Sophie Bagster (SB) sits down with new and upcoming writer-director Izabella Louk (IL), in conversation about her debut play These Youths Be Protesting. From the creative chaos of bump-in and last minute set building, Louk muses on the stage, the climate fight, and the pivotal role of young people in .
SB: Hi Izabella, thank you for joining me today!
IL: Lovely to chat!
SB: Would you like to start us off with a little bit about the play?
IL: Yeah absolutely! So, the play is about young people involved in climate change and climate activism. It’s about four young people who are part of a recycling club; as a part of the club they host a cake stall to raise money to buy those bins where you can put in bottles and cans and you get “free money” back. Their local representative for Parliament, Greg Moresby, comes to the cake stall [and] takes a photo with them, posting it online. It seems great, until it turns out that Moresby has recently approved a new mine right near their beloved weekend hangout spot. This spot, the dunes, is very important to them, so they race to Sydney to detangle their names from a whole palaver. They end up getting pulled into a whirlwind of social media and political mudslinging and other people’s opinions — it looks at the intersection of young people who don’t get a vote and a say in how the government handles climate change, and climate change [as an issue] itself. These are the people who are going to be the worst affected by climate change, so it looks at that intersection.
SB: What do you think makes young people or teenagers a good vehicle for change, despite not having this ‘official’ political vote?
IL: Climate change is going to most impact young people and we’re going to continue to see those impacts grow and impact future generations. Young people don’t get a vote but they have a voice, and are willing to get out and use that voice. It is so exciting to see young people around the world stand up for climate change, especially when this is a problem that they’ve just been handed without any blueprint or guidance to fix it. I think also, the idea of young people protesting is really interesting to me; often when we see protests on the news or social media, people are criticized for the way they go about it — whether it is too disruptive, or they haven’t done it the right way, or they’ve said something that just hasn’t sat right with the general public.
Protesting isn’t a skill we are taught, we don’t go to school and learn how to protest. Yet, we expect young people to get protesting right from the first time they do it. Otherwise we hound them, and we lose interest from these young people who are willing to get up and make a stand and make a change. It’s really interesting that we’re all on a journey, a climate journey, and we are all still learning how to protest and stand up for what we believe in and make changes. We can’t criticize people who are trying to have that impact because, sure, maybe dumping a bunch of soil in the middle of the harbour bridge is a little bit disruptive to my train journey, but you know what’s gonna be more disruptive to my train journey? When there’s no trains. It’s putting it all into perspective, and it’s applauding and supporting young people, especially who are on their first time protesting.
SB: Do you think social media has a role in that as well? Insofar as putting colourful infographics on one’s Instagram story is a must, but if you don’t do it you are deemed “not progressive”?
IL: It’s so interesting because we get so much information from social media, and then there is this expectation that you’ll share or repost — and not just when it comes to climate change but in a different array of issues. Frankly, I personally believe often [when] posting, you’re only posting within your own echochamber, your own bubble. Sometimes the hardest activism, which is stepping outside or having those dinner table conversations with family members who maybe don’t see things the same way as you, getting out into the streets and protesting, or getting on the phone and calling your local politicians, making changes like that actually have a significantly larger impact.
I was listening to a podcast recently which was saying how posting is great but it’s actually not impactful because we’re all posting the same stuff and posting it to the same audience. I think while it is important, it is also sometimes a bit of an easy way out. Yes, it’s part of the movement, but sometimes it can be seen as the whole movement. I think that is a really dangerous trap for us to fall into, because it’s a lot easier than going out to the streets, or rocking up to a politicians office to have that conversation, but it’s also not as impactful.
SB: I love the way you worded that, this idea that posting can’t be a means to an end.
IL: I think digital activism definitely has a time and a place, and I think it opens up a world of accessibility in the activism space which is important. However, [I think] nothing can stand alone, everything needs to jigsaw into a larger puzzle.
SB: You’ve not only written this play but also directed it, which is so very exciting. Could you speak to any advantages to directing your own work?
IL: I have founded a theatre company, Blinking Light, which is dedicated to creating sustainable theatre. We follow really rigorous sustainability guidelines, which means that the way we get our production up on stage has been done with the least impact on the planet. In directing the show, I was really able to shepherd it through from writing to bump in and to performance, and ensure that the play, [that] is standing for sustainability and climate activism, followed through in the production of it. Theatre, and the way we currently practise theatre, is not sustainable. It seems like a behemoth to take on sustainability, but it was really important to me that we put our money where our mouth is, and that we walked the walk, not just talked the talk.
