Media releases

The Arts Academy, Federation University Australia will tonight launch two innovative productions that will shine a light on events that have shaped Victoria in recent years.

The free online productions of Embers and Songs from the Other Side will showcase the work of graduating Performing Arts students. They would usually be staged, but the production teams have adapted their performances to an online delivery due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Embers is a verbatim play, which means is features the real words of real people, interviewed by playwright Campion Decent. The play, presented by the 2020 Graduating Actors Company, explores the community’s reactions to the North East Victorian bushfires of 2003, as they gather and come to terms with their experiences at a social barbecue.

The reflections of the community are also relevant to the bushfires that raged in Victoria earlier in 2020.

In Songs from the Other Side, Federation University’s Third Year Graduating Music Theatre Company unites with Victorian-based composer/lyricists, Luke Di Somma and Shanon Whitelock in a new work that captures the zeitgeist of the COVID-19 times.

It offers both a song cycle and a window into the hearts, minds and souls of young people in the age of COVID-19. The production was created for both online learning and video streaming, utilising innovative platforms to embrace the new normal for young artists.

The productions will be available for two weeks between tomorrow (Tuesday, 22 September) and Sunday, October 4. They can be accessed at: https://federation.edu.au/arts-academy/whats-on

Quotes attributable to Embers Director, Associate Professor Kim Durban

 “The play was originally written to be performed by eight actors, but my vision was to utilise the full company in our Courthouse Theatre to stage an entire community remembering, reliving, arguing and coming to terms with their experiences in the 2003 bushfires at a survivor’s BBQ.

 “Then COVID-19 happened, and these plans were dashed. This recording is the result of a radical shift in delivery and imagination, as the creative team and actors returned home and the project moved online. This production of Embers has been rehearsed and performed on Zoom in bedrooms, lounge rooms and backyards all over Australia.”

Quotes attributable to Arts Academy Director, Associate Professor Rick Chew

“We never thought our students would be presenting their productions online, but this year has been full of surprises for us all. Despite the challenges of this new style of delivery, everyone involved in these productions has done an extraordinary job in creating pieces that are extremely timely and relevant.

 “The experience of transitioning online has also provided Performing Arts students with a whole new range of skills that will be a huge advantage in their future careers.”