X-Stacy is fictional but based on true stories shared with me as I wrote the play. In my research I spoke to countless young people, in schools, at home, at dance parties and raves. I spoke to parents, dance party promoters, DJ’s, RaveSafe, drug and alcohol rehab workers, priests, police and student counsellors.
When I asked one young person why she loved going to raves, she said “You don’t explain it, you feel it”. So, I went and I felt it. The thrilling music, the dancing and the element of religious ritual, celebratory and exhilarating.
Some stories were heartbreaking. One mother told me she used “tough love” to throw her daughter out of the house for using drugs. The consequences were awful and she was carrying so much guilt and pain. I came straight home from talking to her and in tears wrote the scene where Ann tells Stacy to get out and not to come back.
In developing the play, I had constant support from La Boite workshops with marvellous actors, dramaturgical support and play readings where the people I had talked to were invited to give rigorous feedback. During X-Stacy’s first season I was asked to talk to students at QUT. A young man came up to me afterwards. He’d been to see X-Stacy and then had brought his parents and grandparents to see it because “I wanted them to understand me. I wanted them to know who I am.” Nobody could have said anything better.
My thanks and love to Sue Rider for entrusting me to write X-Stacy, to dramaturg extraordinaire Saffron Benner and Helen Radvan for the brilliant teachers notes. I’m thrilled X-Stacy is included in Encores
Margery Forde, Playwright
La Boite Encores | X-STACY
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF OPENING NIGHTS AND OPENING MINDS
