Finding the extraordinary : In the ordinary
During an interview for the final installement of The Way play series, director Stefo Nanstou descibed the play's theme as -
"Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary."
At the time, I was both thrilled and terrified at his explanation. The play was based on my home town - Bankstown. For the last ten years I have overlooked my home...my city...as if it was something I needed to escape, something that was suffocating me. I looked onto the world around me through the eyes of a bird wanting to escape a cage. My days were spent impatiently waiting for the moment, the moment when the door was left ajar, the moment when I could climb out and fly to the other side of the earth...so I could live how I wanted to. Free.
Nina Simone pipes in my head - "Freedom? Freedom is living with No Fear."
I came back for reasons out of my control and I am extremely grateful for it. After working on the play The Way, living with my family again, seeing my nieces go through puberty and mentoring young people out West - I realised that in many ways this world is deeply set in my skin. You can't escape yourself.
I never felt at home in Bankstown and that is ok. I don’t have to. By accepting my level of attachement to Bankstown as a place (and not feeling guilty for it) my next “plan of escape” has transformed into a journey of self discovery and re-discovery of the world around me. I see things more clearly now...
Like Sydney airport. It has an atmosphere that moves far beyond it’s grey structure...
Like Mailboxes - that speak for themselves and for the inhabitants behind them...
And like the "other space" that is createed when taking the time to listen to someone else...
"As we begin to become aware of the narrative patterns around which we structure our lives, we learn how to take charge, revise, refine, and even completely rewrite them"
Mandy Aftel