"You Can Feel A Sense Of Control In The Creation"

Mei Saraswati started experimenting with music after high school. No formal training and sheet music illiteracy proved passable hurdles, and among stints in bands Saraswati honed her skills on borrowed Logic and bought Ableton programs.

An audition for WAAPA, in which she created three soundscapes about three different environments, was successful but Saraswati opted not to attend – she cites a certain incompatibility with institutions and her own approach to learning in general. Instead Saraswati continued her own self-taught development.

“I just experimented at home a lot at home by myself, for years I suppose,” Saraswati explains. “I would come home and create my own world and work through problems and express myself, you can feel a sense of control in the creation.”

All this isn’t to say that Saraswati was shying away from stages, there’s been solo shows and stints in bands all the while, and when the time was right for her to voice a desire to put her skills to work in theatre the response was rapid; a mere 24 hours after earnestly but off-handedly telling a friend she’d like to work in dance or theatre, Saraswati was presented with an opportunity.

“I told my friend and she said, ‘You should totally go for it, I’m sure if you put yourself out there someone will want to work with you…’ and then the next day I was walking down the street and I got a text from Ian Sinclair requesting I meet him and Mel Cantwell, the director, about working together – my mind was blown. I only just vocalised this the night before! It felt a little fairy-tale-ish.”

From The Rubble is inspired by stories recorded and written by Walkley Award-winning writer and Foreign Correspondent journalist Sophie McNeill, during her time as a foreign correspondent for SBS’ Dateline. To bring these stories from conflict zones and war torn lives to life on the stage Mel Cantwell assembled a team teeming with diverse talents: Ian Sinclair as Assistant Director, visual artist Fleur Elise Noble, composer Joe Lui, and audiovisual designer Mia Holton. Saraswati joins them not only as a maker of music, but as a performer, making her debut alongside Iranian-Australian performer Tina Torabi and independent theatre-maker/performer Mikala Westall.

The melting pot of media and artistic discipline has proven the perfect place for Saraswati to flourish.

“Going from working as a solo artist and then coming into a group that is super supporting and encouraging and alive, it is just incredible. The way Mel works I find fascinating - I just thought I’d get a script to learn,” Saraswati jokes.