Enhanced Program Notes
Where to From Here?
Where to From Here: Enhanced Program Notes
ENHANCED PROGRAM NOTES
Show blurb
She's on the trip of a lifetime: middle-aged, menopausal and forgotten to buy her ticket. Sitting in the station cafeteria drinking over-brewed tea and eating stale croissants, a stranger asks her, 'Do I know you?' This simple question will change the course of her life forever.It's the first show in my new trilogy, written with humour and poignancy, wit and whimsy. It's a Gen-X lament, a journey through time, and a middle-aged coming of age.
Show image
The promotional image used for the show shows me sitting at a cafeteria table looking wistfully or pensively into the distance. The set we used for the image is the same as the one we have used for the performance and is detailed below. I am also wearing the same costume, detailed below.
My appearance and costume
I am short (5 foot 2, I can't remember what that is in centimetres). My skin is white. My hair is straight, shoulder-length, brown, with increasingly prominent grey streaks around my face. I have a fringe but I can't get it to sit straight and it parts slightly to the side (my right side). I wear largeish, round glasses with light black frames and white wings. I don't wear much makeup, just mascara, foundation, a light blush and neutral shade of lipstick (but I often forget to put the lipstick on).I am wearing a blue denim tunic, with a black t-shirt which has a slight silver sparkle woven through it. I am wearing cream converse shoes with wedge souls.
The room
For the Adelaide Fringe 2023, the show is being played in Studio 166 at the Goodwood Theatre and Studios. You will walk into the room the performance space is on your left, and the seats are to your right. The front two rows of seats are on the floor, then there are two rows of seats behind that, each one stepped up. All of the walls of the room are covered in thick black curtains. The tech desk is in the far corner behind the two rows of seats on the ground.
The set
As with all my shows, the set is a simple one, designed to evoke the sense of an old-fashioned cafeteria--perhaps at the railway station or the cafe where I am sharing a cup of tea with a friend to tell her about this strange journey.There are two chairs and a round cafe table in the centre of the performance space, with the chairs one either side of the table, facing the audience but slightly angled. The chairs are Parisian style, the frames made of wood and the seat and back woven from black and white strips (I don't know what this material would have been in the past, but I'm pretty sure this is some kind of plastic). The table has a white tablecloth (which drapes almost to the ground), and is set for two people with a white teaset, including a teapot, milk jug, two cups and saucers and two small plates. The small plates have the crumbs and small pieces of croissant. There are two small water glasses with some water in them (I think the amount of water in each probably varies between performances).The set is lit in a soft golden light.The only other prop I use throughout the show, is a sheet of A4 paper which I pull from my pocket when I am reading my poem. It is folded in quarters.
Action and movement
I'm a reasonably static performer, and for most of the performance, I am sitting in the seat which is on the right of the stage (from the audience perspective). The show begins with a recorded Welcome to Country. I am standing in the room as it plays, but not yet on the stage. When the Welcome to Country is finished, the lights dim, I take my place at the table, the intro music plays and the lights come up. I am in this seat for most of the show. I come to the front of the stage when I am describing the station. I move to your left when I am describing the departures board, to your left when I am describing the bathroom. I also move to your left when I am describing the left luggage room, and am in the centre of the performance space when describing my trip to Mitre 10. I am standing in the centre of the performance space for the final lines.
When the show finishes
The lights blackout after I have said my final line, then come up. I thank the wonderful tech, Maggie if she is in the audience that night; Adrian if he is there and if he isn't then one of my sons is in his place. I open the doors and as you leave, Adrian and I have a small gift for you.
TEXT OF THE PROGRAM
The program is an A3 sheet of paper printed both sides, and folded to be a small booklet. If you unfold the booklet, there is a map of the show. This is a map created in the style of an underground map with each of the stations something that I mention in the show. The text of the program is as follows:
Cover
your guide toWHERE TO FROM HERE?
written and performed by Tracy Crisp
directed by Maggie McGinty
Goodwood Theatre and Studio Adelaide Fringe 2023
“she’s whimsical, witty, perceptive, and erudite and she has a glorious way with words” Samela Harris, The Barefoot Review
>>>>Includes bonus detailed map<<<<
pages 2-3Writer and performer’s note
For this new work, I knew that I wanted to write about these years of middle age. I’m especially interested in their duality. Because while they often overflowing with big responsibilities and upheavals, at the same time we are beginning to feel we might, kind of, possibly know what’s going on. As I started writing, it soon became clear that I had lot more to say about the experiences of middle age than would fit in one show, so I started planning a new trilogy.
