Saplings Program

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by Hannah Belanszky

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I N L G P A

presented by ATYP and Youth Action

ATYP

I wasn’t there ‘cause I wanted to be, I was there ‘cause I had to be, okay?

If Josh hadn’t eaten my noodles, I wouldn’t be here. © 2024

Saplings rehearsals, 2024. Photo by Bec Herkess.

Saplings

ATYP would like to acknowledge that we are a company that works and creates on the traditional lands and waters of the Gadigal people, and we are grateful to be telling stories on First Nations country that has such a rich history of storytelling.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Saplings

Hannah Belanszky Writer

by Hannah Belanszky presented by the Australian Theatre for Young People and Youth Action as part of the 2024 Sydney Festival

Abbie-lee Lewis

Preview 24 January Season 25 January — 4 February

Angela Doherty

The Rebel Theatre Eora Country Pier 2/3, 13A Hickson Road Dawes Point NSW

Director

Jane FitzGerald Dramaturg

Co-Set & Costume Designer

Morgan Moroney

Co-Set & Lighting Designer

Michael Weir

Composer & Sound Designer

Duration 80 minutes (no interval)

Gryffyn Long

Age recommendation 14+

Tim Dashwood

Important info This show may contain difficult content for some viewers, including coarse language and mild violence. If you would like more information, please speak to our Front of House team, or call ATYP on (02) 9270 2400.

Cover image Clare Hawley

Associate Sound Designer Fight Director

Harry Dowling

Production Manager

Milly Grindrod Stage Manager

Hayden Tonazzi Producer

George Kemp

Workshop Facilitator with

Maliyan Blair Nyasha Ogden Ioane Sa’ula Wesley Patten Anthony Yangoyan (understudy)

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ATYP

Writer’s note Saplings has been unlike any project I’ve worked on before.

Over the course of a year, George Kemp (ATYP), Veronica Gordon (Youth Action) and myself spoke with young people from Marrickville to Moree about their various interactions with the law. This included young people involved with the police, who’ve been to court, are currently incarcerated or recently released. The intention was to create a work of fictional stories based off real conversations with young people involved in our justice system right now.

All I can say is, when I attended the very first workshop early last year at Midjuburi Youth Centre in Marrickville, I had no idea just how much these young people and their stories would work their way into my heart. I also had no idea how much table tennis we’d need to play (I’m uncoordinated), but it was through play that a lot of our best conversations happened. Really, all these young people want is someone to hang out with and listen.

The young people I met were charming, funny and sincere. They aren’t victims. They make mistakes.

Friendship and loyalty are everything to them. From the outset, it was actually hard to imagine some of them in conflict with the law, but I soon learnt that behind a great sense of humour, are young people in highly complicated situations even most adults would struggle with. Not only are their lives far from straightforward, but the system they’re wound up in isn’t either and there are years of distrust to make up for. It’s a perpetual cycle of one thing impacting the other, and in the end, none of it helps the young person who only wants to be a kid.

I don’t have the answers to all of this, but I did want you to see what I saw. Our young ones deserve our time, and they need our compassion.

I’d like to thank the youth workers, staff members and organisations who helped facilitate these conversations. I also want to acknowledge Jane FitzGerald and George Kemp for their support as I took on these stories to write a play, and Abbie-lee Lewis and this incredible cast of actors for bringing Saplings to life so truthfully.

I especially want to thank all the young people I spoke to for their bravery in entrusting me with their stories. This play is for them.

— Hannah Belanszky

© 2024

Saplings

Director’s note I truly believe in what ATYP stands for; delivering shows that speak to young people. It is a place where young people from all walks of life can be seen and heard.

Hannah has written an important story that needs to be told right now. Saplings provides a rare opportunity to hear directly from the people about whom decisions are being made. For example, the Raise The Age Campaign is being talked about by decision-makers and behind office doors, well above the heads of the young people it directly affects.

