Sticks and Stones: Telia Nevile

Thanks! Writing an epic poem was the most ludicrously ambitious thing I could think of doing and it was terrifying, but hugely rewarding. Earlier this year I had a critically-acclaimed season at the 2016 Adelaide Fringe, and I’ll be performing Poet Vs Pageant next at the 2017 Castlemaine Festival. After that, I’m hoping to take the show to Canada – they have a wonderful poetry and story-telling tradition there and I can’t wait to see what they think.

I’m expecting a no-holds-barred, knock-down-drag-out clash between two passionate teams who share a love of language, even as they attempt to use it to disembowel each other’s arguments. My fellow performers are intimidatingly talented, so I’m expecting an incredible night that’s funny and invigorating, and that sends you home just itching to wallow in the warm embrace of expression.

While I know that social media has led to the creation of a whole slew of new words and ways of expressing yourself, and that in the hands of some people a 140-character limit leads to inventiveness rather than just brevity, I cringe every time someone uses a word like LOL in conversation. I’ve always loved archaic language, and English’ capacity for finely-tuned expression, and I think that in some cases internet-speak is leading to devolution rather than evolution – to laziness rather than creativity. Of course, I’m also a curmudgeon who uses a hard-copy diary, pines for the days of analogue cameras, and refuses to get rid of my cassette tapes… So, you know, horses for courses.

I’ve bitten a real fear-bullet lately by starting singing lessons as I’m trying to get out of my head a bit more and back into my body. The ideas for my next show are starting to take shape, so I’m also reading and watching everything I can get my hands on in an effort to really expand the playing field I’m working with. It’s exciting and scary – everything new creation should be.