In mapping out the course of the trilogy, I thought the best place to start would be with the ‘reckoning’ that happens to many of us. The process of looking back at what we have—and haven’t—done and making peace with our choices. At the same time, having spent so much time looking back in my other monologues, I was keen to try a new perspective—looking forward. So, I put myself at this point of connection between these two perspectives.
I had started to explore the concept of meeting the people I might have been in my script, Potluck. I decided not to stage that show last year (because of covid), but as I started on this new work, that concept continued to demand attention in the way that unfinished projects often do. So here I am, in a railway station, meeting the people I could have, should have, would have, been. And they meet me!
I wanted this to be alight-hearted piece. Living in the shadow of covid, I still want to explore challenging themes in the things I read, watch, listen to, and write (we can’t ignore challenging themes even if we want to—we’ve got climate change to contend with). But at the same time, I need to feel the possibilities of lightness.It was sometimes challenging to maintain the light-heartedness in this work because much of the theme is about confronting life’s disappointments. I’m grateful to Maggie for helping me to stay true to that light-heartedness, as together we brought the story to life.
As with the previous monologues, this one does stand alone, but there are some echoes and references to earlier pieces. If you didn’t see I Made an Adult, you might like to know that in that show, I convinced Adrian to take on a small speaking part.Thank you for coming, and for bringing your trust and your energy. I know it sounds cliched, but it’snot a show until you arrive. It’s wonderful to have you here.Tracy Crisp sit back, relax and enjoy the ride
page 4 director’s note
There’s more than one way to put together a piece of theatre, and that’s been proven by this year’s great script by Tracy. Where to From Here has really been a step-by-step production, in a process where Tracy’s thinking would form the script, which then would further inform her thinking, and so on, until piece by piece it came together. So, directing this production has been more about following the ‘dance’, and demonstrating the meaning of Tracy’s intentions, as opposed to being a strictly physical and aural exercise. The core of the script is an abstract idea set in a universe with few known rules or reference points, so the challenge was to ground the production in a place that made sense for this particular piece, hence the hustle and transience of an imagined train station. The subject matter, though, is universal. We all get to a point where we wonder if our past decisions are determined to shape our pathway into the future, or if we can we change, ditch,or alter dreams, ambitions, and wishes that have been with us since our formative years. This has certainly been a different process to how we usually proceed, but it’s been an energising one that I trust delivers on its promise. Enjoy! Maggie McGinty
page 5 credits and acknowledgements
Tracy Crisp: writer, performer, producer
Maggie McGinty: director, show image
Tracey Noah: social media graphics
Adrian Jones: road crew, love and support, stalwart
Leo Jones and Felix Jones: Adrian’s understudies
Thank you to everyone at Goodwood Theatre and Studios: Simone and Chris who are creating this beautiful new space, the tech crew Barry and Adam, and the front of house team. It’s been wonderful to be here.
page 6 creative acknowledgements
An extract of this work was read at tenx9 Adelaide.
Parts of this work were road-tested at my World Famous, Annual, One Night Only Live Christmas Letter Reading, December2022.
In 2022, I received a grant from Arts South Australia for a new work, Bewildered. That grant did not fund Where to From Here? some of its themes have been influenced by that work.
The pattern and fabric to make my costume is from the beautiful fabric store The Drapery. And so is the idea for the exit gift.
Printmaking classes by Simone Tippett of Union Street Printmakers always spark new ideas (like making programs with maps inside).
And you! Thank you for coming. You give life to a work that would otherwise be nothing more than an idea written in a file, stored in a folder, floating in a cloud.
page 7 previous and upcoming work
Performance
You Can’t Hide in the Desert (trilogy)
Pearls (2018)
The Forgettory (2019)
I Made an Adult (2021)
Mostly true, slightly made-up stories
An Evening with the Vegetarian Librarian(2020)
World Famous, Annual, One-Night-OnlyChristmas Letter Reading (2022 and forthcoming 2023)
Where to From Here? (2023)
Novels
The Fish Have Vicious Teeth (forthcoming)
Surrogate (2019)
Black Dust Dancing (2009)
Visual Arts
Pearls (Stitched) (forthcoming, August2023)
Weird Adelaide: A Tribute to Barbara Hanrahan (co-curated with Simone Tippett, with help from Caren Florance and Vicki Reynolds) (2021)
Back cover
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country where we live and work, the Kaurna Yarta Miyurna First Nations Peoples. We pay respect to Elders past and present.These are lands that have held stories and storytelling for thousands and years and we acknowledge the profound importance of storytelling to First Nations cultures. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land
Tracy Crisp
tracycrisp.com.au
Show blurb
She's on the trip of a lifetime: middle-aged, menopausal and forgotten to buy her ticket. Sitting in the station cafeteria drinking over-brewed tea and eating stale croissants, a stranger asks her, 'Do I know you?' This simple question will change the course of her life forever.It's the first show in my new trilogy, written with humour and poignancy, wit and whimsy. It's a Gen-X lament, a journey through time, and a middle-aged coming of age.
