The Sweetest Thing

Verity's play The Sweetest Thing is coming to Belvoir ...

To see the trailer, point your mouse at the image, right click, select 'Show All' from the dropdown menu, and away you go ...

We couldn't help noticing ...

We’re really pleased that the theatre companies have taken responsibility for a more than token inclusion of female directors in their 2011 seasons. Perhaps they were inspired by the many and various forums, events, newspaper articles, and blog posts bemoaning the paucity of women directors and writers when last year's subscription seasons were announced? But ... we couldn’t help noticing ...

1. Sydney Theatre Company
Main Season:
In The Next Room by Sarah Ruhl (American) female playwright.
Bloodland is listed as ‘story by Kathy Marika, Stephen Page and Wayne Blair’.
But it is as yet unwritten, according to Stephen Page, who spoke for it at the season launch. Don’t know that you can count this in terms of female writer numbers really ...

So … That’s 1 (overseas) female playwright in a season of 12 plays.

2. Belvoir Street Theatre
Upstairs:
Neighbourhood Watch by Lally Katz.

Downstairs:
The Dark Room by Angela Betzien.

That’s 2 plays by (Australian) female playwrights in an overall season of 13 plays.

3. Griffin Theatre Company
Main season:
This Year's Ashes by Jane Bodie.

Independent Season:
Smashed by Lally Katz.

That’s 2 out of 8.

4. Ensemble Theatre (and yes, we know they don’t receive public/government arts subsidy, but still ... )

No female writers in a season of 8 plays.


So … out of 41 plays being presented by/through Sydney professional mainstage theatre companies in 2011 there are just 5 plays by female writers, and one of those is by an American, and 2 are by (bless her!) Lally Katz.

This comes to (approximately) 12%.

And who buys the tickets? Mostly women, we know. So ... predominantly female audiences are listening to ... predominantly male voices.

Theatre companies all ... that’s pathetic actually, don’t you think?

Awgie Award for Donna

Here's Donna with writer Catherine Fargher at the AWGIE Awards in August. The production of her winning script Mrs Macquarie's Cello can be heard on Airplay, Radio National, 3pm 26th September.

Free readings of two 7-ON Plays at Stables Theatre this Sunday 29th

The plays of two 7-ON writers, Verity Laughton and Catherine Zimdahl are being read this coming Sunday 29th August at the Stables Theatre from 4pm. See details below.

This event is free - just rsvp to the email address below.

THE IMPULSE COMPANY & INSCRIPTION present:

FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE: Three Readings by Impulse Company Actors

Sunday, August 29th, from 4pm at the Stables Theatre, Nimrod St, Darlinghurst

**FREE OF CHARGE**

On Sunday, 29th August, the SBW Stables Theatre will play host to a very exciting FREE event; ‘The Impulse Company’s Festival of New Writing.’ Audiences will be treated to an evening of staged readings with three new Australian plays being performed by Impulse Company Actors who have been trained by Scott Williams (Impulse Company Artistic Director) during his recent series of Sydney Workshops. Combining the dynamic performance style of The Impulse Company's training with the sharp, contemporary writing being practiced by these three local writers, this is an extraordinary one-off opportunity to share in the live performance of some brilliant new upcoming dramas.

The plays included in the Festival are: THE ICE SEASON by Verity Laughton. "An investigation of faith and fate, art, love and damage in the contemporary Western World" is how Ms Laughton describes her play, which concerns the events following the death of famed novelist, Thomas Allen. Verity Laughton's plays include The Lightkeeper, The Snow Queen, Burning, Carrying Light and The Mourning After. Her most recent large scale production was a puppetry adaptation of Patricia Wrightson's The Nargun and the Stars. THE ICE SEASON won the 2009 Inscription Open Award.

DEVIANT ART FOR THE DEGENERATE by Catherine Zimdahl. A play "about class and power, idealism and absolutism and the treachery of conformity," according to Ms Zimdahl. The story revolves around a young expressionist artist and the art world into which she's drawn into in Sydney, 1946. Ms Zimdahl's credits include the plays Clark in Sarajevo, Family Running for Mr Whippy, A Day Too Great, the children’s play The Rocky Road to Riches, and the adaptation of the classic novel Moonfleet. Her film script The Ego Trip is currently in development.

