Overview
Through their Fresh Ink program, the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) has been giving Australia's finest emerging writers space to play on stage, page, film and online.
Their latest development under the banner of the Voices Project is worth checking out. It takes two heartbreaking monologues about first love and turns them into different but equally heartbreaking short films, which can be viewed online.
Bat Eyes by Jessica Bellamy will give you a whole new appreciation of WH Auden, as it hones in on the fleeting bond shared between a teenage bully and his visually impaired, poetically charged target. The optometrist's office has never before seemed so romantic.
Bat Eyes and its counterpart, Boot — about teenage recklessness and tense girl best-friendships — have been beautifully shot by director Damien Power.
The great thing about the Voices Project is that it brings together young people from different backgrounds and disciplines, and it makes writers and viewers think about how storytelling changes from medium to medium. As well as the adapted short films, you can watch the original monologues (directed by Laura Scrivano) and see how they've changed while making the jump out of just one person's head.
If you're under 26 and have your own thoughts on love to share, you can enter Fresh Ink's current Love Bytes competition, open until Friday, May 4.
