Life is Short and Long is a new work in development by South Australian theatre-maker and conversationalist, Emma Beech.
Drawing on local and global travel experiences, Emma is undertaking a humanist investigation of how people and communities respond to crises. This project is cataloguing bitter-sweet, unexpected and occasionally utopian accounts of human resilience, in Spain, Port Adelaide and the South Australian mid-north town of Wirrabara.
At the beginning of 2014, when Emma was in Barcelona talking to people about the latest Global Financial Crisis, fires were burning through the forests of Wirrabara. Upon her return to Australia, she travelled back to this town intent on talking to folk about the fires and their impact. She found philosophers, battlers, heroes and farmers in the forest and the township, who profoundly changed how she was considering the notion of crisis.
In 2015 Emma has continued to develop Life is Short and Long as an artist-in-residence at Vitalstatistix and a regular visitor to Wirrabara. This new performance will premiere with Vitals and Country Arts SA in 2016.
Creative Team
Emma Beech started making shows for her mum in her bedroom when she was 6. Since then, she has graduated from Flinders Drama Centre and gone on to become an actor, theatre-maker and stand-up documenter. Emma works with collaborators that include Carte Blanche and Group 38, in Denmark, and Last Tuesday Society, Cab Sav, Real TV, Patch, Monkey Baa, Playwriting Australia and Vitalstatistix, in Australia. She is a founding member of the Australian Bureau of Worthiness, through which she creates residency-made performance works. Her production Homage to Uncertainty won the Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready award at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe. For screen, she has worked with SA film makers Closer Productions and hosted the series Artshow with the ABC and the Australia Network.
Supporters
