Liz Newell is an emerging playwright and independent theatre producer in Perth. She worked with the Perth International Arts Festival from 2013-2016 and is currently a HUB Producer for FRINGE WORLD Festival 2017. Bridget Le May is an emerging director, filmmaker and the Creative Director of Blank Space Productions. Trained as an actor she graduated from Actors’ Centre Australia (ACA) in 2009. Founded to champion gender parity in theatre, Maiden Voyage Theatre Company is bringing ‘Alone Outside’ – its second production – to Perth audiences in February as part of The Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights program of FRINGE WORLD Festival 2017.
Liz Newell – Writer
How would you describe your show for a viewer who has no idea what it is about?
I would describe Alone Outside as stripped back storytelling. It’s the story of one woman’s return home after a fair while away, the various confrontations – both with herself and other people – that occur and what transpires as a result of them. It’s about accepting who you are and coming to terms with the fact that sometimes the places we grow up in shape who we are just as much as the people we grow up with. It’s also about telling a story in a fairly simple way. It’s about inner conflict as much as it is about exterior conflict. It’s one woman on a stage inhabiting a character. Jo Morris is a fantastic actress and this is a really exciting thing for her – doing her first solo performance. We hope that this stripped back storytelling speaks to a lot of people about what home is or can be and how the definition changes from person to person.
The theme of ‘home’ is prominent in the show. What themes apart from ‘home’ did you choose to focus on?
It’s about figuring out who you are and your place in the world. We’re using the theme of home as a means of exploring that. We also take it further to explore themes of belonging, your place, your sense of self and how you relate to the other people in your life. We also focus on how that affects who you are in the moment, who you used to be versus who you wanted to be and the conflict that arises internally when you start to ask those kinds of questions and make those kinds of decisions about what you are and what you’re not. It’s about how where you grow up relates to where you are and where you’re not.
When writing this show, did you consciously choose to focus on the experiences of a woman? If yes, why was that important to you?
Yes absolutely, I 100% set out to tell the story of my character, Daphne. I think that it started out slightly autobiographical. I was pulling from personal realities and experiences so I just knew that my character had to be a woman. Also, having founded Maiden Voyage Theatre Company – which is a company producing this particular piece as well – gender parity in theatre and empowering women’s roles in theatre, onstage and off, is something I’m extremely passionate about. I definitely have a bias towards creating female characters on stage as a writer and giving actors meaty, three-dimensional roles to inhabit.
I think that’s really great especially due to the discussions that are happening right now regarding gender equality, including the protests. I think representation is really important so that’s amazing.
Thank you.
Let’s talk about your roots. How did you start writing scripts?
[Laughs] That’s a long, boring story! I was always a massive reader as a kid and for so many people that’s a big stepping stone to creating your own stories rather than reading a whole bunch of other people’s work. I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I spent a lot of years thinking I’d be an author which is still in the back of my mind but a few years ago I was introduced to the idea of writing theatre which had never occurred to me. Ever since then, I’ve realised what an incredible art form it is and what an incredible way of writing it can be. There’s really nothing quite like writing scripts in isolation and then getting to a strange point in the process where you end up in a room with a bunch of other people and give them the words you’ve written and it all comes to life right in front of your eyes. It’s quite incredible. There’s something strangely addictive about it as well.
What kind of advice would you give to aspiring female script writers?
I think, persevere. Persevere, definitely. I think it’s very easy to start in this industry and consider that there are not a lot of opportunities out there whether you are a young creator or woman or both. It definitely gets to you sometimes so I think it’s really important to persevere. It’s really important to love what you’re doing and always remember why you love what you’re doing because there will be times when your love will be tested just a little bit and you’ll have to go back to the drawing board and remember why you’re here in the first place. Also, find your people. The process became so much more enjoyable and beneficial for me and the people I worked with when we found like-minded, amazing artists that we wanted to create work with and write with or for. Certainly, that was the case with Alone Outside. The second we thought Jo would be Daphne, the whole process just took a life of its own which is a really exciting thing to be a part of.
How do you keep yourself motivated as a writer to take a script from something that begins as an idea to a finished product we watch on stage?
