West Darling Arts (WDA) is championing diversity and inclusion by bringing award-winning theatre maker Jeremy Goldstein’s internationally acclaimed theatre project, THIS IS WHO I AM, to Broken Hill and the Far West, with this edition the first to focus on the LGBTQIA+ community.
An open call for expressions of interest towards those who identify as LGBTQIA+ in Far West NSW to take part in the theatre project is open now.
The project is a safe space for, and is welcoming of, LGBTQIA+ individuals of all ages, experiences, and backgrounds to ‘speak the truth of their lives and lived experiences’.
“It’s just getting people to speak from the truth of their lived experience. Those stories really are interesting. People always have an interesting life,” Mr Goldstein told the Truth.
“This is the sort of project which gives people a platform to be heard, and especially to do that in front of the people that really matter to them. This is where the project can be quite transformative because people that matter to you hear about you, your partners and family and so on. There’s a sense of transformation that happens when people are actually listening to you tell your story.
“People can talk from the personal, from the political, from the professional, there’s nothing which isn’t valid in what people want to say about themselves. And there might be some coming-out stories which we’d love to hear as well so I’m really excited to come to Broken Hill. I can’t wait to do it, and I think it’s going to be great.”
Originally commissioned by British Council Singapore with a mission to platform under-represented voices and raise awareness around unconscious bias, THIS IS WHO I AM offers a unique artistic platform to tell true and authentic stories and invites us all to question who we are, how we are seen, and how we see others.
“It’s really about trying to challenge people’s perceptions of difference. Sometimes people don’t even realise that they harbour prejudice towards difference and they approach things from the perspective of their unconscious bias,” Mr Goldstein said.
“It’s really only by telling real stories from real people and giving them a platform from which they can speak the truth of their lived experience that people can learn and just find out what it’s like to live with difference, from someone who’s got that lived experience.
“People’s opinions can change. The thing we often forget is that people are brought up in particular ways, conditioned in particular ways. Sometimes it’s just because they haven’t had or know people with lived experience of difference which differs from their own. These kinds of projects are just very impactful in terms of trying to enable people to learn more about people apart from themselves.”
Mr Goldstein will be in Broken Hill on June 12 to look through submissions with West Darling Arts Executive Director, Cathy Farry, and will try to meet as many people as possible who wish to tell their stories.
Mr Goldstein hopes to create solo videos of those taking part in the project for a digital theatre project, with a live event scheduled at the Broken Heel Festival in 2024.
LGBTQIA+ individuals wishing to submit an EOI can send a response of 100 words or less on who you are and what you’d like to say in response to the title to [email protected] by Monday, June 13. All submissions are treated in confidence.
