Arranging Elderflowers – An interview with playwright Alana Valentine

Alana is currently working with the South Sydney Uniting Church toward presenting the reading of a play entitled Elderflowers. The play will be about mature residents of Redfern/Waterloo and will comprise oral histories and personal stories. The production aims at giving voice to residents of Redfern/Waterloo who would like to share their stories and life experiences with neighbours, friends and invited others.

How will this play reading differ from other plays you have been involved with?

I am looking forward to focussing on people from the community I live in. A lot of the work I do is about people in regional Australia and outer Sydney so it will be terrific to get stories and tales of history from my own stamping ground, so to speak.

What are your hopes for the community members who are involved by telling their stories?

I think everyone has a unique perspective on the world and a unique tale to tell. I hope that by sharing their stories and being able to compare them with what else emerges people will see a reflection of their own lives as part of a bigger community.

What is the process you intend to use to create this play?

I usually interview a broad range of people ... about 30 or 40 and then collapse their stories into just a few characters ... I may do that this time or I might have the actors playing a large number of multiple parts ... it will depend on the material we gather ... the most important thing is that people feel that they are represented accurately... and that the ones who want to be anonymous can be anonymous. Really, I’m not trying to tell anyone’s story individually but rather to give us a snapshot of the wide range of people who have lived and continue to live here.

What kind of vibe do you hope to achieve? Do you expect it to be humorous, sad or quirky?

I hope it will be all those things. I love to hear an audience laugh so I’m sure there will be a lot of funny stories. But life can be tough, and people who have lived longer sometimes know this better than most ... so I assume some of it will also be moving and even a bit sad. That’s ok ... most of the people in this area are pretty tough so I reckon there’s going to be more than a few pearls of wisdom in there about how to deal with what life can throw at you.

Alana is currently meeting up with residents who are happy to be interviewed. She will then work their stories into a funny, moving and revealing portrait of our fellow neighbours and older residents to be presented as a staged reading at South Sydney Uniting Church in August or September 2009.

If you would like to be interviewed for the play, or know someone who would, please contact Eve on 0406 680 336 or arts@ssh.com.au .

Photo: Alana Valentine

Source: South Sydney Herald March 2009 www.southsydneyherald.com.au