Click here to read the full Sydney Morning Herald interview (7.12.06) with Griffin Artistic Director Nick Marchand on the 2007 season including the genesis of the 7-Needs For 7-ON project.
"...He says The Seven Needs, a series of 10-minute plays that will be performed throughout the year, came about after a conversation with the playwright Hilary Bell. "She mentioned 7-ON and the ideas behind them as a collective, then happened to mention that they were working on a larger work together," he says.
"It's something I'm always intrigued by. I've worked as a playwright with [others] and there's something really exciting about that opportunity to write collaboratively - to be writing individually but also to have that larger umbrella idea that resolves the disparate parts. When they suggested it, and I saw the playwrights involved, I thought it was a wonderful way to draw on their individual energies."
Saturday 28 April 2007
The first project: 7-Needs For 7-ON
On Wednesday December 6th 2006, Nick Marchand, Artistic Director of the Griffin Theatre, launched the 2007 program. Along with the other exciting new Australian plays was 7-Needs. This project incorporates 7 ten minute pieces scattered throughout the year with a final production that brings all 7 together.
7-ON Playwright Verity Laughton made the following speech to introduce both the plays and the group.
"We’re a group of seven people writing primarily for theatre. We’re all based in NSW. Between us we’ve had more than 147 pieces of writing produced for mainstage drama, television, radio, community theatre, theatre for young people, youth theatre, dance, video, film, puppetry, theatre of image, physical theatre, and musicals; we’ve won more than 30 awards between us, our time in the business adds up to 126 years and our work has been produced in fifteen countries.
So we’re claiming provenance.
We’re a group of very different writers. We don’t think or act or write much like each other. But, in these tough times, we’ve decided to make a commitment to each others’ art and to each others’ careers.We got together towards the end of 2005.
We put together a credo. We have seven points to our credo.
It’d take too long to read it now but there are seven points to it and they are in shorthand as follows:
We want a space in the theatre environment for writer-initiated projects, and we want to place the writer at the centre of that space.
We want – not readings, workshops, script development programs but – productions. Seven of them. At least. On stage.
We want to choose our collaborators.
We claim the risk-taker’s right to fail.
We want diversity – of form, style and subject matter.
And lastly, what people see shapes their vision of what is possible. This is an extraordinary opportunity, and responsibility, for a playwright. We’re claiming it.
7 NEEDS FOR 7 ON is based on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. Maslow was a twentieth century psychologist who believed that basic needs must be met before human beings can evolve. He devised a hierarchy of human needs that are physiological. social and lastly, spiritual. They can be tabulated in a number of ways.
For our purposes we have separated them into seven.We sat around a table at the Old Fitz (we meet every six or so weeks in a different theatre foyer – watch our for a theatre near you!) and pulled small scraps of paper with the following ‘needs’ written on them out of the nearest thing we could find to a hat – namely a rather well-used plastic bag. We then wrote a ten minute piece based on that need – they are food, shelter, sex, safety, belonging, respect, and spirit. We could write what we wanted – believe me, the results are all VERY different.
They are going to be staged one by one throughout 2007, culminating with a final staging of the whole lot together. Come along for the ride!"
7-ON Playwright Verity Laughton made the following speech to introduce both the plays and the group.
"We’re a group of seven people writing primarily for theatre. We’re all based in NSW. Between us we’ve had more than 147 pieces of writing produced for mainstage drama, television, radio, community theatre, theatre for young people, youth theatre, dance, video, film, puppetry, theatre of image, physical theatre, and musicals; we’ve won more than 30 awards between us, our time in the business adds up to 126 years and our work has been produced in fifteen countries.
So we’re claiming provenance.
We’re a group of very different writers. We don’t think or act or write much like each other. But, in these tough times, we’ve decided to make a commitment to each others’ art and to each others’ careers.We got together towards the end of 2005.
We put together a credo. We have seven points to our credo.
It’d take too long to read it now but there are seven points to it and they are in shorthand as follows:
We want a space in the theatre environment for writer-initiated projects, and we want to place the writer at the centre of that space.
