My name is Sud: racial diversity with Blacktown Arts Centre

 

The purpose of the 120-page learning material booklet I wrote is to support the performance My Name is Sud, produced by Blacktown Arts Centre. From 2007 to 2010 Blacktown Arts Centre was involved in an extensive community cultural development program with the local Sudanese community to produce the play My Name is Sud (Soo-d) which was performed over 2 weeks during November 2009. The success of this program led to performances of the play at the prestigious Dreaming Festival in 2010 where it received a standing ovation.

“At the heart of the play, a Sudanese family struggles in their journey for understanding and belonging. Akoi dreams of being a writer, her brother Machar seeks a new identity, while their mother Kuei fears losing her son to the ‘streets of Blacktown’ and his Australian girlfriend. Love, humour, prejudice and innocence collide in this powerful new work.”

The kit includes a copy of the play and a documentary about the making of the play on DVD. The documentary provides great insight into the extensive community collaboration needed as part of the development of the play as well as useful information on developing a theatrical production.

The kit learning material provides a relevant and stimulating high quality resource for high school students, which also meets compulsory course content requirements in Stage 5 (Year 10) English, Drama, and Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. It is also a useful resource for community organisations to use within their theme based general skills and knowledge programming. Used in this way, the education kit provides people with the opportunity to build confidence through benchmarking their achievements against the mainstream education system framework.