Video transcript
Multicultural Playwright Program 2024 – Performance

[intro music]

ASHLEY NAPOLEONI: OK, thank you very much for coming to the Multicultural Playwright Program for 2024. I'd like to acknowledge that we're working on Cabrogal land today, which is part of the Darug nation. I'd like to pay respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people who might be joining us today in person and also on the live stream.

Today, you're going to see 32 students from 4 schools take part in a play performance that has been directed by the Little Eggs Collective. We have some special guests in the-- sorry, in person today. We have the executive director, Dr Sylvia Corish, who is the executive director of Student Support and Specialist Programs. We have director, Jordi Austin from Arts, Sport and Initiatives. And we also have Hilary Hughes, who is the director of Community and Languages. Thank you so much for being here and being a part of the Multicultural Playwright Program for 2024.

The 4 schools that we have attending-- or sorry, participating in the program today are Birrong Girls High School. We also have Kogarah IEC, Kingswood Park-- sorry, Kingswood High School, and we also have Northern Sydney IEC-- so 4 schools with a 32-student representative cast. So thank you so much for being a part of the program.

The students that are performing today represent a range of different home countries. The students come from China, Palestine, Turkey, Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Samoa, Brazil, Colombia, the Ukraine, Afghanistan, Congo, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Ghana and Rwanda. We've got lots of students here today that have been so courageous, brave, and they've built confidence over the last 3 days. It has truly been a gift to see that develop, and I've been so humbled to be able to sit here for the 3 days and watch that develop.

You won't see it from their performance, but from where they have come, they have truly, truly ran up mountains. Tuesday, we had 4 schools that came into this space, and they were very shy, very reserved, and stuck to their school groups. And under the amazing leadership of the Little Eggs Collective, the students built relationships so quickly.

It was probably by about midday on Tuesday, so the first day of the program, and the students had built some really strong relationships with students across different schools. So thank you so much for your bravery, your courage, and your determination, but also for being friends with each other. That's what's been my biggest love of this program this year is how friendly you've been to each other, how welcoming you've been to each other, and how well you've engaged in all of the work that the Little Eggs Collective has led you through.

I'd also like to thank Bankstown Public School for being here. So thank you so much for being a part of this audience. You're going to have a great time. And perhaps, when you're in an older year group in the secondary school program, maybe you might come into a program like this. Maybe you might do a music program. Maybe you might do a drama program.

So look out for things that you see that are engaging. It doesn't mean that you have to do that later on in life, but these programs build your confidence, and they build your love of learning. So thank you so much to the assistant principal and the principal of Bankstown Public School for allowing the students to attend today. We really, really appreciate it.

I'm going to hand over to Julia now from Little Eggs, who's going to explain a little bit about the creative process of how this piece was created by the students.

JULIA ROBERTSON: Hello. I have a very loud voice, so I'm trying to keep it away from my face. Yes, we are so excited to have done this with these beautiful people.

All of them are now our friends too. So thank you so much for being so generous with us. We've shared lots and lots of laughs, lots of giggles, lots of shy moments.

The first day, we could hardly make eye contact with each other. And yesterday, they were bossing each other around the stage going, 'No, you stand here, stand here,' which is perfect. We have a big shared responsibility today to do the best job that we can.

All of these people on the sides here have contributed something to this work. Making a work in-- I'd say 3 days, but it's really been about 10 hours, because we've had schools that have to leave early because they're super far away. We've been missing some people today, so we have to reassign lines.

But everyone has done such a good job of holding each other through it. And that's so much about creating work that is strong ensemble work. And this ensemble is really, really good. They know how to take care of each other, and I hope that you'll see that in the performance.

Some of them have-- these 2, Mim and Tom went to some of these schools earlier in the month and helped generate some material. So we brought in some poetry. We brought in some scenes, maybe just some words that inspire us about certain things. A lot of them are centring around friendship, culture, food, celebration, and you'll see what we've made out of those great things in the play that we show you today.

The way that we kind of do it is we did some improv games. And sometimes improvising can make us really confident, because it makes us really shy first, but nothing is wrong in improv. You have to say yes, and you have to celebrate every single idea. So everything that they came up with, we got to go, 'Yeah, that was awesome,' and see if we could put it in our show.

We did improv. We did building games about tableaus. So you'll see some frozen shapes and how you can communicate a lot of story in just a shape or a pose or a feeling on your face, and then through words and expression and in speed, tempo, being high, being low, and helping each other all the way through that.

Because we have done it in 10 hours, and also because performing can be really scary, there may be some things that happened today that won't usually happen. But that's the beauty of live theatre. And that's what we really like. It's all about showing something live and seeing how we deal with it.

