The older I get the more I learn that there are no goodbyes, just transmutations.
The old me would expect this huge cathartic release and finish to this juggernaut of endurance, but I don’t believe that’s how it works. Just like everything else in life, it’s just another interesting shift in season and state.
And to that, I welcome it with joy, grief, amongst many nuanced emotions, but mainly - and let’s all say it together - gratitude.
Thankyou to this entire company, and this insane 4 year (to the day!) voyage through often globally or circumstantially stormy waters. Theatre is a team sport through and through, which can be greatly at odds in a curated world of self-image self-centredness - almost as if that’s a good way to control a populace - and the complex nature of our existence is that the law of the jungle is competition, yet the law of civilisation is co-operation.
However - the BEST and surest way to climb a mountain is together.
We are only as fast as the slowest climber.
We are only as strong as the weakest climber.
Why then, would we not practice compassion - and more specifically, understanding through empathy. Which all great art creates.
Goodbye George. I wish we could all say we’ve seen the last of you holistically - domination from lack of empathy, the inability to choose vulnerability, ego over compassion - but the dragons may yet persist (and each of us is not exempt).
If I’ve learnt anything from Hamilton, it’s that there is no such thing as ‘black and white’. Everything and everyOne is grey as hell. The protagonist is flawed, the antagonist is relatable, and this is more real to our human nature and behaviour. Story can help clarify this, however it’s wise to keep in mind: to whose benefit. But I promise you, the best way to navigate this is love over fear, forgiveness over condemnation, action over narrative. We will all be a villain in someone’s story, sometimes even in our own - and to this I say, let them be wrong. Even yourself. ;)
And dare I say it, life is not story. It simply is. (But even that’s a story, oh god)
Ringo Starr had it right - Peace and Love. In all things.
Together.
The world is wide enough.
"We provide a little sprinkling of cinnamon" ✨
Meet the managers of the Opéra Populaire!
Brent Hill and Martin Crewes are running the Phantom's show at Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.
opera.org.au/harbour
Patron-in-Chief: Dr. Haruhisa Handa and @ifac_global
Principal Partner: @hsbc_aus
Strategic Sponsor: @destination_nsw
Today we ran the full show after 12 days of rehearsals - a point normally gotten to by week 3 or 4. A complete testament to the impressive capacity, talent, resilience, and tenacity of these performers and creative team - many plates are spinning, and everyone is doing phenomenal work giving life to this emboldened production, which I’m proud to be a part of this collective, working on - one of the greats.
@operaaustralia
📷: @carlitasariphoto
“The only bad student is the one who berates themself for the mistake.”
@ecolephilippegaulier was a phenomenal teacher.
He never told you how to be better, he allowed you wholeheartedly, wickedly, playfully to be completely painfully shit, to deeply feel it, and find your own way out of the hole.
In essence, he created a safe and terrifying space with electric bumpers for you to discover how be better, through resilience and self-reliance, to release the hold of criticism from yourself, rather than to be taught to rely on the teacher.
To have a crisis, and instead of digging you out, he forced you to figure it out, to go away, and in the horrible horrible dark of failure - create a spade.
He empowered and emboldened so many.
For this, he was truly great.
“Be good, be bad, just don’t be boring.”
“Follow your joy.”
“Sometimes you just have to say fuck you to somefink.” “You can not get rid of fear, it never goes away - instead you must use it as a launch pad.”
“At the end of the show, you say “thankyou Hamlet, but we are done now” and you put him back in the book.”
“Does she make you proud to be a member of the human race?”
valé
Thrilled to be joining @operaaustralia for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour for the 40 year anniversary of Phantom of the Opera, kicking off in March.
Come enjoy a light spritz. 🤞
Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour
March 27 - May 3
@phantomoftheopera
Ghosts —> Phantom —> Werewolves??
There’s “I’m tired” and then there’s “I physically cannot survive this conversation.”
All episodes now streaming on @ParamountPlusAU
#GhostsAU 8pm Sundays on @Channel10AU
