The thrill of the stage and storytelling remained with Bignell throughout her childhood, and she went on to study a double major in performance studies\u00a0(now theatre arts<\/a>) and journalism<\/a> at Curtin.<\/p>\n \u201cI had wanted to study straight acting, but my dad said no. He didn\u2019t want me to be an \u2018unemployed actor and starving\u2019 \u2013 which actually is not true for actors \u2013 but in hindsight it was the best advice he could have ever given me because it meant I was able to do multiple things.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s really important for the environment we\u2019re in now. Traditionally you had one role and you stuck to it, whereas now people are skilled in multiple areas but can also have specialisations.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating from Curtin in 2008, Bignell moved to the East Coast and built a successful career as a producer, journalist, actor, marketer and writer. But she never forgot her country roots, and in 2017 she co-founded media company, Cockatoo Co. Lab<\/a>, to help share the stories of underrepresented communities, particularly those from regional Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cMy business partner, Dr Marius Foley, and I came together over a shared interest in human-centred design and audience-led content creation. We wanted to genuinely showcase untapped talent and different voices authentically from the ground up,\u201d Bignell explains.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found regional people were an audience that had a lot of opportunity to be \u2018elevated\u2019 in terms of creative talent and having their voices heard.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the time, city organisations go into the country to speak on behalf of country people, whereas we\u2019re really interested in country people telling their own stories, to help break down misconceptions and stereotypes about country Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n Cockatoo Co. Lab is achieving these aims through a number of projects, such as Rural Room.<\/a> Described as a \u2018virtual porch\u2019, Rural Room is a co-creative online space where people meet and share their stories about living in the country, and connect with like-minded creatives. Since it launched in January 2018, its Facebook community has grown to nearly 60,000 strong.<\/p>\n \u201cIt showed there was a real appetite from people to see more authentic stories from regional Australia,\u201d Bignell says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get so many incredible stories from all over, from people who live 18 hours north of Brisbane, to people who live on sheep stations in the middle of Australia. They bring a different energy to what people expect from characters living in those spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also enabled people to understand that everyone, regardless of whether they\u2019re from the city or the bush, has a sense of humanity that is shared. For example, loneliness is experienced in places that are isolated, but it\u2019s also experienced in the concrete jungle as well, so we\u2019re trying to bridge that gap between city and country by bringing people together over shared issues.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also wanted to show that it is really contemporary in the country \u2013 people are using the internet out here, not carrier pigeons!\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Bignell says it\u2019s thanks to the internet and new media that more diverse stories are being heard and shared around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cDigital is an area we\u2019re very interested in [at Cockatoo Co. Lab] because we can see how it has democratised audiences. So, people who wouldn\u2019t usually have had the chance to express their views now have direct access to speak out.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see digital as an opportunity to listen to the audience and provide new content and stories for emerging audiences that haven\u2019t been serviced before.\u201d<\/p>\n The thoughts, themes and perspectives explored by Rural Room\u2019s digital community feed into Cockatoo Co. Lab\u2019s current project, Rain Dance<\/em>, a hybrid story about two female shearers, which Bignell originally wrote in a scriptwriting unit at Curtin.<\/p>\n \u201cRain Dance<\/em> is a novel example of a multi-media film project that is developed collaboratively with a digital audience. The\u00a0Rural Room\u00a0community brings a critical eye to its development and they do not tolerate regional stereotypes \u2013 they insist on genuine situations and an authentic representation of the diversity of people that populate the regions.”<\/p>\n For instance, local people from Kojonup play characters in the film and bring their own personality and perspective to each role.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re filming Rain Dance<\/em> back in Kojonup because I really wanted to show that talent exists in these parts of the world. I am also bit like a dog with a bone \u2013 even as a child I did always think I wanted to come back to Kojonup and do something incredible with my community.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Bignell](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Bec-Bignell-Rain-Dance-792x420.jpg\")
![\"Bec](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Bec-Bignell-Rain-Dance2-792x420.jpg\")
![\"Ainslie](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/600-Bottles-1-1-792x420.jpg\")