C Students begin rehearsals for Michael Gow's "Away".

What a fabulous beginning to our rehearsals for Michael Gow’s play “Away”: thank you all C crew for your attendance and diligence. And thanks especially to John G who has come on board again to direct this motley crew and transform them into “star” material. Of course this is an amazingly appropriate play for the conclusion of our course “Sacred Australia” because the play shows like no other how far Australia can be from the sacred and yet at the same time how close it in fact IS to the sacred. This is a play about the fears that keep us apart, but also about the deep common experiences which unite us all as human beings… in our pain and our joy. It is so good that we have a piece of Australian Theatre that allows us to step in and embody so many of the ideas that we have been discussing in the last 10 weeks with reference to Australian poetry and fiction. Here, now, in drama these ideas become enfleshed and under the genius hands and mind of John G the raw material of clumsy human bodies and voices will become transformed into a thing of beauty and expressive power. So here is one of the first images of this emerging work of embodied art, with Kevin Klehr of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (keen to capture the work of art in the process of becoming) with Microphone in Hand recording the first sounds from this rich, diverse cast:

The group has been invited by the Sydney Quakers to present a dress rehearsal of their play at the Friends Meeting House in Wahroonga on Sunday 17th December (around 11.30am- all welcome!). But the final grand performance of this wonderful piece of Australian sacred drama (which incidentally will be recorded live by the ABC) will take place at the Aquinas Academy, 141 Harrington Street, The Rocks, Sydney at 5.30pm on Tuesday 19th December. Here are the details:

Michael Gow’s AWAY
edited version
A play about the loss and discovery of meaning
Set in the late 60s in Australia

This is the concluding piece of literature studied and performed by students of the C community based program for a unit “Sacred Australia” taught by Michael Griffith at C. House, Sydney.

The performance will last approximately one hour.
All Invited. Free Entry.
Refreshments will be provided.
Students will receive certificates of completion on the night.

The Cast:
Rosemary A
Shayne B
Anissa C
Michael E
Helen G
Tania H
Ian H
George S
John VG

Direction by John G
Production by Michael Griffith.

The performance will be on Tuesday December 19th 2006 at 5.30 pm at the Aquinas Academy, 141 Harrington Street, The Rocks, Sydney.