LUMIÈRE FESTIVAL
Downtown Sydney to host Lumière festival
Writer-director Brittany Fagan-Steele stages play at New Dawn Centre.
The Lumière’s Art-At-Night event will take place Saturday, Sept. 23 from 7 p.m.-12 a.m. in the Sydney Waterfront District.
For more information on the festival, visit www.lumierecb. com.
The following is one of the artist’s contributing to the annual festival:
Meet the Artist: Brittany Fagan-Steele
Writer-director Brittany Fagan-Steele has been involved in theatre since childhood. Her play “Transatlanticism” investigates personal relationships complicated by the distances that separate us — both geographically and emotionally. Catch a performance of “Transatlanticism” at the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation, 37 Nepean St., Sydney, during Lumière Art-At-Night. Hometown? Sydney. What is your artistic medium? Writing and theatre/ stage.
What first inspired you to work in this medium? I don’t really remember a time I didn’t write. Before I knew how to physically write I used to dictate stories to my mother to write down for me. I started acting when I was four and my love and appreciation of the stage grew and continued ever since.
What is your favourite work of art? Why? I’ll stick with my medium and say “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett. I really enjoy theatre of the absurd as well as the existential pondering of: “Is it all meaningless?” I love the idea of getting to the end of a script and being left to speculate what might have happened and wonder about the metaphors.
Do you have a favourite piece of work that you’ve created? My favourite piece to date would be “Jaded” which I wrote and directed for the Youth Theatre Festival last year. It was performed by the Level 5 class I teach at Kostume Kapers.
What makes it stand out in your memory? “Jaded” was a very emotional piece that touched on some very real and serious issues that youth face in today’s society. The piece also dealt with loss and learning to let go. It was a difficult and challenging piece for the performers and was outside of a certain comfort zone. The response from the audience was equally emotional. It left everyone drained in a good way.
What prompted you to participate in Lumière? I’ve always heard very positive feedback about the festival and love the idea of “art in unconventional spaces.”
What do you hope people will take away from your Lumière project? The thing we keep reiterating about the project is the definition of Transatlanticism: “The incomprehensible emotional gap between two lovers separated by comprehensible distances — the continental United States, an entire ocean, or, most likely, just a couple of floors in your freshman dorm.” I think that’s somewhere we have all been — we are not alone in that, even when we think we are. We can hide behind the social media monster and pretend, or we can reach out to the people we love while we have them.