Alongside three fellow Massive Nui Ensemble members (Harmony Hogarth, Manunui Rainey and Ebony Andrew), company member Denyce Su’a participated in an exchange with PYT Fairfield, the only professional theatre company in Western Sydney dedicated to putting young and emerging artists at the core of their practice.

DENYCE
Let’s jam! One of the things I love most about devising is working as an ensemble. Ensembles are powerful. They’re like big pots of hearty stew, jam-packed with lots of different flavours and surprises. The strength and punch of the ensemble sits in the way they collaborate, the way they build and nurture a connection and the way they use that to play a game, create a piece and tell a story.

It’s not often we get to look beyond Aotearoa to experience how other ensembles are making and creating theatre. At the end of March, however, Massive was invited to experience a taste of how PYT Fairfield in Western Sydney devises and creates theatre with their ensemble. We spent five days learning about their kaupapa and community, sharpened our own practice and thinking-by-collaborating with them to devise a piece of theatre through their process. It was a hearty Trans-Tasman stew!

HARMONY

Over the week we were there we got to do, explore and experience lots of different things as well as meet some awesome people. Our first two days included spending a day with PYT Fairfield’s ensemble who meet regularly, getting to see and go on an awesome tour of the Sydney Opera House, and that evening attending an opera. During the remaining 3 days we watched the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and then worked on a piece of devised work inspired by that. It was super valuable and interesting getting to meet new people and see new places as well as getting to experience and explore devising in a really different way to what we have before.

MANUNUI
Travelling out of Aotearoa for the first time - and flying for the first time - was an encapsulating experience. Sydney felt massive, especially staying in Parramatta, one of its major suburbs. Everything was bigger; from the five-level mall to the public transport. If I could go back to Sydney I'd wanna give Coney Island a visit. Collaborating with the PYT crew in Fairfield was fascinating. Their creative process, using film as a provocation and recreating naturalistic scenes, differed from Massive’s physical and stylised approach. It was different in terms of making work coming from a different angle. I’m really looking forward to the PYT Fairfield crew coming to explore Massive’s way of working in return.

EBONY
This exchange with PYT Fairfield allowed us to broaden not only our toolbox of devising processes but also allowed us to hear new stories that are outside of the Aotearoa scope, which was refreshing and exciting as an artist. One of the new devising formats we discovered from PYT that was completely new to us Massives, was devising based off of a film. We watched the Australian colonial film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and decolonised it through revamping. Throughout the process we did a lot of brainstorming, writing and came up with a storyline, and then created scenes through flash 10-minute improvisation. As a result, we created a 20-minute piece of theatre.

The benefits of us Massives devising and creating in a completely new way has really opened our eyes to improvisation, writing and how to create a sequential storyline, rather than our frequent abstract and stylised shows at Massive. Although the skills learned at PYT are going to enrich our making as artists, the connection and relationships formed are some of the richest benefits we got out of the experience and we cannot wait to welcome our mates to Aotearoa.