So you have seen a Skinny Twin production...
DESTINATION ZIMBABWE-A CCD PROJECT?
Destination Zimbabwe was a resultant script from collaborating with International students at RMIT. I was invited by the International Students Union World week committee to work with them and their membership to develop a body of work to be presented at the 2007 RMIT World Week celebration. The decision on the final presentation rested with the committee and their membership as they wanted control over how they were to be represented.
I sat in the committee meetings as they outlined potential issues to highlight and their intended audiences. Live interviews facilitated by peers were settled on hence a final documentary was to be edited and shown, to go with this, the idea of developing a script was discussed and agreed on with my idea being to embrace everyone's story and build it around the Zimbabwean student’s stories in the Union.
The interviews were filmed by Consul Gonzalves a port grad CCD student at RMIT students union building over two months. The committee send a bulletin to International student’s community representatives for volunteers who wanted to share their experiences, good or otherwise in Melbourne/Australia. We interviewed in excess of 60 students gathering more than 20hrs of footage. We then brought everyone into a forum including Tamsin Sharp who was editing the documentary were recurring and resonating issues amongst the group were noted. the documentary was then edited and shown back to the committee and in the end we edited the documentary 3 times until they were happy with it.
The scrip development process involved myself initially spending time with the Zimbabwean Students at RMIT. I researched their journeys from Zimbabwe, hopes fears and issues they had faced in Zimbabwe and Australia. I decided to borrow the structure of Samuel Beckett' Waiting for Godot , with the two main characters being white and black Zimbabwean representatives and the third being a representative of all the other International student groups.
We hired two professional actors and a Dramaturg, Peter Matheson developing the script and performance. The final performance was at Kaleide theatre where we had close to a hundred people with the majority being students, administrators etc. We had the documentary first, an interval then the play after which we had a forum were feed back was recorded [visual/audio] and collated.
Since the presentation in and at world week 2007, the script has evolved into a theatrical performance work shopped by various performers and two directors. The documentary has been presented to the International Quality Branch overseeing the international student’s welfare and discussions are continuing. The play in the fringe is a journey from an idea by the International Students Union Committee, numerous stories from people from across the world coming together to complement that of two students from Zimbabwe who face an anxious wait for a temporary visa or the prospect of going back to a basket case economy.. Destination Zimbabwe?
I sat in the committee meetings as they outlined potential issues to highlight and their intended audiences. Live interviews facilitated by peers were settled on hence a final documentary was to be edited and shown, to go with this, the idea of developing a script was discussed and agreed on with my idea being to embrace everyone's story and build it around the Zimbabwean student’s stories in the Union.
The interviews were filmed by Consul Gonzalves a port grad CCD student at RMIT students union building over two months. The committee send a bulletin to International student’s community representatives for volunteers who wanted to share their experiences, good or otherwise in Melbourne/Australia. We interviewed in excess of 60 students gathering more than 20hrs of footage. We then brought everyone into a forum including Tamsin Sharp who was editing the documentary were recurring and resonating issues amongst the group were noted. the documentary was then edited and shown back to the committee and in the end we edited the documentary 3 times until they were happy with it.
The scrip development process involved myself initially spending time with the Zimbabwean Students at RMIT. I researched their journeys from Zimbabwe, hopes fears and issues they had faced in Zimbabwe and Australia. I decided to borrow the structure of Samuel Beckett' Waiting for Godot , with the two main characters being white and black Zimbabwean representatives and the third being a representative of all the other International student groups.
We hired two professional actors and a Dramaturg, Peter Matheson developing the script and performance. The final performance was at Kaleide theatre where we had close to a hundred people with the majority being students, administrators etc. We had the documentary first, an interval then the play after which we had a forum were feed back was recorded [visual/audio] and collated.
Since the presentation in and at world week 2007, the script has evolved into a theatrical performance work shopped by various performers and two directors. The documentary has been presented to the International Quality Branch overseeing the international student’s welfare and discussions are continuing. The play in the fringe is a journey from an idea by the International Students Union Committee, numerous stories from people from across the world coming together to complement that of two students from Zimbabwe who face an anxious wait for a temporary visa or the prospect of going back to a basket case economy.. Destination Zimbabwe?
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Is there going to be another show anytime soon.