This play is just a glimpse. A snapshot. It breaks my heart to have had to cast the majority of this play’s characters with Indigenous actors, but by doing so we have represented the statistics and the realities of the youth justice system as it is. This incredible cast has brought so much laughter and fun into the rehearsal room and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with them each day in rehearsals. They are all going to bring something truly special to this industry.

Due to this cast’s breathtaking skill and Hannah Balensky’s wonderful, raw and relatable script, my job has been incredibly fulfilling and enjoyable and allowed us all to work with joy while exploring such a serious, complex and problematic issue.

I am so grateful to have directed Saplings for ATYP and Sydney Festival 2024.

— Abbie-lee Lewis

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ATYP

© 2024

Saplings rehearsals, 2024. Photo by Bec Herkess.

Saplings

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ATYP

Creative team

Hannah Belanszky (She/her)

Writer As Playwright for ATYP: Saplings (2024); for Queensland Theatre: don’t ask what the bird look like (2023); for QPAC/Playlab Theatre: Shadow in a Dress (2020).

Credentials Unless Pictures Playwright-In-Residence (2023).

Awards Queensland Premier’s Drama Award: Finalist for don’t ask what the bird look like (2018-19).

Abbie-lee Lewis Director Abbie-lee Lewis is a Kalkadoon woman who grew up in Western Australia. Abbie was the 2022 recipient of Belvoir St Theatre's biannual Andrew Cameron Fellowship.

As Director for Mooghalin Performing Arts: Cutter and Coot (2022); for Belvoir St Theatre 25A: An ox stand on my tongue.

As Assistant Director for ATYP: Charlie Pilgrim (or a Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel) (2018); for Bell Shakespeare: Hamlet (2020), Macbeth (2023); for Belvoir St Theatre: At What Cost?

(2022), Wasyside Bride and Lights Shining in Buckinghamshire (2022),The Weekend (2023).

Stage for Bell Shakespeare: The Players, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ensemble in Macbeth; for Sport for Jove Theatre Co: Martha in Fallen; for Black Swan Theatre Company: Emily in Our Town; for Blue Room Theatre: IDA in The Bleeding Tree; for Belvoir St Theatre: Counting and Cracking International tour; for Australian Dance theatre And Illbidjiri: Tracker.

© 2024

Screen for Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Black Comedy.

Jane FitzGerald

Qualifications Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts: Aboriginal Theatre Course, Bachelor of Arts (Acting).

As Dramaturg for ATYP: Saplings (2024), The Resistance (2023), CUSP (2019/20, 2022), M.Rock (2022), Lights in the Park (2021), Bathory Begins (2019), April Aardvark (2019), Impending Everyone (2018), Charlie Pilgrim (or a Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel) (2018), WonderFly (2017), Intersection 2019: Arrival, Intersection 2018: Chrysalis; for ATYP and Ensemble Theatre: The Big Dry (2016); for ATYP and Sydney Theatre Company: M.Rock (2014); for Ensemble Theatre: Black Cockatoo (2020), The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race (2019), Fully Committed (2019); for Merrigong Theatre Company: Lost Boys (2018).

(She/her)

Dramaturg

Previous Positions Literary Manager for Ensemble Theatre; Artistic Associate for Sydney Theatre Company; Administrator for the Patrick White Playwright’s Award, Sydney Theatre Company; Script Reader for Royal Court London; Playwriting Australia; Australian National Playwrights Centre; Playworks.

Jane has also mentored year 12 students on HSC creative writing projects for 15 years.

Saplings

Angela Doherty

Morgan Moroney

Co-Set & Costume Designer

Co-set & Lighting Designer

As Set and Costume Designer for ATYP: Saplings (2024), Shack (2022); for New Ghosts Theatre Company: Iphigenia in Splott (2021).

As Lighting Designer for ATYP: Saplings (2024), Shack (2022); for Belvoir St Theatre 25A: Shitty (2024); for Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: Inferno (2023); for National Theatre of Parramatta: Girls in Boys’ Cars (2023); for Ensemble Theatre: Suddenly Last Summer, Clyde’s (2023); for Opera Australia: The Barber of Seville (2022); for The Old Fitz: Collapsible (2023), Cleansed (2022); for Seymour Centre: CAMP (2023), Anatomy Of A Suicide (2022); for New Theatre: Significant Other (2021).

