Noëlle in Newcastle

Mostly I’m deep in thistles, chasing themes through archives. But I was in Newcastle for 3 weeks in May/June this year, thanks to a residency at the Lock-Up Cultural Centre. Dark and stormy nights alone in the old jail had their challenges, but that aside, I had a great time, a creatively productive time. I walked miles with my camera and notebook—and totally fell in love with Newcastle. I’m a sucker for port cities and those industrial powerhouses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries now doing the hard slog to reinvent themselves.

Newcastle, June 2011

I was in Newcastle to work on a jazz-infused collection of poems, monologues and short pieces about language in a digital age called Hello the Fine Stranger.

And—as is often the case with residencies—I got the idea for, and began, a new project: Newcastle Florilegium. It’s too early to say exactly what form/s this work might take, but it involves the city’s weeds and what I’m calling ‘folkscience.’ 

Some Newcastle weeds

As part of the residency I ran a workshop on writing the monologue for the Hunter Writers’ Centre, and, piggy-backing on the truly fantastic (in every sense of that word) exhibition Happily Ever After, I did an in-progress presentation of my 50-minute monologue/performance essay Good With Maps at the Lock-Up.

Women Playwrights' Solutions Roundtable

While Hilary was sorting the World's Best Photograph (we are all jealous!) and Ned was Blitzing 'em at Byron, Cath and Verity were engaged in the Women Playwrights' Solutions Roundtable, held on August 12 at the kindly-donated Richard Wherrett Room at the Sydney Theatre. It was a fierce, strong, passionate day with 30 fierce, strong passionate people, about half of them women playwrights from all around the country representing the rest of their constituency with flair, articulate intelligence and the occasional hard stare.

We are hopeful that the conversation begun on Friday, particularly the on-the-ground one between activist playwrights, will in time translate to concrete initiatives. (These are being steered at this stage through the AWOL group of women playwrights - if you want to be a part of it talk to almost any female playwright in town and she'll be able to direct you to them).

In the meantime, the very fact of having the conversation at all, with the goodwill and effort involved on the part of all present, playwrights, company reps and observers alike feels like a step forward.

Look at me!

HILARY SAYS: Here is my new headshot. I think it's the best one I've ever had, to be honest. And it's the kind I can keep using indefinitely, there'll be no worrying about how I'm still using that old photo from twenty-five years ago.

Apart from being relieved to have finally had a good photo taken, I'm ready to talk about a play I've been working on for several years which is about to come to life on stage: 'The White Divers of Broome'.

Commissioned by Black Swan State Theatre Company in Western Australia, it's inspired by an incident that occurred in 1912. The White Australia Policy had bleached the country, all except for one remaining pocket of 'coloured' labour: the pearling industry in Broome. The Government demanded that a group of English divers be brought out to replace the mostly Asian workers. But this posed a huge threat to the pearling masters: white men meant higher wages, better rations, medical insurance, the threat of union action - and accountable deaths. When an Asian diver died, as did 10% every season, "they just hose out the suit and put another bloke in it", no questions asked. The Englishmen's arrival also threatened the Asian workers, who had come from impoverished villages to make a living here. If the White Experiment succeeded, they'd be deported.

If you want to know what happens next, you'll have to see the play (or read John Bailey's excellent historical account, 'The White Divers of Broome'): but suffice to say there is a circling of the wagons and a realignment of allegiances, resulting in some very unlikely bedfellows, as Broome unites to expel the unwitting invaders.

Watch this space for information on the upcoming production...

Brain Food in Byron Bay

 I have just spent five glorious, stimulating days at the Byron Bay Writers Festival. It was so stimulating it's taken me a week to get over it. I began with a Playwrighting Workshop where the oldest participant was in her 80's and the youngest hadn't quite made it home from Splendour. Having spent a lifetime teaching kids Playwrighting this workshop was quite a revelation. For a start no-one looked at me with bored seen-it-all teenage eyes. What struck me was how much fun writing plays can be. How much freedom it gives the writer. I encouraged them to write a short play and send it to one of the many short play festivals.
Next stop was a panel for about 200 schoolkids. I was the Chairman (person).  I quite like the sound of "Chairman Ned" but no-one used it. The panelists were Joanna Murray Smith, Louis Nowra and Cory Taylor. The  first two are well known Playwrights and Cory has just had a book published. We discussed the nature of writing for Page, Stage and Screen. It was pretty scary for me as I'd never been a Chair before and I had really smart people on my panel. And I had to keep the discussion moving along and pretend I knew what they were all talking about. It was going pretty well until rows of kids started leaving at regular intervals. We'd were in the middle of passionately debating the virtues of particular writing forms when a row of kids upped and offed. And then another. And another. Talk about losing your audience. Then it clicked. We had the 1.30pm - 2.15pm. Bus time. Great. We struggled on and I'm sure the kids who remained found it interesting.
My next Chairing experience was way more successful. I was so paranoid about the Schools one I sat up all night preparing questions and clever things to say about my panel. We were discussing "The Word in Physical Space". We were in a Big Tent and there were hundreds of people there. If I said I was nervous I wouldn't be lying. Bunches of kids walking out to get buses was one thing. Hundreds of adults walking out because they were bored shitless was quite another. I needn't have worried. Joanna (again)  and Louis (again) were joined by Brendan Cowell. Quite a combo. Brendan had the audience in the palm of his hand and sparks (good ones) flew. It was stimulating and informative at the same time. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was quite a coup to make that topic fun and even funny.
My final panel was Joanna (again - a hat trick) David Williamson and Greg Haddrick (Underbelly and Cloudstreet). "Portraying Passion on Stage and Screen"was the topic. And I had the mother of all hangovers having enjoyed Paul Kelly's concert way too much. But...it was awesome. It kicked arse. And I was the most relieved Chairman on the planet.
What struck me about the whole experience was just how interested people are in writing for the theatre. And how interested people are in writing in general. And how many incredible minds there are out there. And in these odd, rather dark times there is hope that these voices will be heard.
Ned