You have to love it. You have to really love it and spend a lot of time on it. Alone Outside took me a few months to write but other projects are taking me much longer. It’s not unusual at all to spend at least a year writing something. So you have to be really passionate about the idea that you’re pursuing. The scenes have to excite you or the characters have to excite you. For me, it’s almost always the characters. I start out with identities for people and then start planning what their journey might be, who they are and how they relate to the world. I’m really excited about creating realistic, interesting, engaging people that can then be put on stage. That’s definitely a big part of what keeps me motivated.
How does writing a script for theatre differ from writing a script for a film or a novel?
I’ve never written or tried to write something for the screen so I’m not sure if I can compare those two. Obviously the main difference – which is something I hugely enjoy about writing for theatre – is when you’re writing a play for the stage, you’re writing entirely dialogue. It sounds really obvious but you don’t get the luxury, or the burden depending on which way you look at it, of having to write a whole bunch of exposition. You can have narration but exposition is not something you really encounter in the traditional sense in a written script because you have to convey so much with the dialogue and your stage directions.
It’s something I really enjoy personally because the characters are a really big part of the process for me so getting their voices right and figuring out how they talk to each other and to themselves is more fun. You have to really have an ear for it and spend a lot of time listening to how people speak and how they don’t speak and figuring out how to translate that on the page.
Just out of curiosity since I myself love to write, does the plot come from the character or does the character come from the plot?
They feed into each other pretty well but if you were to say which one came first, probably the character. For me, I usually go, “Oh this is an interesting person that I’ve just dreamt up. I wonder what their story is.” Or something relating to that is, “Hey, this is a really interesting idea. Who does this happen to? Who are they? How do they cope with it? Where does it send them on their journey? Who do they meet on the way?” So, I think it’s probably character.
Fringe Festival showcases a large amount of shows. Why should viewers come see yours in particular?
What I like about this show – and to be fair it’s not the only one of its kind at Fringe – is that it is very stripped back. There’s no glitter cannons, there’s no flashing lights, no crazy soundtrack, no acrobatics. It’s a really lovely, simplified piece of theatre. There’s a really fantastic actor onstage with what is hopefully a very engaging, relatable and ultimately heartwarming script under the direction of a really capable young director – Bridget Le May from Blank Space Productions. It is traditional theatre at its purest and hopefully, at its best.
Bridget Le May – Director
How would you describe your show for a viewer who has no idea what it is about?
I think the show is about finding a sense of self. When you have spent a long time ignoring really important things in your life, sometimes it’s really hard to find a sense of where you belong and where your home is. This show looks at somebody who has taken the long way around to discovering a few really important things about what made them who they are. In finding a way through that, they find a way to belong in their own skin and the place where they’ve come from.
Alone Outside looks at what a home is. Personally, what does ‘home’ mean to you?
That’s a question I’ve thought about a lot today. I think a home is a feeling of safety and place. I think home is a really intangible concept. I’ve had many homes in my own life right across Australia and I’m someone who develops a sense of home really quickly. I think that if you have a sense of safety and a good understanding of who you are in your own skin, home is a very easy thing to find. I think that if you don’t know your place in your own world, home can be really intangible and a sense of belonging can be really slippery.
The saying goes ‘home is where the heart is’ so you can be living somewhere but not have that sense of security.
Absolutely. I think a lot of people do live in a place where they don’t feel completely secure; they don’t feel exactly sure where their life’s going or where they fit in. This play closely looks at a lot of the feelings that we associate with who we are, where we fit into our friendship groups, the place that we came from, and our work/life balance. It really ties those feelings in to what home means. There’s a lot of really interesting questions raised about place and how important it is to us and how it affects how we develop our sense of self. However, it doesn’t answer all of the questions. I think that’s an interesting meditation.
This show is written, directed and performed entirely by women. In your opinion, how does the representation of women in media have to improve?
[Sighs] I could talk about this for a long time. I think that more female voices writing from female perspectives is important because I think we a) don’t hear enough female stories and b) I think we still stereotype women in media consistently. I think as women write about women and create work about women – for ourselves and for a broader audience – the complicated, independent, powerful, vulnerable human beings that we are will be more broadly understood by our society and community. I don’t think there’s a simple answer to how women should be represented or what women should say because we are as complex as every single human on the Earth.
