LEWIS Director Lee is the Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company. She directed That Face for Belvoir in 2010. Her other directing credits include Ladybird (B Sharp/ Small Things Productions); 7 Blowjobs, 2,000 Feet Away, A Number (B Sharp/ Frogbattleship); Half and Half (B Sharp/ Chess Club); Reasonable Doubt (New York Fringe Festival); Honour, Zebra, Love Lies Bleeding (STC); Stag, Motel (Wharf 2LOUD); Silent Disco, A Hoax, The Call, The Nightwatchman (Griffin Theatre Company); Stoning Mary (Stablemates/ Griffin Theatre Company); The School for Wives, Twelfth Night (Bell Shakespeare); The Drowned World, Vicious Streaks (co-directed with George Ogilvie, Darlinghurst Theatre); Kikia Te Poa,
The Share (Old Fitzroy); Trojan Women: A Love Story (Theatre Nepean); Julius Caesar (Seymour Centre); Our Town and The Tempest (New Theatre).
JADA ALBERTS Sissy Jada is a Larrakia, Bardi, Wadaman and Yanuwa performer. She graduated in 2006 from the Adelaide Centre for the Arts with an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts. Her stage credits include Yibiyung (Belvoir/Malthouse); Frost/Nixon, The Birthday Party (MTC); Second to None (Vitalstatistix/Kurruru Performing Arts); Cat (Windmill Performing Arts); Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui (Darwin Festival); The Green Sheep (Cate Fowler); and Saltbush (Insight Arts). Jada was assistant director on Windmill Baby for Belvoir. She appeared in the feature film Red Hill and on television in Rush, Redfern Now and the upcoming series Wentworth. In 2007 Jada won the Adelaide Critics’ Circle Award for Best Emerging Artist for What I Heard About Iraq (Holden St Theatre).
JOSHUA ANDERSON Ryan As a child Joshua did voiceover work for Nickelodeon and many TV commercials including the Master Raindrop series, McDonalds, MTV, Bushells, Paddle Pop and PlayStation. He appeared in a supporting role in the 2003 film Darkness Falls, and went on to have guest roles in TV series including Farscape, Home and Away and various other children’s series. After graduating
from school in 2007, Joshua participated in the CAP21 program at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York. This is his first performance with Belvoir.
film Around the Block. He has also been tutoring with Australian Theatre for Young People over the last two years.
NATE EDMONDSON ALICE BABIDGE Set & Costume Designer For Belvoir Alice has created the costumes for Peter Pan, Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, Every Breath (and set), Babyteeth, That Face, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Parramatta Girls and Capricornia. Her other costume credits include Face to Face, Gross und Klein, True West, The Trial, Honour, The War of the Roses, The Season at Sarsaparilla, The Lost Echo, Boy Gets Girl, Julius Caesar (STC). Alice designed both sets and costumes for The White Guard, Next Stage Shorts, The Oresteia, The Mysteries, The Women of Troy (STC); Self Esteem (Wharf 2LOUD); King Tide, The Nightwatchman, The Peach Season and Strangers in Between (Griffin Theatre Company). Alice has also designed for opera, film and music video, and received the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Costume Design for Gross und Klein.
TRAVIS CARDONA Ducky Travis grew up in the Northern Territory and graduated from NIDA in 2008. His most recent theatre credits include Savage River (Griffin Theatre Company/Melbourne Theatre Company/Tasmanian Theatre Company) and The Sea Project (Griffin Theatre Company). Travis’ TV credits include guest spots on All Saints and Dance Academy, and he appeared in the
Sound Designer Nate is a graduate of NIDA’s production course. His credits include Never Did Me Any Harm (Force Majeure/STC); Rust and Bone, This Year’s Ashes (Griffin Theatre Company); Torch Song Trilogy (Gaiety Theatre/Darlinghurst Theatre); The Greening of Grace (Wildie Creative Enterprises); The Seafarer (O’Punsky’s Theatre); The Paris Letter, The Coming World (Two Birds One Stone); The Hiding Place (ATYP); Julius Caesar, The Temperamentals (New Theatre); and Fefu and Her Friends (Red Rabbit Theatre). For Tamarama Rock Surfers Nate has worked on: Psycho Beach Party, Fallout, Wrecking, The Highway Crossing, Lyrebird, Pictures of Bright Lights and Flightfall.
EDEN FALK James This is Eden’s first production with Belvoir. He has appeared in The War of the Roses, Gallipoli, The Season at Sarsaparilla, The Serpent’s Teeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Art of War, The Lost Echo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Miser (Sydney Theatre Company); and Who’s the Best? (post/STC). Other theatre credits include The Ugly One (Griffin Independent); A Game of You and the UK tour of Internal (Ontroerend Goed). Eden has also appeared in the feature film Sleeping Beauty.
