Sally Richardson – May 10 2020

National Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month – May

Sally is an award-winning, multi-platform artist, director, writer, dramaturge and producer. She has held many fellowships and residencies including guest director/artist-in-residence at NAISDA (National Aboriginal Islander Dance College) (NSW) and an Asialink Arts Resident at Taipei Artists Village, Taiwan. Sally has been a director of Playworks (Australia) and Stages WA, a member of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council, and is currently Artistic Director of Steamworks Arts (Productions). She has recently launched a new circus theatre company MAXIMA: Circus Beyond Limits. Sally’s other work as a playwright includes Picasso and Francoise, about the changing relationship of Pablo and Francoise in which the audience becomes part of the clientele in the cafe where the pair first meet; Five Fingers, which discusses the issue of a woman dealing with a child seen to be different; Ready or Not, a drama about a mother’s ability to cope with an intellectually handicapped baby; and The Unknown Soldier which explores war, terrorism, survival and hope.

Trigger Warning
Australian Script Centre, 2016;
60 minutes; 1 female, 0 male
Trigger Warning offers insight into the dark heart of contemporary life for women who suffer violence, both outside and within Australia’s borders. A verbal and sonic study recollecting deeply traumatic events, the script was inspired by the testimony of a refugee and survivor of the Balkan War, and by the voices of other women survivors of war zones. Trigger Warning contains demanding subject material, using symbolic and sensory languages to take the audience on a journey reflecting sharply on potent current debates. This work is timely, as violence, racism and intolerance proliferates in our society, notably towards women and refugees. It offers audiences different pathways to consider these urgent issues. It is a fearless study that explores trauma and its lasting effects.

The Ghost’s Child
Australian Script Centre, 2012; 60 minutes
2 female (1 with dance background), 2 male (1 dance-mime role)
In this musical stage adaptation of Sonya Hartnett’s book we meet Matilda, a 75-year-old woman who is visited by a mysterious young man. He wants to know about her life, her enduring love for Feather, a free-spirited dancing man, and what happened to both of them. A youthful ‘Maddy’ relives those life events, twirling around the emotional vortex of parental disapproval, plunging into a love affair and coming up for air when it doesn’t take a predictable course. Eventually, the mysterious young man reveals his identity and his purpose in Matilda’s ebbing life.