Noongar actor Maitland Schnaars reflects on the past year as being both rewarding and humbling, after stepping into his latest role as Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company artistic director.
“I didn’t know how much respect and support I had, both within the arts and the Indigenous community,” Schnaars admits.
“If you’d said to me six months before I started as artistic director, ‘Maitland do you want to be artistic director of Yirra Yaakin?’ the answer would have been absolutely ‘no’. I wasn’t 100 per cent sure whether I wanted the job or not until I actually put the application in. Once I put in my application, then it felt right. I felt like this is what I’m meant to be, and this is what I’m meant to be doing, right here and right now.
“I love the company. I love what it represents and what it can do because people talk about reconciliation within the arts and only Yirra Yaakin can do that reconciliation. We can bring the two worlds together better than any non-Indigenous company. Working for Yirra Yaakin, there’s an extra load placed on you … we have to walk that fine line between the two worlds.”
Regarding himself as the current caretaker of the Subiaco Arts Centre-based company, meaning “Stand Tall” in Noongar language, Yirra Yaakin last year celebrated 30 years of telling stories that connect to mob, while also connecting to the broader non-Indigenous community.
Schnaars likens the balance to standing on a waterbed, where the only way to remain standing is to constantly shift your weight.
“We have to tell our stories, to give truth to our stories, our people, our mob, but also non-Indigenous people expect us to help educate them on us and our view and our world as well,” Yokine resident Schnaars shares.
“We’re in this position where we can tell stories which are specifically related to being Aboriginal, but we can also tell stories which are related to everyone, like Brothers Wreck, which is exploring suicide. Suicide is an issue across all cultures, all society, irrespective of your race or religion. It’s a universal thing, but we’re looking at it through our eyes, through Aboriginal eyes.”
Written by Jada Alberts, born and raised on their grandfather’s Larrakia country in Darwin, Brothers Wreck begins with 21-year-old Aboriginal man Ruben waking one hot Darwin morning to find his cousin has taken their own life, the family faced with holding itself together in the aftermath.
WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate Schnaars is father to triplets who have all also studied Aboriginal Theatre at WAAPA, and it was during his daughter Cezera Critti-Schnaars’ time on campus where he was introduced to the play.
“It was just a workshop presentation with really quite new young actors, but I could see the potential and power in that script,” he says.
“The theme of suicide is a personal issue for me. The best friend I ever had hung himself on his 30th and in another life, I deliberately overdosed three times. That was before the kids were born and I’m still here. So that issue of suicide is quite a personal issue. It really hit home.
“It’s a beautiful piece of writing, but what I also like about it, it actually does finish on hope. I like pieces that delve into darkness and heaviness, as this piece does, but there’s a lot of humour. We have a lot of humour in our stories, Aboriginal people, blackfellas, and the piece is about life and choosing to live. It’s about dealing with grief, trauma, and then processing it and coming out the other side.”
The start of the Brothers Wreck season runs during NAIDOC week, with the cast of five — Tyren Maclou, Della Rae Morrison, Mark Nannup, Jessie Ward and Rubeun Yorkshire — currently in rehearsals, ending each day with Schnaars guiding them through meditation and relaxation exercises to prevent taking the play home with them, the director citing process as key to the actors’ welfare.
“The heavier the piece is, the better the process needs to be,” he states.
“It’s just being considerate of everyone’s mental and physical health. If you create a really strong connection and bond with the actors, they inherently take that onto stage, and it will come out in the performance.”
Schnaars’ own performances over the years have ranged from a national tour in Bell Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors to Yirra Yaakin seasons of King Hit, Conversations with the Dead, Panawathi Girl and Dating Black.
“The highlight, not just with Yirra Yaakin, but with anything I’ve done, was Hecate. To me, that’s not just an iconic piece of Aboriginal theatre, it’s an iconic piece of Australian theatre that was groundbreaking. It’s one of those once in a lifetime shows you get to do,” he says.
Schnaars performed in Hecate’s 2020 season alongside Critti-Schnaars as she made her award-winning professional theatre debut.
“That was a special experience because when I started acting, I was 36 years old with three-year-old triplets,” he explains.
“I copped a lot of flak because who at that age, with triplets, goes and starts acting? So having Cezera as part of that production, it was like ‘see guys, I wasn’t having a midlife crisis. I wasn’t running off from my responsibilities.’ My kids actually gave me the courage to chase my dreams.”
Brothers Wreck is at Subiaco Arts Centre July 5 to 20. Tickets at yirrayaakin.com.au.
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