NEIL FISHER Production Manager Neil is a graduate of NIDA’s technical production course. He was production consultant on the Belvoir/Urban Theatre Projects/Sydney Festival production of Buried City and technical manager on Thyestes (The Hayloft Project/ Belvoir/Sydney Festival). Neil worked as production/technical manager on the 2011 and 2012 national tours of Namatjira (Belvoir/Big hART) and the Ernabella and Alice Springs seasons of Ngapartji Ngapartji (Belvoir/Big hART/ Sydney Festival). For Pinchgut Opera, Neil was production manager on Castor et Pollux. As a freelance technician he has worked for Bangarra Dance Theatre on Fire, Mathinna, Awakenings, True Stories, Clan and Spirit. Neil worked for Ensemble Productions as their production manager on Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, End of the Rainbow, Are You There, Local Man and Drawer Boy.
SOPHIE FLETCHER Set & Costume Designer Sophie is a graduate of WAAPA. She has assisted Alice Babidge on Belvoir’s productions of Peter Pan, Every Breath and Babyteeth. At WAAPA, Sophie designed set and costumes for The Boys, The Laramie Project, Xanadu and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. She has designed sets for Bugsy Malone, Beauty and the Beast (St Hilda’s); and The Mikado (G&S Society). And has assisted on The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Australia);
Gross und Klein (STC); The Hollow and The Golden Age (Victorian College of the Arts). She was recently a wardrobe coordinator on the short film Reunion and has art directed the short films Veronica Redding (VCA); Rabbits and The Rapture (Met Film School).
STEVE FRANCIS Composer Steve’s Belvoir credits include Don’t Take Your Love to Town, Babyteeth, The Book of Everything, Gethsemane, The Power of Yes, Ruben Guthrie, Baghdad Wedding, Keating!, Paul, Parramatta Girls, Capricornia, The Spook, Box the Pony, Gulpilil and Page 8. Other theatre credits include Bang (B Sharp/ Whitebox Theatre), Jesus Hopped the A Train (B Sharp/murri fulla films), Vital Organs (B Sharp/Easily Distracted); The Secret River, Sex with Strangers, The Splinter, Under Milkwood, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pygmalion, Bloodland, Blood Wedding, The White Guard, The Removalists, Tusk Tusk, Gallipoli, The Great, Rabbit, Pig Iron People, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Embers, The 7 Stages of Grieving, Stolen (STC); Between Two Waves, This Year’s Ashes, Speaking in Tongues and Strange Attractor (Griffin Theatre Company). Steve also composes for dance companies, film and TV. He has won three Helpmann Awards and a Sydney Theatre Award.
LUIZ PAMPOLHA Lighting Designer Luiz is a NIDA graduate whose credits include Belvoir’s Don’t Take Your Love to Town, Ruben Guthrie and Antigone, and for B Sharp: A Number, 7 Blowjobs (Frogbattleship), Love (Inscription), Half and Half (The Chess Club), Blasted (Sheedy Productions) and Now That Communism is Dead My Life Feels Empty (Kitchen Sink). Other credits include The Kid, The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table, The Nightwatchman (Griffin Theatre Company); Love-Lies-Bleeding, The 7 Stages of Grieving (STC); Waikiki Hip (Wharf2LOUD); Hitler’s Daughter, The Prospectors (Monkey Baa), Somewhere, Weather (Q Theatre Company); This Territory, Boy Overboard, Back in Your Box, Three Little Fears (ATYP); Cloud 9, The Illusion, The Drowned World, Bone, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Love’s Triumph, Bangers and Mash and The No Chance in Hell Hotel (Darlinghurst Theatre Company).
TESSA ROSE Joan Tessa received a Diploma in Dance from NAISDA and has worked across dance, theatre, TV and film. Her theatre credits include The Cherry Pickers, The Dreamers, Black Medea, Blacked Up, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Sunshine Club (STC); Black Chicks Talking (La Boite); Bloodland (STC/QTC/QPAC/ Adelaide Festival); Fountains Beyond and The Sunshine Club (QTC). Tessa has appeared on TV in Redfern Now, Gods of Wheat Street, White Collar Blue, Corroboree Walk and ICAM, and has
appeared in several short films including Two Bob Mermaid. As a dancer Tessa has performed in Fish (Bangarra); Luck of the Draw (Darwin Theatre Company); and Club Bub Exposure at Belvoir St Theatre. Tessa was a dancer in Yothu Yindi’s Treaty music video.
KHYM SCOTT Stage Manager Khym graduated from NIDA in 2012 with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production). Last year he was seconded to Belvoir’s production of Strange Interlude. As stage manager his credits include The Serpent’s Table (Griffin Theatre Company/ Performance 4a); Bob Downe’s RetroGras Tea Dance, Queer Thinking, Drag Races and Sunset Cruise (Sydney Mardi Gras Festival). Khym has also worked in other production roles for companies including Performing Lines, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, New Theatre and Sydney Festival.
Sometimes you need to push.
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