Show image
The promotional image used for the show shows me sitting at a cafeteria table looking wistfully or pensively into the distance. The set we used for the image is the same as the one we have used for the performance and is detailed below. I am also wearing the same costume, detailed below.
My appearance and costume
I am short (5 foot 2, I can't remember what that is in centimetres). My skin is white. My hair is straight, shoulder-length, brown, with increasingly prominent grey streaks around my face. I have a fringe but I can't get it to sit straight and it parts slightly to the side (my right side). I wear largeish, round glasses with light black frames and white wings. I don't wear much makeup, just mascara, foundation, a light blush and neutral shade of lipstick (but I often forget to put the lipstick on).I am wearing a blue denim tunic, with a black t-shirt which has a slight silver sparkle woven through it. I am wearing cream converse shoes with wedge souls.
The room
For the Adelaide Fringe 2023, the show is being played in Studio 166 at the Goodwood Theatre and Studios. You will walk into the room the performance space is on your left, and the seats are to your right. The front two rows of seats are on the floor, then there are two rows of seats behind that, each one stepped up. All of the walls of the room are covered in thick black curtains. The tech desk is in the far corner behind the two rows of seats on the ground.
The set
As with all my shows, the set is a simple one, designed to evoke the sense of an old-fashioned cafeteria--perhaps at the railway station or the cafe where I am sharing a cup of tea with a friend to tell her about this strange journey.There are two chairs and a round cafe table in the centre of the performance space, with the chairs one either side of the table, facing the audience but slightly angled. The chairs are Parisian style, the frames made of wood and the seat and back woven from black and white strips (I don't know what this material would have been in the past, but I'm pretty sure this is some kind of plastic). The table has a white tablecloth (which drapes almost to the ground), and is set for two people with a white teaset, including a teapot, milk jug, two cups and saucers and two small plates. The small plates have the crumbs and small pieces of croissant. There are two small water glasses with some water in them (I think the amount of water in each probably varies between performances).The set is lit in a soft golden light.The only other prop I use throughout the show, is a sheet of A4 paper which I pull from my pocket when I am reading my poem. It is folded in quarters.
Action and movement
I'm a reasonably static performer, and for most of the performance, I am sitting in the seat which is on the right of the stage (from the audience perspective). The show begins with a recorded Welcome to Country. I am standing in the room as it plays, but not yet on the stage. When the Welcome to Country is finished, the lights dim, I take my place at the table, the intro music plays and the lights come up. I am in this seat for most of the show. I come to the front of the stage when I am describing the station. I move to your left when I am describing the departures board, to your left when I am describing the bathroom. I also move to your left when I am describing the left luggage room, and am in the centre of the performance space when describing my trip to Mitre 10. I am standing in the centre of the performance space for the final lines.
When the show finishes
The lights blackout after I have said my final line, then come up. I thank the wonderful tech, Maggie if she is in the audience that night; Adrian if he is there and if he isn't then one of my sons is in his place. I open the doors and as you leave, Adrian and I have a small gift for you.
TEXT OF THE PROGRAM
The program is an A3 sheet of paper printed both sides, and folded to be a small booklet. If you unfold the booklet, there is a map of the show. This is a map created in the style of an underground map with each of the stations something that I mention in the show. The text of the program is as follows:
Cover
your guide toWHERE TO FROM HERE?
written and performed by Tracy Crisp
directed by Maggie McGinty
Goodwood Theatre and Studio Adelaide Fringe 2023
“she’s whimsical, witty, perceptive, and erudite and she has a glorious way with words” Samela Harris, The Barefoot Review
>>>>Includes bonus detailed map<<<<
pages 2-3Writer and performer’s note
For this new work, I knew that I wanted to write about these years of middle age. I’m especially interested in their duality. Because while they often overflowing with big responsibilities and upheavals, at the same time we are beginning to feel we might, kind of, possibly know what’s going on. As I started writing, it soon became clear that I had lot more to say about the experiences of middle age than would fit in one show, so I started planning a new trilogy.
In mapping out the course of the trilogy, I thought the best place to start would be with the ‘reckoning’ that happens to many of us. The process of looking back at what we have—and haven’t—done and making peace with our choices. At the same time, having spent so much time looking back in my other monologues, I was keen to try a new perspective—looking forward. So, I put myself at this point of connection between these two perspectives.
