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)

I’m a little late posting about this due to catching covid in the aftermath, but I’m very happy to say that The Red Dust 红尘 with Marian St Theatre for Young People premiered swimmingly at Ku-Ring-Gai Town Hall in July! Our Friday and Saturday night shows were sold out, and the piece was beautifully received by the community. I was sadly not there in person, as I was attending Tin House Summer Workshop in Portland, but I was able to video call in on one performance and cheer on the cast and crew as they performed live. You can read more about the show and look at some amazing production shots at this link here.

Many thanks go out to Marian St Theatre for Young People (MSTYP), who produced and supported this show for the past two years, and to the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University for their unwavering support. Obviously big thanks to the Chinese Australian Seniors Service (CASS) and MSTYP for their enthusiastic teens and elders! And to all the crew and creatives who gave their hearts and souls to the show.

The Red Dust 红尘 should be coming back to a theatre near you (if you’re in Sydney) some time in the near future, so stay tuned!

I’m performing at this lovely concert organised by Paul Castles on 7.30pm on May 30th at the Annandale Creative Arts Centre. If you’re in Sydney at the end of May, it would be lovely to see you there!

Here’s our little spiel:

Formed in response to the lost bond of intimacy between neighbours during lockdown, HERE explores the theme of locality and transition through a collaboration between words, music, and visuals.

Original poetry and integrative art unify the quiet story of HERE and its reflections on place, identity, and and the act of re-gathering in the wake of change. Interwoven musical compositions including 4 world premieres are brought to life by the unique colours of harp, recorder, saxophone, and piano.

You can read a conversation between classical music website ClassikON and Paul featuring one of my poems from the concert here.

Also, here’s an interview with Paul by classical music magazine CutCommon discussing our collaboration.

I’ll be performing poetry from a song cycle Paul and I featured at the CAAP Longhouse, as well as some new poems. Hope to see you there!

A song Nate Gilkes and I wrote called ‘Father of the Blue’ was featured on Channel 7’s Sunrise earlier in the week. Big congrats to 13 year old Josie who learned the song on a Saturday and performed it bright and early at 6.30am on a Monday!

*Update* Vimeo didn’t like my uploaded videos of the segment, so you can click through the screenshot of Josie and Nate and watch a short excerpt of the segment on Instagram!