New England North West Creatives Shine in Isolation Project

 
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Arts North West has unveiled the comedic results of a large-scale community arts project that had been in the works over the last couple of months of 2020.

Captain Isobolt and the Great COVID Crises of 2020 is a set of 5 short videos engaging community theatre practitioners in the New England North West, bringing humour to the tumultuous year that was.

Scripted by Arts North West, the series features over 100 local participants, in a low-tech spoof, centred around a young man who is unexpectedly chosen to confront and solve a the series of crises posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the New England North West including toilet paper shortages, the need for hand sanitiser, homemade masks and social distancing.

Filmed using mobile phones and social distancing, the series has been brilliantly produced and edited by Arts North West Projects Officer, Michèle Jedlicka, with voice overs by Inverell’s Peter Caddey, original music by Armidale’s Pat Harris and stars New England North West locals, Alex Robson and Ellie Ann Sampson.

“Film is not my medium in the first place, so this project was a fun challenge. With theatre, you rehearse for weeks with your fellow actors, and then play to an audience: you bounce off the energy and reactions of both. But this was me, performing to my mate behind my iPhone camera, in my tiny, scantily furnished new home” said Captain Isobolt actor Alex Robson.

“This was a quintessential quarantine project as you have all of these artists, from all of these different communities, coming together the only way they can: remotely.” Alex continued.

Project manager, producer and editor Michèle Jedlicka, was also really impressed with the effort put in by all involved.

“The imagination and ingenuity all the regional groups used to create their clips was wonderful. They only had a brief to follow, and it was up to them to interpret that part of the script. Even though I saw all these clips multiple times through the editing process, they always make me laugh” said Michèle.

The Captain Isobolt series can be viewed online via the Arts North West website www.artsnw.com.au. For more information, please contact media@artsnw.com.au