Directing it, I have been able to do that, and it’s also been great to direct it because I have been able to discover new things. I don’t have a lot of directing experience. I am quite a new director, so it’s been a wonderful learning experience. Our actors have come into every rehearsal and come up with something new. I’ve learnt new things about the characters that I didn’t even see when I was writing it. It’s just been so wonderfully eye opening. It’s been a real synergy of the design team, the producers, the actors, and my direction. We have all come together to create something that is not just my writing. It’s been built up and it is a beautiful big jigsaw puzzle.
SB: But also something that is sustainable?
IL: Yeah! You know how you can get those cardboard boxes from Aldi? We’ve all been on our little trips to Aldi picking up a million cardboard boxes. Half the team have recently moved houses so we have a TV box in there and a couch box… and we’ve been around Sydney. Our set designer picked up a table on wheels the other week, picked it up in Carlton, and took it back to the city on the bus, so there’s been some funny sustainability actions. You know, we’ve been in and out of dumpsters, dumpster diving! We’ve repurposed some real-life school uniforms covering the crest and everything. We wanted people to be wowed by the set. We really wanted to show people that you can radically reduce emissions surrounding the theatre industry in a show, but still create something of incredible artistic merit that is exciting and fresh [that] doesn’t feel like it is coupled together from someone’s garage. Our set designer has done a wonderful job — they’re building trees right now. It’s insane.
SB: You mentioned that Blinking Light was a theatre company that you founded, what was that experience like?
IL: This is our third production as a company. When I graduated from university, I realized there was no theatre company that was dedicated to fully building sustainable practice from the onset. I do think that it’s harder for a large company, working with such a large framework to incorporate [sustainable] practices into already existing practices. From the outset, we designed sustainability in, and that’s been our number one priority. Our first production, Much Ado About Nothing, we set in an 1800s tavern in Messina.We did it in a warehouse in Camperdown. We ended up borrowing from friends, family, neighbours, [and] our own share houses, about 13 dining tables and 72 chairs, because we didn’t want to buy anything new. We were driving all over Sydney, taking things on the bus, dragging things left right and centre — so sustainability has been a huge priority.
The company has been so welcoming and people have really taken up the mantle and opened themselves up to these new practices. [People have] been really interested in us as well. We’ve had amazing community support which has just been so lovely. We are now on our third full production – and here we are doing These Youths Be Protesting at KXT on Broadway!
SB: I think Sydney is a perfect stomping-ground to make sustainable theatre. If you think about the idea of council pickup, the fact that people just leave things on the side of the road feels like a part of our culture that remains largely undiscussed.
IL: Yeah! And we’ve got all these beautiful Facebook groups like ‘Buy Swap Sell’ or ‘Curb Alert’, which is so helpful. It’s a small city, or it’s a big city, but we’re a tight-knit community. Sometimes, I’ve gotten on my local Facebook community page and just said “hey does anybody have a 1940s era appropriate telephone?” Low and behold someone does! So we’re creating within the community, and community is most important to the climate fight. It’s our biggest tool in the fight but it’s also integral to theatre: we cannot create without our communities and our communities support.
SB: And so the values of this play and Blinking Light reflect this kind of community value?
IL: Absolutely. I think without a community, without an audience, you don’t really have a show. Even the 13 creatives that are working on this show, we’ve become a community, and we’ve got people who are coming to see the show. I would call them a wider part of Blinking Light’s community. I am very interested in looking at the power structure within the theatre industry and within the arts industry, because it should ultimately be a community. We shouldn’t be led by money or big corporations, cause theatre is a community act.
SB: Of course — the play as the blueprint for action.
IL: I think too, in terms of climate change and community, we need each other to get through the climate fight. It’s gonna be scary, there’s no two ways of looking at that. I think if we’ve got each other — which is something that I’ve tried to write into this play and really showcase — I think we’ve got something. We’ve got a climate fight. We already have the technology, we have the Indigenous knowledge of the land, we have the science and the resources to turn this ship around and to completely halt climate change. We just don’t have the community, and so, if we know we have the community, we sit in our communities, and if we feel comfortable in our communities, then we’ve got the tools.
SB: I agree. I know theatre is a vehicle for social change and it always has been, but what makes it a good vehicle for climate change [specifically], and the climate crisis conversation?
