However what we believe can also divide us from the wider community. Human history is riddled
with religious wars and unfortunately such wars continue to dominate our world. Racism is often
based in an irrational hatred of difference and what you belief can sometimes mark you as
‘different’ from the wider community. Hence your belief can become the focus of someone’s
hatred. Whether the hatred results in a large-scale war such as the Israel / Palestine and Middle
East situations or a series of attacks on a Muslim Mosque in Western Sydney, we can not escape
the religious bigotry that continues to divide our community.
Interfaith harmony is one of the most important issues we face today. Our faith represents a large
part of who we are and how we live. It also gives us a community that offers friendship,
acceptance and solace. However what we believe can also divide us from the wider community.
Being different can mean been misunderstood and ostracised.
Young people in Fairfield grow up in such a diverse environment. For many of them their diversity
is not seen as a difference but as a commonality. They are constantly surrounded by peers from
different cultures and religions, and for the most part they embrace each others differences. With
generations of distrust and hate breaking down amongst the young people in Fairfield, isn’t it time
that we looked to them and followed their lead?

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.

The Gathering was a celebration of Aboriginal culture and community in the Fairfield
region. This cross-generational event brought together young people and elders from
the community in an evening of story telling and music. The stories were a mix of
personal experiences and traditional stories related to the land in this region. The
Gathering involved skills development workshops in performance, writing, team
building and story telling. Eleven young people and community elder Aunty Fuzz
worked with a team of professional artists to develop the performance.

Director /Performance Tutor: Liza Mare Syron
Choreographer: Kerry Johnson
Project Coordinator: Angelique Corderoy
Production Manager/ Sound operator: Michael Hutchings
Video Artist: Luke Goddard
Producer: Alison Richardson
Stage Manger: Matt Leslie
Assistant Stage Manager/ Lighting operator: Sarah Sebastian
Technical assistant: Padaric Meredith–Keller
Production Assistant: Matthew Russell (Cabramatta Community Centre)
Event: 7pm, Saturday 3rd April
Venue: School of Arts

Performers: Julian Chung, Charlie Daza, Matthew Horner, Daniella Italiano, Lisa Khochaba, Jason McGoldrick, Gareth Mealing, Ayfer Mestanov, Megan Murphy, Nelio Sam, Joseph Sergi, Leng Sing, Victor Tooma

Writer: Khoa Do
Director: Toula Filokostas
Dramaturg: Katrina Douglas
Designers: Tram Do & Haline Ly
Composer: Vincent Doan
Stage Manager: Pantelis Kotsireas
Lighting Designer: Padaric Meredith-Keller
Video: Khoa Do
Assistant Director: Thao Cao
Project Manager: Matt Leslie
Technical Assistant: Victor Areces
Production Assistants: Elizabeth Ferguson & Chris Scarpellino
Production Coordinators: Mira Martic & Coung Le
FOH: Daniel Saridakis & Claudia Chidiac
Video Documentation: Luke Goddard
Flyer & Program Design: Tram Do

Sucked In was a light-hearted, satirical look at how young people perceive our computer-dominated
world, the digital revolution and the next stage of human evolution – cyborgs. During a routine computer link up twelve young people are sucked into a strange cyber world. Trapped with nowhere to hide, the group are tested by the mysterious ‘deus machinca’. Those who were ‘choosen’ by the deus machinca were assimilated and upgraded to super humans – part machine part human. The super humans were then assigned the task of selling the benefits of assimilation to the rest of the world. Over the course of 40 minutes Sucked In took the audience on a journey through a brave new world where humans were obsolete and the next super power is an internet fridge hell bent on revenge.

Performers: Mary Jekki, Robert Jenkins, Kylie Matthews, Teresa Nguyen, Andrew Pall, Simon Parkes, Emma Plant, Lina Pollifrone, Megan Power, Hakki Soyvermis, Julie Trunong, Ashley Walker

Producers: Powerhouse Youth Theatre & Accessible Arts
Project Manager: Rayce Coyte, India Zegan & Katrina Douglas
Director: Katrina Douglas
Dramaturg: Richard Lagarto
Musician / Digital Artist: Nick Wishart
Designer: Lisa Mimmocchi
Lighting Designer: Rodney Bertram
Stage Manager: Padaric Meredith-Keller
Physical Theatre Direction: Karen Therese
Drama Tutor / Mentor: Caroline A Downs
Assistant Director: Eva Cashel
Design Assistant: Katrin Kircheiss

Heartland was the third collaboration between Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT) and Citymoon Vietnamese Australian Youth Theatre, following the acclaimed site specific productions Journeys West (1999) at the old Liverpool Asylum and Finding the Buffalo (2001) at the Phuoc Hue Buddhist Temple.

The Heartland project commenced in July 2002, with regular Sunday workshops at Bankstown,
from 10 am to 2 pm, training and developing material which would culminate in November
performances at Revesby Community Hall.

A large site-specific community theatre show developed for the grounds of the Phuoc Nue
Temple in Wetherill Park. Powerhouse Youth Theatre and Citymoon saw this collaboration
as an extension of their previous large-scale site specific show, Journey’s West (1998). As
that show explored cross-cultural performance in the context of an Anglo Australian heritage
site, Finding the Buffalo was authored by an explicitly Asian site. Developed with a large
youth and community cast, and the temple community itself, Finding the Buffalo, brought
together a strong physical theatre style, and a traditional SE Asian Buddhism teaching, to
produce a rich, accessible and highly visual community theatre show. Large Vietnamese and
non-Vietnamese audiences enthusiastically welcomed the performance over four
performances in early March 2001.