Show to celebrate storied items

THE relationship between storytelling, objects, people, and history will soon be explored as part of a community event at the Creswick Courthouse Theatre.

Called Ordinary Objects, Extraordinary Stories and run by the Creswick Theatre Company, the show will be the town’s crowning contribution to the 19th annual Words in Winter taking place throughout Hepburn Shire later this month.

With 12 objects to examine and a personal tale attached to each item, director Tim Drylie said the show is about bringing people together through storytelling.

“It’s about community connectiveness, and getting local people to tell their stories and to come together to hear those stories,” he said.

“People do have important things to say. On the surface what can be an ordinary object in somebody’s life can often hold hidden narratives. That binds us together.”

One of the storied items will be a vintage guitar originally crafted by a New York-based German-Jewish instrument maker in 1899 restored by local Neil Adam.

Other items include a mortar and pestle, a teddy bear rescued from a burning property, and a Chinese inkpot with connection to Creswick’s Gold Rush.

The items as well as local artists’ interpretations of them and their associated stories will be on display between 1pm and 5pm on Saturday 26 August as well as from 11am to 3pm the following day.

Drylie said the main event on the Saturday at 7pm will bring the show’s different elements together.

“There’ll be a mixture of a few shortened interviews we’ve recorded with the people bringing their objects,” he said.

“There’ll also be a Q&A with some of the people involved with the project.

“It’s a combination of the different elements in terms of the community, artists, and people being interviewed.”

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own object of sentiment and to share their own stories.

Tickets for the exhibition and main event range between $10 and $25 and can be booked at bit.ly/458JdzH.