ASTRONOMIC! WHERE ON EARTH?!

ACT BELONG COMMIT +
SOUTHERN EDGE ARTS
in partnership with the
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM ALBANY present
ASTRONOMIC - WHERE ON EARTH!?


Wednesday 15 – Saturday 18 July

Performances at 2:00pm and 7.00pm
Venue: Eclipse Building, WA Museum Albany, Residency Road

Stories of the stars unfold in a beautiful collage of colour, music and dance in a moving performance that celebrates the International Year of Astronomy. Through the course of the performance the young characters come to terms with their place in the world as they explore the stars, the stories behind them and their connection to the land. Their frustrations, dreams and imagination are highlighted as they grapple with a sense of being left behind. With the night skies as a constant canvas the young characters brood, dream and contemplate their lives.

When the WA Museum Albany approached us to form a partnership to celebrate the international year of astronomy, my first thought was “yes, the stars are dramatic, but are they theatrical?”

Stories of black holes and supernovas have inspired writers throughout history, but they tend to be difficult to stage, without drawing or blasting the audience into some kind of oblivion.

I started to wonder what people thought of these twinkling eyes before Galileo first looked up and said “Hey I think that one moved!” and was inspired to try to find out what the Indigenous stories were. This was the start of an incredible journey. Renowned Perth designer Bryan Woltjen came down with his visual and puppetry expertise and dancer and didge player, Ryan Humphries shared his culture, taught us Indigenous dances and developed some choreography for the show. We explored myth and storytelling and had aspects of local Noongar Culture shared with us by Eliza Woods and Larry Blight at a BBQ hosted at the local reserve site. Through the process we heard many Indigenous stories and we came to understand that the joy of these stories was how personal they were. These were stories that ‘belonged’ to people. We were inspired by the richness, depth and complexity of the local Noongar Culture and we looked at the aspects of Indigenous story-telling that we admire so much and tried to make our own stories for the phenomena of the sky.

This show was spectacularly beautiful. The inventiveness, trust and fearless energy of the participants, the artistry of Bryan Woltjen and David Nile in transforming the museum’s Eclipse Gallery into a magical performance venue and the generosity and skill of Ryan woven together with holiday audiences of all ages meant lots of fun had by all.

Simon Clarke - Director

Long ago the Sun and Earth and Moon were all friends. The best of friends; they played happily in the sky. But then the Earth, who was the most beautiful of the three, gave birth to all life – the people and the animals and plants.

The Earth realised that the Sun and Moon were no longer friends and that they were fighting over the things that she had made and she told them “If you can’t share and be kind to each other and these creatures I have made then I will only let you see them one at a time”.

And so it was for many years. The days and nights were divided evenly and there was a sort of peace. But then the Moon became greedy and started to sneak out to see the creatures when it was meant to be only the Sun’s turn. But the wise Earth saw this and said, “For every time you sneak out, I will add a minute to the visit of the Sun.”

And that is why each summer the days get longer, to make up for the time the Moon just couldn’t wait her turn.

-Astronomic Cast

CAST
Lucy Barkovic, Sonya Barkovic, Jonah Harris-Martin, Peron Pearse, Saskia Smart, Kynen Walker

CREW
Simon Clarke - Director
Ryan Humphries - Choreography and Didgeridoo
Byran Woltjen - Design
David Nile - Production