Banh Mi Trail, Melbourne
Followspot | Melbourne Uni
Choice pickings from this week’s Melbourne Uni Union House Theatre’s Followspot (edition #34):
Verve Studios – Free Acting Workshops!
Fri 20th Nov & Sat 21st Nov
- Beginner Workshop A Taste of Acting - Fri 20 Nov | 10am – 12pm | Free
- Advanced Workshop Acting Masterclass - Fri 20 Nov | 1pm – 3pm | Free
- Monologue Workshop -Sat 21 Nov | 10am – 12pm | Free
All workshops held at…
Theatre Works | 14 Acland Street St Kilda
BOOK A PLACE: info [@] vervestudios.com.au
MORE INFO or call 1300 73 83 13
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Public Lecture: Leading by the Gaze in Theatre – University of Melbourne – Wed 25 Nov
Arts and cultural organisations have become a potential source of learning for other types of professional and knowledge based organisations that call for intensive collaboration and team work of talented and creative people.
Professor Ropo and her colleagues observed rehearsal processes in theatre with a view to determining the impact that interaction between the director and the actors had on the theatrical production. They noted that it was the sensuous, bodily practices, such as the way the director and the actors cast looks on each other in the course of the rehearsal that particularly influenced the quality of the artistic process. This kind of interactive and influential looking is encompassed by the concept of the “gaze”. In this presentation Professor Ropo sheds light, both empirically and conceptually, on how leadership by the gaze occurs in the theatre rehearsal process and its implications for the artistic outcome of the production.
Presented by: Professor Arja Ropo, School of Business Administration, University of Tampere
Date/time: 6-7pm (then to the bar for refreshments), Wednesday 25 November
Place: Lawler Studio, The MTC Theatre – 140 Southbank Boulevard,
Southbank
Cost: FREE
For more information and to rsvp: contact Dr Kate MacNeill, Lecturer in Arts Management, School of Culture and Communication cmmacn [@] unimelb.edu.au or phone 8344 8753.
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CMG seeking composer
Want to have your music played in front of 1000+ people?
Your opportunity is here!
The Melbourne University Chinese Music Group (CMG) is currently looking for a music composer for our 2010 Musical Production. Be part of an amazing experience with a group of cast and crew of more than 100 people. Our annual production attracts more than 1000 people, and YOU can have your music performed in front of all of them! This is your chance to shine so DON’T MISS OUT!
Applicants are required to submit a 15 minute portfolio of your own original compositions showcasing at least two contrasting musical styles by DECEMBER 1ST 2009 (as both MIDI and sheet music).
The successful applicant will be notified by 31st December 2009.
Terms and conditions:
1. The Chinese Music Group Annual Music Production is in Mandarin, but non-Chinese speaking composers are also invited to apply.
2. The composer is required be available in Melbourne from February to August 2010 to work together with the CMG production team.
3. The composer is required to complete all compositions by April 2010.
4. The composer is required to arrange all compositions or have the music arranged by another person by May 2010.
5. The selected composer is required to attend cast and orchestra auditions and rehearsals when required.
6. CMG reserves the right to produce and sell a recording of the compositions for the production.
Register at chinesemusicgroup@yahoo.com for your chance to shine.
Why Penelope Trunk is really, really wrong
This week, Mark Overmann, Assistant Director at the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, co-author of Working World and blogger at Working World Careers “guest blogs” (or rather cross-posts) in response to Penelope Trunk’s provocative article: 4 Reasons Travelling is a Waste of Time. As a frequent reader of Brazen Careerist I’m appalled that someone as prominent as Penelope Trunk, a career coach and virtual mentor to many 20-somethings by way of her blog could pontificate such an insular statement. What ever happened to globalisation and America’s push for soft power in the Obama era? Whatever happened to the importance of international experience in employment? While economic globalisation has rendered cultures around the world similar in many ways, the cultural practices of today are hybridised, a creative synthesis of many influences – old and new culture, developing practices, etc. Our cultures are thus same in some areas, and different in others. Exposure to economic disparity provides a great learning experience I’m sure, but the the skills and experience (and stories!) gained from travel are equally important. I, for one, find travel highly stimulating. Trunk’s sweeping (and reductive) statement downplays the diversity of humanity and our irrepressible propensity to adapt and adopt … but then again she has always been a provocateur..
