This is the tale of a mean old lavender lady who goes from being a litter-lout to an environmental heroine, and all the plastic affected animals she meets along the way. Jessica Gerger created the theatre show to try to do more about the endless rubbish that she encountered as a volunteer on Kororoit Creek.
As president of The Friends of Kororoit Creek, Jessica was talking at schools, working with children on the creek and with the group on litter education projects. As her passion grew for our creeks and waterways she began looking at ways to draw attention to the impact of plastic in a more entertaining way.
“I’m an actor by trade, so with the help of my director mother Beverly Blankenship, a Brimbank City Council grant and Melbourne Water sponsorship, we wrote and produced a play to bring the plight of our creeks to locals. It’s been a fantastic experience, touring the half-hour show around schools, libraries and festivals over the past two years.”
Jessica and award winning local filmmaker Andrew Robb have made lots of little videos about Mrs Ticklebottom’s encounters with plastic. They also made a pop video ‘Pick It Up’ with a local musician, Peter Head.
“We’d introduced Mrs Ticklebottom to theatre, film and music so it felt like the next step was a children’s book. I adapted the play into book form and teamed up the amazingly talented Huong Truong – activist and local artist. Huong’s gorgeous illustrations brought the character to life in a completely new way.”
Huong and Jessica have chipped away at the project for a year and the book is print ready now.
“We’ve had such so much love for our crowdfunding campaign to get the book published. With a few more donations, we’ll be able to get the book printed and hold a book launch in Sunshine on Saturday 28th March 2020.”
You can follow Mrs Ticklebottom’s progress via facebook.com/MrsTicklebottom
