March Down Under

I sit down to write today in typical Chris Pappas fashion that is, I have my two-liter of coke with me; well it is really just a 1.25 liter of Coke, because they don’t sell 2 liters at the cantina here on Campus. My expectations for what I thought this whole Australian experience was going to be has really changed over the last month. The pictures that are posted on facebook of my the hot mess drunken night are really only a tiny part of the experience, and often times experiences that I don’t really remember all that well, but I will get back to that later. First let me start with school.

During orientation I didn’t meet a single drama kid. I met a lot of engineers, law students, and aviation majors, but I felt at little left out because I there really wasn’t anyone around who was passionate about the same things that I am (this of course excludes drinking which we are all very found of.) My first class was Contemporary Australian Theater, it is other campus that I am not on, and so I hop the bus over. After about 5 min of panicking because I couldn’t find the right building I saw sign pointing down some stairs that said “Drama,” I go down the stairs and there are about 50 kids in the this tiny hallway and I thought to myself “Ahhh I have found the theater kids.” I absolutely love this class. We really don’t get an opportunity to study Australian theater back home, and I firmly believe that a theater company could do an entire season of Australian works, and have a hit season A. Because it is something that we have never seen before and B. There are some amazing stories that we are missing out on. Whether it is the stark realism of David Williamson or the Aboriginal storytelling of Jack Davis, the type of theater that is available here is vast and varied. There is a problem though. Theater Down Under is seen as very elitist, and is very very expensive to attend. There are no pay as you can nights like there are at the Arden, and the cheapest ticket that student could ever get is $30 ticket, which I guess would be similar to our $25 tickets, but it just seems more expensive. Our teacher a man named Patrick is cross between David Howey and Toby Zinnmen. He has the vast knowledge of Australian theater, and is always running around the room and getting us energized. It’s a great class and I am going to be working with a great group of people over the next few weeks for a live final “Dramatic Presentation.”

My second-class Applied Theater project has been an absolute gift. The class is run by a wonderful facilitator named Sarah, who acts not only as teacher, but also as a guide for each of our projects. Every Monday a group of four of us (shout out to Amy, Haddie, and Yazmin) goes into Brisbane City, and work teaching drama classes SWARA. SWARA (The Sunshine Welfare and Remedial Association) is a place where Adults with mental disabilities and head injuries can go during the day to learn such practical skills as cooking and working with computers, but they also work with guest artist like us who come in and teach specialized classes.

This has been one of the scariest and most rewarding experiences of my life. I have never taught anything, and to be honest never thought that I would teach, because I thought teaching was something I was capable of doing, and the first class I am being asked to teach is for people who are twice my age, and have range of disabilities from just recovering from head injuries, to being mute and only being able to communicate through sign language. It has been a real trial by fire, but one that I am very thankful to be a part of. Every time the SWARA Project sits down to plan a new workshop, I thank God for the instructors that I have had Uarts. Many of the exercises that I have done over the years have become clearer to me as now I attempt to teach them to others. I have done everything from Johnnie Hobbs warm-ups, to Janice Imagination exercises, to VMT character work. One of the reasons that I was placed in working with SWARA is because the group of people we are working with is also working with a music director, and September they are doing selections from Grease.

The practice of Applied Theater is becoming more wide spread in Australia. It is used in the rural communities, and has been proven to help lower crime rates among teens in impoverished areas. It also helped to get national legislation passed that has lead to a cut down on the cases of Domestic Violence in Australia by encouraging people to speak up and speak out about their situations. Theater in Australia is working towards giving people a voice and letting them know that they don’t have a to suffer in silence. It is changing the artistic landscape of continent not only on a personal level, but also on a national level.

I would like to see classes such as these implemented in BFA and BA Acting and Musical Theater programs in the U.S. As students we often doubt what we are doing, and feel selfish about choosing do something that can be seen only as self gratifying, but after just few workshops our group can already see improvements in the participants, as they become more confident and more actively engaged. As theater artist I believe that we have a responsibility to share our work with everyone, no matter what limitations the outside world has put on them, no one should be denied the experience of using the imagination as actively and as vividly as we do everyday. It has also taught me a something about myself, the first that is that teaching can be really scary thing. On our first day I was terrified that no one was going to show up, and if they did show up that no one was going to listen to me, but over the last couple weeks I have started to see that these fears were baseless. I am working a group of passionate people who want to learn and explore art, and that transcends bonds of the normal classroom and becomes something special.

