Where to From Here: Enhanced Program Notes
Although my shows are performed live, they have a high audio content so if you are blind or have low vision you might find that they have good accessibility.
Because I'm an independent artist with a tiny budget, I can't generally afford to have audio descriptions for individual shows. however, I have been working to develop Enhanced Program Notes. These notes provide contextual information beyond the script you will hear at the performance. I include these notes as written text on this website and also as audio files on my soundcloud page.
These notes are currently under development, and I will have them ready in time for the next season. In the meantime, I have included the text from the printed program.
Writer and performer’s note
For this new work, I knew that I wanted to write about these years of middle age.I’m especially interested in their duality. Because while they often overflowing with big responsibilities and upheavals, at the same time we are beginning to feel we might, kind of, possibly know what’s going on.
As I started writing, It soon became clear that I had lot more to say about the experiences of middle age than would fit in one show, so I started planning a new trilogy.
In mapping out the course of the trilogy, I thought the best place to start would be with the ‘reckoning’ that happens to many of us. The process of looking back at what we have—and haven’t—done and making peace with our choices. At the same time, having spent so much time looking back in my other monologues, I was keen to try a new perspective—looking forward. So, I put myself at this point of connection between these two perspectives.
I had started to explore the concept of meeting the people I might have been in my script, Potluck. I decided not to stage that show last year (because of covid), but as I started on this new work, that concept continued to demand attention in the way that unfinished projects often do. So here I am, in a railway station, meeting the people I could have, should have, would have, been. And they meet me!
I wanted this to be a light-hearted piece. Living in the shadow of covid, I still want to explore challenging themes in the things I read, watch, listen to, and write (we can’t ignore challenging themes even if we want to—we’ve got climate change to contend with). But at the same time, I need to feel the possibilities of lightness.
It was sometimes challenging to maintain the light-heartedness in this work because much of the theme is about confronting life’s disappointments. I’m grateful toMaggie for helping me to stay true to that light-heartedness, as together we brought the story to life.
As with the previous monologues, this one does stand alone, but there are some echoes and references to earlier pieces. If you didn’t see I Made an Adult, you might like to know that in that show, I convinced Adrian to take on a small speaking part.
Thank you for coming, and for bringing your trust and your energy. I know it sounds cliched, but it’s not a show until you arrive. It’s wonderful to have you here.
Director's note
There’s more than one way to put together a piece of theatre, and that’s been proven by this year’s great script by Tracy.
Where to From Here has really been a step-by-step production, in a process where Tracy’s thinking would form the script, which then would further inform her thinking, and so on, until piece by piece it came together.
So, directing this production has been more about following the ‘dance’, and demonstrating the meaning of Tracy’s intentions, as opposed to being a strictly physical and aural exercise. The core of the script is an abstract idea set in a universe with few known rules or reference points, so the challenge was to ground the production in a place that made sense for this particular piece, hence the hustle and transience of an imagined train station.
The subject matter, though, is universal. We all get to a point where we wonder if our past decisions are determined to shape our pathway into the future, or if we can we change, ditch, or alter dreams, ambitions, and wishes that have been with us since our formative years.
This has certainly been a different process to how we usually proceed, but it’s been an energising one, that I trust delivers on its promise. Enjoy!
