Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Silence Awareness Existence program / MARCH 2020
Grace De Morgan
Australia
www.gracedemorgan.com
About
Born in Hong Kong, Grace is a Sydney-based writer
and playwright who is interested in exploring faith and
ambivalence through comic drama. She has written for
the Australian Theatre for Young People, The Big Issue,
Canberra Youth Theatre, Channel Ten’s Good News Week,
Junkee, Melbourne Fringe, news.com.au, Penguin Random
House, Playwriting Australia, ABC’s The Roast, SBS Life,
Seizure, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Wheeler Centre,
and VICE. Her non-fiction wine book ‘Everything Happens
For A Riesling’ is available in stores and online.
Mostly Ugly Crying
When I applied for the residency, my hope was to finish a
play about sex robots and start a screenplay about rhythmic
gymnastics. I did neither of these things. At the end of
February, I had wound up my job and had my heart broken.
This meant I came into the March residency with a lot of
grief and heaviness. I had to learn to let go of my soaring
expectations of myself and surrender to the situation. I ended
up finding great solace in being with the other residents,
reading apocalyptic novels, walking in the woods, listening
to Lana Del Ray on repeat, taking saunas, cooking chicken,
meditating badly, and ugly crying. Then COVID happened.
It was brutal and within days I had to return to Australia. It
was surreal to leave the safe bubble we had built at Arteles.
Honestly, I’m still in shock about how it ended and I miss the
other residents and staff more than I can say.