Catherine:
I’ve had a furiously creative time working across mediums
this year. I’m in the midst of the 4th draft of a new play. It’s
strange in the sense that it is so big in my mind and yet there really is
nothing to say about it while it is being created. I find if I talk too much
about a work the energy will dissipate and the whole thing will slip through my
fingers …
Alongside that I’ve managed to finally get that promised
website up and going, a far more creative experience than I’d imagined. There
are some blips that I need to fix but I think in earlier 7-ON blogs I’d
mentioned the importance of self-promotion so here ‘tis: https://catherine-zimdahl.squarespace.com
and the blog Truancy and the Creative Impulse.
In other news I’ve written the lyrics to two songs, painted
roughly six paintings, three new assemblages, and completed the first couple of
prototypes of a graphic novella My
Charitable Works. It’s a brutal satire with images built up with collage.
There is also one more secret project and this again is a merging of text and
sculpture. The issue now for me is to choose where best each project should go
and that’s on my new-list-of-things-to-do.
Finally my painting A
Tear Magnified to the Power (as previously mentioned in this blog) was a
Sydney Region Finalist of the Cliftons Asia Pacific Art Prize. Only 10 artworks
from Sydney were chosen and I was delighted to be included as the Award was
open to not only to hubs around Australia but also Hong Kong, Singapore,
Auckland and more.
Ned:
Where
did those six months go? As always I began 2013 full of hope. As always my
optimism was … well … optimistic. I had three writing projects on the boil. A
play. A book. A film. I was reasonably confident about the play and the book
whilst the film was a bit of a fantasy. Guess what? The play fell over. The
book fell over. The film was given some encouragement. Go figure.
We
are used to knockbacks. They are part and parcel of what we do. For some reason
my early year knockbacks really sat me on my arse. For the first time, probably
ever, I really began to question what I was doing. I was lucky though. I had
six supporters who nursed me through the pain. Six 7’s. 7-ON’s. I’m the lucky 7th. Or, more accurately, lucky to be the
7th. I can’t tell you how important being part of 7-ON has been to me staying
alive as a writer.
So …
the film is underway. As underway as a screenplay ever is. If it ever gets made
it’ll probably be in about 2018 and I won’t be as young as I am now. It’s a
weird journey. I’ve always written from the heart but I’m learning how to write
like a mechanic. This bit goes with this bit and that makes this bit work. That
kind of thing. Interesting.
The
play is sitting in the vault wondering what happened to it. It knows it’s the
best play I’ve ever written. It knows it’s got something going for it. It’s
waiting. And so am I. Will I end up producing it and playing the leading role
myself? Hope not. Will it see the light of day? Hope so.
As
for the book. I didn’t realise how much I’d invested in it. It was a centimetre
away from being green-lighted by a big publisher and, even though I pretended
it didn’t, it really hurt when it got knocked back. The good news is it’s back
on the drawing board and I’m gonna have a real good go at it. And I might even
have a publisher on board. It’s a weird and wacky world we inhabit us writers.
While
all this was swirling around I was doing a workshop at the RSL in Bendigo with
some octogenarians when I got a text telling me my adaptation of Women of Troy had been nominated for the
Prix Marulic Competition in Croatia. It’s the Cannes of radio plays and my
piece was the Australian entry. Bizarre? You bet. Apart
from that I’ve written a few articles, done a few auditions and branched out in
the kitchen.
The
real highlight of the first six months of 2013 was, though, teaching some Karen
(Burmese) refugees playwrighting. I travel up to Bendigo (my new favourite
town) every fortnight to teach local and Karen kids. It’s reaffirmed my belief
in the power of playwrighting and I can’t wait till they all hit the MTC stage
with their plays.
Verity:
I’m
finding 2013 an interesting year. I’ve been trying a lot of new things, or
going back to things I did many years ago, but with a new twist.
So …
2013 has seen me finish a fantasy novel for younger readers. The novel came out
of a trip to Morocco earlier this year, and I have promised myself that if it
is published I will go back to that fascinating country and spend more time in
its mediaeval cities, spacey mountains and enduring desert. I also wrote a
children’s audio/video guide for the National Gallery of Victoria’s Monet’s
Garden exhibition, which was a fun gig. As I write this, there is currently a
production of the play of mine that won the Griffin Prize in 2001, Burning, being mounted by the
Mockingbird Theatre Company in Geelong, directed by Chris Baldock and starring
Libby Tanner. And I’m about to start work on a presentation of letters between
‘the people left behind’ in the 1914-18 World War and the Australian Red Cross,
as those from home sought for news of how their loved sons and brothers and
husbands died. I’m shaping this material for the State Library of SA and the SA
Tourism body, and it’s due in late August 2013.
