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...a vibrant young company with exciting new ideas... I want to use this group as a means to develop my skills and my potential as a theatre maker, and to work with other creative people to make creative, original work... Welcome Stranger is a new group of young people seeking to explore physical/vocal and site specific areas or theatre in which non-conventional (boundaries of life) performance methods are explored... Welcome Stranger is a performance group which investigates ideas, issues pertinent to our society, burning issues... Australian issues... seeking to use ideas ripped from the headlines... the voice of the um... to make work that I want to see, that is different to the garbage that I usually see, that is exciting, that makes some sort of inroads formalistically, stylistically, in subject matter... theatre that actually makes you think... but also theatre that hopefully doesn’t appeal to just a small demographic... and by that I don’t mean you know go make a popular culture but I mean work for people who are interested in something a bit more challenging, somehow pushing ourselves and pushing performance/theatre, I don’t particularly view this group as being just bound by theatre or performance, if we decide to do music we’ll do music, if we you know, that’s just me... the group is a resource with which to realise ones artistic capabilities, ideas, potential... to make sense of and process the world in some form of expression... to express yourself... I’m really interested in making original work that expresses ourselves, that’s important to me... to be open to all different ways of doing theatre/performance... to original works is a challenge for me because I dealt more with work that had already been made, the more I challenge myself to work in areas that I’m not so familiar with or confident in yet will make me grow as an artist, and the style in which Civil Twilight working in that style satisfied me... and a way to bring my study and work into the real world which we all worry about, we have to be self-sufficient and we have to believe that it’s worth it... and we also have to believe in ourselves and each other given that theatre is a collaborative art-form... theatre has a really important role in culture-making and ethics-making, the voice within society, and I think it has a really important voice which I think is really undermined in Melbourne at times, and I think that as a group is we can keep our focus and I suppose that’s where the charter comes all important and to really keep that as our focus, to give a voice to this really confusing existence, in a really bizarre world, especially at the moment... and especially if you think how live art is important, the live experience, performers and audience, because nothing can substitute that, and that’s why it’s sad that there is not as much... and I think that now everyone seems to be dehumanised, and I think the way this country and everything going is this human and ranges of sub-human and all this shit, and theatre can break through that in such a human art form in real time... and I think that the content finds the form... the immediacy of live performance leads to a certain punchiness in that if we want we can get work out there quickly, which film is unable to do... and that’s what’s so attractive about it, having the skill and the creativity to produce a meaningful piece of art now... one of my theatre sports games, getting back to telling stories with immediacy, clearly and quickly, purity... theatre-sports freaks me out... impro games gives us the ability to think on our feet... it’s a sport, you stretch you arms, you stretch your brain and instinct, I was a bit errr about physical theatre... we are all different... exploring multimedia... experimentation... Welcome Stranger is made up of a group of quite strange young Australians... unAustralians... unpatriotic... unconventially patriotic Australians, more committed to an idea of a country than the current practice... that never existed... a country that has boundless plains to share and doesn’t steal sheep... Welcome Stranger is a peculiar new identity...I like live performance...what about bodies in space... theatre makers... ambitious in style... challenging... high aiming... challenged young Australians... Welcome Stranger is a group of ambitious young theatre makers striving to give / find an original voice to a range of social issues... I don’t like a range of social issues... I don’t like it either... Welcome Stranger wants more... from this country, from the theatre in this country, from your wallet... who said that? Oliver... Please sir can I have some more?... but that leads to the connotation that we are not giving enough... demanding more from ourselves, from life... want some more?... if we challenge what seems to be accepted truths within our own society now which is becoming more and more mono-cultural, more and more mean and cruel, then we have to find a new inventive form to do it within, so we could say something like Welcome Stranger wants to challenge a society that they no longer feel that they can... find a voice... but we don’t want it to be to like look at us we are a “political” group... but I don’t think it is... there’s nothing wrong with being political... everything’s political... all theatre is political... no it’s not, that’s the problem... yes but not political in the right way... no it is the right way but it’s not the left way... (general laughter, a couple are forced)... while Rhys is saying our aim is to challenge the accepted boundaries of style and form, like Lauren’s making that even more specific by saying that... the way in which we challenge this and what we develop and find is going to be consistent with our subject matter... contents finds the form... and