(She/her)

As Costume Designer for Hayes Theatre Co: A Little Night Music (2023); for Red Line Productions: The Chairs (2023); for Seymour Centre: The Turn of the Screw (2023).

Qualifications National Institute of Dramatic Arts: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design for Performance).

Awards Sydney Theatre Award Nomination for Best Independent Costume Design (2023).

(He/him)

As Video and Lighting Designer for Seymour Centre: CAMP (2023); for the Old Fitz: Collapsible (2023); for National Theatre of Parramatta: A Practical Guide to SelfDefence (2022).

As Video Designer for Ensemble Theatre: A Letter for Molly, Still Unqualified (2022).

Qualifications National Institute of Dramatic Arts: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Theatre and Stage Management).

Awards Australian Production Design Guild: Event Engineering Lighting Design Award for Cleansed (2023), Emerging Designer for Live Performance for Ghosts (2021), Nomination for Event Engineering Lighting Design Award for Anatomy of a Suicide; National Institute of Dramatic Art: NIDA x Storytelling Futures Grant for Collapsible (2022); Sydney Theatre Awards: Nomination for Best Independent Lighting Design for Collapsible (2023), Nomination for Best Independent Lighting Design for Anatomy of a Suicide (2022), Nomination for Best Independent Lighting Design for Significant Other (2021).

Michael Weir Composer & Sound Designer As Composer and Sound Designer for ATYP: Saplings (2024); for Moogahlin Performing Arts: Yellamundie Festival (2023), Cutter & Coot (2022).

Gryffyn Long

Associate Sound Designer Gryffyn Long, a skilled music producer/artist with more than five years of experience in utilising Ableton Live is beyond technical expertise as he brings life to his productions with his composition and songwriting skills.

Gryffyn has created distinctive sounds throughout his music and intends to dig deeper into different avenues in the future.

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ATYP

Tim Dashwood Fight Director Tim is a professional actor and Fight Director throughout Australia.

As Fight Director for Sydney Theatre Company: No Pay? No Way!, Lord of the Flies; for Opera Australia: Faust, West Side Story — HOSH; for Empress Theatre: Cyprus Avenue; for Shake & Stir Theatre Co: Fantastic Mr. Fox; for Sport for Jove: Rose Riot, A Servant of Two Masters; for NSW Public Schools Drama Company: Macbeth; for SheSaid Theatre and Sport for Jove: Fallen.

As Teacher and Fight Director for Sydney Theatre Company; Opera Australia; Share & Stir Theatre Co; Sport for Jove; Red Line Theatre Company; NIDA Open; Stage Combat Perth; Bell Shakespeare.

As Teacher for Actors Centre Australia.

Stage for Shake & Stir Theatre Co: Fantastic Mr Fox, George’s Marvelous Medicine, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Animal Farm; for Bell Shakespeare: Richard III, Othello; for Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Deathtrap;

© 2024

for Kay & MacLean Productions: The Graduate; for Gordon Frost Organisation Collection: FAME: The Musical; for Queensland Theatre Company: The Odd Couple, Macbeth, Managing Carmen, Romeo & Juliet, Rabbithole, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Exception and The Rule; for Ignations Musical Society: The Last 5 Years.

Qualifications Nigel Poulton Mentorship.

Tim is the President of The Society of Australian Fight Directors inc. and is a proud member of the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance.

Harry Dowling (He/him)

Production Manager As Production Manager for ATYP: Saplings (2024); for Fever103 Theatre: Climbers (2023); for Platform Arts Geelong: Blackrock (2022).

As Production Manager & Co-Set Designer for TheatreWorks: Slutnik: Planet of the Incels (2023).

