TAHLEE FEREDAY

(She/her)
Actor

9 November 2020
Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung Country

My name is Tahlee Fereday. I’m an actor and artist here in Naarm/Melbourne. I’m queer and First Nations.

Theatre was cancelled way back in March, which was so long ago now. I’ve lost work, or it’s been postponed, so I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom acting, which is awkward, because I feel like I’m the set designer, I’m the costume designer. I’m everything. I think everyone’s been affected by COVID in every way – financially, where we live, what we’re allowed to do, our freedom. I can’t think of one way that I have not been affected, but I’m also very grateful to be in Australia because I understand that outside of Australia, people are doing a lot worse.

I know that’s not the most positive thinking, but I acknowledge my privilege and I am very grateful
to be in Melbourne at this time. I think one of the main positives is that I don’t always have to be productive, and my productivity is not a scale of how successful I am. This has been a really difficult lesson, but just learning not to do anything, which I [thought] I would love, but I just felt really guilty.

Living in Flemington was really eerie because I live two or three streets away from the [commission] flats. There were just police everywhere. The way that they came in – police everywhere, trucks everywhere, dogs, guns – whenever I see a police officer or when they come in with such force, it gives you a body response. I can’t even imagine what it would be like for the people in the flats because they had no notice. Some of them don’t speak English, and [the police] didn’t come in with social workers and translators – they came in guns blazing, literally. It created a lot of unease in Flemington – you could see people [with] signs in the windows. I felt so helpless, but luckily we have organisations like FoodBank [that] were really on it.

I wonder what theatre is going to look like after COVID. When I go back to theatre I want to see minority bodies and I want to see stories that haven’t had the microphone. There are so many great things that we can question. Authority, freedom, who has the power to make decisions – there are so many great things that we can export from COVID. If I see another traditional classic on stage, I am going to stab myself in the eye with a fork. I think that times like these is where the great art comes from – the struggle. I’m excited to see what people have been writing during iso, and when those works get staged, I think there’s going to be some ripper works. I feel like artists are so strong and it’s just another thing that has been thrown at us and we’ll keep on moving forward, because that’s all we know to do.