Jamaican-born, Melbourne-based actor Zahra Newman comes across as one very energetic young lady. At 24, she is just two years out of drama school and is already pegged as one of Australia’s rising acting talents. She has scored multiple roles in independent and mainstage productions, such as for Melbourne Theatre Company where she last year worked alongside theatre greats Geoffrey Rush and director Robyn Nevin. Not one to take success for granted, Zahra appreciates that an acting career is an uphill battle and not for the faint-hearted.

Zahra Newman rates surviving drama school as one of her greatest achievements and hopes to also count her next show, Random, as a big win. Written by British-Jamaican playwright Debbie Tucker Green, Random will show at the Brisbane Powerhouse from February 10–15 as part of the World Theatre Festival. It is a one-woman play featuring six characters, which means there’s literally no one for Zahra to hide behind on stage other than her split selves.

Zahra expects the role to be one of her greatest career challenges to date, so it’s fortunate, then, that the words of wisdom she lives by are: “It’s not supposed to be easy”. This attitude will help her carry the entire play, her first one-woman show. “If it’s hard, if it’s difficult or a challenge and you’re scared of it, then thank God you’re scared by something, thank God you’re not bored,” Zahra believes. “It’s very easy to let fear determine your pathway, but go with it. Admit, yes I’m scared, now let’s keep going.”

She scored the role thanks to Australian director Leticia Caceres who saw the play in London last year. At the time, Leticia was working with leading theatre companies in the UK after winning a British Council Realise Your Dream Award. Zahra recalls, “While in London Leticia contacted me and said, ‘I’ve found this play. It’s amazing. We have to do it. You’re the only person I know who can do it’.”

Zahra was the right fit, not only because of her savvy acting talent, but also because, like the writer, she speaks Creole as her native tongue. Zahra migrated from Jamaica to Brisbane in 2000 at age 14. After high school, she studied drama at University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba before transferring to the Victorian College of Arts for her final year. “I guess I don’t know many other Jamaican actors walking around Australia,” Zahra laughs. “I haven’t met any Jamaican actors at all and I’ve been here for 10 years. Whereas half of London is Jamaican!”

Zahra connected with Debbie Tucker Green’s script from the first reading. “She’s written the play using Creole and I’d never really read a contemporary Western play with those influences in it so for me it was great. I thought: ‘Wow, people can watch this and they don’t have to be Caribbean or Jamaican; they can still appreciate it and understand it.’ … Also, the way she’s written it is very interesting. It’s almost like a beat poem. There’s quite a good rhythm to it.”

The musical element and splashes of humour help soften the play’s tragic content, which in a sharp 50 minutes follows a day in the life of a black family who are shocked to hear their teenage son has died in a random knife attack.

First produced in London in 2008, Random has received rave reviews for its fresh take on family grief and racial issues. The UK’s The Independent noted: “Debbie Tucker Green has a poet’s feel for rhythm, a keen ear for urban patois, and the knack of telling a story elliptically, with vivid flecks of detail.”

While the opportunity to act in Random landed directly in her lap, Zahra knows that the offer was an exception rather than the rule. If she were to give young actors advice she tries to live by it would be to be proactive. “I’d say be prepared to be hit really hard. There’s a lot of disappointment that goes with this career choice. Oh, I sound so bleak,” she laughs. “But you do have to mentally prepare and know what you want to do and have forward momentum because it’s only the very few lucky people who actually have people saying, ‘I want you for this’. It doesn’t really happen so you have to have a sense of turning the wheel yourself. Also you have to be willing to not just be an actor who is given a script but to be involved in every aspect of making theatre and the development of new works.”

Zahra says her greatest challenge is the stop-start nature of the industry where an intensive two-month role may be followed by six weeks of down time. To remain motivated, Zahra surrounds herself with work. “And living in Melbourne has a lot to do with staying motivated for me. There are so many things happening here all the time in different artistic forms … So I stay involved and I stay active in the community whether I’m involved in work or not.” With friends, Zahra will find exciting works and stage them in independent spaces.

She knew she wanted to be an actor when she was 16. “Before then I was going to be a lawyer because I thought it was a smart decision that made sense. You go, you do law, you get a job and you make money. But then I realised that I didn’t want to spend my life doing something that was comfortable but that I would never be happy in.” Zahra credits her move to Australia for giving her the opportunity to choose acting as a professional career. “I wouldn’t have been able to be an actor in Jamaica; it just wouldn’t have happened.”

