THE INEVITABLE NATURE OF CHANGE Created by graduating QUT Bachelor of FIne Arts students
Nov 2 | 3pm, 6pm | QUT Z9 Creative Industries Building
Behind the Show Change is a natural part of life but we rarely treat it as such. We can lose our minds over the smallest inconveniences, like a flat tyre or having a friend or family member pull out of arranged plans. But we also sweat the big stuff. Like a friend moving far away and beginning a new life without you. The Inevitable Nature of Change performance project invites you to explore a world inside the mind as it endures the stages of grief after saying goodbye to a dearest friend. Despite multiple lockdowns, our outstanding group of dancers have worked tirelessly to translate the poetry, prose, and scripts of the project’s passionate writing team into intricate, jarring, and thought-provoking movements, incorporating them with the intense performances of our dramatic thespians. Along with the aid of masterful visual effects, animations and the accompaniment of a rich and moving soundscape, The Inevitable Nature of Change is an insightful installation you’ll remember for the rest of your life. That is, if everything goes to plan.
SCENES ACCEPTANCE SCRIPT WRITTEN BY - STANLEY BENJAMIN AND JARRAH LESLIE-BAKER CHOREOGRAPHED BY - HANNAH BADEN-CLAY, ANANDI DE WALL AND CHLOE MORGAN
BARGAINING SCRIPT WRITTEN BY - MAX EUSTACE CHOREOGRAPHED BY - MADI FARRELL AND TAYLOR SEYMOUR
DISTRACTION WRITTEN AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY - KAI TABERNER AND KANE GAYLER
SHOCK MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY - CHELSEA AUGUST CHOREOGRAPHED BY - HANNAH GROOM, MADI FARRELL, GRACE WHITE, KATIE VAN DER GRAAF, MÅLFRID SØDENAA AND KATE UTTING
ANXIETY POEMS WRITTEN BY - ANASTASIA NOTORAS CHOREOGRAPHED BY - TAYLOR SEYMOUR AND GRACE CAMPBELL
MISERY MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY - GUS FERGUSON CHOREOGRAPHED BY - ELIZA IRWIN
ANGER POEM WRITTEN BY - JARRAH LESLIE-BAKER CHOREOGRAPHED BY - HANNAH BADEN-CLAY AND MERCEDES WOODROW
PROLOGUE
written by Stanley Benjamin
I don’t get it. Personally, I don’t find anything wrong with Brisbane. Sure, the river is a bit on the disgusting side and the train system is a hundred and twelve years behind every other state, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Not in my eyes anyway. We grew up here. Wagging from school and catching busses into the city to just hang out. Shopping at Indro, sneaking into the RE before seven p.m. on cheap Wednesdays so the bouncers wouldn’t be there to card us. It was always fun just the way it was. When she was around. My partner in crime in the river city. I was happy here with her. I thought she was happy here with me too. Guess not. I’m proud of her though. I never really thought about moving. Not in any real sense. Nothing outside of moving to Paris to live it up like royalty, or dreaming about living at Disneyland, but nothing outside of fantasy. She always spoke about moving. About bigger and better things, like a lot of people I suppose, but she actually went and sought them out. No uni here offered the course she wanted and no flats in Brisbane were small and expensive enough so she moved. Like I said, I’m proud of her. She had her sights set on something, couldn’t get it from where she was sitting, so got up and chased it. It was just so abrupt. I guess it wasn’t really. There were signs, yeah. I just hoped they wouldn’t amount to anything. But I am happy she followed through on her dream. It shows strength. Shows how much of a trooper she is. How headstrong and independent she is. Independent, yeah. Didn’t need me. I know she loves me and I know she misses me, but she doesn’t need me. She clearly never did. Did she love me? It was hard to believe it when she told me the way she did. Even before any of that, it was hard to believe it. It was just before Christmas. God-awful carols had been playing in the shop for a month and a half because “it’s never too early for Christmas spirit” apparently. I hadn’t heard from her in about the same time as JB’s ‘Mistletoe’ had been blaring over the PA, so my head was in a real spin. Work was good though, even with the carols. It kept me from checking my Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and texts every minute. My messages stacked higher and higher in our chats until I looked like a needy little school kid with zero self-esteem and a crush. I was signing out one night when my phone buzzed in my jeans. Without any spatial awareness, I almost drove my hand through the keyboard and desk to get to my pocket. There was a Snapchat notification from her. She’d sent me a video. Needed to gather her thoughts and speak freely I guess. After opening it I think she was just drunk. “Hey bestie!” The video began, “I’m so sorry I’ve been ghosting you but there’s so much going on and I really just needed to find the right time and the right words to explain” Ten past nine on a Wednesday night, two weeks before Christmas. Perfect. “So, this is going to take a little bit for you to understand, but just know that I love you and I treasure everything we’ve been through, everything you’ve taught me and every time you’ve been there for me” Go on.
“Like I said, this is hard and you’ll probably need some time to adjust to this. I’ve, moved already. A spot opened up in the course I’m after at the uni I wanted and there’s an apartment available nearby, which is rare, so I had to drop everything and go. I’m so excited and I hope, with time, you’ll be excited for me too. I love you, bestie. I’m going to let you have your space for a bit though, so you can process it all.” Then it ended. I sat there with a rush of emotions, but the last one I would have expected at that time was the one that lingered. I accepted what I’d heard.