As Production & Stage Manager for Little Ones Theatre: Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (2023); for Melbourne Shakespeare Company: Julius Caesar; for Glow Winter Arts Festival: Conservatory (2023); for A Daylight Connection and Yirramboi: A Nighttime Travesty (2023); for Western Edge: Distortion (2022).

As Producer & Production Manager for Fever103 Theatre and fortyfivedownstairs: Climbers (2023); for Fever103 Theatre: Brittany & The Mannequins (2022); for Fever103 Theatre and Southbank Theatre: Treats (2021); for Melbourne Fringe: Babecity Hotline (2022); for Monash Uni Student Theatre: Kill Climate Deniers (2022).

As Producer for Memphis LK: Closer to You (2023); for Fever103 Theatre: Sunday School Sessions (2021).

As Stage Manager for Malthouse Theatre: Atlantis (2023), Grey Arias (2023); for Victorian Theatre Company and Theatre Works: Low (2022); for Melbourne Shakespeare Company: Telling Tales (2021); for Melbourne Fringe: Body Horror (2021).

As Stage Manager/Assistant Stage Manager for Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir St Theatre: Looking for Alibrandi (2022).

As Assistant Stage Manager for Malthouse Theatre: Nosferatu (2023).

Qualifications Monash University: Bachelor of Arts (Theatre & Performance).

Saplings

Milly Grindrod Stage Manager As Stage Manager for Force Majeure: The Last Season; for Gordon Frost Organisation Collection: Magic Mike Live Australia; for Belvoir St Theatre: Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Looking for Alibrandi; for Polyglot Theatre: Paper Planet; for Bell Shakespeare: Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night; for Global Creatures: Muriel’s Wedding; for Newtheatricals: Come from Away; for Louise Withers and Associates: Billy Elliot The Musical; for GWB Entertainment: School of Rock.

Hayden Tonazzi (They/he)

Producer As Artistic Associate for ATYP. As Artistic Director for The Lysicrates Foundation.

As Director for ATYP: Converted! Development (2023), Shack (2022); for Midsumma Festival and Gasworks Arts Park: Waterfowl (2023); for New Theatre: Significant Other Hayden Tonazzi (They/he) (2021).

Producer As Director and Dramaturg for Artistic Kings Cross Theatre: As Associate forTell Me Before the Sun Explodes ATYP. (2022); for La Mama Courthouse and the Old 505: As Artistic Director for The This Genuine Moment (2021).

Lysicrates Foundation.

As Co-Director for Powerhouse Youth Theatre Fairfield: Pickled ‫( كبيس‬2023); for Shopfront Arts Co-Op: Stop. Drop. And Listen.

(2023).

As Assistant Director for AYTP: Follow Me Home (2021); for OutHouse Theatre: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (2022); for Siren Theatre Co: The End of Winter (2022); for Steps & Holes Theatre: 21 Forster St (2022).

As Associate Director for ATYP: CUSP (2020); for Seymour Centre: CAMP (2023).

As Producer for ATYP: Saplings (2024); for The Lysicrates Foundation: Lysicrates Prize (2023), Martin Lysicrates Prize (2022, 2023).

Awards Vincent Fairfax Family: Backing The Future Award.

George Kemp (He/him)

Workshop Facilitator As Writer for ATYP: Shack; for Sydney Fringe: Greta; for Sport for Jove and McDonald College: As Hamlet Likes It; for The Australian Chamber Orchestra: The Nutcracker.

As Educator and Director for ATYP; National Institute of Dramatic Art; Bell Shakespeare; Sport for Jove; Brent St Performing Arts; Excelsia College; McDonald College.

Stage for Sydney Theatre Company: Rosencrantz and Guilderntern are Dead, Cyrano de Bergerac; for Sport for Jove: The Traming of the Shrew; for Pop-Up Globe: As You Like It, Henry V; for Red Line Productions: Bull; for The Hampstead Theatre: Longing; for The Young Vic: Bull; for Emanate Theatre: Othello; The Play that Goes Wrong; Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

Awards ATYP: Junior Foundation Commission (2022).

