STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA PRESENTS

Terrestrial BY FLEUR KILPATRICK

Pre Production Briefing COMPILED FOR STATE ED BY HANNAH MCCARTHY-OLIVER 2018* PLEASE USE THESE NOTES IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE STUDY GUIDE.

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This play is dedicated To lonely girls To bored boys To quiet towns To riding bikes to pass the time To making out to pass the time To walking k after k to pass the time To smoking whatever you can find to pass the time And it is dedicated to a landscape that looks like Mars A landscape we worried at for 161 years to get at the blackness inside

RUNNING TIME – 60 minutes, no interval plus 20 minutes Q and A session for schools showsSUITABLE FOR YEARS 9-12

Please note: this production contains coarse language, gun violence references and adult themes.

terrestrial

extraterrestrial

/təˈrɛstrɪəl/

/ˌɛkstrətəˈrɛstrɪəl/

adjective 1. on or relating to the earth 2. of or on dry land

noun 1. an inhabitant of the earth

adjective 1. of or from outside the earth or its atmosphere.

noun 1. a hypothetical or fictional being from outer space.

Cast and Creatives

Synopsis

Themes - Topics

Director - Nescha JelkDesigner – Meg WilsonLighting Designer - Chris PetridisSound Designer – Andrew HowardStage Manager – Alex HayleyLiddy – Annabel MathesonBadar – Patrick Jhanur

Liddy, a teenager who is obsessed with aliens, and her mum, arrive in a remote South Australian town in the hope to escape Liddy’s father and to start a new life. What they find is a community collapsing in on itself due to an impending mine closure. Liddy quickly makes friends with a 15 year old boy named Badar who is witty and cynical. He is an outsider and lover of sci-fi, just like her.

The two newly crowned best friends explore what is fast becoming a ghost town, embracing their shared eccentricities… But when Badar disappears, Liddy must search back through her recent past to find the point where reality and fantasy divide.

Perception vs Reality, Friendship, Truth, Aliens, Isolation, Escapism, Identity, Small Towns, Family, Gun Accidents, Domestic Stalking, Industry, Memory

About the Playwright Fleur Kilpatrick

Fleur Kilpatrick is an award-winning playwright, a director and arts commentator. She holds a postgraduate diploma of directing and a Masters in playwriting from the VCAM. She is the Artistic Director of Monash Academy of Performing Arts and the co-founder of Lonely Company, working to support emerging playwrights create sustainable careers.

Fleur’s plays have won the 2018 Max Afford Playwrights Award (Whale), 2016 Jill Blewett Award (Blessed, Poppy Seed Festival) and 2015 Melbourne Fringe’s Emerging Playwright Award (The City They Burned, Melbourne Fringe, Brisbane Festival). In 2018 her new play Terrestrial will tour South Australia with the State Theatre Company South Australia and her play Yours the Face will receive a new production in Sydney. Writing

credits include Insomnia Cat Came to Stay (Quiet Little Fox, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth Fringe, Brisbane Festival, TINA), Yours the Face (Quiet Little Fox, Adelaide Fringe, Perth Fringe, Flight Festival) and Welcome to Nowhere co-written with Daniel Keene, Angus Cerini, Zoey Dawson and Morgan Rose (Monash University).

In 2016 she directed Julius Caesar for Essential Theatre (Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh) and Slaughterhouse Five for MUST (which she also adapted). She appears fortnightly on 3RRRs Smart Arts with Richard Watts and co-hosts the podcast, Contact Mic with Sarah Walker.

PRE SHOW RESEARCH LINKS

THEME - Isolation and Mental Health:

Social Isolation and Strategies to Manage it: https://www.sarrah.org.au/content/social-isolation

Isolation and hallucinations: the mental health challenges faced by astronauts:https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/05/hallucinations-isolation-astronauts- mental-health-space-missions

Articles: How extreme isolation warps minds: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140514-how-extreme-isolation-warps-minds

https://theconversation.com/the-perils-of-a-life-in-isolation-68278

Clip from BBC Horizons documentary on isolation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nnekxGE0nM