Interview by Frances Frangenheim

Let’s face it, some days can be rough. From time to time, everyone has one of those days when it seems as though the entire universe is working against them. If you have had one of those days when the news is miserable, and you missed the bus and had to walk home in the rain, there is a place that will make you smile – 1,000 Awesome Things. Whether you have thought about it or not, reading this blog will help you realise that several awesome things actually happen every day – from being able to open a jar that no one else could, to pulling up at your destination just as the song on the radio finishes. After going through a turbulent time in his life, Neil Pasricha started a little blog he thought only his mother would ever read. As Neil attempted to bring a little joy to his life each day, word of his awesome site quickly spread and before he knew it, Neil was accepting an award for ‘Best Blog of the Year’ and watching his blog get transformed into The Book of Awesome.

We have all been there – having to share toys with our younger siblings, having to eat at least one morsel of greenery for dinner to avoid a long and tiresome lecture about why vegetables are healthy, and having to spend time in the designated naughty area, contemplating why it is wrong to use our fists to settle an argument. From a young age we are taught the skills of dispute resolution, but beyond sharing Barbie dolls and action figures, there are some situations that call for an expert negotiator. William Ury is the author of several books, including Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. From family feuds to legal battles and the conflict in the Middle East, William has bought harmony to several pockets of the globe. His TED talk The Walk from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’ demonstrates how conflict, such as the one in the Middle East, could be solved if the parties would simply take a walk together.

As a young boy in Coffs Harbour, Adam Ferguson daydreamed about being a spy. These days he works as an award-winning photojournalist so some might say his childhood dream transpired. Adam, 32, jokes he has a few things in common with secret agents: he receives an email with a mission and, if he accepts, he gets on a plane and lands in a foreign country (albeit armed with cameras rather than guns), embarks on making new contacts and hunts for the story. It’s James Bond without the martinis and pretty girls. Gags aside, Adam’s the first to admit there is nothing romantic about a career in photojournalism, especially in conflict situations. Flick through his web portfolio (www.adamfergusonphoto.com) and you’ll see how reality bites: heroin slums in India, suicide bombings in Afghanistan, and illegal dwellings in Pakistan. Adam says it’s a lonely job and a fickle industry but his passion for storytelling gets him through. (more…)

To those born with an innate sense of wanderlust, the experience of waking up in an unfamiliar place is a pure delight. But there are places that, despite their unfamiliarity, feature design so thoughtful, so intuitive, so bespoke that you can’t help but feel right at home. They are fleeting abodes that offer you a unique experience that at once surprises and comforts you, and reveals a charming side of your travel destination you never knew existed. For a growing global community of astute travellers, this is the Design Hotels experience. With a shrewdly curated stable of just over 190 hotels across the world, German founder of Design Hotels Claus Sendlinger and his heralded hoteliers are on an interminable quest to redefine the boutique travel experience. (more…)

The morning sunlight gently caresses your arms as you wander through the marketplace, your senses piqued by the melange of scents. Snippets of jovial Spanish whirl around you, as a rosy-cheeked old man with eyes that sparkle amiably coaxes you into sampling one of his organic peaches – freshly picked yesterday, he affirms with a wink. You find it hard to resist the golden hues of the plump fruit, and as your teeth break the tender skin, a rush of flavour fills your mouth and ignites your senses. The juice dribbles down your chin, your hands are gloriously sticky – and you are in heaven. Small but joyous moments like these compose some of the greatest delights of travel. But very rarely do you find a guide book to such experiences. After a stint living the high-flying lifestyle as a travel writer for Lonely Planet, Martin Hughes realised that it was the ‘slower’ experiences of travel that he treasured most. Inspired, he envisaged the concept for The Slow Guides – a series of travel guides that celebrates the local, natural, traditional and sensory experiences of a city. (more…)

If you love to dance in the dark because you think no one is watching, think again. Brisbane choreographer Claire Marshall DJed the upstairs decks for three years at favourite Fortitude Valley haunt, Ric’s Bar, and there she observed plenty of punters as they danced the night away. This material in part inspired her sold-out show, Hey Scenester, in January and its latest version, Slowdive, showing at Brisbane Powerhouse from December 3–11. With Slowdive, Claire is reliving the old-school grit and grunge of Fortitude Valley’s indie club scene and inviting audiences to join in too. Her vision is to push the boundaries of traditional theatre to blur the line between stage and seating, performer and punter. (more…)

Image via Apolis Activism.