All right now on to travels. First up Straddie Island, which for me was just an endurance test of crazy. I feel that most of the people that I have met studying abroad the definition of trying new things is trying new foods. As someone who loves foods of kinds, has been raised by mixture of Greeks and Southerns strange and foreign foods are nothing new to me. What is new me is doing things that other people consider sports. I am not sports person, and that is to say that I have nothing against sports people, I just don’t go out of my way to actively participate in them. This might have something to do with my complete lack of both upper and lower body strength, my coordination that is similar to that of Giraffe with a missing leg, or the fact that I am easily distracted/scared by loud noises and sudden movements. Well it was time to start participating, and oh boy how I did participate. First up we Boomerangs. We got to paint our Boomerangs, and if anything is weaker than my ability to play sports it is my artistic prowess when it comes to visual arts. I am pretty sure that I was the only person who drew a smile face on their Boomerang. We then went out into a large field and got the throw them. One of the other guys threw his and we all watched it coming and I remember thinking “There is no way that in the vast empty field that thing is going to hit me.” Wrong. It came crashing down on my hand. Luckily it was my left hand which is not my throwing hand, not that my throwing hand had been shattered to a million pieces it would have made that much difference when came to me throwing the Boomerang. I can say that I can’t wait to go practice in the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. Open invite by the way. After that we had hand standing contest, and thanks to partnering I was able to put up a valiant effort.

Next up snorkeling and Kayaking off the coast of Straddie. The snorkeling was fun even if the water was cloudy and we saw all of seven fish. I did see a Barracuda, and was exciting. Luckily that was the only run in I had with a deadly creature, because 8 out of the 10 most deadly snakes in Australia live on the Island. The sea kayaking, not successful at all, I spent most of the time apologizing to my partner Greg that he got stuck with me for something involves two people attempting to do everything in their power to not get sucked out into deadly shark infested waters. We managed to get back to land, and had a good time jumping off the pier. Into shark infested waters….

After an afternoon of extreme sporting we ran into a couple of Koalas, just doing there Koala thang, chillin,’ eatin,’ and knowing that they are the most adorable things ever in the history of ever. And I have seen baby pictures of myself. We went out to a National Park and hiked a trail that went through dense forest and then out seaside cliffs and plunged hundreds of feet down into the Pacific Ocean. The swells of the waves were easily twenty feet, and they slammed into the coastline with the power of heavy explosives. After the walk we returned to our rockin’ Aracdia accommodations, and I say that seriously, they were amazing. After dinner we took our blanket out on to the beach to tell ghost stories under the stars. I was fortunate enough to be rooming with some amazing girls from Penn State, two soccer players (it seems that I am always with soccer players) from North Dakota, and Greg. We told our favorite Urban legends and I told the “Gypsy Werewolf Story,” (Sure I stole it from Jeff Reynolds, but fuck him, even though I am sure that he would claim that I am owe him royalties for, but I bet he stole it too, wow side tracked) and managed to scare everyone pretty well if I do say so myself.

The next day we were up at 5:30 and were down at the beach by 6:00 to go surfing. Now I will say that the idea of surfing had me a little terrified, mainly because I am not fan of falling off things into rough waters, but I managed to pay attention to the entire land lesson, and it was time to go into the water, and guess what. I did it. I got up, I really did. Four years at the Barre really paid off. Here is surfing in terms of ballet. You are down on your stomach you push up with your arms, and all you have to do is Round de’jame into fourth, and make sure that you keep your palette deep. That is all you have to do. I got up, and I balanced, why because “I AM A FUCKING WAVE.” Literally, I was on top of them. Finally, sand boarding, well there is a video of that and me wiping out was kind of the extent of it. You might feel that I am cutting this short, and in away I am, because we are about to go out. So this it for now.

Chris