If you are feeling isolated and need to talk to someone contact the following organisations Lifeline on 131114 or go on online: https://www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/online-services/crisis-chat between 7pm and midnight

www.youthbeyondblue.com 1300 22 4636

No to Violence 1300 766 491

Roxby Downs Township – Photo Credit – York Civil

PRE SHOW RESEARCH LINKS

THEME - Alien Abduction Folklore:

Article on the earliest accounts of alien abductions and correlation with popularity of science fiction: https://www.livescience.com/20250-alien-abductions-origins.html

Article saying that belief/interests in aliens dropped dramatically after 9/11: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/06/11/why-alien-abductions-are-down- dramatically/qQ3zdBIc2tLAf3LVms8GLP/story.

html - comments

Susan A. Clancy - ‘Abducted: How people come to believe they were abducted by aliens’ on Google books: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=U8fqoTvsvUEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=people+who+believe+they%27ve+been+abduct-

ed+by+aliens&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivjOyS8LTVAhXGUbwKHevzBJ4Q6AEIKDAA - v=onepage&q&f=false

NPR interview of Susan A. Clancy, author of ‘Abducted: How people come to believe they were abducted by aliens’ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005775

Skeptic dictionary to alien abduction: http://www.skepdic.com/aliens.html

Photo Source– signalhorizon.com

PRE SHOW RESEARCH LINKS

THEME - Memories vs. Reality

Psychology today article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hidden-motives/201308/all-memories-are-false

NPR Invisibilia Podcast: Scroll down to listen to June 15 2017 Episode called ‘Reality’ https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia

Scientific American on perception and memory, noting work of Elizabeth Loftus: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/perception-and-memory/

Ted Talk by Elizabeth Loftus on False Memories: https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory

Photo Source - Good memory or photographic memory – hubpages.com

PRE SHOW RESEARCH LINKS THEME - Accidental gun shootings involving children/teenagers in Australia:

Facts about accidents in Australia

https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/fd06f3d6-eac7-47d3-a187-4d0e0f188b27/20368-firearm-injuries-deaths.pdf.aspx?inline=true

Incidents:

Cameron Calvisi, 5 years old, Queensland, Jan 2018: http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/news/fiveyearold-boy-out-of-surgery-after- accidental-shooting/news-story/cb2b0f6842963942da0797b32d179bd9 https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/he-played-with-something-he- shouldn-t-have-played-with-gun-was-left-unattended-in-ute-20180104-p4yy8s.html

Tom Ings, 12 years old, regional NSW, Sept 2017https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/young-shooting-curosity-led-to-boy-12- being-shot-in-face/news-story/b3e2b-20ca32f4d08672346762a8d22e8

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/boy-12-accidentally-shot-in-face-with-rifle-near- young-nsw-20170928-gyq6b7.html

Dusty, 17 year old, Victoria, Aug 2017:https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/an-absolute-top-bloke-friends-pay-tribute- to-17yearold-who-died-after-shooting-incident-20170830-gy6wjg.html

If you are feeling isolated and need to talk to someone contact the following organisations Lifeline on 131114 or go on online: https://www.lifeline.org.au/get-help/online-services/crisis-chat between 7pm and midnight

www.youthbeyondblue.com 1300 22 4636

No to Violence 1300 766 491

Theatre Review Preparation

Whilst in the theatre, observe the theatrical elements below and once you have left the theatre, note down your observations. Include adjectives to describe them and how they contributed to the audience’s “reading/understanding” of the director’s/playwright’s/designer’s concepts.

SetsCostumesMultimedia and ProjectionsLightingSound DesignPropsDirectionThe EnsembleIndividual ActorsBlockingKey MomentsQuotesAudience Reaction

For more advice on how to write a theatre review go to…

http://statetheatrecompany.com.au/content/uploads/2017/02/How-To-Write-a-Theatre-Review.pdf

(SACE Exemplars) Go to https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/drama/stage-1/support-materials/assessment-task-exemplars-student-responses

to see an excellent example of an A grade SACE Drama review OR https://www.sace.sa.edu.au/web/drama/stage-2/support-materials/assessment-task-exemplars-student-responses

for more examples. (Task 2)

Please use this pre-show briefing in conjunction with the Study Guide.To access links, this resource can be found on the State ED page online and will be available at the end of the April.

Image Credit - Luzi@ca_lu7