Shirley Van Sanden
Get to know Shirley Van Sanden, a longtime Spare Parts Puppet Theatre performer with a very interesting story. Shirley is an actor, writer, director and producer. She is a veteran of many national and international theatrical tours and festivals with various companies including Blue Moose, Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. At the 2004 WA Equity Guild Awards, her play Hidden Dragons (Barking Gecko for PIAF) was nominated for Best New Play and won Best Production, while Shirley took home the Best Actor, Female for her role. Shirley is a proud Platinum member of Actors Equity. We are excited to have her back and are grateful that she took the time to share her unique story with us ahead of The Arrival opening.
Where are you from?
I was born in Penang, Malaysia where we lived till I was 3 then we moved to Singapore where we stayed till I was 10, which is when we made the move to Perth Australia. This is the place where I grew up. This is the place I consider home.
What character do you play in The Arrival?
The Land lady, the Post lady and quite a few puppets.
Do you have an experience to share of when you had to move from a new place?
The White Australia policy had just been lifted when we migrated to Australia. My family is Dutch Burgher from Sri Lanka. My ancestors moved from Holland to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was known in the 1700s and mixed with the local population. Burghers and other Eurasians belong to a distinct but tiny minority group within the Asian countries that were part of various European empires. As English was our first language, that was one less hurdle we had to overcome when we moved to Australia, but there were many cultural differences. Perth in the 1970s was very different from the city today. We had come from Singapore where shops were open pretty much all the time and if you wanted something to eat you could walk out the door and buy something really tasty. Then we came to Perth where curry had sultanas in it, ginger was considered extremely spicy, shops shut promptly at five and nothing was open on Sunday! Even though I spoke English, no one could understand my accent, so I made a huge effort to alter the way I spoke. I did this by watching TV, as there was no YouTube around when I was young. I watched lots of old movies and TV shows; unfortunately, most of them were from the UK so I ended up sounding English. Many of my school friends were British migrants, which did not help my Australian accent either. However, all this did train my ear to listen for differences in sounds that make up different accents, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
How do you keep in contact with family or friends living overseas?
Most of my family have moved to Australia. I now have relatives in the UK through my husband and we communicate mainly by email and occasionally by Skype, phone, social media or hard copy birthday cards, which they still send.
Why did you want to become a performer?
It was just something I had to do. I tried having a non-performing job, I even studied for a ‘sensible’ degree at University, but every time an opportunity to perform came along I would leave the’ sensible’ behind to work as a performer. It’s the only thing that feels right.
Who inspires you?
I am inspired by many different people for different reasons. I am inspired every time I read or watch a story or experience a performance that keeps me completely engaged and transports me from myself.
If I wanted to become a performer what advice would you give to me?
I would advise any aspiring performer to get involved with school plays or other performance projects and to try different aspects of it. Perhaps you will find that you prefer 6 directing, choreographing or writing to actually performing. Then I would advise you to go to a specialist institution/University to learn your craft, get a good agent when you graduate and only continue doing it if there really is nothing else that feels right for you.
The Arrival runs from July 1 – 15, at the Dolphin Theatre, UWA. Performances are 10am and 1pm daily, plus special twilight performances on July 5 and 14 at 6.30pm.
Click here to read more about the show or book tickets.