I was incredibly lucky to have recently been invited to attend the second Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) Artist Lab, this time under the brilliant stewardship of Tessa Leong and Sandi Woo. The inaugural Artist Lab at the end of 2020 fostered the collaboration between myself and my director Nate Gilkes on ‘The Red Dust’ and the Institute of Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University, who contributed both subtitles and Chinese musical instrumentation to the show. Returning to the second Artist Lab, which was held at Sydney Theatre Company, was just as an invigorating experience as the first, as I got to know a new batch of Asian Australian performance artists as well as share and learn new skills.

Jules Pek-Lowther and Nate Gilkes performing selections from ‘The Red Dust'. Photo by Xiang Zhang.

We were also extremely lucky to be invited by the IAC to perform selections from ‘The Red Dust’ at the opening of legendary Chinese Australian photographer and performance artist William Yang’s latest exhibition, ‘Claiming Heritage.’ Having recently performed his most recent one-man show ‘Gay Sydney: A Memoir’ at the Seymour Centre to great acclaim, we were very lucky to watch William perform a short excerpt from the show alongside photos which also feature in his exhibition. We were then incredibly honoured to perform songs from ‘The Red Dust’ at the opening, which also features themes of growing up as a Chinese Australian, and also, ironically, climbing mountains! Many thanks to Jing Han and Dr. Nicholas Ng from IAC and Tessa Leong from CAAP for their involvement.

’Claiming Heritage’ runs until May 5th at Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University, so be sure to check it out!

Tessa Leong (Artistic Directo of CAAP), Jules Pek-Lowther (performer), myself, William Yang, Dr. Nicholas Ng (Chinese musical instrument performer and composer), and Nate Gilkes (composer and director)

Our fabulous social distancing CAAP artist and partner companies!

Last week I attended the in-person residency of the inaugural Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP) Artist Lab, a professional development program for Asian Australian performing artists in collaboration with Sydney Theatre Company (STC), Belvoir St Theatre, Griffin Theatre Company and the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture. Over five days myself and fourteen others (plus Michelle Lim Davidson via Zoom!) shared skills and experiences, asked questions, and participated in workshops run by the partner companies, culminating in a small showing of hypothetical works-in-progress. I personally really enjoyed the opportunity to be in community with other Asian Australian artists (stage managers, writers, actors, directors, lighting managers) as well as all the good folk at STC, Belvoir, Griffin and ACIAC, and I’m very much looking forward to what future friendships and collaborations will bring!

Also! A couple weeks prior to that, Paul Castles and I presented a ten minute excerpt of our work-in-progress UNTITLED NAT/JESSIE/JIMMY PROJECT at the first CAAP Longhouse of the year. The piece was one of five really exciting and diverse works by Asian Australian women (musicals, multidisciplinary dance theatre and straight plays no less), and was very warmly received. There may be some exciting collaborations coming out of that too, so stay tuned!