Future D. Fidel’s
LA BELLE EPOQUE
10-20 July 2024
A Long Dark Night for the Africans
La Belle Epoque is a text-based play with integrated archival and live video, performed by actors of African heritage. It comprises several interweaving narratives that combine to tell the story of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The play charts the history of discovery and exploitation of resources in the DRC such as slaves, rubber, diamonds, and rare earth minerals from pre-colonial times to the modern day, exposing the supply chain and the people who are beneficiaries of these resources - the Wealthy West.
It tells the story of a quartet of young African Australians, focusing on the central relationship of Chris, a Congolese refugee, and Isioma, a Nigerian Australian who came to Australia with her migrant parents when she was a baby. Chris is an aspiring actor who also runs a small import business. Isioma is studying political science at the University and hopes to become a social media influencer. Chris and Isioma have been going out for three years and although Isioma notionally lives with her parents in the suburbs, she spends most days and nights at Chris’ modest studio apartment.
Chris and Isioma are very serious, but marriage is not considered a short-term possibility as there is no way that Chris could afford the large dowry that would be demanded. Also, Chris is secretive and guarded about his past and his family, which puts added strain on the relationship.
10-20 July 2024
Theatre Works | 14 Acland Street, St Kilda, Victoria 3182, Australia
Director’s Note
Cast
Creative Team
Future D. Fidel
Playwright
Future D. Fidel is an African Australian playwright, screenplay writer, novelist, and producer originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1996, Future was forced to flee as an orphan stowaway to Tanzania. He tried desperately to trace his surviving family; he was finally reunited with his sister six years later. Future spent eight years in Nyarugusu, a Tanzanian refugee camp, before being accepted as a refugee in Australia where he now lives. Future’s theatre journey started as an actor in the production of I am Here (Brisbane Power House 2012, Queensland Theatre Company 2013); later, he got a residency at La Boite Theatre. Future’s debut play Prize Fighter was featured at the Brisbane Festival, Sydney Festival, Darwin Festival, and Melbourne Festival. Prize Fighter was nominated for Best New Australian Work and Best Production at the 2016 Helpmann Awards. It won an Award for Best Production at the 2018 Matildas Awards in Brisbane.
Future is also working with Slingsby Theatre Company to write a new play about Home and belonging.
Dr. Budi Miller
Director
Dr. Budi Miller is the Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre of Others. He is the Director of Advanced Training at the Fitzmaurice Institute. He is a Lead Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, a certified integrative studies practitioner, and a UNESCO-designated master teacher of mask work. His practice intersects with Balinese Performing Arts Training (BPAT), Mask Work, Fitzmaurice Voicework, Michael Chekhov, Clown, Viewpoints, Grotowski, and Self-inquiry brought to the world by Ramana Maharshi. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne and a B.F.A. in theatre from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
He has been an actor-director-writer-teacher in the United States, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia since 1992. He is a Balinese mask dancer and the first teacher to bring Fitzmaurice Voicework to Denmark, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
He coached Michelle Williams for her Academy Award-nominated performance in Ang Lee's movie Brokeback Mountain, Jonathan Majors Lovecraft Country: HBO, Creed III, Ant-Man III: Marvel Universe and collaborates with Julian Elijah Martinez (Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Hulu). He has had the privilege of coaching and inspiring actors in many mediums: Broadway, HBO, Netflix, Showtime, major international film markets and theatres around the world, and the Indonesian Film Festival (Judge, 2020).
He was the Head of Acting from 2017-2023 at the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne. He has been on the faculties of The Chautauqua Theater Company from 2004-2021, and LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore 2009-2017. He has taught at Yale School of Drama, The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, The Actors Center, Wayne State (MFA), The New School (MFA), SUNY Purchase College, University of Southern California, The Bill Esper Studio, Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, The National Theatre Institute, Howard University, Western Michigan University, The National University of Singapore, The Queensland Theatre Company (Brisbane), Curtin University (Perth), and the Michael Chekhov Conference 2002.
He was the Executive Director of the International Antonin Artaud Fringe Theatre Festival 2008. He was a featured presenter at the International VASTA conference in Mexico City in 2010 and London in 2014. He was the conference director for the first VASTA conference in Asia (Singapore) in 2017.
Published Work:
de Roza, E., & Miller, B. (2018). The Lion and the Breath: Combining Kalaripayattu and Fitzmaurice Voicework Techniques Towards a New Cross-Cultural Methodology for Actor Training. Journal of Embodied Research, 1(1), 1 (20:41). DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/jer.6
Miller, B (2023) “Whose body is dis: taksu, ase, Black queer intersections, and the awakening of the actor’s spiritual practice,” Stages of Reckoning: Antiracist and Decolonial Actor Training, (Edited) Amy Mihyang Ginther, Abingdon, New York, Routledge.
budi@theatreofothers.com
Instagram:@millerbudi