We want – not readings, workshops, script development programs but – productions. Seven of them. At least. On stage.
We want to choose our collaborators.
We claim the risk-taker’s right to fail.
We want diversity – of form, style and subject matter.
And lastly, what people see shapes their vision of what is possible. This is an extraordinary opportunity, and responsibility, for a playwright. We’re claiming it.
7 NEEDS FOR 7 ON is based on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. Maslow was a twentieth century psychologist who believed that basic needs must be met before human beings can evolve. He devised a hierarchy of human needs that are physiological. social and lastly, spiritual. They can be tabulated in a number of ways.
For our purposes we have separated them into seven.We sat around a table at the Old Fitz (we meet every six or so weeks in a different theatre foyer – watch our for a theatre near you!) and pulled small scraps of paper with the following ‘needs’ written on them out of the nearest thing we could find to a hat – namely a rather well-used plastic bag. We then wrote a ten minute piece based on that need – they are food, shelter, sex, safety, belonging, respect, and spirit. We could write what we wanted – believe me, the results are all VERY different.
They are going to be staged one by one throughout 2007, culminating with a final staging of the whole lot together. Come along for the ride!"
Our Credo
1.Our commitment is twofold: to ensuring a space for writer-initiated projects; and to placing the writer at the centre of that theatrical process.
2.Nothing beats production.Readings, workshops and script development programs are no substitute. We believe the best way to foster new work, keep writing skills supple, and continue to develop as playwrights, is to see our work translated from page to stage, and before an audience.
3.We are our own gatekeepers.Who decides which plays get produced? Artistic directors, directors, literary managers, company administrators or general managers … never it seems, playwrights. Even in those companies who brand themselves ‘writers’ theatres’ programming decisions are not made by playwrights. We want to put playwrights not only centre-stage, but in the program-decider’s chair.
4.We are our own artistic directors.In an enterprise of risk, where the prime responsibility for success or failure will be sheeted to the writer, playwrights must have the right to choose their own collaborators, that is, directors, designers, actors, musicians.
5.We actively encourage risk, dramatic audacity and creative ambition. While we hope and strive for success, we claim the right to fail. The nature of risk is such that failure stalks it at every turn and keystroke.
6.Theatrical adventure can come in many forms and guises. We value the whole spectrum of playwriting, from traditional storytelling to bracing experimentation. The greater the diversity of styles, forms, and subject matter, the healthier our theatre industry.
7.What people see shapes their vision of what is possible.This is an extraordinary opportunity, and responsibility, for a playwright. It offers the potential to reinvent our art, our industry, and the world we live in. In order to be part of a substantial positive change, we must build audiences; to do so, above all else we must support our artists.
2.Nothing beats production.Readings, workshops and script development programs are no substitute. We believe the best way to foster new work, keep writing skills supple, and continue to develop as playwrights, is to see our work translated from page to stage, and before an audience.
3.We are our own gatekeepers.Who decides which plays get produced? Artistic directors, directors, literary managers, company administrators or general managers … never it seems, playwrights. Even in those companies who brand themselves ‘writers’ theatres’ programming decisions are not made by playwrights. We want to put playwrights not only centre-stage, but in the program-decider’s chair.
4.We are our own artistic directors.In an enterprise of risk, where the prime responsibility for success or failure will be sheeted to the writer, playwrights must have the right to choose their own collaborators, that is, directors, designers, actors, musicians.
5.We actively encourage risk, dramatic audacity and creative ambition. While we hope and strive for success, we claim the right to fail. The nature of risk is such that failure stalks it at every turn and keystroke.
6.Theatrical adventure can come in many forms and guises. We value the whole spectrum of playwriting, from traditional storytelling to bracing experimentation. The greater the diversity of styles, forms, and subject matter, the healthier our theatre industry.
7.What people see shapes their vision of what is possible.This is an extraordinary opportunity, and responsibility, for a playwright. It offers the potential to reinvent our art, our industry, and the world we live in. In order to be part of a substantial positive change, we must build audiences; to do so, above all else we must support our artists.
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