that way it is going to be unique and individual... and that’s what we are aiming for... no boundaries by style and form with the piece being alive in itself, we don’t know enough about style and form, with that naivety we don’t have those boundaries set in our own brains, the boundaries are actually within this cultural psyche at the moment, I think the boundaries are political... the boundaries are actually the psyche of the culture, so the boundaries that we are trying to push is for people to become more human... are you saying that boundaries are self imposed?... no that the boundaries are not within form and style, the boundaries are with the subject and the content and are with the things we are going to try and deal with in the theatre space the performance space... Welcome Stranger is an ambitious young group of theatre makers striving to find an original voice to a range of social issues... trying to put an original voice?... I think thing to give an original voice... we demand more, we aim to challenge the accepted boundaries of style and form... what about the challenge our audience into accepting new styles and forms... I don’t think that there is actually any new style or new form... with your naivety point, it’s like when you make something that is new to you and someone says oh that’s a lot like so and so and you say who’s that?... my thing is that it doesn’t have to be new... or just made interesting... Welcome Stranger: stuff we’d watch... what about we really don’t want to make theatre that’s going to bore you to death... I don’t think we should make promises we can’t keep... un-constipated... we need to write a laxative charter... that resonates with people, when they are reading something they don’t want to have to delve into it, they want it just to hit them in the face, and that’s the kind of theatre I think that we want to make, and that sentence that you used just then was concise and clear, or if we use some of this to begin with and then finish with something like that... if its something that we put in our programs then it should be snappy... Welcome Stranger: lap it up... what about Welcome Stranger: let us in... for me Welcome Stranger is more about welcoming the audience in which ties in with what Lauren was saying about... Welcome Stranger will plant the seed of the theatrical future... we want people to read this and go “I want to go see that”... or “I don’t want to go see that”... that’s it, I do or I don’t... Welcome Stranger would like world peace, but instead we just make theatre... then we’ll be pigeon holed as hippies…make art not peace... Dear Santa... and I think if we use language that we like then people we like will come... what about a story or anecdote, like we did for the program for Civil Twilight... like Belle and Sebastian... one day a stranger went to see the theatre, the stranger watched and watched and watched and eventually he was bored to death, another day another stranger went to the theatre. So excited by what he saw that he became the Welcome Stranger... so we are essentially the French New wave essentially, we are a bunch of critics who said “No fuck this we can do it better”... yes of course... I like the concept... and the cows go moo... I like a more factual... if you want factual then go to www.mtc.com.au and have a look at their charter... I think that if we can combine them, it would be good, but are we getting too complicated now... what if we just put forward an assertion, like theatre should be fun, exhilarating, strange and confusing... we don’t necessarily offer that but... but we will... Dumb Type is a group of theatre maker who were disgruntled with their original professions , coming from different fields: architects coming together to... we could list all our part time jobs that could actually be quite funny, ok what do you work as... reception... sales/beautician... shit shoveller. Gardener come handy man... I’m going under teacher, because I got sacked... food packer / factory worker... sorry the point of my spiel was that these people were coming together from non-theatrical backgrounds... fish monger... no you’re not, you’re a fish and chippery operator... Ben doesn’t work, and James is a factory worker as well, sorry a gluer... Harriet’s a make up artist... and Jen’s in the newsagent... post office worker... Welcome Stranger is all about theatre, and not shit house, crap theatre, but theatre that’s exciting, theatre that you can get your teeth into, theatre that’s difficult for us to perform and difficult for you to watch... well we’re trying and a lot of groups aren’t trying... what about theatre is crap... Raph’s looking absolutely horrified... theatre is crap and it’s about time that someone did something about it, and if no one with a large array of skill and talent is gonna do it then goddammit we’ll give it a go... I think we should stop saying that we’re the best... exploring, sifting, processing... stirring... ba be blah bubbling... simmering, poaching... lets use a recipe... churning, brewing... sautéing... broiling... what are you trying to search for?... broiling?... I don’t know... fermenting... we want to investigate... investigate... and that leads to some kind of experimentation... Welcome Stranger is looking for clues, investigating new, varied, and forgotten forms of theatre... I like varied... oh good... Welcome Stranger is looking for reasons... looking for answers... the cast of Welcome Stranger have just finished their degrees and have nothing better to do, so this is us: enjoy... Welcome Stranger is still trying to figure out why it is involved in theatre, referring to itself in this 3rd person, 1st person?... Welcome Stranger doesn’t need a mission statement... if we needed a mission statement we wouldn’t be in the theatre, we would go into business, and would be CEO for Nike: Just Do It... Welcome Stranger is a manipulative, destructive company... manipulative, Machiavellian, totalitarian state... Welcome Stranger have a Jeckle and Hyde type attitude to life... seemingly your friend at one stage... I think we need to possibly go away and think about this... do we really or can we just do it now... I don’t know if we can... we have hit a... brick wall... Welcome Stranger at one time we are your friend, at another your worst enemy... hmm... YEAH, YAY etc... Rhys, Rhys, Rhys... Welcome Stranger: will stab you in the back... Welcome Stranger: we like you we hate you... we could do a bit of a Radiohead... Welcome Stranger: we’re not sure of what to make of you... we, like your mother, one time love you, another time hate you and wish you were dead... I thought that was going to be a mother joke... bring Freud in and it turns into the mission statement... looking for work Welcome Stranger, 10... Welcome Stranger one time your best friend at another your worst enemy... not afraid to tell you that you need to lose some weight... I think that’s a great start... happy, sad, manipulative, cheery, um, maybe a list of adjectives... cajoling... maybe we could end it with Raph’s question “why are you here?” at the end... we like you we hate you why are you here?... why did you just say cajole?... cajole... “What do you think?”... One time your best friend, at another your worst enemy... we are just a big mass of contradiction... we are an enigma... the ‘panopticon’: people have this fear of being watched, they constantly fear more and more, people are doing things not because they know it’s the wrong thing to do, it's because they are afraid they are going to be watched... surveillance... and that’s what we are all about, being watched, we, Welcome Stranger has to be... watch us and we’ll watch out for you... more threatening, more dangerous... watch us and we will throw it back in your face... we’ll scratch your eyes out... we should supply rotten tomatoes at the door, that would be great... it would be... and write: are you wasting my time. At the end: am I wasting yours... “you fucking idiot”... at the end you could just say don’t waste my time... yeah Welcome Stranger: don’t waste our time... that’s it say: “why are you here? Don’t waste my time”... (laughter)... BRING IT ON... that’s the end, I’m bang up for it and no one takes me seriously... no I like it... what more do we want, in between the ‘bring it on’ statement and the ‘we’re your best friend your worst enemy statement’?... we’re just afraid as you are? or... be afraid, be very afraid... you know when you go into the theatre and you go will I? Am I? Or will I just walk out? You know at that moment... I was reading somewhere that bad live theatre is so much worse than a bad film... oh yeah, because you feel embarrassed... because even with a bad film, a lot of attention has been paid to it and they have made the best of the bad film it could possibly be... and you can always turn a bad film off, but if you walk out of bad theatre... you’re making a statement... the onus is on you... I want audiences that yell out at us... well if we provoke them with this nasty little mission statement... we can do that you know, it just requires... Welcome Stranger: we’re the arts company the opposition arts minister would want to ban... will we get funding? Hell no... what about this: Welcome Stranger at one time your best friend, at another your worst enemy, broken and confused, violent and homeless we cry our eyes out and yell our throats hoarse giving voice to the silence and noise. We like you we hate you we’re not quite sure but we’re working on it. We’ll let you know... what do you want?... the last bit could be turned on the audience: you’ll like us, you’ll hate us we’re not quite sure, we’re working on it, instead of us liking or hating them... but I think it’s more of what we are, we can’t govern whether they will like us or hate us, we love them but we hate the Australian public... issues from society stem from people and these people are possible audience members... so some people who come, we will inadvertently voice out against them, and we may not realise it... welcome to a democracy... and this crying our eyes our, and yelling our throats hoarse, I was trying to get this idea of a paradigm of performance... of untrained actors... that we are going for issues that are hard to focus on, and we are going for styles that are hard to perform... I don’t like the homelessness bit... it was originally going to be violent and harmless, but I made it homeless... harmless is better... because I don’t want to piss on the homeless... I work in a factory... I hope we are not overdoing this whole dualism thing... we are broken and confused and I think there is a truth to that in that society is broken and confused, but at a basic level everyone feels a little bit of negativity towards themselves, and if they hear that we do too, um... do they though... the entire psychotherapy culture is based on that... well not everyone, but a lot of the reasons why people find it had to talk about their problems is that they think they are the only ones with problems, and realistically it's almost everyone, or a lot of people, problems of some sort some people are really good at talking about it, a few of them better... everyone has problems... similarly everyone is happy, at one point or another, it's just degrees of... sort of like relationships... can I just hear it one more time... Welcome Stranger at one time your best friend, at another your worst enemy, broken and confused, violent and harmless we cry our eyes out and yell our throats hoarse, giving voice to the silence and noise. We like you we hate you. We’re not quite sure but we’re working on it. We’ll let you know...

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