Anyway, I’ll let Mark do the talking. His eloquent response below:
When she gives her four reasons why traveling is a waste of time. Where do I even begin…
It was shocking to both me and my friend Joanne at Rogue Stampede (who first alerted me to this article and at whose blog this has been cross-posted) that a prominent Gen-Y career coach was pontificating such an insular opinion, especially in light of the U.S.’ strengthened push for soft power in the Obama era. I’m also astounded that Ms. Trunk, as a professional career guide, so discounts (or just fails to recognize) travel, international and intercultural competency, and linguistic skills as important 21st century career competencies. ALL careers these days (not just those I blog about) are international to some degree, and the sooner her readers understand this and equip themselves with the skills they’ll need to succeed in a global economy, the better off they’ll be. I’m afraid Ms. Trunk might eventually get left behind if she isn’t able to shake this insular outlook and apparent fear of that which isn’t right beside her.
But let’s pump the brakes for just a second. As Joanne mentioned in our discussion about this, other people’s lives and decisions are not for us to judge. If someone wishes not to travel and to remain close to home, that is their decision and there is nothing wrong with this. In the same way, those who do love to travel should be permitted to do so judgment-free, yet also have no right to view themselves as better or superior to those who don’t travel (everyone who’s traveled has been at some point at least a bit guilty of feeling better than the bumpkins who haven’t been where they’ve been).
Cut to a scene from last Sunday’s episode of Mad Men: When discussing the pompous, I’m-so-cultured opinions of someone who had done a lot traveling, one character commented: “Just because she’s been to India doesn’t mean she’s not stupid.” Beautifully said and that sums it up: Just because you’ve been on an airplane a few times and eaten some weird food doesn’t give you permission to act like a know-it-all jackass.
That said, I fervently believe the benefits of travel to an individual, both personally and professionally, are far too great and real for Ms. Trunk to so casually dismiss to her readers. Let’s start with her gross generalizations about culture. She says that you don’t need to leave the U.S. to find cultures different than your own. This is certainly true, but you do need to travel to fully engage and understand them. It is true that I can experience something about, say, the black culture of Baltimore by reading Ta-Nehisi Coates or having a beer with someone who grew up in West Baltimore. It is also true that I can experience something about Ethiopian and Eritrean culture by going to the 9th and U, NW, area in DC, known as “Little Ethiopia,” and eating a meal or talking to a cabbie. But these experiences cannot possibly be as powerful, formative, or true as actually traveling to those places. Is meeting someone from West Baltimore near your home and talking about black culture the same experience as actually walking the streets where he grew up and visiting his family? Is eating tibs and injera in downtown DC the same as eating them in downtown Addis Ababa? While the vicarious experiences we may have with other cultures near our home will be informative to some degree, to pretend that this is the same as actually going to a place and immersing ourselves in that culture is lazy and disengenous.
I was also intrigued by Ms. Trunk’s thought that it’s not culture that separates us, it’s economics. Jews, South Africans, French—as long as we’re from the same economic status, we’re the same, she intimates. She didn’t get along with those pesky farm kids in France, but the city kids were “just like” her. This argument strikes me as shallow and completely unthought-out. While the city kids in France may have been more socio-economically in line with her, did she really believe that this made them just like her? That there were no cultural differences between them? Did the notion that she was speaking French or (more likely) they were speaking English ever strike her as an obvious and smacking (cultural) difference between them? What about the cheek kisses in lieu of handshakes? The small coffees instead of the big Americanos? Long lunches and late, even longer dinners? I would imagine these were more annoyances to Ms. Trunk than cultural differences worthy of particpating in and trying to understand.
While one benefit of traveling and interacting with those from a different place is precisely that we do get to break down the walls of difference and see the similarities we have, it’s just silly to say that we don’t have cultural differences, only economic ones. Seems to me that this view is completely ignoring the fact that a whole host of factors contribute to our individual identities: national culture and socio-economic are two, but there are many more—and the mix for each person is unique and impossible to quantify. As Joanne recently wrote so eloquently on her own blog, “I am Singaporean, but I am also my own person, not a mere reproduction of my cultural background.” I think “cultural” here could be replaced with any number of other words (”racial,” “economic,” “religious”) and the statement would apply to all of us, no matter where we’re from.
