We Love Australianplays.org

Distressed about the pending loss of recurrent funding to the invaluable and indispensable organisation Australian Plays - horribly on the heels of the demise of Playwriting Australia - we at 7ON shared our experiences of how Australian Plays has kept us visible and part of a wider community, and created pathways to productions of our plays - productions that otherwise just would not have happened. We’d like to share our experiences with you …

CATH

What I've loved about Australian Plays is the sense of being a part of the larger cultural history of Australia. But from a personal perspective I've never been published except for one 7 minute monologue Sins by Currency and our monologues through Federation Press. So my work will simply disappear as Australian Plays has kept my work going. I have had numerous productions by schools, universities and amateur theatre companies. It's deeply depressing.

VERITY

But Cath, your plays WILL survive as long as the Australian Plays database does (or is allowed to). It’s an example of the importance of Australian Plays that the work of a fine, prize-winning playwright like you is archived by a body like Australian Plays.

NED

My relationship with Australian Plays goes all the way back to when they were in Salamanca Place and I think were called the Salamanca Script Centre. Apart from keeping my plays alive, Australian Plays has played a crucial role in my writing life. I have written a lot of plays for young people. Amongst them a collection called Shakespeare for Australian Schools published exclusively by Australian Plays.

Their online presence has meant these plays have been accessible to teachers, directors and young people for study and performance. This has been of particular importance to Drama and English students who have used my plays for HSC/VCE Drama performances as well as research essays in English.

In the last year alone my adaptation of Women of Troy has been performed by students at NIDA, Love’s Magic has been performed by three schools, Alice Dreaming by one, Us or Them by one and The Bridge is Down by one. None of these young people would have had access to these plays without Australian Plays.

My play, Hamlet Intensive, was used widely by teachers and students studying Hamlet for HSC and VCE English. Teachers are desperate for teaching resources and Australian Plays has provided relatively inexpensive and easily accessible resources for them. I like to think of them as an online library. Published plays are rare as hen's teeth in bookshops. They are the tap on a keyboard away for hundreds and thousands of students and teachers.

VERITY

In terms of what Australian Plays has given me, there’ve been some sales and feedback, but mostly the sense that a lot of my work is at least curated somewhere public, and won’t vanish when I die. Maybe the biggest impact, however, has been being able to read and familiarise myself with the great range of the work of my peers. We are an impressive cohort. It’s so easy to forget that amidst the commercial noise.

NOËLLE

I second all that you say, Vee. My royalty payments are—well, let's say we're talking pizzas and a couple of bottles of wine. The benefit is in having plays in circulation, and that's really important. It means being part of the national arts conversation. Also important. Plus the possibility of further productions, mostly uni and schools ones in my case. Although from some of those I've received (slightly) larger royalty payments. For me I'd say the most important function is probably archival. Instead of vanishing with barely a trace, unpublished plays are there and accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world, with an internet connection.

HILARY

Being part of the Australian Plays catalogue means that my plays, otherwise so ephemeral, continue to exist in tangible, readable, produceable form. The digital format means that I can continue to update them, that they never go out of print, that they’re available beyond all geographical boundaries and at minimum cost. Most importantly, Australian Plays is unconstrained by commercial imperatives, meaning they can publish the unconventional and the unique. It is a place where we playwrights can feel ourselves to be part of a community, part of a living archive, not only with our work available to all, but also where the writing of others, some who were instrumental in shaping our culture, some no longer with us, lives on.

VANESSA

Agree all. Access and archival. Also State of Play articles, a provocation for playwrights to respond to or simply think about what’s being discussed. Writing is often a very solitary business. Especially if you are not commissioned or writing for a company. Australian Plays connected Australian playwrights so here another connection between playwrights is lost. My play Porn.Cake also earned me a few pizzas and a bottle or two of wine. But it was out there and it was read.

DONNA

Australian Plays has been invaluable. It can be a long time between commissioning and production drinks, but during those times, my body of work is nevertheless easily available and publicly validated. I would not have had any international productions of my work without Australian Plays. My play Tales from the Arabian Nights (2004 Theatre of Image) went on to have over 20 productions here and overseas, and this year was published by Currency because, with its refugee frame, the play is more relevant now than when I wrote it. Australian Plays is there, working, serving, archiving, licensing - it just has to exist.


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