SLEEPING DOGS by Brenda Gottsche. Dr. Roz Collins, a popular radio psychologist, is just set to become the next Oprah Winfrey when troublesome 'sleeping dogs' awake and ransack her life. Brenda Gottsche's produced plays include The Balmain Jesus (originally developed by The Impulse Company in London as The Fulham Jesus), Hot Property and The Max Factor. She divides her time between Sydney and London, and is currently in pre-production for a film script based on The Fulham Jesus.

The performers include: Abigail Austin, Claudia Barrie, Angeline Bilas, Lindsay Chapman, Carolyn Eccles, Lucy Fry, Natalie Lund, Matt Minto, Dene Kermond, Jacqui Livingston, Kate Skinner and the performance will be directed by The Impulse Company's Artistic Director, Scott Williams.

 

There will be a 20-min interval between each reading and audience members are encouraged to stay for as many plays as they wish Tickets will be allocated on a RSVP system so please email all ticket requests to impulsecosydney@hotmail.com

 
SO PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY, GRAB A GROUP OF FRIENDS AND HEAD DOWN TO THE SBW STABLES THEATRE FOR A FANTASTIC EVENING OF NEW AUSTRALIAN WRITING, DYNAMIC, ENGAGING PERFORMANCES & FESTIVAL FUN IN THE NEWLY RENOVATED STABLES THEATRE.

Hooray, but ...

We couldn't help noticing that PlayWritingAustralia has just announced an initiative to support new playwrights (‘playwrights who have not yet been professionally produced’), as well as the encouragement for Tasmanian playwrights only to apply for the Winter Season development this year. We applaud both initiatives but want to note for the record that the funding for the first initiative would seem to come from the funding that Arts NSW made available to PWA in place of the lost $30,000 prize money that should have been awarded to a mid or senior level playwright in the recent Premier's Awards.

It's great that the Minister made a replacement $30,000 available.

It's great that she asked the punch-above-its-weight PWA to administer it.

It's great to support emerging and regional playwrights (and sorry, Tasmanians, if we're making assumptions here ...).

But, Minister, where do you think playwrights go when they've emerged?

Can we put forward a parallel? When one starts work in the public service one begins at entry level. One serves one's time, takes advantage of training schemes and mentorships and all the possible support options available to further one's practice until - voila! - a a pretty talented and knowledgeable bureaucrat emerges. At this point the bureaucrat nails a good job and begins to make a difference to his/her society. Some even reach a position of significant decision-making. No one suggests, either explicitly or implicitly that, once trained, they should make way for others and instead...get a job as a teacher, or a cleaner or something/anything to pay the bills and work at their 'real job' in between. It'd be a real waste, surely?

What writers do is necessary, and even essential. As the excellent British playwright, David Edgar, has said: "Storytelling is central to our being as humans. Without it we would be constrained within the dungeon of our own direct experience. We would find it hard to plan - to imagine a series of actions and their consequences. And we couldn't empathize, with the good or the bad...By enabling us to imagine what it is like to see the world through other eyes (including the eyes of the violent and the murderous) drama develops capacities without which we cannot live together in societies at all."

At the moment (and there are always exceptions when someone is running hot with both work and profile for a few years) a writer with more than five (should we make it ten or fifteen?) years of experience cannot make the kind of living even a base grade, newby clerk would make in the public service.

Thank you for being concerned about the arts, and artists but ... Don't start what you can't continue. Support all levels of playwriting, or none at all.

7-ONer short-listed

Vanessa's play Porn.Cake, which was in this year's Playwriting Australia National Script Workshop, is short-listed for the 2010 Griffin Award.

The winner will be announced on the 17 August.

7-ON's AWGIE Nominations

Donna and Noëlle are both nominated for 2010 AWGIE Awards. Donna for Mrs Macquarie’s Cello in the Radio (Adaptation) category, and Noëlle for Dark Paradise in the Radio (Original) category.

The AWGIE nominations were announced yesterday by the AWG. Read the complete list of nominees here.