Being a teenager can be scary.
Cathy Petocz knows this all too well.
Her new play as writer-director, The Initiation, is about that fear and throws in a supernatural element to take it further.
Although she's 35, Petocz can still remember the horrors of adolescence.
She wanted to give that fear a metaphorical resonance through a horror story with a Canberra setting: in this case, it's Black Mountain.
She pitched the idea to the artistic director of Canberra Youth Theatre Luke Rogers, who was enthusiastic and supported its development and production.
The Initiation was devised with and will be performed by adolescent actors from Canberra Youth Theatre as part of the company's celebration of its 50th anniversary.
Development began in 2020 and was largely carried out online because of the pandemic lockdown.
In November, 2021, there were two work-in-progress performances. Now the the production is coming to the stage at the Courtyard Studio.
In The Initiation, six teenagers - five female, one male - meet on the streets of Turner before heading, on a double dare, into the twilight bush of Black Mountain, where strange things start happening - time shifts, the atmosphere is strange - and everyone is on edge.
"They don't realise there's a magic, shapeshifting knife that follows them," she says.
Changing its form to have a different meaning to each of the teenagers, that knife will be one of the major causes of the trouble to come.
Petocz's relationship with CYT began when she took part in workshops and shows there in her youth and has continued.
She has had professional development as an emerging artist there and now leads workshops alongside her own writing practice.
Working with Ngunnawal poet Ethan Bell, she says, helped her deal with country in a meaningful and respectful way.
"It's an extraordinary strong presence," Petocz, who lives in Turner near Black Mountain, says.
Zoe Harris, 16, plays Fey, one of the teenagers, in her first CYT production. She's been acting since school, and in 2018 played Jemima in Perform Australia's production of the musical Cats.
"Fey is incredibly overachieving," Harris says. The teenager feels a lot of pressure to get good marks, and to get a good job but she also wants to "be cool" like her friend Rebecca (played by Sylvie Burke).
"When Rebecca says, 'Let's sneak out' she's excited - it's not something she's ever done. She's excited to be the new person she never really saw herself as," Harris says.
But she might come to regret it. Among the other teenagers is her former best friend Chris (Tara Saxena).
Fey's incarnation of the knife is a meat cleaver.
"It can mean cleave to or cleave apart - it's an unsure time in Fey's life," she says.
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The Initiation is on at the Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, on June 15, 17 and 18 at 7.30pm, June 18 at 2pm and June 19 at 5pm. See: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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