While the act of telling a story simply involves recounting a series of events, those gifted at the art of storytelling have the innate ability to bring colour and emotion to tales from far-away lands. By bringing stories to life, gifted storytellers can make audiences gasp, laugh and cry. Armed with the ability to tell a good story as well as a film degree, Jason Russell found his career steering down the path of non-fiction storytelling after a trip to Africa. Well aware of the power of film, Jason made Africa his second home and co-founded Invisible Children – an organisation that makes documentaries to share the stories of war-affected children living in east Africa with the rest of the world. Through the production and touring of these films, Invisible Children has built a large base of supporters and inspired thousands of people to help. The support generated by the films is used to implement programs to educate children and run micro-finance initiatives.

When a Sunday-school teacher explained to a wide-eyed young girl that an important task lay ahead in her future, an innovative and exciting seed of change was planted. Fast forward to 2010, the girl has grown up, and has actively made waves of positive change to aid the world’s poor. As one of the founders of Kiva, Jessica Jackley realised that microfinance and savvy economic models could be harnessed to empower people in poverty. An innovative and passionate thinker, Jessica dreamed of a world where everyday individuals in the developed world could lend small amounts of money to poor entrepreneurs. This vision played a major part in the development of Kiva, which simultaneously alleviates poverty and creates real, human connections through social entrepreneurship. Jessica believes that people are inherently generous and eager to help, and she continually strives to channel goodwill into realistic change.

A photograph achieves what words struggle so hard to do – to eloquently convey a feeling or emotion to the audience within a matter of seconds. While the advent of photography presented a new world of opportunity, capturing the true human spirit on film – and not just a group of people being forced to smile – is not an easy task. Award-winning, Sydney-based photographer Stephen Dupont has travelled to some of the world’s most dangerous regions to provide a rare insight into communities that are at risk of disappearing from the world map. Stephen’s collections document the human condition of those trapped in a range of horrible circumstances, from slum dwellers in Mumbai to members of the violent “Raskols” gang in Papua New Guinea. As well as capturing hardship, Stephen’s photographs also pay homage to the dignity of his subjects. The poignancy of the images communicates a message no amount of well-crafted prose ever could.

INTERVIEW By FRANCES FRANGENHEIM

If you’ve been on the hunt for a smooth set of men’s shoes recently you may have noticed a new Australian boutique label slipping quietly onto the shelves. Wrism (www.wrism.com) entered the competitive footwear market without fanfare in early September, after 18 months in the making. It was a big moment for Brisbane boy, Matt Green, 28, but there were no cannons shooting confetti for this brand. Instead the modest entrepreneur (he isn’t comfortable with the ‘designer’ tag) prefers his range to speak for itself. And it is. 
Matt is thrilled to be hearing all the right noises (oohs and aahs) emanating from stockists’ boutiques nationwide, including local stockist Angus Black in Fortitude Valley. (more…)

INTERVIEW By MIKKI BRAMMER

There’s a famous scene in Busby Berkeley’s 1933 film Footlight Parade, where, during the musical number ‘By a Waterfall’, a bevy of svelte beauties form a human waterfall, diving and sliding gleefully into the water and frolicking in kaleidoscopic unison. The swimsuits of these water-loving nymphs are intricate creations, with their geometric cutouts and glittering diamond-encrusted surfaces – a far cry from the frumpy bathing costumes of the era. It was this whimsical scene that provided the inspiration for Seventh Wonderland designer Bonnie Coumbe when creating the label’s current swimwear collection. Such distinct, creative silhouettes, paired with a classic European aesthetic, are what have helped Seventh Wonderland (sold nationally at David Jones) rapidly become a cult favourite amongst the bathing beauties of the world. (more…)

INTERVIEW By MIKKI BRAMMER

Mark Twain once said that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness”. In other words, it’s difficult to travel the globe and experience new cultures without developing a certain compassion for our fellow citizens of the world. Californians Shea and Raan Parton had the great fortune of being born to parents with the foresight to expose their sons to such worldly experiences. Through travel, they allowed the young boys to embody the true essence of the word apolis, meaning ‘global citizen’. Now aged 26 and 28, Shea and Raan, along with their friend Shea Foley, 25, are applying their childhood lessons to the world of fashion. Their menswear label, Apolis Activism, collaborates with artisans in Third World countries to create dapper gentlemen’s garb that bridges the gap between commerce and sustainable development. Collaborating with non-profit organisations such as charity: water, Invisible Children and CITTA International, as well as apparel purveyors including Filson, Katin, Rapha and Patagonia, Apolis Activisim is proving that style and social conscience really can live in harmony. (more…)