If there's a mistake, we love mistakes. Mistakes are awesome. So we have so much confidence to show you and so much backing each other to show you as well, which I'm super, super proud of. Is there anything you'd like to add?

MYRIAM KWA: Yeah, yeah. I'd like to say how proud I am of this group of young people as well and that all the content of this production has come from them. It's come from their written words, from their culture, from their experiences, from their memory, from their love of friendships, from the friendships they've formed here. So the whole work has come from them. They've made it, and we're really proud and excited to share it.

[applause]

ASHLEY NAPOLEONI: All right. We are going to start, so-- what was the title again?

JULIA ROBERTSON: Oh, I will introduce it. Great. A way for us to start.

So this work, developed by all of this lot from the Multicultural Playwright Program, is called 'The Best Party in the World!' So please put your hands together, make a big cheer, and bring them to the stage. Woo!

[applause]

[soft bell tones]

ESTER: I've been thinking of my friend...

ALL: My friend is the best.

SAIRA: My friend is a secret keeper.

SEUNGHOE: I trust my friend.

NADEAR: They are a safe zone.

PRECIOUS & VRUTIKA: A GPS tracker.

REESHA: A personal therapist.

GROUP 1: We make fun of each other.

DAVI: For me, a friend is a person who takes care of you--

EDWARD: --and who does everything with you.

ALL: Yeah!

PRECIOUS: They can be annoying.

SIDDHI: Never trust a friend over a phone.

VRUTIKA: Always wear a headphone when your friend texts you audio message.

GROUP 2: A friend is a support--

GROUP 3: --with no judgement--

GROUP 4: --that gives you advice--

GROUP 1: --and knows the story of your life.

MAHAM: How do I show my friend how much they mean to me?

ALL: Hm?

[funky organ music playing]

ESTER: It was a regular Thursday when I decided to throw my friend the biggest party in the world!

ALL: Aah!

[funky organ music continues]

[police whistle blowing]

[general chatter]

[police whistle blowing]

TEMUULEN: I think we should play basketball at the party.

PRECIOUS: No, soccer!

SABRINA: No, tag!

NADEAR: No, badminton!

VRUTIKA: No, there should be movies.

[drumroll]

[cymbal crash]

NADEAR: Horror movie.

[howling wind]

SUPHATSARA: Boo!

ISADORA: Aah!

REESHA: Aah!

[howling wind intensifies]

SUPHATSARA & HA MY: [shrieks]

NADEAR: Oh my god!

SABRINA: Who is scared?

NADEAR: So scary.

ALL: [screaming]

[drumroll]

[cymbal crash]

AARON: Anime movies!

[hands tapping]

[laser zapping]

BUYANNA: [gasps]

ALL: [some cheering, some saying 'No'!]

[drumroll]

[cymbal crash]

PRECIOUS: Bollywood movies!

MARWA: Will you marry me?

ALL: [cheering, clapping]

ESTER: Stop that! You will not marry my daughter.

MARWA: I will marry her.

ESTER: If you want to get married-- if you want to marry my daughter, you gotta go through my son.

ALL: Ooh!

PRECIOUS: Stop! Why are you fighting?

MARWA: I will marry Saira.

PRECIOUS: No, I marry Saira.

MARWA: I will marry her.

PRECIOUS: Why do you want to marry her?

MARWA: 'Cause you're my brother.

PRECIOUS: [gasps]

ALL: [gasping]

BRENDA & JOSEPHINE: Love is sacrifice.

PRECIOUS: But wait. I think we should have food at the party! I may be hungry.

DAVI: French fries!

NADEAR: Kebab.

BUYANNA: Curry.

TEMUULEN: Ramen.

SIDDHI: Burger.

SAFIA: Pizza.

ESTER: Pasta.

VRUTIKA & MAHAM: Kimchi.

SAIRA & MARWA: Sushi.

TENUUN & ROSTYSLAV: Chicken and rice.

SEUNGHOE, CHRISTINA & ALARA: Hot pot.

SUPHATSARA, HA MY & ISADORA: Noodle.

MARIE & REESHA: Dumpling.

AARON, EDWARD, SABRINA & YEHYA: Hamburger.

JEREMY & PETER: Chips.

NADEAR: Mmm. I'm only hungry for butter chicken.

ALL: Yeah!

[funky beat playing]

NADEAR: Yo! Yo! Butter chicken! Where are you? I'm waiting for you. I'm too hungry! I have no clue! Saw the menu, didn't know what to do, c'mon, dude, I'm starving for food!

ALL: Please come back to me.

NADEAR: My tummy hurt.

ALL: Yeah!