By continuing to give women opportunities to make sustainable careers in the arts, journalism, the sciences, and indeed, all fields, we create a more complete society. Female voices have a really unique perspective that hasn’t really been given enough weight throughout the last few hundred years of history. I’m looking forward to a much greater balance in gender equality and the way that we communicate as a society as a whole.
This script was written by a woman. When I spoke to Liz Newell about it, she said it was very simplified and stripped back. Is it easier or more difficult to direct a play which has one character?
Well, it’s stripped back in some ways but not in others. The emotional journey that the character goes through is incredibly detailed and incredibly complicated. Our set and production design is very simple but that doesn’t necessarily simplify the direction. If anything, it makes the direction of the play much more finely detailed and specific. I think each play has its own challenges. I don’t think this play is more or less challenging than another but it presents its own unique balance. I haven’t found the play difficult to direct but I found it intimidating to begin directing. Once we began, it became a really beautiful process and working with Jo Morris is a total delight. She’s a wonderful performer and brings so much focus to the room. The work we’ve been able to do together has been very direct, constructive and fun. We’ve found a lot in the show and are really looking forward to putting it in front of an audience.
Was there anything in particular that was challenging about bringing this script to life?
Yeah I guess accessing movement within the script is challenging when you don’t have physical bodies to react to in space but as we found access, that kind of approach to moving through a space really gained momentum. So, towards the second half of the play, that hasn’t really been a challenge at all. We’ve really found our own groove but beginning that process was tricky.
How did you get involved in the performing arts and why do you like to direct?
I have always been involved in the performing arts. I was a drama kid and I went to theatre school to study as an actor. I moved straight to directing after I finished acting school which I guess is an unlikely shift but I was driven to tell my own stories. Once I started directing, I realised that my strengths were best at play in a broader sense – crafting a story and binding its pathway – and that working in a broader collaboration really gave me a lot of joy. So I’ve focussed on that and it’s been a great journey.
What kind of advice would you give to aspiring female directors?
There’s a lot of things I’d like to say. This is a funny question because each person works in their own way and I think it’s hard to give very general advice. Also I don’t think that the advice I have to give is really specific to women. I think the things that I’ve learnt can be applied to all humans unilaterally.
The best advice that I have ever been given and have followed religiously is that if you can’t find work, make your own and keep making your own until you develop communities where the work starts coming. Working in the arts is hard in that we have to constantly be finding work. It doesn’t generally walk into people’s hands. The best advice that I can give is be prepared to work seven days a week and do long hours. Be prepared to find a lot of joy in that because it really requires a lot of you to stay present in the industry.
Also, your ideas are your ideas. It’s really important to acknowledge what you’re inspired to make and not try and make something that pleases an audience necessarily but to be really clear about what inspires you. You are your own artist and you can’t make somebody else’s work. I think it’s a bit of a waste of time following something that doesn’t completely grab you.
How did you get involved with this project?
I actually met Liz Newell at the Blue Room just as her first play with Maiden Voyage Theatre Company was selected to be performed in season one last year. We started a conversation and from that point, we have bumped into each other almost every day for a year. Not every day, let’s just say every fortnight. Let’s go with every fortnight. [Laughs] And then during the production of my first season of work with my own production company last year – Blank Space Productions – we formed a pretty close relationship and she was interested in the work I was doing. I think she’s an incredibly talented writer. I really appreciate what she’s doing with Maiden Voyage Theatre Company and she runs a really tight ship. She’s got a lot of talent. So we just wanted to work together. When she asked me to direct Alone Outside, I just jumped at the opportunity because I think she’s wonderful.
Fringe Festival showcases a large amount of shows. Why should viewers come see yours in particular?
Alone Outside is a really heartbreaking, heartfelt, brave journey that I think everyone will recognise in some form in their own lives. The script is specific and clear and bold but universal in that specificity. I think it’ll be a beautiful night of theatre and it’s a work that I’m incredibly proud of and would love to share.
Interviewed by Ishita Mathur