Next point. Ms. Trunk writes: “People who love their lives don’t leave.” Are we supposed to take this as a serious thought? Does she really believe all travel is about abandonment and running away? What if people love a life of visiting new places and meeting new people and experiencing new things? That’s exactly why I got into the business I’m in. I remember my dad saying, right before I left to live in China: “I’d feel a lot better if you just stayed here.” But for me, that wasn’t the case. He wanted me to stay in what he viewed as a comfortable place: my hometown, Cincinnati, working for a corporate real estate office. To me, this was the exact opposite of comfortable or a life I would love. For me, the comfortable thing to do—the thing that made me love my life far more than I did before—was to go to China, was to travel. We all have our preferences—some of us want to wander, some of us don’t. As I said before, no shame in either one. But for Ms. Trunk to say that one can only fashion a life they love by remaining in the exact same place and doing the exact same things over and over and never leaving it? I believe this to be a little silly at best, and willfully ignorant at worst. I love my girlfriend and my cat and my job, and I enjoy a good downward facing dog as much as the next person. But I also love to get on a plane and end up in New Delhi—because that is excitement to me. That is living. That is creating a life I love.
Ms. Trunk also believes it’s more “effective” to revel in the sameness of your daily existence than travel some place new to experience the vibrancy of a wholly unique place, culture, people, and life. I won’t argue that staying at home and fully realizing the beauty and complexity of the place in which you live is a bad thing. In fact, this is probably something more of us should take the time to do. But in no way will travel not help you see the world differently than before. In fact, it’s by traveling, by taking ourselves outside of those places we live and come to know so well (and often take for granted) that we are able to fully realize their beauty and complexity. It’s the same way that one only truly realizes what it means to be an American (or a Singaporean or an Ethiopian) when they travel outside of their homeland and are able to view their home country, culture, and people from a completely and totally different perspective.
Travel is not about running away. People don’t plan trips only when their lives are shit and changes need to be made, but instead of facing those changes and challenges, they flee (I wonder how much the Eat Pray Love mentality is affecting Ms. Trunk’s view here). Travel for many is about the vitality of the experience. It’s about the newness of the place and the people and the food. It’s about the anticipation of the trip—the planning, the reading, the preparation for what you may encounter. It’s about the experience in the moment—the new sights, the new sounds, the new scents, the new flavors. It’s about doing those things you always wanted to do—and going with the flow when you’re pulled along on adventures that you couldn’t possibly plan. It’s about returning to the comforting embrace of home, sharing your photos and stories with friends, reliving the best moments, telling the horror stories of the worst, all the while teaching those around you a little bit about a place you’ve just been.
This is the beauty of travel to me, and if Ms. Trunk’s grown this sour on it, then I feel bad for her. I encourage her to plan a trip abroad to somewhere she’s always wanted to go (I know there’s at least one place) and when she returns, I’d be interested to know if she feels any different.
Attract/Repel: A Response
I don’t want to rehash what has already been said by excellent critics like Alison Croggon at Theatre Notes and Australian Stage who sum up the play quite adequately, but I can speak from my own subject position as a minority ethnic, and perhaps more importantly, as a fresh-off-boater Chinese-Singaporean in Australia. What I offer in this post is not a review, but a response to the potent subject matter explored by The Melbourne Town Players.
I had a good time at A/R. I laughed a lot. I laughed even more at the Chinese dialogue between Fanny Hanusin and Jing-Xuan Chan which no one else understood, but also heightened my difference with the mostly white and/or Australian crowd. As a frequent theatre goer, I am aware of how rarely, if ever, I see people-of-colour in the audience. This time in the itsy bitsy room, I was in on the joke, I was one of them, I was one with the actors. And I felt a strange sense of.. relief. Later on post-show someone remarked it felt as if he were eavesdropping on a conversation. For me, I wasn’t eavesdropping. I was in conversation.
Many examples of racism were discussed (unconscious fetishization, the chink scale), but most cogent for me: the whitewashed ABC looks at the FOB with disdain, unlike the many whitefellas who have welcomed us with open arms. I had hope that Attract/Repel would answer the question, “why the shame?” but the issue remains unanswered. A/R dug around for coffeeshop talk about racism, although the show never progressed beyond a superficial description of racism. But perhaps I was asking too much from an already heavy show, laced with so many sensitive, rarely talked about issues I came away thinking I’d sat through a taping of Insight. If A/R merely scratched the surface, it has scratched deep and softened the ground for further political discourse. Fittingly, a performer later mentioned to me:
It’s interesting some people who came to the show who don’t have the migrant background or not exposed to it found it hard to believe that the show is based on true personal experiences. After the show, we had people asking us “Are those true stories?” with a sceptical tone or “That was good writing, can I have a look the script please?” and we had one person who thought [XYZ] was not my real name and we made up characters and stories for the show.