PETER: How do we get all the food together for the party?

ESTER: I'll cook it for you! First, I'll chop the onions.

MARWA: OK.

ESTER: Ah! My finger!

MARWA: Oh my gosh, what did you do? Go wash it!

[water swishing]

ESTER: I think I lost my finger down the sink!

ALL: [gasping]

ESTER: Surprise, it was a prank.

ALL: Oh.

MARIE: I'm not hungry anymore.

ALL: [laughing]

ISADORA: I think there should be dancing!

SAFIA: Music!

TENUUN: Fireworks!

AARON: These are all good ideas, but how can we make it all together?

[drumroll]

DAVI: What's happening?

[cymbal crash]

ALL: Who are you?

FRIENDSHIP WIZARD: I'm the wizard of friendship.

ALL: Huh?

FRIENDSHIP WIZARD: I'm here to magic you around the world to throw the biggest party on the earth.

ALL: Yay! [clapping, cheering]

[off-kilter music playing]

(singing) Ooh!

[off-kilter music continues]

[out-of-tune piano playing]

[cacophony of sounds]

(singing) Ooh!

[sounds die down]

[gentle music playing]

YEHYA: Wow!

SIDDHI: I'm at the top of the world!

VRUTIKA: Oh look! Karaoke in Korea!

ALARA: Dancing in Paris.

SUPHATSARA: Surfing in Hawaii!

EDWARD: Disneyland in Japan!

BUYANNA: There's Mongolia!

PRECIOUS: Thailand!

MARWA: India!

JOSEPHINE: Wow!

ALL: Wow!

[electronic trill]

DAVI: We are in Ecuador! On the day of Quito, we have no-- we have no classes, and there are street parties!

(singing) Uno, dos, tres, cuatro!

[carnival party music playing]

ALL: [clapping]

[cacophony of sounds]

GROUP 1: Dumpling wrapper.

GROUP 2: Put meat and veggies.

GROUP 3: Wrap the dumpling.

GROUP 4: Put a coin in for good luck.

GROUP 5: Steam the dumplings.

ALL: On Chinese New Year, we eat dumplings and wagyu gyoza.

[traditional Chinese music playing]

On Chinese New Year, we have fireworks!

[clapping]

[police siren]

MARWA: To those who don't know about Eid, it's a celebration of Muslim after their good deeds, a ritual where people gather, enjoy food together. They give money, they give gifts. I feel really good about it.

[traditional Arabic music playing]

FRIENDSHIP WIZARD: Stop! I'm here to let you know that you have to magic yourself back to Australia because I have another friendship crisis! Bye-bye!

ALL: [gasping]

[screaming]

PRECIOUS: Stop! But wait. I think we can do this! Really. If we use our heads.

ALL: Hmm?

NADEAR: Oh, we could--

ALL: Oh!

NADEAR: Just kidding.

ALL: Aw! Hmm?

SAIRA: We could--

ALL: Oh!

SAIRA: Never mind.

ALL: Aw!

JOSEPHINE: We could--

ALL: Oh!

JOSEPHINE: Should be a--? We could show a spell!

ALL: Ooh!

SAFIA: A spell about friendship!

ALL: Yeah! [clapping]

MAHAM: Friends, friends new and old.

ALL: Friends, friends new and old.

SEUNGHOE: Make me braver, make me bold.

ALL: Make me braver, make me bold.

PRECIOUS & MA HY: Take us back to our country.

ALL: Take us back to our country.

DAVI: So we can-- so we can throw the best party!

ALL: So we can throw the best party!

[funky dance music playing]

[cymbal crash]

BRENDA: Oh, are we here? Is everyone OK?

ALL: Yeah.

CHRISTINA: Now I think we're ready to throw the best party in the whole world for our friends.

TENUUN: Here they come!

ALL: 3, 2, 1. Surprise!!!

[audience clapping and cheering]

JULIA ROBERTSON: Stop. Go back to your original side.

ASHLEY NAPOLEONI: Thank you very much. Thank you so much for joining us and watching the 2024 Multicultural Playwright Program. I hope that you've enjoyed your time watching the students. We are going to do a short certificate presentation.

I would like to thank Bankstown Arts Centre for providing the space that we're using here today. I'd also like to thank Ruben from Raw Energy, who was on the lighting and the sound for today. I'd also like to thank Trevor. Trevor, sorry, you were on audio today.

And I'd also like to thank our Arts Unit representatives, David, Michael and Karishma who are running the live stream. So without all of you, all of your technical support, we wouldn't be able to live stream the wonderful performance by the students back to their home countries and back to people watching across the department and also in the schools that the students attend. So thank you very, very much for joining us.