For the
September 2017 edition of the Salt Room at the Gorman Arts Centre I
interviewed each of our three performers, Joshua Bell, Sarah Rice and Tahi
Atea. The interviews were to provide insight into their practice and themselves.
An
interview with Sarah Rice
(Interview
by Andrew Galan)
Q: Didn’t
you see The Beatles play, and there’s some poem you wrote about the event?
A: Yes,
in fact I am the walrus – really. No, not really. But I could imagine doing it.
Theatre was in fact one of my first loves – probably because my mum was an
actress in her early life, and my sister and I were brought up doing acting
classes – and I even studied a year of theatre in Norway which I loved. I also
used to teach music theatre programs for kids in Canberra. Theatre is one of
the best ways of combining all the Arts in one place – music, song, dance,
spoken word, poetry, action, design, etc. So in a way it is a good starting
point for my life now – which involves art, poetry, music, song, craft etc etc.
Q: You
still read from text on stage, from a book or typewritten. Do you ever read from memory?
A:
Actually most of the time I ‘read’ from memory. For one, my eyesight is very
poor and it is tricky to concentrate on the words on the page as well as
performing them to the public. The other thing is that once the words are a
part of your body, your breath, your very cells, you can focus on the
expression and the connection with your audience. When I am reading work I
haven’t already recited, I try to do a mix of memory with bits of prompting –
and in a busy schedule and with more and more readings to give to keep the work
fresh, I can’t always take the time to memorise the works – but that is my
ideal.
Q:
Subject specific answer required: You
write something on a piece of paper.
Other people, musicians, come invited to participate and collaborate. Does the original intention become a
different trip once there is music and other elements involved?
A:
Definitely – I have learnt this over and over in many of the collaborations I
have taken part in – particularly with visual artists. Perhaps the most recent
and most concrete example of this was my collaboration with a glass artist to turn
my poetry into neon (for the You Are Here and Noted Festivals last year) – that
was certainly a fun trip! – but it was also a marvellous lesson in minimalism
and round-the-corner thinking – I had of course assumed at the start that I
would write a poem and she would simply work the magic of turning the words
into little lit glass tubes – that is until I tried it myself! Just making one
letter was impossible – I had to completely rethink the structure of the poem,
the content, the visual mode of it and work with simplified repeated elements. I
think that for a successful collaboration, each person’s contribution needs to remain
quite loose and open in order to have as many possible ways of intersecting.
That way what is created is a completely new ‘third’ thing.
SARAH
RICE
Sarah
Rice won the 2014 Ron Pretty Poetry Award and the 2014 Bruce Dawe poetry prize;
co-won the 2011 Gwen Harwood; and was placed third in the 2014 FAW Shoalhaven
Literary Awards. She was also shortlisted in the 2014 ACU, 2014 Axel Clark,
2013 Montreal, 2013 Tom Howard, 2013 Jean Cecily Drake-Brockman, 2011 CJ Dennis
and 2011 Michael Thwaites poetry awards. Her limited-edition, art-book of
poetry Those Who Travel (prints by Patsy Payne, Ampersand Duck 2010), is held
in the National Gallery of Australia and other institutions and libraries.
Publications include the Global Poetry Anthology 2013, Award Winning Australian
Writing and Best Australian Poetry 2012, Long Glances: A Snapshot of new
Australian Poetry 2013, The House is Not Quiet and the World is Not Calm:
Poetry from Canberra, Island, Southerly, Contrappasso, and Australian Poetry
Journal.
You can find Sarah's latest book, Fingertip of the Tongue, at UWA Publishing.
The Salt Room
The Salt
Room presents poetry in its many forms. Featuring national, international and
Territory poets alongside performers from varied disciplines. Organised by
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and curated by Andrew Galan, the event is supported by the
Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and runs from March to November.
