Be part of the process. Join us at Gasworks Arts Park for rehearsed reads. Exploring new works by local Australian writers. Followed by Q&A.
胡蝶 Hú Dié by Dan Walls Director – Wayne Pearn
Read by Steve Gome and Chloe Ng Thursday 15 March, 6pm-7pm. Free entry. Gasworks Theatre Foyer.
A beautiful bird is the only kind we cage (Chinese proverb)
Set in a run-down suburban massage parlour in Melbourne, Hú Dié is a powerful and topical story that looks at the fraught relationship that develops between a young Chinese International student and middle aged Australian man. Played out against a backdrop of anonymous predatory online sex worker review forums, Hú Dié explores the decisions a student trying to succeed academically in a foreign country, with limited financial support will need to make to survive.
While you’re here, check out the Visual Arts Exhibition organised by RhED (Resourcing Health and Education in the Sex Industry) coinciding with Sex Workers Rights Day.
Playwright Dan Walls recently completed his Master of Arts (Writing) with Swinburne University with a focus on writing for stage and screen. His final project “Meeka” enjoyed a successful season at fortyfivedownstairs in 2016 with theatre company Hoy Polloy. He won Best Direction, Best Screenplay and The Screen Producer’s Award for Excellence for “Unky Doom”, his graduating film from Murdoch University at the WA Film and Television Institute’s Screen Awards last century.. Dan has also written a number of short plays for Short and Sweet, short films, and has worked extensively in communications for the arts, and with culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Dan is co-founder of Act-O-Matic 3000 Theatre in Melbourne, a company which has produced more than 20 plays of Australian and international work, as well as winning the Green Room Award for Best Independent Production for its staging of ‘The Laramie Project’. Plays Dan has directed, produced and/or performed in include the Victorian premieres of ‘The Return’ by Reg Cribb, ‘fourplay’ by Jane Bodie ,‘October’ by Ian Wilding, ‘The Modern International Dead’ by Damian Miller, Van Badham’s ‘Bedtime for Bastards’, Falk Richter’s ‘Electronic City’ and Frank McGuiness’ ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’ to name a few.
