Get a sneak peek of Rough Draft #46: Top Coat by Michelle Law at this free live-streamed event

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Tune in on Fri 28 Aug at 6.30pm AEST for a free live-streamed reading, sampling a play in development: Top Coat by Michelle Law – another offering from our STC Virtual program. 

The 15 minute reading will be streamed live via Facebook. We encourage you to book a free ticket so that we can send you an email reminder with a link to watch the live-stream.

Trang is a first-generation Vietnamese migrant with big dreams to make it as an actress in Australia. In-between auditioning and filming self tapes for dispiriting and discriminatory roles, she’s been working as a manicurist at a nail salon to make ends meet. When she discovers that an exciting role she was in the running for has been white washed, Trang is outraged. If only she were white! Life would be so much easier! That same day, Kate, a woke but problematic young white woman who is stressed out about her high powered job, visits the salon. As Trang dries Kate’s nails, both women wish for a different life and something magical happens… 
 
Trang wakes up inhabiting Kate’s body. She speaks and to her shock, has a Karen-sounding accent. She has fair skin and blue eyes. She checks the work pass in Kate’s purse: Kate Winters, Commissioning Editor of the Drama Department at the country’s multicultural broadcaster. Trang panics. She doesn’t know how to live as a white woman! How will she get back to her own body before Kate’s uncharacteristically anti-racist behaviour attracts suspicion? Then Trang realises that perhaps she can be better at being Kate than Kate can... 
 
Top Coat is a body swap farce about race, representation and privilege in modern Australia. What are the assumptions that we make about people who are different to us? And is life really more exotic on the other side? 

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Rough Drafts support the development of new Australian works by providing artists with an opportunity to experiment and grow their ideas. Writers, directors and theatre makers are given access to a rehearsal space, a paid team of actors or creatives and dramaturgical support. They may use the time and resources to embark on something currently unscripted or they might choose to develop a script that is already complete in draft form. The outcomes vary greatly according to the project.

At the end of the workshop week, we invite you into the development process to have a sneak peek at extracts of the work in progress at the free public showing. These showings are an opportunity for the artists to test their ideas in front of an audience... and it’s a chance for you to learn about how new plays are made.

Presented by the Sydney Theatre Company