ISSUE# 31.16
Gig de GuiPAGE 36
September 28–October 6, 2016 Editor : Mandy Nolan Editorial/gigs : gigs@echo.net.au Copy deadline: 5pm each Friday Advertising : adcopy@echo.net.au P : 02 6684 1777 W : echo.net.au/entertainment
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24 WAYS TO SAY YOU’RE GAY AT GLITTER FESTIVAL AC TO R M A R K STA N L E Y SPEAKS WITH THE ECHO IN THE LEAD-UP TO H I S P E R F O R M A N C E I N T H E S H OW 2 4 WAYS TO S AY I ’M G AY AT G L I T T E R F E ST I VA L AT T H E G O L D COA ST A RT S C E N T R E .
the family has again become one, and the acceptance now also extends to his partner as well. What kind of Australia would you like to live in?
I believe we are lucky and Australia will always be a great place to live. I would love to see one where we communicate more face to face than through social media. This is a If you could have dinner with place that I believe the most anyone it would be… cowardly, bigoted, racist or My wife’s mother. She died before sexual discrimination attacks take place. I would love to see we met and married so I never the technology used more for got the chance to meet her in education than discrimination person. and thus creating a better What do you love most about Australia for all. yourself? My sense of humour – although I’m sure it also gets me into trouble at times as well. What has your personal experience been in regard to the themes of 24 Ways to Say I'm Gay? I am a straight man – married with two young kids. In saying that, I have seen my dad hide his sexuality for most of his life before coming out. For him, during the 1970s he was so fearful of society’s view on his sexuality and how it could impact on his life that he decided to hide it away. It was not until the late 1990s that he came out. For him, being judged and the impact on his career and life at the time was his biggest fear. The spoken words obviously did lead to shock at the time, but reaction from some family members was his biggest struggle. The slurs, ridicule and talk of who’s fault it was did take their toll, only made easier owing to the fact he was working away from home. In the end, time heals all wounds and
What is the most fabulous show you’ve ever seen?
Tough one. There have been many great shows I have been an audience member of. The most memorable show for me was La Boheme at the Lyric Theatre 1990. I played a small role as a street urchin. This was the role that got me ‘hooked’ with the performing bug. I have been a part of the entertainment and tourism industry ever since. If you could art-direct Australia Day, what would happen? What a great question! For me, I love creating work that helps bring people together through a sense of joy and celebration. A day where people cannot just celebrate, but also walk away with a greater sense of pride and unity. I feel like we’ve moved a long way, but then the plebiscite thing happens and it feels like the state is getting way too involved in people’s personal affairs… How does it feel to you? This is really becoming a
mountain out of a molehill. Yes, for me a no-brainer. Everyone should be able to live their lives with whomever they choose. The biggest frustration is not the waste of money and lack of direction with the government on the issue; it is the fact that there is still a debate to be had! Tell me a little about your show. It’s not just about coming out; that is but one step in the journey. The play takes the audience on a sometimes humorous, sometimes confronting look at what it actually means to be gay. What inspired you to get it together? What I admire the most about the gay community is the way they face the challenges that our society can throw at them with a huge amount of humour. When you look at the original meaning of the word gay – carefree, happy, bright – I think the gay community truly represent this. This is what 24 Ways to Say I’m Gay is all about to me. What should we expect for your show at Glitter Festival? The show is an abridged version of award-winning Australian playwright Wayne Tunks’s play 37 Ways to Say I’m Gay. We have reworked this great piece of Aussie theatre into just an hourlong Glitter Festival length. Eight actors, 55 characters, 17 short stories, one heart-warming show. Glitter Festival, embracing diversity and encouraging freedom of expression! 6–9 October. For program information go to theartscentregc.com.au/ glitterfestival-2016.
LIVE MUSIC...P32 | CULTURE...P34 | CINEMA...P35
QUEER, CHRISTIAN AND SOUTHERN: MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL WELCOMES JULIEN BAKER AT J U ST 2 0 Y E A R S O L D S I N G E R / SONGWRITER JULIEN BAKER IS A TA L E N T O N T H E R I S E .
Queer, Christian and native to Memphis, this is a girl with a voice who is prepared to use it. She is one of the featured performers at Mullum Music Festival this year. What are the five albums that changed your life? Catch for Us The Foxes by mewithoutYou, Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie, Mean Everything to Nothing by Manchester Orchestra, Define the Great Line by Underoath, and Control by Pedro the Lion. What is the song that you have written that most surprised you? Were you surprised by the reaction Sprained Ankle got? Yes, I think I was most surprised because the songs weren’t written with a large commercial audience in mind so the reaction has been pretty unexpected. I think the most surprising song to me was Vessels. That was a little more delicate and the lyrics are not in any particular order, and it’s in a weird time signature/chord phrasing, so I imagined it would be hard for people to respond to but it ended up being one of my favourites to do live.
and learn when to just leave something, or else I’ll end up endlessly tweaking and refining and developing. It’s the same with sets; I try to make songs fit together in an order that seems logical or sequential, but that’s subjective, so I end up shifting parts around. Like at the last show I played in New York City, I made probably four different written sets because I kept scratching songs out and re-ordering them. Here in Australia the queer community have been fighting for the right to marry. Why do you think the broader community feel they have the right to make decisions about other people’s lives? As a young woman, and someone who is proudly out, do you think this will ever change?
When approaching topics such as this one, where a (theoretically) representative government attempts to legislate behaviour in regard to specific, subjective moral issues, I think we have to keep in mind the sort of values that are ingrained in the social consciousness. Obviously I do not Is it hard to be brave songwriting? How do think a government should have the right to tell you push yourself past your comfort zones? an individual whom they may or may not marry, I think it’s difficult but necessary to push past and reject any legislation which is discriminatory ‘comfort zones’. I guess here meaning the desire against the queer community. However, I think to discuss only what is comfortable, nonthe way to change this is to understand that the threatening, that doesn’t require an admission antiquated, judgmental ideologies and social of something overtly personal. When I write, biases of generations past were legitimised though, it never occurs to me as a choice to be by being woven into the fabric of culture as brave necessarily, more as a choice to be honest. legislation, and now we have to address the It’s not truly cowardly to hide parts of oneself, deeply ingrained traditionalist mentality as much though it does require courage to be vulnerable. as the literal, tangible legislative representations I think it’s a matter of cost-reward, so it is painful of that mentality. I think that every generation to be open about the deepest parts of oneself, has the tendency to feel that it is being ‘held but the reward is healing and establishing back’ by the previous one because younger meaningful connections, which is well worth the generations are nearly always more progressive, discomfort or fear. but I would maintain that the way to work toward How good are you at critiquing your own work? a more inclusive social climate is by working to Is it hard to decide what should go or stay on undo prejudices through understanding and an album or in a live set? How do you decide? communication, attacking the motivation for division and oppression as well as the systems of Often I find myself overly critical of my work. I that oppression. have a tendency to be really analytical of the art I produce and second-guess myself. When Mullum Music Festival, 17–20 November. writing songs I have to restrain myself a little For program and ticket information go to bit from overcomplicating or getting frustrated, mullummusicfestival.com.
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The Byron Shire Echo September 28, 2016 31