The fruits of a year’s labour are proudly on display at The Street Theatre as Canberra’s next generation of actors make their professional debuts in the dynamic Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.
The work is award-winning playwright Alice Birch’s explosive feminist piece that she says “should not be well behaved”.
Director Karla Conway says she grabbed Birch’s statement and ran with it.
“It’s a hurricane of revolution in terms of language … it’s not an angry feminist rage play, although that energy is always teetering.”
Conway has led The Street Company, a pre-professional program throughout 2018, and deems Revolt, a work comprised of vignettes, a perfect fit for the debut of Canberra’s new talent working together as an ensemble.
“It felt like a work that was urgent and needed to be seen by audience now. And with a young, contemporary cast of 20-somethings, it felt like the right fit for the company.
“There was a real diversity between each of the actors in terms of what their personal passions and trajectories were … When I read Revolt, it felt as though it tapped into many of their areas of interest.”
Conway says The Street Company program has been a very fruitful process that’s seen her actors flourish.
“The Street Company is a vital bridge in the transition from full time training to professional practice in Canberra.
“We have worked over the year in full rehearsal room mode, with the artists applying their actor training to the real-world, rigorous demands of being in a professional rehearsal room.”
Damon Baudin, one of the actors who has participated in The Street’s pre-professional pilot program, tells Canberra Daily it’s been an invaluable experience for him creatively.
“It’s put me into a professional environment. And being in that space has changed me.
“As an actor, it’s helped me understand my process, in training you get given a toolkit, and now putting in into a show I have to apply that into professional practice,” he says.
Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again is being performed at The Street Theatre until 1 November; thestreet.org.au
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