The Curious Creators Writer’s Group and Beyond Refuge: Dialogues artists debuted their works in progress at CuriousWorks second Urban Stories event at Riverside Theatres. Urban Stories, which first premiered in 2016, is an end of year artists showing that gives the various artists associated with CuriousWorks the chance to share what they’ve been working on and give each other support and feedback. Artistic practice can often be an isolated affair, especially when your work is still in progress; Urban Stories gives everyone the chance to reconnect and find pride in the work you’ve put in- no matter how far you have to go.
The artists showing ranged in the variety from a sampling from a series about day-dreaming, a rough cut of a cinema poem about three friends from different cultural backgrounds camping, a scene from a short film about a boy losing his drone in his lonely neighbour’s backyard, to a one shot short film about the harsh realities of living as a refugee in Australia.
The feedback we received from our audience was constructive, generous, and showed a clear thirst for fresh ideas and untapped worlds.
“Such an inventive idea with powerful themes of loneliness and alienation, of tentative hope already well established.”
“The first piece- I wanted to see more of the idea. What are the implications of a drone being in the backyard? Did he feel guilty about robbing a child of his toy? Or did he feel the boy deserved it for being so careless? What was the struggle and conflict in this piece?”
“I found myself wondering what came before or after this excerpt? Or perhaps she doesn’t know yet?”
“Could there be a way to see the daydreamer’s images come to life, what kind of worlds are opened up to her through these dreams and could they give us clues to her backstory or life beyond the desk without spelling it out through the script?”
“It’s an intriguing premise and set up—instantly arousing our curiosity and our suspense—can’t wait to see where he takes it.”
“CuriousWorks has done a great job in fostering new voices, new stories and creatively interesting pieces. You could tell that the individual artists had formed a strong and supportive collective, which is also a tribute to your program.”
Thank you to all the artists involved from the Curious Creators Writing Group and Beyond Refuge: Dialogues, to Payam Gouya for the BTS photos, and to Riverside Theatre for hosting our showing. Find more photos from the night here.
Interested in joining the Curious Creators writer’s group? The writer’s group is welcome to all diverse, emerging writers! Contact us at contact@curiousworks.com.au.
