29 Suitcases was devised and performed by 29 young people from Miller, Lurnea and
Fairfield Intensive English Centres. It was awesome to see so many people on stage all at
once and such a diverse range of people! The cast consisted of young people from
Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Serbia, Pakistan, Fiji, Argentina, Macedonia, Africa, China, Afghanistan
& Chile all coming together here in Fairfield to bravely present their thoughts, ideas and
hopes for the future. By incorporating humour and drama combined with sound movement
and projections 29 Suitcases was able to capture and highlight the extraordinary journeys
these young people have experienced by either migrating or fleeing from their own country to
trying to settle into the Australian way of life.
Due to the rehearsals taking place within school hours we were only able to have 6
rehearsals. Having this time constraint made us work hard. The rehearsals that were most
exciting for me was when PYT was taken over by this production. There were girls in the
office typing up their scenes, a bunch of people out on the street filming a scene, a group in
the theatre rehearsing scenes in front of each other, some in a corner learning lines and
others still writing their scenes. It was great to be a part of this incredible buzzing energy.
All these young people learning, creating and forming friendships all with the common goal of
putting on a production.
Vanessa Di Giacomo, Kate Clarkson and Ruth O’Brien were the three teachers involved in
the project and were integral to the process. 29 Suitcases would not have been possible
without their dedication, support, skill and enthusiasm. They were the ones to get the
students to the theatre and were ultimately responsible for them. We worked so that I was
the one to oversee the group as a whole, come up with individual or small group exercises
and run rehearsals. It was the teachers who would take the small groups, clarify instructions
and help with the work. They also helped with ‘crowd control’ and provided valuable
feedback advice to me and worked on scenes during the week with their students.
After the performances the feedback from the community was incredible and even led to a
local film maker, Linda Mirabilio, wanting to document the project which was fantastic. The
positive reaction the project generated led the principals from the IECs to award scholarships
to several of their students to attend our regular after school drama program to further their
skills in acting and devising theatre. Fairfield IEC awarded two and these students have
been attending the workshops regularly. Unfortunately despite Lurnea IEC awarding 8 half
scholarships only one student has attended.
The success of 29 Suitcases also led to Miller IEC being able to put on their own
performance called ‘Lifelines’ which was absolutely wonderful and was led by the fearless
Ruth who managed to incorporate the whole IEC into the show! A young performer, writer,
Saber, emerged from this and is working with PYT on a one man piece that tells his story of
moving for Afghanistan to Australia which he will perform at Fast and Fresh at Parramatta
Riverside.