A hard-hitting piece like Attract/Repel must move beyond the boundaries of the theatre space. As an artistic piece, it engages in political discourse with creative expedience and has pushed these issues into the public sphere - but by the same breath continues to be encumbered by the four walls of a black box. Still, A/R surprised the audience with its no holds barred dialogue and that’s a good start. I left that night knowing how A/R could potentially be a watershed moment in the ongoing discussion of multiculturalism and race.
Writers Connect
I was recently asked to help put together the new Writers Connect website by Word Forward. WF finally looks to be having some concrete direction outside of its slam nights and writing group so I was happy to come on board. The site’s come together after months of template tweaking and insane content production by our writers and editors.
Writers Connect
Singapore doesn’t have many avenues for young writers to publish, network or trade ideas. Apart from QLRS and the beautifully designed poetry site Softblow, I can’t think of other sites that cater to the local writing scene. Word Forward is also one of the few organisations giving exposure to non-Chinese writers so often overlooked in the local literary scene. For that, I’m pleased to announce the launch of Writers Connect.
The arts could be so much better in Singapore..
As a trans-national cosmopolite, I’m interested in how countries learn from one another. International relations is a significant part of arts councils – funding for exchange programmes and intercultural projects are common practices. All good. But the governmental systems our countries are run by also play a huge role in shaping the creative environment.
I spent some time thinking about out why Singapore’s arts industry isn’t yet flourishing, not in terms of cultural policy but from a macro perspective. The Singapore arts scene is not as juvenile compared to five years ago, but it’s got a long way to go. My thoughts on what Singapore should learn from Melbourne:
1. The dole is God’s gift to the arts.
2. The minimum wage ensures that artists are paid enough to live comfortably if they hold a part-time job. In Singapore, a casual or part-timer earns pittance (think $4-6/hour) and will probably be made to take on a full-timer’s load. Oh, and the superannuation in Australia? Super.
3. Taxation might be a bitch in Australia, but it’s fair.
4. Affordable housing. If you think Australia’s rentals are high, think again. Singapore’s housing prices have skyrocketed in lieu of the housing shortage. SGD$2500 gives you a cramped 2-bedroom apartment in a noisy HDB block, while AUD$1400 is more than enough to rent a comfortable inner-city 2-bedroom abode. Bohos can actually afford the rent of a house and a studio (related to point 1 and 2). Surprise! (Although gentrification is starting to wreck havoc on rent prices in Melbourne, but that’s another story for another time)
5. Some assholes give artists a hard time in Australia, but they’re generally accepted as part of the creative and cultural landscape. The implementation of entities like the School of the Art in Singapore are examples of how the government is trying to change citizenry mindsets about the arts, but it will be a long and slow process. Old habits die hard and old Asian parents, well, they’ll usually expect their children to go a certain trajectory – you know, the holy trinity.
6. Small, affordable performance spaces and galleries like fortyfive downstairs. Singapore needs more of these spaces.
Singapore will continue to dish out spectacular infrastructure and large-scale events in a bid to build its creative capital, but – and this is not a new suggestion – the policy makers need to look at funding bohemian Asia if they want to beat Hong Kong and become Asia’s creative city.
Review: Juwita Suwito Live with Orchestre Nouveau
Upcoming pop singer Juwita Suwito wraps up her Australian tour performing with a chamber orchestra – a first for her and a treat for us.
Review by Joanne Tay
The violins and bassoons buzzed. So did the 300 excited young Singaporeans and Malaysians huddled underground at the Champions ballroom, Arrow on Swanston. It’s not everyday one gets to watch a concert by performers from our part of of the world and this one promised to be a rocking good time. Helmed by conductor Zach Tay leading the classical chamber group, Orchestre Nouveau, in a ‘contemporary crossover’ performance with Malaysian indie pop princess Juwita Suwito, the concert was an instant crowd pleaser.
Upcoming Asian-Australian singer Alarice Thio swooped in with her guitar and bongo-beating accompaniment, opening the concert with sparkling renditions of her songs from her latest EP, Songs for a Season. Her acoustic guitar pop warmed up the crowd with sweet melodic tunes of faith and hope, reminding this author of her youthful days in church. The soulful lyricism of confessional tunes like Colour and Falling for You mesmerised the largely Christian audience.
Alarice. Image by Brandon Eu. Retrieved without permission.
