Cheryl Penrith OAM is a Wiradjuri elder in her community of Wagga Wagga with deep connections to her family and culture, a passion for fashion, and a newfound love of performing. Currently performing in her second season of Embellishment, a performance project by Voices of Women that celebrates the many diverse stories of womanhood, currently showing at Sydney’s KXT on Broadway, Cheryl told Toasting Aussie Theatre about her emergence into the theatre scene, her performance in the Embellishment lineup, and that it’s okay not to have it all figured out right now.
What role does performing play in your life?
I have been doing Welcome to Country and presentations to conferences for a couple of years now around Wagga. Now I have developed those and I add things about what is happening to me or to the place and sometimes I can tell a bit of a story and I put my own feelings into things – I didn’t do that before. Performing like this is a whole new ball game for me. In a way I think life is a performance – but being called a performer is a new kettle of fish. It’s exciting and has moved me out of my comfort zone. I am doing something that I never thought I would be doing at my age. It has given me a new platform that I never knew I would have as a 60 year old woman.
Tell me about your experience of developing and performing your story as part of Embellishment? Has it evolved over each production?
The Advice segment that we perform started in the Voices of Women Wagga Wagga Storytelling Workshop and I thought through that idea for this show – and it’s changed and become more interactive with other cast members. We have a massive big domestic and family violence problem and lots of times people see what’s on the surface and they are too quick to take on people’s advice, without having a little bit more of a think about things. I want to talk to young women in a way that is not confronting, or judgemental, and they might have a think and it might resonate with them.
Times are changing and we have had a time when women gave each other lots of advice in the past. We have become independent women but we have to go back to caring and nurturing people and letting people know that sometimes the traits that people have are not such a good thing.
What is the one message every person who sees your Embellishment performance should take with them out of the theatre?
You never have to have it all figured out, especially when you’re young. We can spend so much of our energy trying to find the perfect words for our experiences or labels for who we are or trying to emulate the path we think we should be on, but just allowing yourself to live, even without solid answers is okay.
What do you enjoy about the Aussie theatre scene, and what needs to change?
I think we need more performances – and especially more performances out in the regional areas. Over the mountains! The workshops that we have done in Wagga Wagga have generated a lot of interest but we have lots of little towns like Griffith and Tumut that would love workshops and performances – I am really happy that we are going to be doing more workshops in the little towns later this year.
What type of wine would you pair with Embellishment, and why?
It would have to be champagne! It’s a celebration of diversity and a lot of the cultural things that we don’t talk about. These little stories they happen in every culture.
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