A Club Refuge Country Tour
September 10, 2003
by Di Greentree
The past two weekends have been an inspiration for the Club Refuge cast, and I'll summarize.
Tour 1 to beautiful Bright/Beechworth/Myrtleford, where once again we were overwhelmed by the great hospitality of the local people, who provided us with delightful accomodation and even more delightful food....not to speak of the terrific company. It seems supporters of refugees are the creme de la creme! thanks particularly to Monica, Sally, Meredith and Pat for the GENEROUS T.L.C.Our only regret was that we didn't have a spare day to frolic in the snow.
Following both adult performances (both to excellent houses) question time was lengthy and in depth and revealed to us the compassion and commitment that exists in rural communities.
We never fail to be surprised by the schools shows. All of us having played to highschools before in theatrical tours, our expectation is that there'll be a fair amount of restlessness, so when we are greeted with rapt attention, we really feel the material is hitting home. It was particularly poignant that we had with us a former detainee (now on a T.P.V.) who read the Iranian detainees letter...a plea to John Howard and the Australian people not to deport them.
The questions which followed, demonstrated that the students were moved to the point of wanting to become active...surely our aim, and there were many requests for information about writing to detainees...and particularly to those whose stories we told. One Beechworth student, Hannah Routledge wrote an excellent letter which was published in the "Age" the following day.
On the following weekend we travelled to Bairnsdale and were lent a lovely old home by Alice Garner's mother in law, and met there by the wonderful Meryn Callander (who had organised the whole thing)and daughter, Juniper and again....casseroles, cakes and coffee.
A highlight of the afternoon performance was that Trish Kerbi's husband and children were there to hear us read their "adopted son" Aziz's letters form Port Hedland Detention centre. They were later able to answer the audience's questions about Aziz and his ongoing court battles.
Again the schoolkids blew us away with their focus and attention. A teacher at one of the schools had warned us he'd had a complaint previously about these kids lack of attention during visiting performances. For us they were angels.
Again the questions following the shows demonstrated to us how much the kids had absorbed and how commited they now appeared to be to helping the refugees.
Some highlights: the young boy (whom I was later told came from a rather dysfunctional family and who turned up for school erratically) who, during the discussion about a young boy in detention called out "He can come and live with me", and then later, when he heard the detainee liked the "Back street boys" music said "I'll send him a "Backstreet Boys" T-shirt". Several tearie girls who requested addresses of detainees to write to. Groups who wanted to combine and visit people in detention (5 hours away)Students who wanted to send gifts. anger, dismay and a desire to change the system were very evident.
At a rather exclusive grammar school, our contact teacher warned us that the students were very well-off conservatives and may b racist and unreceptive. They were wonderful! Hung on every word and several told us that their opinions had been changed by the performance. At all venues, the questions continued far longer than we'd hoped and again showed us the power of performing this material. We are proud, elated and inspired....and....we had a bloody good time! Thankyou so much to all the organisers and performers for making this such a success!
(By the way, we raised well over $2000 to give to deserving refugees.)
by Di Greentree
The past two weekends have been an inspiration for the Club Refuge cast, and I'll summarize.
Tour 1 to beautiful Bright/Beechworth/Myrtleford, where once again we were overwhelmed by the great hospitality of the local people, who provided us with delightful accomodation and even more delightful food....not to speak of the terrific company. It seems supporters of refugees are the creme de la creme! thanks particularly to Monica, Sally, Meredith and Pat for the GENEROUS T.L.C.Our only regret was that we didn't have a spare day to frolic in the snow.
Following both adult performances (both to excellent houses) question time was lengthy and in depth and revealed to us the compassion and commitment that exists in rural communities.
We never fail to be surprised by the schools shows. All of us having played to highschools before in theatrical tours, our expectation is that there'll be a fair amount of restlessness, so when we are greeted with rapt attention, we really feel the material is hitting home. It was particularly poignant that we had with us a former detainee (now on a T.P.V.) who read the Iranian detainees letter...a plea to John Howard and the Australian people not to deport them.
The questions which followed, demonstrated that the students were moved to the point of wanting to become active...surely our aim, and there were many requests for information about writing to detainees...and particularly to those whose stories we told. One Beechworth student, Hannah Routledge wrote an excellent letter which was published in the "Age" the following day.
On the following weekend we travelled to Bairnsdale and were lent a lovely old home by Alice Garner's mother in law, and met there by the wonderful Meryn Callander (who had organised the whole thing)and daughter, Juniper and again....casseroles, cakes and coffee.
A highlight of the afternoon performance was that Trish Kerbi's husband and children were there to hear us read their "adopted son" Aziz's letters form Port Hedland Detention centre. They were later able to answer the audience's questions about Aziz and his ongoing court battles.
Again the schoolkids blew us away with their focus and attention. A teacher at one of the schools had warned us he'd had a complaint previously about these kids lack of attention during visiting performances. For us they were angels.
Again the questions following the shows demonstrated to us how much the kids had absorbed and how commited they now appeared to be to helping the refugees.
Some highlights: the young boy (whom I was later told came from a rather dysfunctional family and who turned up for school erratically) who, during the discussion about a young boy in detention called out "He can come and live with me", and then later, when he heard the detainee liked the "Back street boys" music said "I'll send him a "Backstreet Boys" T-shirt". Several tearie girls who requested addresses of detainees to write to. Groups who wanted to combine and visit people in detention (5 hours away)Students who wanted to send gifts. anger, dismay and a desire to change the system were very evident.
At a rather exclusive grammar school, our contact teacher warned us that the students were very well-off conservatives and may b racist and unreceptive. They were wonderful! Hung on every word and several told us that their opinions had been changed by the performance. At all venues, the questions continued far longer than we'd hoped and again showed us the power of performing this material. We are proud, elated and inspired....and....we had a bloody good time! Thankyou so much to all the organisers and performers for making this such a success!
(By the way, we raised well over $2000 to give to deserving refugees.)
posted by Actors for Refugees at 5:43 PM
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