Following the success of Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper (reviewed by Peter Wilkins in The Canberra Times
and by me on this blogspot), I thought to open up our critics’ blog to
more than our standard reviews. Readers may like to know something of
the people behind the scenes. What is the life of a professional artist
like?
I should begin by revealing some personal
interest in Kelly Somes, since she attended my audition training class
in Year 12, 1995. What happened to the quiet, unassuming girl whose
first role was as a witch, in Year 7? Well, Kelly became one of the
best examples of my advice to take time before making the decision to
audition for professional training. At 18 anyone over 30 seems already
over the hill, but now Kelly sees herself as one of the young ones just
beginning to establish herself professionally.
The
steps she took on the way, her decisions, are of course unique. What I
noted, though, is that at every point she focussed on how she understood
herself at that time. This is not a story of unmitigated ambition, of
determination to win out at all costs, of achieving predetermined
goals. It’s a much gentler story than the world’s go-getters would
understand. As she spoke it seemed to me that she put into practice
what Laertes struggled with – “This above all: to thine own self be
true.” Polonius may have been pompous and overbearing but this advice,
taken with common sense, is worthwhile.
Kelly did not
rush into auditions but enrolled in Arts/Law at ANU. However, she found
that Theatre Studies was a continuing interest, leading her to drop Law
in favour of an Honours in Theatre. In Years 11/12 she had experienced
acting and directing, indeed she had directed some work while still in
junior high school. For her the undergraduate work, directing short
pieces with her student colleagues and then directing a full length play
for her Honours was to me an interesting example of the education
process – spiralling round the same kind of work but at a new and more
mature level each time around. It was pleasing, though a little
humbling for me to hear her praise for the quality of her university
teachers, Geoffrey Borny, Tony Turner and Cathy Clelland. Yet, with a
degree and now a clear interest in directing rather than acting, where
would she go?
To support herself had to be the
immediate answer, so for three years she worked in Canberra, as much as
possible in theatre. Administration work paid her way, while directing
in the family theatre company, Free-Rain, continued to build her
experience. My review in The Canberra Times of her 2002 production of Hotel Sorrento
(by Hannie Rayson) reveals an aspect of Kelly’s interests which she had
to face when she made the decision to apply for the directing course at
Victorian College for the Arts (VCA) in Melbourne.
I
wrote "Somes claims to have set the play in its period, when Margaret
Thatcher was still in power in Britain: a point which is important to
the politics of the play. At the same time, though, to deal with the
family's memories and emotional conflicts, she has seen the characters
as costumed figures against a blank background, making the whole set
white except for the symbolic painting of 'Hotel Sorrento' (in which all
of the older generation pictured have now died). Though this is
ostensibly a good idea, the contrast in the first act between scenes in
British London and the Australian beach village of Sorrento is not made
as obvious as the drama demands. Or, on the other hand, a much more
stylised set, using perhaps something like a Whiteley painting as a
model, might have given the design the visual life it needs."
In
her VCA interview she was asked why she had not applied for animateur
training rather than directing, since she had a clear interest in
design. But by this time, and confirmed as she progressed through her
VCA training, her deepest interest was working directly with people
within the settings she could imagine. Perhaps the central question she
resolved during her time at VCA was whether she should centre her work
on text or action. I am not surprised, since Lindy Davies was Head of
the School of Drama, that Kelly now sees movement as the core of her
work, both as the underpinning of text and as a ‘text’ in its own right
which the audience can read.
It was this understanding which gave strength to the production of Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper which had stirred me to find out how Kelly had got to this point. And where to now?
Kelly
Somes now works in Melbourne as a freelance director, concentrating on
newly written work and on women’s theatre. Some work is with
cooperatives, where pay is equally shared, and some is by invitation to
take paid work as director or dramaturg. She spoke of having to learn
how to promote herself and her work, having to become objective about
her strengths and weaknesses, and especially of “opening up yourself to
critical comment from new people, not just the trusted people you
already know” and learning to make “judgements about other people who
might be the right people to judge you”.
There is still a quietness, an unassuming quality in Kelly Somes, and I suspect a satisfying career ahead of her.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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