So
it’s a grab-bag of interests really—the visual arts (something of a late-life
passion) alongside a tad of screenwriting; the fun of writing prose (not to be
underestimated—it’s so luxurious!); a new/old show; the ongoing deeply
satisfying group escapade with 7-ON; and something that digs into the people
and history of my home state, which is another area of ongoing interest, as,
frankly, it’s underdone as a subject and there are SO many stories!
Noëlle:
The first 6 months of this year saw a few things that had
been in the pipeline come to fruition. Playlab published Mrs Petrov’s Shoe, and Third
Person premiered at Melbourne’s Union House Theatre. Directed by Tom
Gutteridge the production beautifully and deftly interwove music and text to
realise the essential choral nature of the play.
In April I presented a performance essay How to Eat a Thistle in Newcastle as
part of the 19th Australian Gastronomy Symposium. And on the back of
that, and my long-standing interest in the culture of food and matters culinary
and botanic, I launched a new blog: Eat The Table. Continuing with thistles, my
essay Darwin’s Thistles: A Cautionary
Tale was published (in English and Spanish translation) in ‘Mapping
South’. You can read it here (go to pages 257-267).
On the poetry front, I had a poem in the anthology ‘Women’s
Work’ and 2 poems published in Issue #2 of the UK journal ‘Far Off Places’. On
a slightly less positive note, my chapbook-in-progress, Ryugyong—an impossible opera is proceeding much more slowly than I’d
like …
May I was in Brisbane for the second part of my Arts Queensland/UQ Creative Fellowship. Really enjoying it. Not least because it’s given
me space to develop a very different writing process for the play commission
that’s part of the Fellowship: Scratchland #. (Scratchlands are the blurred, uncertain spaces where city and bush fray into
one another. Jumbled ground, temporary car parks, storage facilities,
unofficial playgrounds, overspill, hideaways, etc. Guerrilla ecologies of weeds
and dubious regulation.) I started my exploration by picking 2 key musical
instruments (bass clarinet and toy piano) and made up a playlist. I then made
22 collages. To each collage I wrote a ‘soundtrack’. Sometimes a monologue,
sometimes a chorus of random voices, a fragment of dialogue, a bit of found
text, sometimes a soundscape or musical echo. I’m still working towards the first
draft of what is shaping up to be a modular, immersive text that could be performed
by a small or a large cast—in a theatre, gallery or other space. It may prove
too wild and off the wall for anyone to produce, but the process is so
rewarding and creatively stimulating that I’m not going to worry about that. At
least not yet.
Hilary:
After
the bleak look at capitalism that was The
White Divers of Broome, the psychological horror of The Splinter, and the dark premise of Victim Sidekick, I needed to be in a different place this year. I
wanted to pay tribute to the kind of theatre I most love (“Musical Comedy, the
two greatest words in the English language!” to quote 42nd Street). I read
Gogol, Moliere, Goldoni, Ben Jonson, and various wonderful adaptations of the
originals. The result is Piss Elegant,
a play that owes something to all those writers, as well as to the story of the
Tichborne Claimant, a real-life Victorian melodrama that played out between
Wagga and London. I go into a workshop this month, with a stellar bunch of actors
and John Bell directing.
The
other project is Do Good And You Will Be
Happy, a family musical with composer Phillip Johnston, which Merrigong
will workshop in September. It’s about Cole’s Funny Picture Book, an
extraordinary 19th-century children’s book created by Melbournian bookseller
and visionary, E. W. Cole. I’m also working on adaptations for Black Swan and
the State Theatre Company of South Australia, as well as a play for STC as part
of my Patrick White Fellowship. And I’m working with Vitalstatistix on Cutaway: A Ceremony, which goes up in
November.
Vanessa:
Ah the strange up and down-y life of the writer. Things seem
great, then things seem shit, then
things seem OK again. After the sprint of last year this year has sort of
jogged along and enjoyed the sunshine.
