Deborah Brown, Director of BLUE: The importance of Connection

Dom Mercer, the head of New Work at Belvoir St Theatre, shone some light on it (BLUE) and brought it to my attention. 

I think he could see similarities with themes that I had been exploring as a choreographer and director in regards to connection to the ocean and how that mirrors us psychologically and emotionally.

Although BLUE is a fictional story it's still very personal to Thomas which I think in turn is personal to us. Our connection to parents, to family. Our connection to the coast no matter how far we live away from it. 

We understand the family drive to the coast. We as families have a spot that we visit. We learn how valuable those experiences are as we get older. There's a beautiful sense of nostalgia for anyone at any age watching BLUE.

I think there's something slightly serendipitous with working with Thomas. The dance teacher he and his sister shared, Diane Talbot, was also influential in my time growing up as a dancer when training at my local ballet school, Pamela LeRay Toso School of Dance. 

My strongest genre of dance was tap dancing growing up and Miss Talbot was a guest choreographer that helped me win various championships at local eisteddfods. 

From what Thomas has told me, she was someone who strongly supported him to look toward acting. Teachers like Miss Talbot are really important for those who take an interest in the arts, what they can draw out of an artist in those formative years can really shape who you can become later in life. 

What's unique about Blue is Thomas's writing. Beautiful form that takes you between different time frames and landscapes. It was interesting to step into the role of director having had such an in depth relationship with dance as an artform. As a dancer with Bangarra, the set defined where our feet stepped. 

Having worked with Jake Nash for many years at Bangarra, he was a designer who helped transport me as an artist on stage. The set, the landscape, is just as much a character, an extension of those emotions. He in association with Chris Baldwin redefines the space and allows the character Mark, and the audience with him, to further evoke those feelings and thoughts.