PROLOGUE
written by Stanely Benjamin
I tapped the camera on my phone to face me, and through blurry eyes and trembling hands, I started recording. You shouldn’t have felt you have to wait so long to tell me. I am so proud of you and happy for you. Yeah it sucks that you won’t be around for a while but you’ve made your dreams come true. How can I be upset about that? I understand why you worried about me and I understand why you think I’ll need time but I’m really just happy for you. I’ll adjust to the realisation of how shit this all is later, I’m sure, but for now let me be happy for you.” Send. Send. Send? “User has removed you” Facebook? Blocked. Instagram? Blocked. I tried calling. Number blocked. Just like that, it had really ended. The videos, the sounds, the light, the friendship. Over. The ‘space’ she gave me was like my own personal hell. I thought that I could reason with myself, it wasn’t my fault after all. Or was it? If I can make it through today, I’d tell myself, I’ll be another day closer to hearing from her. That only lasted so long before I was bargaining with myself in other ways. If I make it through today without crying, I can have a glass of wine and watch a movie tonight. Not that I ever didn’t let myself have a wine and movie night, even if I did cry. It at least felt good and distant while I was drinking and watching someone else’s life fall apart on the screen. Some nights it didn’t help at all though. I’d feel the cold creeping under my skin and then, an evil voice in my head would start to tell me things no one should hear. Again and again I’d be reminded of everything horrible and everything wrong with me. Why she left, why it was my fault, until I’d forget how to breath. Wide-eyed yet unconscious I would lay there, not knowing what was happening or whether I needed to sit or stand then numb. Black. Not even her flying home to me, showing up at my door and giving me one of her warm, magic hugs felt like it would make me smile. Well, that’s what I thought then, but time goes on. She’s meant to be flying home soon, she’s finishing her degree and we’ve started speaking again. I’m still too scared to touch on what happened in a serious way. I’m still getting over the way it made me feel but, as each day until graduation drops away, I find myself more and more excited to see her again. I can’t get my hopes up too much though. Who knows what can happen between now and then. That’s just the inevitable nature of change.
NOTES FROM THE PRODUCTION MANAGERS Change – it’s the only inevitable in this life and yet even when we face it daily, weekly, monthly, it leaves us bewildered. The past
year
has
definitely
been
a
testament
to
this,
and
this
group of diverse, dynamic creatives can testify. Combining our unique blend of dramatic, choreographic and writing skills we have
worked
Change
tirelessly
performance
managers,
we
collaborations
are that
to
we so
have
create
know
the
you
proud
will of
flourished
Inevitable enjoy. the
As
Nature
of
production
interdisciplinary
throughout
the
creative
process. As you follow along with this narrative, which is very personal to many of the cast, we ask that you listen, interpret and
reflect
upon
change
in
your
own
lives
and
how
we,
as
humans, collectively expect and respond to it.
Mercedes Woodrow
Jarrah Leslie-Baker
Project Manger
Project Manger
Choreographer
Writer
Performer
CAST Performer
Chelsea August Performer Writer
Isabella Bachiller Performer
Grace Campbell Choreographer Performer
Anandi de Waal Choreographer Performer
Hannah Baden-Clay
Stanley Benjamin
Choreographer
Writer
Performer
Max Eustace Performer Writer
Performer
Choreographer Performer
Kane Gayler Choreographer
Writer
Performer
Marketing/Program
Artistic Cohesion
Madi Farrell
Costume Design
Gus Ferguson
Marketing/Program
Administration
Ashley George Performer Marketing
Hannah Groom Choreographer Performer Marketing/Program
Immogen Hamilton Performer
Hadyn Imhoff Sound Designer /Composer
Eliza Irwin Choreographer
Lilli McAllister Performer
Performer
Chloe Morgan
Anastasia Notoras
Choreographer
Writer
Romi Sato Dance Director
Performer
Taylor Seymour Choreographer Performer
Målfrid Søndenaa Choreographer
Nicole Spies Performer
Performer Costume Design
Kai Taberner
Kate Utting
Choreographer
Choreographer
Performer
Performer Assistant Sound Design
Katie van der Graaf
Emma Walton
Choreographer Performer Costume Design
Krystal Woolaston
Performer
Performer
Marketing
Marketing
Grace White Choreographer Performer
Quincy Wilson Camera Operator Projection Design
Angelina Xuan Performer
CREW Stage Manager Meg Toni Lighting Designer Meiyu See ASM/ Sound and Vision Operator Cate Peterson Sound Programmer Briana Clarke Lighting Operator Emma Burchell Sound Designer/ Composer Hadyn Imhoff Assistant Sound Designer Kate Utting Design Quincy Wilson Project Supervisors Elizabeth Old Gibbs, Dan Black and Csaba Buday
CAST PHOTOS
CAST PHOTOS
THANK YOU
The Inevitable Nature of Change would like to extend our deepest appreciation for your patronage and support.
To our writers, performers, tech team and producers who have worked tirelessly to produce this breathtaking art installation. And a very special thanks to Elizabeth Old Gibbs, for your guidance and expertise. Your larger creative vision has been the inspiration behind this performance from the start.
The Inevitable Nature of Change, at its core, is a statement on the mental health effects we can feel in the face of change.
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 www.beyondblue.org.au
Lifeline 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au