IL: Climate change is terrifying, and also such a boring topic to talk about. The way it’s presented in the news sometimes is just not a sexy conversation frankly, not one you can bring up at brunch with your friends. I think climate change in theatre, we are telling a story. We’re not saying “1.5 degrees of warming…these xyz scientific solutions…or this bill…this policy…” we’re telling stories on stage. I think storytelling is so human. It’s the way we connect to each other and being able to connect with the story on stage makes climate change a human thing. This is a comedy about climate change; everything we see on the news is so depressing that I really wanted people to be able to laugh about climate change — and not laugh at it to say “oh, we’ll be fine haha” but like, you can make jokes about it, and now that we feel more comfortable joking about it and laughing about it, lets fix it.
SB: Would you say that comedy is an antidote?
IL: I think we need to be able to laugh, but I think community theatre is the biggest antidote and they key into that is comedy.
SB: Your play is having its debut around a very important time, the time of the election… which we all love talking about! What does it mean for a play like this to come out at a time that seems so pivotal?
IL: Honestly, I am so thrilled that it lined up like this! I am so honoured that we have been entrusted with this space and this opportunity at such an important time. I think this election is going to be the most pivotal election we have in terms of the climate fight, among other issues. I just saw a statistic that said ‘Gen Z has so much power in this election’. A lot of people have aged into voting now — we have a very young team. It is so exciting to be entrusted with that opportunity to have that voice pre-election. The play does look at politics, both local and at large, and looks at the way kids or young people interact with politics.
I would hope that politicians listen to young people this election, we’re seeing the inclusion of so much new media in campaign trails: [Anthony Albanese] just did a bunch of podcasts and I see the Greens are teaming up with Abbie Chatfield which is such a slay — they’re really considering the young voices and the young listeners, so I hope this plays into that. In a dream world, we get a politician or two through the door. In a dream world, I hope that people walk away from the show thinking. Even if it’s not thinking about “I’m gonna vote for the most sustainable person out there”, but thinking rather “hmm I had plans to vote for this candidate, let me just have a little google, see where they stand on the Great Barrier Reef, or where they stand on mining.”
Or even because we were able to vote within our electorate this election. What does my local representative [stand for]? What are they doing for the climate in my community? Is there a big community push for climate change? Or do we need to get someone in office who is going to push for that?
I am so honoured and thrilled to even be given this opportunity at this time. I just hope that people give a little bit of consideration to the climate and to the young people who are going to inherit the planet and inherit the climate crisis, when they go to the polls or voting booths next month.
SB: Before we wrap up, say that out of their busy schedules, one of these big politicians did come and see the show, in a world in which they did watch theatre, how would you want them to leave?
IL: I know there are some politicians who are considering the climate crisis and are considering young people, but just to bring it to the forefront of their vision and their scope. Just to know that this is a deeply important issue. We’ve got young people on stage. The average age of our cast is so young, and much younger than a typical theatre show in Sydney. I just hope they’d leave considering this group and consider the people who will inherit this climate crisis.
SB: I am so excited to see it! Is there anything else you would like to add about your play before it hits the stage?
IL: It’s going to be such a fun evening, 75 minutes of absolute chaotic comedy. It’s for people who are interested in climate change, or [Australian] politics, or cake stalls and frog-in-a-ponds and a bit of fun. There really is something for everyone. I don’t want to alienate or isolate audiences who may be scared to talk about climate change or aren’t very interested in that yet, because everyone is on their own journey.This is a play that welcomes everyone to join the climate journey — or just sit and watch a great comedy with climate themes in there.
SB: Just dropped in there!
IL: Just a little sprinkle!
SB: So, what’s next for you? Do you know where you are heading?
IL: Yeah, I’m really excited. I’m performing! I am acting in Manon with the Australian Ballet. I am an actor, a writer, and a director now. Then, hopefully, getting another Green Scenes up later this year, which is our showcase of environmental scenes, songs and poetry.
SB: You strike me as a very exciting theatre maker, definitely one to be watched — strong in your thoughts and ideas which is something we definitely need to see at this time!
IL: Awesome, I can’t wait to welcome you to the show next week! Thank you so much!
‘These Youth Be Protesting’ will be showing at KXT on Broadway from the 4th to the 19th of April.
Are you a student, unwaged or part of the mob? Use discount OPENDOOR on Thursday performances for $20 tickets to the show! Support your local theatre!