INTERVIEW By FRANCES FRANGENHEIM

Nigerian afrobeat master Femi Kuti and his eclectic band Positive Force are set to visit Australian shores for the fourth time, taking to the Brisbane Powerhouse stage for one show only on November 23. If their performance follows their live-gigging reputation, expect it to be an exuberant, dramatic and sweaty affair. Femi formed Positive Force in the mid-80s as a 17-piece band and, while the musicians have changed over the years, the message is still as resounding politically as it is musically. Where fans fall for Femi’s energetic blend of funk, soul and jazz, they also accept that at every opportunity his lyrics will fight for a better Nigeria and Africa, free of corruption and injustice. Needless to say, it’s a long road but one that Femi has the energy and passion to walk. (more…)

While we are yet to discover the meaning of life, it could be fair to say that finding happiness is high on everyone’s bucket list. After discovering she could fill every minute of her life with happiness by simply not believing her own negative thoughts, Byron Katie has devoted her life to helping others eliminate their own personal suffering. To achieve this, Byron has created The Work– a series of steps people can take to identify and question the thoughts that can often be the source of great anguish. By doing this, she has helped people all over the world to turn their negative perceptions and beliefs into practical and positive thoughts. Byron recently shared her wisdom as part of the Quest for Success series of speeches.

Bombay-based Rabia Gupta is a remarkable woman. Regarded as a pioneer of India’s graphic design industry, in the past 20 years of her career she has scooped awards and accolades for her honest, relevant and memorable visual solutions to her country’s design puzzles. While India’s graphic design industry may be only 15 years in the making, what it lacks in history and development it makes up in colour, texture and adventure. With 22 different languages as well as diverse cultures, traditions and values to consider, there is never a dull moment for a conscientious graphic designer in India. The task of educating clients about the value of design is a challenging one. But Rabia hasn’t lost any of her energy or passion for the immense task at hand. She will share her musings on India’s future at OPTIMISM: Icograda Design Week Brisbane in October, hosted by the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) and the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda). (more…)

Few people choose to live in poverty. And those who have to still possess the same capacity for imagination, creativity, innovation and dreaming as those of us who have been dealt a more fortunate hand in life. For Indian social entrepreneur Bunker Roy, the injustice of seeing such people being overlooked and disregarded in society incited great anger within. Thirty years ago, he eschewed the privileged life that his family had planned for him and went to live in a village to experience the life of the poor. In doing so, he discovered people of extraordinary wisdom and talent, who were just waiting for the opportunity to help themselves out of poverty. Inspired, he founded the Barefoot College – an NGO that aims to solve problems in rural communities by equipping its people with the skills and knowledge to make them self-sufficient and sustainable. Named as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Bunker will soon share his experiences in a free public talk on October 5 as part of Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific. (more…)

How is it that the mere movement of dance, when executed with passion and precision, can take our breath away, make our heart swell with emotion, and bring the unexpected sting of tears to our eyes? It can sweep us away into a world where our expectations are turned upside down, as a story without words unfolds before our eyes. It is this silent language that iconic Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy has used to redefine Australian contemporary dance. With his muse, creative associate and beloved wife, Janet Vernon, by his side, Graeme has used dance to tell some of world’s most compelling stories – from his 30 years as artistic director of Sydney Dance Company, to his turn as director and choreographer of Opera Queensland’s interpretation of Verdi’s heartwrenching work, Aida. (more…)

Brisbane restaurateur Christina Hatzipetrou was born into a Greek family of business owners who ran take-away joints and fruit shops. That’s why, for Christina, hard work isn’t anything out of the ordinary and it’s natural to think entrepreneurially and be your own boss. Fortitude Valley revellers will fondly recall Christina’s first venture at age 26, Main Squeeze, which launched in the early ‘noughties’ and gained something akin to cult status as a reliably happening bar by night and a wholesome and cruisy cafe by day. Yo Mama cafe in New Farm followed in 2007 and – after helping launch and run the quirky Desmond and Molly Jones cafe at Woolloongabba in 2009 – Christina started Flamingo Cafe with fellow foodie and high-school buddy, Annette Gillespie (previously the owner of Cantina, West End), in March this year. At 36 and after 10 years in the industry, Christina reckons Flamingo is her sweetest venture yet. (more…)

A world leader in design innovation, Paul Bennett is an influential proponent of socially significant business and the importance of building a strong global creative economy. As managing partner and chief creative officer for global design consultancy IDEO, Paul dreams of encouraging the small (the individual) to take part in the process of facilitating the big (a system, a country, an organisation). A firm believer that small details do matter, he strives to create branding programs that foster a cohesive relationship between bright vision and teamwork. When planning an ideas strategy, Paul continuously refers back to the human-centred design-led innovation, believing that good design can have a fundamentally positive effect on the world. Paul brings his design expertise and innovation to Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific, to empower creative thinkers with tools to partake in the future of sustainable food-delivery solutions. You can register to attend his free public talk here.