Guardians of our Pets

Animals floating in the QLDs’ flood, stock and chickens, those images are so powerful. But there are so many animals sheltering and escaping.

This bedraggled kookaburra I captured one day in several days of rain up here in the North of QLD tells the story of all those other animals, both domestic and wild. Whilst people are the priority at present so many people are taking their pets with them, caring for them, and attached to and worried for them.

My son always brings his guinea pigs upstairs in thunderstorms – he thinks of them first. To all those pets affected by the storm, and all those native animals and others out there, hope you too find nature settles down a bit soon.

Well done to all those who helped with evacuation at the RSPCAs and I hope all the people, especially children who could, have their beloved pets with them.

(c) all words and images June Perkins.

Rotations of Risk in Rehearsal

Writers of Out of the Box

Finally all of the writers were in one garage. We were seeing the script come to life in the able hands of the actors who had done some work to make it feasible for them as a stage piece.

‘You can be a dentist?’- Actors in Rehearsal

The most engaging aspect of the rehearsal was seeing how the boxes were used. They were easily and quickly transformed to become mountain, dentist chair, taxi – and it was fun to watch the performers go through their paces, altering the world before us in the time it takes to stack boxes. It will be worth watching what our workshoppers do with the same set of boxes (they used to be used on prawn trawlers), they are as versatile as Owen hoped. A warm orange colour against the black backdrop they fire up the actors and the script. Now a script exploring a theme has to walk a fine line between the thematic concerns and working in performance. An audience wants to work out what to think themselves, but at the same time a social discourse theatre wants them to see several aspects of the theme.

‘You can be an astronaut?- Actors in Rehearsal’

I don’t want to say too much more- and let too much out of the box. We run the workshop this weekend at Yungaburra Festival. Looking forward to the whole event! Maybe I will see some of my blog readers there. It really is a festival time of year. It will be my first time at Yungaburra, and I do hope there is a let up in the RAIN!!!

 

(c) all rights reserved words and images June Perkins

Heading to Fruition

Experiments in digital play- working with mangroves

Life has been so busy and attention to my blogging posts has had to take a backseat, but here I am back at the blog thinking what should I share so MUCH has been happening.

So October-December is when many plans come to fruition. The cyberskilling workshop for Tropical Writer’s Festival is all planned, just have to prepare my images and practice the talk  out loud. Crucial to time these things!

The collaborative/ play workshop creation of PhoenX is happening as well in October. Will be interesting to see how this experiment works out at the Yungaburra festival. Working on drama is different from other forms of writing, apart from film, as the actors take a piece and transform it. This project was even more so, as we prepared research and scenes which were then transformed by a process of thematic fusion.  It’s difficult to describe so I will probably interview Owen for the blog, as this brainchild of his is best explained in his words.

As for personal projects a book is off being considered at a publishers – I am waiting for them to get back to me, and thinking about where else to send it, and receive support for it. It’s the story of Fred Murray and I have researched it and written it up into a book for illustration. I’ve also drafted a series of books of poetry for parents, children and teachers, for sharing all I learnt when I took workshops in schools and the writing that resulted from that time, as well as a few pieces in response to parenting situations like grumpy children who don’t want to take their shoes off before bed!

My novel which I started in Nanowrimo is waiting for me over the summer. I have begun research for it, and unpacking my first unplanned draft, but it is a challenge to find time for my own writing, at least for a few more weeks,  as our writing group finishes an anthology we are to publish.

It’s almost proofing and printing time, and at present working on the launch and publicity plans.  It’s been a big learning curve to be a book maker, but I am enjoying it with all its challenges and moments of reward!

In terms of images I have been doing lots of experiments with black and white.  Not ready to share any here yet, they are going to feature in my book of poetry for kids, which Paulien Bats is illustrating.

Despite all the busyness  I still stop and have a good old sing!  I’ve written a new song, which I love, and hope others will too.  I am going to sing it at the launch if it’s ready.

I’ve been on school holidays with the kids and I’ve written about that mostly on my Pearlz Dreaming blog. You can also find out about our wonderful new pets, two cute guinea pigs who are the best pets ever! And as for next year, definitely making more time to write as I have several ideas and will have finished many of these projects.

Somewhere amongst all of this also supposed to organise to exhibit some photographs.  I think I need a 28 hour day!  As for reading I have a stack of books from the library on writing, grammer and authors.  I might even review some of them at some stage!

Cover of the anthology

(c) Sal Badcock on cover all rights reserved.

(c) June Perkins, all rights reserved, words and images.

Dream Seed

I asked my youngest son to plant a dream seed.  He said “I want to play cricket in South Africa!”  I did not tell him it was an impossible dream instead I said “So what do you need for that- can you draw it for me.”

He drew me a cricket bat.  Then we yarned some more and he said “I can learn to speak South African.”

Then I spoke about Stephen Waugh “Who’s that Mum?”

“He was the Australian Captain and he met Mother Therese and said she changed his life.. because then his philanthropic work became more serious.”

“What will you do when you play South Africa.” Mummy planted a dream seed next to his dream seed.

I asked my daughter to plant a dream seed.  She said “I want to meet a dragon.”  I said “A dragon lizard”.  She said “No a DRAGON,” so I said knowing she is also interested in making robotic limbs “Well maybe you could make a robot dragon or an animated one,”

“Oh yes., a big robot dragon that looks really real! with muscles and a skeleton..”

“And what will you need for that my little one.”

“art and computers and science ..”

Dad said, “Australia needs to play cricket everywhere so he can learn about every country!”

He could just see that Giant Robot!

(C) June Perkins, all rights reserved.