Western Story Lines - 'us out here'

Project

This year West Darling Arts in partnership with Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People are conducting a series of theatre, movement and performance workshops in Wentworth, Menindee and Broken Hill.

The Art Start Project will see participants in each location spend five days full time with two professional arts practitioners. With only 12 places available in each community, this three week project is ideally suited to young people aged 14-16 years who have an interest in performing, documentary and/or film making. Using documentary film making techniques, participants will explore themes of isolation, including, but not limited to:

· The positive and negative aspects of ISOLATION in remote communities.
· A young person’s connection to the idea of ISOLATION whether it is social, emotional, physical, economic or a geographical response
· The broader interpretation of ISOLATION through both environmental and personal experience.

Ideas will be explored through both drama activities and stories that will be documented through mediums of film making e.g. moving footage, still images (photography), animation, slow motion, colour verses black and white, voice over, narration, scene work, documentary style, interviews, and many other techniques to be discovered and invented by the participants in the workshop. The entire project is three consecutive weeks in duration and will take place in three separate towns.

The result of the project will be a short documentary film to be uploaded on Art Start’s Virtual Festival website.

About us
West Darling Arts operates as an arts and cultural service organisation in the Far West of NSW and spanning a unique region of 176,000 square kilometres with a population of roughly 31,000, West Darling Arts aims to encourage the active participation of the communities of the region in art and cultural activities relevant to their lives and circumstances and encourage community involvement in long term planning for arts development within the region.
www.westdarlingarts.org.au

Monkey Baa enjoys a national reputation for producing quality theatre programs for young people. The company’s Mission is to produce high quality theatre programs for young people, their families, teachers and communities throughout Australia and internationally. Monkey Baa’s implementation of quality theatre workshop programs provides arts education opportunities for young people in rural and regional NSW and provides young people with access to professional theatre practitioners. Underpinning the company’s entire theatre program is the belief that the arts socialize and civilize, and contribute to the development of healthy, adaptable, individuals and communities.
www.monkeybaa.com.au