I had started to explore the concept of meeting the people I might have been in my script, Potluck. I decided not to stage that show last year (because of covid), but as I started on this new work, that concept continued to demand attention in the way that unfinished projects often do. So here I am, in a railway station, meeting the people I could have, should have, would have, been. And they meet me!
I wanted this to be alight-hearted piece. Living in the shadow of covid, I still want to explore challenging themes in the things I read, watch, listen to, and write (we can’t ignore challenging themes even if we want to—we’ve got climate change to contend with). But at the same time, I need to feel the possibilities of lightness.It was sometimes challenging to maintain the light-heartedness in this work because much of the theme is about confronting life’s disappointments. I’m grateful to Maggie for helping me to stay true to that light-heartedness, as together we brought the story to life.
As with the previous monologues, this one does stand alone, but there are some echoes and references to earlier pieces. If you didn’t see I Made an Adult, you might like to know that in that show, I convinced Adrian to take on a small speaking part.Thank you for coming, and for bringing your trust and your energy. I know it sounds cliched, but it’snot a show until you arrive. It’s wonderful to have you here.Tracy Crisp sit back, relax and enjoy the ride
page 4 director’s note
There’s more than one way to put together a piece of theatre, and that’s been proven by this year’s great script by Tracy. Where to From Here has really been a step-by-step production, in a process where Tracy’s thinking would form the script, which then would further inform her thinking, and so on, until piece by piece it came together. So, directing this production has been more about following the ‘dance’, and demonstrating the meaning of Tracy’s intentions, as opposed to being a strictly physical and aural exercise. The core of the script is an abstract idea set in a universe with few known rules or reference points, so the challenge was to ground the production in a place that made sense for this particular piece, hence the hustle and transience of an imagined train station. The subject matter, though, is universal. We all get to a point where we wonder if our past decisions are determined to shape our pathway into the future, or if we can we change, ditch,or alter dreams, ambitions, and wishes that have been with us since our formative years. This has certainly been a different process to how we usually proceed, but it’s been an energising one that I trust delivers on its promise. Enjoy! Maggie McGinty
page 5 credits and acknowledgements
Tracy Crisp: writer, performer, producer
Maggie McGinty: director, show image
Tracey Noah: social media graphics
Adrian Jones: road crew, love and support, stalwart
Leo Jones and Felix Jones: Adrian’s understudies
Thank you to everyone at Goodwood Theatre and Studios: Simone and Chris who are creating this beautiful new space, the tech crew Barry and Adam, and the front of house team. It’s been wonderful to be here.
page 6 creative acknowledgements
An extract of this work was read at tenx9 Adelaide.
Parts of this work were road-tested at my World Famous, Annual, One Night Only Live Christmas Letter Reading, December2022.
In 2022, I received a grant from Arts South Australia for a new work, Bewildered. That grant did not fund Where to From Here? some of its themes have been influenced by that work.
The pattern and fabric to make my costume is from the beautiful fabric store The Drapery. And so is the idea for the exit gift.
Printmaking classes by Simone Tippett of Union Street Printmakers always spark new ideas (like making programs with maps inside).
And you! Thank you for coming. You give life to a work that would otherwise be nothing more than an idea written in a file, stored in a folder, floating in a cloud.
page 7 previous and upcoming work
Performance
You Can’t Hide in the Desert (trilogy)
Pearls (2018)
The Forgettory (2019)
I Made an Adult (2021)
Mostly true, slightly made-up stories
An Evening with the Vegetarian Librarian(2020)
World Famous, Annual, One-Night-OnlyChristmas Letter Reading (2022 and forthcoming 2023)
Where to From Here? (2023)
Novels
The Fish Have Vicious Teeth (forthcoming)
Surrogate (2019)
Black Dust Dancing (2009)
Visual Arts
Pearls (Stitched) (forthcoming, August2023)
Weird Adelaide: A Tribute to Barbara Hanrahan (co-curated with Simone Tippett, with help from Caren Florance and Vicki Reynolds) (2021)
Back cover
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country where we live and work, the Kaurna Yarta Miyurna First Nations Peoples. We pay respect to Elders past and present.These are lands that have held stories and storytelling for thousands and years and we acknowledge the profound importance of storytelling to First Nations cultures. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land
Tracy Crisp
tracycrisp.com.au
Acknowledgement
I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Kaurna People, the Traditional Custodians of the land where I live and work. This is land that was never ceded. I pay respect to Elders past and present.