‘Children of the Sea’ sneak peek – Jay Emmanuel’s new work-of-scale

Jay Emmanuel, whose latest work-in-development, Children of the Sea, is inspired by the journey of four young maritime refugees who come to Australia by boat, was recently joined in the rehearsal room with Dramaturg Shakthidharan Sivanathan (Counting and Cracking), Composer and Choirleader, Kavisha Mazzella (1996 Green Room Award for Emma Celebrazione) and Set Designer Bryan Woltjen (most recent works: Orana Productions’ Mimma, TLGH’s Perpetual Wake and A Flowering Tree by Opera Queensland).

We began the exploration of this new work with an internal script read involving Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, Pavan Kumar Hari, Tobias Muhafidin and Zainab Syed who lent us their voices for the morning, which was then followed by discussions on the dramaturgy and set design of the work.

During the week, Kavisha and Jay also workshopped with emerging and diverse performers to ascertain how the choir and the sound design will interact with, and enhance the performance.

Produced by Performing Lines WA, Children of the Sea will go into a two-week full development in April, with the hope to Premiere in 2021.

Scroll down to see some images from the recent development.