Currency Press playscripts of Ned Manning's MILO and Hilary Bell's FORTUNE are selling cheap, a mere $2 a copy if you buy in bulk (teachers take note!).
To purchase, please Email Hilary Bell.
FORTUNE
Cold Bath Creek, 1861. 11-year-old Chang is a giant, and the property of a brutal souvenir portrait photographer on the goldfields. Kathleen, an ex-convict, lures Chang from this miserable existence with promises of a better life, but she too exploits him, touring him as a freak. Driven to desperate measures by Kathleen's jealous lover, Duck, Chang is forced to discover his own superior strength. The tale is in counterpoint with the story of Iris, an anglophilic Chinese hotelier, and her Chinese-operatic descent into madness.
· 2 acts
· 3 males
· 2 females
MILO
As Australia moves into a new millennium, two couples in their thirties wrestle with their changing relationships and their relationship with the Land.
Milo, a well-meaning if misguided dreamer, battles to cope with reality whilst his partner Di, a committed social reformer, battles with the conflicting demands of relationship and career. Toby, a fourth generation farmer, struggles with the life in the 21st century whilst his wife, Peg, contemplates her future as a mother and wife.
The play examines the evolving relationship in Australia between the City and the Bush and explodes a few inherent myths.
2 acts
2 males
2 females
Thursday 22 October 2009
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Brand Spanking New + short plays
Vanessa and Verity have both taken part - along with a positive embarrassment of new, established and emerging writers in the New Theatre's Brand Spanking New season of short plays. We met some great people, we thrashed our plays around a bit, we had fun. One of the things that was the most fun was simply the task to write something within a short period of time, to have it cast, produced, seen, enjoyed, to have learned from it and then...to move on.
We can get so stuck in the muddy muddy endless process of writing and rewriting and trying to sell a play over such a long period of time because let's face it, opportunities have shrunk over the last ten years. Well, they've shrunk and expanded. The independent scene is quite wild really with a plethora of work being self-produced, or co-produced with teams of new, young, energetic producers. And it's great - a tussle of striving minds and generosities of spirit and attitude all in the interest of making art. But main-stage opportunities have definitely decreased. There are only a very few playwrights in Australia who might write a play a year, learn from that and write another one the year after. Which is what you have to do to practice and practice and practice your craft.
This isn't meant to be a whinge. It's just meant to be a noting. Nothing can change until the macro situation of theatre companies being forced to rely on box office for such an enormous percentage of their budget changes. And that's a policy struggle and also a societal one, because the majority of the Australian population don't feel it to be a priority.
Until that happens adventurous new work - or work that doesn't rake in a big box office, which means work that is unaccompanied by a brand of some kind whether that is the brand of the actor or the writer - will be discriminated against in favour of work that, while hopefully is excellent, also contributes to the bottom line. (Tho' we know that fortunately there are exceptions to this from time to time...)
In the meantime - in, on and out. It was great!
We can get so stuck in the muddy muddy endless process of writing and rewriting and trying to sell a play over such a long period of time because let's face it, opportunities have shrunk over the last ten years. Well, they've shrunk and expanded. The independent scene is quite wild really with a plethora of work being self-produced, or co-produced with teams of new, young, energetic producers. And it's great - a tussle of striving minds and generosities of spirit and attitude all in the interest of making art. But main-stage opportunities have definitely decreased. There are only a very few playwrights in Australia who might write a play a year, learn from that and write another one the year after. Which is what you have to do to practice and practice and practice your craft.
This isn't meant to be a whinge. It's just meant to be a noting. Nothing can change until the macro situation of theatre companies being forced to rely on box office for such an enormous percentage of their budget changes. And that's a policy struggle and also a societal one, because the majority of the Australian population don't feel it to be a priority.
Until that happens adventurous new work - or work that doesn't rake in a big box office, which means work that is unaccompanied by a brand of some kind whether that is the brand of the actor or the writer - will be discriminated against in favour of work that, while hopefully is excellent, also contributes to the bottom line. (Tho' we know that fortunately there are exceptions to this from time to time...)
In the meantime - in, on and out. It was great!
Friday 9 October 2009
The Seven Needs
In 2007 we wrote 7 short scripts in response to psychologist Abraham Maslow's 'hierarchy of human needs'. The Seven Needs, which was produced by the Griffin Theatre Company as part of their 2007 season, has just been published by Currency Press in the anthology Short Circuit. Find out more here.
Sunday 4 October 2009
The Debate Moves South ...
Here at 7-ON we love hearing about other coalitions and groups of artists 'doing it for themselves'. Check out the Australian Women Directors' Alliance, a recently formed non-profit coalition of professional women directors and theatre makers. There's some interesting, probing and provocative discussion on their blog about the participation and artistic practices of female directors, playwrights and performance-makers—and their under-representation on Melbourne's better-funded stages.
You can contact the AWDA here, or find them on Facebook.
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