Qualifications London Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; Charles Sturt University Bathurst.

George is currently writing his debut novel as part of the Faber and Faber and Allen & Unwin Academy.

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ATYP

Cast

Maliyan Blair

Nyasha Ogden

Ioane Sa’ula

Wesley Patten

Maliyan Blair is from the Gamilaroi nation & was born on Bediagal land in Sydney.

Stage for ATYP: CUSP (2019, 2020) for Brown’s Mart: Mr Takahashi (2016), The Messenger (2022); for Corrugated Iron Youth Arts: Lord of the Flies (2018); for Big Dog Salad: Under the Table (2022).

Ioane Sa’ula is a young, emerging actor who was born and raised in Griffith NSW.

Stage for Sydney Theatre Company: The Long Forgotten Dream, The Secret River.

Screen for Stan: Vince in Bump; for Channel Nine: Doctor Doctor; for Blue Tongue Films: Shark; for Camp Sugar Productions: Damo in The Deb.

Screen for Helium Pictures: The Last King of the Cross; for Australian Broadcast Corporation: Black Comedy, Total Control; for Black Pearl Productions: Bosch & Rockit; for Cyan Films: H is for Happiness.

Stage for ATYP: Charlie Pilgrim (or a Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel) (2018); for Moogahlin Performing Arts: Yellamundie Festival of New Works.

Screen for Australian Broadcasting Company: Total Control (2024).

Maliyan loves basketball and plays for both the All Blacks and Shaq Fu Fighters. He is Vice-Captain of his high school and is also doing Drama for the HSC.

© 2024

Screen for Global Headquarters: Rite of Passage (2018); for Screen Australia: Firebite (2021).

Qualifications National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Awards Zlin Film Festival: Best Children Performance in a Feature Film for H is for Happiness; AACTA Awards: Nomiation for Best Supporting Actor for H is for Happiness; St Kilda Film Festival: Best Young actor for Mrs McCutcheon.

Saplings

Anthony Yangoyan Understudy Anthony was born in Sydney, Australia where he grew up in Sydney’s inner west.

Stage for ATYP: A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music; for Griffin Theatre Company: Jailbaby, Dogged; for Sydney Theatre Company: The Dictionary of Lost Words; for Red Line Productions and Critical Stages: King of Pigs; for Bell Shakespeare: Play in a Day; for Company Clan: The Shape of Things; for Victorian College of the Arts: A View from the Bridge, The Cherry Orchard, The Comedy of Errors, Doctor Faustus, Mad Forest.

Awards Sydney Theatre Award for Dogged.

Qualifications Victorian College of the Arts: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting).

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ATYP

The ATYP Team Artistic Director & CEO Fraser Corfield

Venue and Events Coordinator Catherine Tomsen

Executive Director – Management [until December] Amanda Wright

Education Coordinator George Kemp

Executive Director – Management [from January] Matthew Hall Executive Director – Strategy Adrienne Vaughan Business Manager Chrissy Riley Production Manager Heidi Brosnan Education Manager Jacqui Cowell Workshops Manager Alana Dunn Resident Dramaturg Jane FitzGerald Artistic Associate Hayden Tonazzi Archivist Judith Seeff Creative Technologist Daniel Andrews Development Coordinator Aden Abeleda

Digital Communications and Engagement Coordinator Rebecca Herkess Digital Engagement Designer Lillie Bailey Workshops and Administration Coordinator Emily Johnson Front of House Managers Lillie Bailey Aidan Hale Bec Herkess Catherine Tomsen Front of House Attendants Tahlia Merlino Jasper Reucassel Tiarne Rose Smith Ez Waygood Front of House Volunteers Mary Costan Alex Hill Matilda Holton Jago Field James Lee Lachlan Massey Emma McNamara Special thanks to Richard Whitehouse Geoff Reid #Saplings #ATYP_Saplings #TheRebelTheatre #OnlyAtTheRebel

© 2024

Saplings

Saplings rehearsals, 2024. Photo by Bec Herkess.

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