Winter events at the Writers Centre
Coledale Community Hall is abuzz this month with visits from brilliant out-of-towners who will warm up our wintry weekends: from stand-up comics Mandy Nolan and George Catsi, to novelist Linda Jaivin and political cartoonist Fiona Katauskas. Our...
Coledale Community Hall is abuzz this month with visits from brilliant out-of-towners who will warm up our wintry weekends: from stand-up comics Mandy Nolan and George Catsi, to novelist Linda Jaivin and political cartoonist Fiona Katauskas.
Our first visitors, on the afternoon of Sunday, 6 June, are Linda Jaivin, a novelist and an expert in Chinese politics, language and culture, and political cartoonist, and producer of Talking Pictures on ABCTV’s The Insiders, Fiona Katauskas. They will be in conversation about Linda’s new book The Shortest History of China.
The Shortest History of China is a pacy history that covers the ways that China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics and philosophy across the world for thousands of years: from kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk. Chinese history is sprawling and gloriously messy. It is full of heroes who are also villains, prosperous ages and violent rebellions, cultural vibrancy and censorious impulses, rebels, loyalists, dissidents and wits. Linda distils a vast history into a short, readable account that tells you what you need to know, from China’s philosophical origins to its political system, to the COVID-19 pandemic and where the PRC is likely to lead the world.
The weekend of Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, 13 is jam packed. During the day Mandy Nolan and Dr George Catsi will present an intensive two-day masterclass for creatives who want to become more powerful and engaging public speakers. And during the evening, South Coast Writers Centre presents George’s comedic memoir stage show, Am I Who I Say I Am?
Mandy and George are multi-talented powerhouses. Mandy is a comedian, writer, comedy teacher, columnist, mother of five, and now Greens Candidate for the Federal seat of Richmond. SMH writer Bruce Elder described her as “Australia’s wittiest comedic columnist”.
George is a creative producer, performer and social entrepreneur, an AWGIE winner and a lecturer at UTS in Design Thinking, Performance and Communications . Together they will teach performance techniques to create rapport and real audience connection.
On the evening of Saturday, 12 June, George will immerse you in his tales of multiple names,
a wayward father and how hopeless a Greek he is, in Am I Who I Saw I Am? The show is a ripping yarn centred around his father journeying from Crete to Cairo to Detroit to Sydney. The result is a funny, lively and heartfelt evening of stories that, has delighted audiences at the Sydney Comedy and Sydney Greek festivals.