The opening act segued into a rousing entrance by a very charismatic Juwita Suwito, whose stage presence, combined with the electrifying sounds of Orchestre Nouveau tore the house down. Both orchestra and singer surged forward with thumping pop hits, punctuated by a burst of smoke plume and heavy concert lighting. The crowd roared.
Juwita worked the microphone with finesse, soon settling into quieter ballads about – yes, faith, hope and love in the big bad world, which seemed to become the singular thematic for the night. No matter, the young college crowd soaked up the words of encouragement, perhaps dreaming of the day they too leave the shelter of school and embark on the rest of their lives.
Juwita Suwito and Orchestre Nouveau. Image by Brandon Eu, retrieved without permission.
A rousing duet between Alarice and Juwita in the anthemic, Faith (from Alarice’s EP), was the final act, bringing to a close an exhilarating night of contemporary orcha-pop sounds. Kudos to conductor Zach Tay and emerging composers Anthony Williams and Thaddeus Huang for bringing together the lush virtuosity of Orchestre Nouveau.
Cheap Melbourne
A higher cost of living aside (compared to Asian countries where most of us international students come from), Melbourne’s quite an affordable city to live in if you know where to look.
Docklands is fast turning into a shopper’s paradise, despite a broken wheel and relative distance from the city centre. The free City Circle tram drops visitors right in front of Waterfront City, a Sydney harbour wannabe yet to find its own unique selling point but still charming nonetheless.
Perhaps charming is an understatement. Last weekend, my Singaporean visitors went into a shopping frenzy, jumping from store to store like zombies to fresh meat. “Cheep, cheep!”, we hollered, our familiar war cry resonating through the open-air promenade of Harbour Town, the shopping precinct of Waterfront City. Brand names and not-so-branded-but-still-chic names line the promenade, their storefront windows plastered with SALE!, 50% off!, 5 for $40! and other alluring neon-coloured paste-ons. Ladies, have a field day in this orgasmic platter of clothes and shoes.
Footscray, on the other hand, isn’t a glamourpuss. But if you’re looking for ultra-ULTRA cheap China-made products, head down to Footscray Central’s Asian “gift stores”. They sell well, just about everything you need at home. I’ve purchased pots and pans, cables, pet items, tissue boxes, et al.
Elsewhere in Footscray central, the pho and banh mi (omg, delish) make life worth living. Also, check out Footscray Market, Little Saigon market and the Asian grocers for cheap produce. I defo recommend LIttle Saigon not for the cheap prices but the terrifying experience of walking through a microcosm of rough-and-tumble Asia. Prepare to be screamed at, shoved about and spoken to in Vietnamese. And oh, the smells!
Footscray is home to migrant communities from Africa and India as well. Your taste buds will be spoilt for choice. It’s no surprise I spend most of my weekends in this ‘burb eating, shopping and pretending that I’ve travelled abroad. Drop off at Footscray railway station or take bus 402, 401 and a host of other local buses.
Flickr
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Culture and Public Diplomacy
I stumbled across a photography exhibition titled “The 21st Century Family of Man: Photography as Public Diplomacy“* through Katherine Keith’s excellent public diplomacy blog. I initially started this blog post conveying my unimpressed reaction to the exhibit:
But scratch that. This exhibit is an American event, the epitome of the West.. and the Rest will always become a spectacle of the exotic. I’m generalising of course, but some Americans continue to call Asia the Far East, a term that hasn’t been used in almost a century. But Paul S. Rockower isn’t just any American. He’s a well-travelled intercultural communicator who’s captured the beauty of humanity, the many different faces and places that make Planet Earth so amazing. A photographer can only tell powerful stories if he knows his subjects intimately and Paul paints an amazing picture.
That said, I still think there’s a propensity for cultural difference to be played up in public diplomacy, masking the living, breathing human being behind frilly curtain of ‘culture’. I am Singaporean, but I am also my own person, not a mere reproduction of my cultural background. We need to remind ourselves to find that middle ground when meeting people culturally different from us.
*I have not seen the exhibition, only the website. My kneejerk reaction was a response to the lack of contemporary city-esque images on the website, but who wants to see yet another skyscraper or suit yeah?
[Update]
The exhibition is receiving rave reviews. Paul gave an excellent speech on public diplomacy at the opening: “While the world may indeed be a narrow bridge, it is the role of public diplomacy to widen that bridge. It is the task of public diplomacy to widen that bridge so that more and more people will not live in fear of the world that exists on the other side, and so that they will not be afraid to cross that bridge.” Well said.