This month, we want to hear what’s in our performers’ hearts. A Love Letter To… invites our superstar storytellers to share with us an ode to something that they hold dear, that’s an important part of their story. Maybe it’s birth control or being brave or babka. Maybe it’s something that’s always sparked joy for them, or maybe they’ll share with us a more complex idea, person, or theme that they’ve come to love over the years. One things for sure: you’re not going to want to miss this lovely show.
Our performer line-up:
Team 20s: Caitlin Thai works in Finance and is a strong lover of coffee. She would describe this era of her life as a balancing act between navigating through the chaos and making reluctant but necessary adulting decisions of her twenties.
Team 30s: Kylie Flament is a woman on a mission to make the world a better place through business, or "social enterprise". With the head of a business and the heart of a charity, social enterprise is the middle path that is gaining traction all over the world and Kylie has been a passionate advocate of it for years, including running a sprawling, award-winning social enterprise called Green Connect that employed more than 100 young people and former refugees at any given time to do environmental work. She is a changemaker, storyteller, and a recently separated mum of two. A friend to many, the kind of neighbour you can drop in on unannounced to ask for a cup of tea, a word of advice or a sprig of parsley from the garden, and a woman who can hold her own in a room full of men in suits.
Team 40s: Miriam Hechtman is a writer, producer and poet. She is the founder and creative director of Poetica, a live poetry and music initiative and editor of The Alphabet of Women (Ginninderra Press 2022). She is also the program director of Sydney Jewish Writers Festival. Miriam lives with her husband, two daughters and dog.
Team 50s: Irina Castellano is an authorized foster carer who’s dedicated to providing safe homes for vulnerable children. Her work has been featured in a dozen podcasts, a book, articles, as well as radio interviews like with SBS German Radio and The Meaningful Monday Radio Show. She runs the nationally accredited Foster Carer Programs and Adoption seminars. Along with her husband and three children, Irina has provided a home to over seventy-five children.
Team 60s: Tiang Nee Lim is Malaysian Chinese and came to Sydney in 1972. She is one of 16 children and has qualifications in health, education, Psychology, Business and cooking. In 1991, she was on Minister Chadwick’s advisory committee on CALD Women’s issues. In 1992, she established TAFE’s 1st ELICOS Centre for international students. She is a Grandmother, stand-up comedian, writer and wannabe famous actor.
Team 80s: Dr Anne Ring is a well-rounded social scientist, as a health sociologist with qualifications in psychology and anthropology. At 80, having combined her lifelong love of writing with her burgeoning research into and experience of ageing, she completed her first book: Engaging with Ageing: What matters as we grow older.
Generation Women is an award-winning cross-generational storytelling night founded in New York in 2017, Sydney in 2018, and Melbourne in 2020. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those women, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s, and her 70s+.
Hosted by Mandy Nolan, Produced by Donna Logue, Hopepunk Productions. Created by Georgia Clark.