The play I finished at the end of last year was Chipper and it was shortlisted for this
year’s Griffin Award (won by fellow-7 Donna!). Chipper was also selected for development with PlayWriting
Australia in their National Script Workshop. This was a fantastic two weeks spent with actors (Rob
Jago, Sandy Gore, Ella Scott-Lynch and Kate Box) director (Chris Bendall) and
dramaturg (Tim Roseman) in a cute little sandstone cottage-thing at the
University of Sydney. Anyway, the newest draft is done and dusted and being
sent about the country and the globe so fingers crossed.
Also in April I did an amazing project in Mt Gambier, South Australia, with playwrights Caleb Lewis, Suzie Miller and Damien Millar as well as director Rob Marchand and creative producer Steve Mayhew (CountryArtsSA). 'Half Hour Visit' was in many ways a development and indeed an experiment where the four playwrights created characters and dramas based on a prison visit. Each prisoner/character was 'visited' by an audience member. There across the table a drama would unfold. Yay experiments! Yay developments! And yay Caleb and Steve...it was fab.
Also in April I did an amazing project in Mt Gambier, South Australia, with playwrights Caleb Lewis, Suzie Miller and Damien Millar as well as director Rob Marchand and creative producer Steve Mayhew (CountryArtsSA). 'Half Hour Visit' was in many ways a development and indeed an experiment where the four playwrights created characters and dramas based on a prison visit. Each prisoner/character was 'visited' by an audience member. There across the table a drama would unfold. Yay experiments! Yay developments! And yay Caleb and Steve...it was fab.
I have also written a new play, or at least an early draft,
and I’m talking to directors and companies about it now… called at this stage The River When it Ran With the Red Juice Of
Rubies which is sort of mad and unwieldy and probably won’t last, except I
like it. And, with a grant from the Ozco, I’m also head down and fingers
tapping on the play on parenting I’m writing called The Source Of Joy. Yes. That is irony.
Seguing nicely into the admission that my most immediate
artistic project is the “Star Wars and Outer Space” party we are having for my
just turned 7-year-old this weekend. Am about to make a stick-the-light
saber-onto-Yoda game now. Wish me luck.
Donna:
Well, it's been so great to be part of the swirl of activity
and shortlisting and award-winning going on among the Sevens. In my case,
winning the Griffin Award for my new play Jump
For Jordan was am amazing shot in the arm. That play was a long time in the
making, and the thought of packing up both that play and any semblance of a
playwriting career had been increasingly coming to the forefront of my mind.
While I don't write for the recognition, when it comes, it's a stepping stone
along the ad hoc pathway that passes for a career, and a nudge to keep plugging
away at a practice I can't help but love.
This semester, I took a break from my doctorate to work on Caylee's Ukulele with the Australian
Performance Exchange. This show for children was a quick and collaborative
treat which was greatly appreciated after a couple of years working solidly on
very long term projects. In March, I began adapting a short story I had written
into a script. In April, under the direction of Sally Sussman, our intrepid
team of performers and designers took up residence at Bundanon, and explored
the content of the play with more than a dozen children from the Sydney and
Nowra area. In May, at the Rex Cramphorn
Studio, our team road-tested, rehearsed, composed and choreographed a
whole new work of one hour in less than one month. We opened at the Shoalhaven
Entertainment Centre in Nowra on the 23rd of May, and our hope is that we can
polish and tour the show in the future. I really enjoyed working again to such
a tight deadline. So much of my early work was written this way, and I hope I get
chances to do it again.
Other than that … I've started a new play. I'm witnessing
the touring season of Monkey come
together. I was part of the team that recruited Powerhouse Youth Theatre's two
new Creative Producers. And I found a new hairdresser who used to cut the hair
and set the wigs of the Nimrod Theatre actors in the 80s; and does he have a
story or two to tell …
7-ON:
Although
we’re now spread across 3 states and regional NSW, we’re in frequent
communication—dreaming, scheming and organising. In May, a program of the
monologues from our collection, No
Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames, was produced as Week 1 of the Mayday
Playwrights’ Festival at the Tap Gallery in Sydney. The show, also called No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames, was
produced by Augusta Supple (who also directed) and Jeremy Waters.
We were delighted
to receive one of Hothouse Theatre Company’s ‘A Month in the Country’
residencies to work on Platonic—that’s happening in August.
And we contributed
to the debate about adaptations/new work and the place of writers in Australian
theatre (see earlier posts).
