Star from Flinders University, undertaking a short term program at LA SALLE, Singapore during Semester 1 2025.
On the 3rd of May, myself and my peer Wirra, had the pleasure of embarking on a journey to Singapore to work with fellow acting students from Hong Kong, Thailand, Romania and Singapore at LASALLE College of the Arts. On the flight there, I had nervous butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited to see what the next two weeks had in store for us.
Throughout the first week, we participated in a variety of different movement workshops that responded to the conference’s theme, ‘Performance and the Environment’. This conference centred around how we can make theatre sustainable, and create art about climate change that is inspiring, impactful, and culminates in real change–no matter how small. We travelled to wildlife reserves and conservations around Singapore that informed our discussions about what we wanted to say with the pieces we created, and how we could transform and translate our relationship to the environment through our bodies and how our bodies moved with each other. Collaborating with acting students from all over the world, I was able to learn skills that I would not normally receive in my training; as well as apply and share the knowledge that I have garnered at Drama Centre so far. Throughout these workshops, we had to not only surrender ourselves to the work, but also collaborate, perform, and be intimate and vulnerable with people whom we had never met before.
In our second week, we attended lectures from professors across the globe who spoke about what they are doing to make their work sustainable and/or shared stories about the impact of climate change relative to their areas of study. The workshops and lectures we attended emphasised the pertinence of collaborating with other artists and making work about or in response to climate change. Moreover, it highlighted how despite our individual experiences, we all share one Earth that holds everything we love—and that we need to take care of it before it is too late.
Overall, this was such a wonderful experience and I feel so honoured and blessed to have had the opportunity to immerse myself in so many different cultures, and meet so many likeminded artists from across the world. Whilst the urgency of climate change often leaves this feeling of impending doom, knowing that there are people everywhere who care about it and are trying to better our world gives me hope in a time when it often feels like there is none.
Star was fortunate to be awarded a Destination Australia Cheung Kong Exchange Program Scholarship to support her exchange experience.