Meet the Cast : Emily Havea / Grounded
January 29, 2019
Emily Havea from Grounded written by George Brant, directed by Dom Mercer spoke with us before going into rehearsals for the March production.
What attracted you to Grounded?
It’s an incredibly emotionally engaging, punchy script and features a wonderfully written, complex 3D woman. It’s essentially irresistible.
Grounded will be an engaging, fast paced, emotionally charged production. I haven’t performed in a show before with no other cast members! So I’m pretty excited and terrified to hold the show in my hands.
Why is this play important to you?
You don’t often find female characters that are written so wonderfully. This woman comes off the page with such a masculine energy and yet we still get to see her nurturing side and maternal instincts. That duality resonates with me.
What have you been working on recently?
Most recently I did the national tour of Julius Caesar with Bell Shakespeare and Brown Skin Girl with BlackBirds at the Old Fitz. I also appeared in season 6 & 7 of Wentworth (Foxtel/ Showcase)
One of my recent stand out career moments was performing a show that I co-wrote with 2 other WOC, Brown Skin Girl at Griffin’s BATCH festival. It’s a piece exploring what it is to grow up as a brown woman in Australia and incorporates spoken word, movement and LOL’s all round. Standing on stage and having audiences resonate with your own story is beyond anything else I’ve ever experienced as an actor.
What advice would you give to up and coming/emerging talents looking to further their careers.
Educate yourself with experiences outside your day to day life. Travel somewhere. Go learn a new skill. Go for a walk around a different part of town. Do something that challenges yourself or makes you see something from a different perspective. And find your people! Find a crew that supports you, challenges you, joins you and can be real with you when you need to hear it straight. The people that I’ve surrounded myself with are a huge part of what makes my life so enjoyable and they inspire me to be better too. I wish that for everyone.
What is your connection to Western Sydney?
I have a lot of family who lives in Western Sydney! Also I performed at a lot of local schools during the Players with Bell Shakespeare in 2016. I remember being blown away at a school in Bankstown as I’d never seen so many kids that looked like me!
I think Parramatta is fast turning into its own city so I’m excited to explore the area a bit more thoroughly.
Grounded
National Theatre of Parramatta at Riverside
14 – 23 March 2019