eBULLETIN
SEPTEMBER 2014
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragoon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in theatre.
Eugene Ionesco
Kia ora <<First Name>>
I have recently returned from my trip to Edinburgh where, as might be expected, I saw quite a few shows and met several Scottish playwrights alongside Pip Hall and Phil Braithwaite who were in Edinburgh on the Momentum programme. Their Scottish playwright buddies were very helpful in introducing us all to a number of important contacts for the future. I met with several producers and organisations promoting our clients’ work but most importantly met with Fiona Sturgeon Shea from Scotland’s Playwrights’ Studio and we developed a full outline for our playwrights' exchange proposal. Hopefully next month we will be calling for pitches from playwrights for consideration for an exchange in 2016. I also had meetings with producers and agents in London. It was excellent to get a strong steer from the horse’s mouth on what work individual theatres are keen to read from this side of the world. We have longstanding relationships with many English theatres but getting to discuss in person the nature of the scripts we have been circulating to them was invaluable. I also had meetings in Singapore and there are potential exchanges in the offing there too. Once I have followed up these contacts and completed arrangements I will be able to report further.
The election is only days away. Be informed on the issues for the performing arts and literary sectors. Read up on the thinking of the parties on how they will work for the arts. The NZ Society of Authors prepared a questionnaire for the parties and this can be found here and those parties that have released overall policies on Arts, Culture and Heritage can be found on the individual parties’ websites.
We are soon to send off the Playmarket Annual to the printer. For this year’s Annual we widen our focus beyond the four biggest cities that have been the subject of our previous four Annuals to look at the varied and different sorts of theatre that might be labeled community theatre. We look at the connections between community and theatre everywhere. From regional theatre and amateur/ community theatre produced all over the country, to touring arrangements, ethnically centred groups such as Prayas and Black Friars, and reflections of diversity in performance throughout Aotearoa.
The two volumes of plays we are publishing for this year are in the final stages of being proofed by the wonderful Whitireia students and the playwrights themselves, Sorelle Cansino’s designs are being finalised, and so are the two non-fiction eBooks we are publishing for 2014. The shortlist for the Plays for the Young is announced below and is currently in the final stages of judging. There was a terrific line up of scripts to choose from. Our audit of all client scripts on file is coming to a close just in time for Nick Doherty to heave a sigh of relief from this huge undertaking. Nick is leaving New Zealand in a few days. The staff and myself thank him for the huge commitment and contribution he has made in his short time at Playmarket. He has made quite a positive impact for our clients and customers in his role as maternity cover for the Licensing Administrator. We wish him the very best in the next phase of his career and hope he stays in touch.
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
NEWS
PLAYS FOR THE YOUNG SHORTLIST
Thank you to everyone who entered our Plays for the Young competition. All entries were read blind and we are excited to announce the shortlisted plays. Winners will be announced in the October eBulletin.
3 - 8 year-olds
The Purple Sea by Holly Gooch
The Laughalot Tribe by Ronelle Short
8 - 12 year-olds
The Purple Sea by Holly Gooch
Wide Awake by Mike Hudson
The Thing from the Place by Geoff Pinfield
Tawa's Last Adventure by Deborah Eve Rea
Teenagers
Uncle Minotaur by Dan Bain
Le Sujet Parle: And Then He Shot Me by Emily Duncan
The Quiet Room by Renee Liang
The Twenty Seven Last Days of Childhood by Tom McCrory
Grow Up, Juliet by Rex McGregor
Give It A Whirl by Andi Podesta
The Careers Room by Philippa Werry
CONGRATULATIONS
Peter Wilson and Little Dog Barking won a Fringe Review Oustanding Theatre Award for Peter's adaptation of Duck, Death and the Tulip at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Congratulations to Angie Farrow who won the award for Best Drama Script at this year's Short + Sweet Theatre Festival in Auckland, and also to Renee Boyer-Willisson who took home the Playmarket Best New Zealand Script award.
Congratulations to Sue Paterson, Executive Director of the NZ Festival, who received the award for Best Event Professional at the NZAEP awards.
SCRIPT WRITER AWARDS NZ 2014
Congratulations to our clients who have been nominated in the 2014 SWANZ Awards
BEST PLAY
Pip Hall - Ache
BEST TELEVISION COMEDY EPISODE
Fiona Samuel - Agent Anna: Series 2 Ep 10.
Fiona Samuel & Natalie Medlock - Agent Anna: Series 2 Ep 7
BEST TELEVISION DRAMA EPISODE
Fiona Samuel - Nothing Trivial: Season 3 Ep 2.
James Griffin - The Almighty Johnsons: Series 3 Ep 13
James Griffin - Step Dave: Ep 6
Gaylene Preston and Dave Armstrong - Hope and Wire: Ep 5
BEST TELEVISION ONE-OFF DRAMA
Fiona Samuel - Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story
The SWANZ Awards will be held on Thursday 25 September at the Classic Comedy Club, Auckland. You can buy tickets here
THE BIG SCREEN SYMPOSIUM
The Big Screen Symposium is the annual event from Script to Screen that puts the filmmakers of Aotearoa New Zealand in one venue for the purpose of debate, discussion, information and inspiration. This year’s Big Screen Symposium will take place in Auckland on 27-28 September, 2014.
The 2014 programme is built around the theme The Power of Voice and delegates will be immersed in two intensive days of conversations, workshops, panel discussions and case studies with a stellar line-up of local and international filmmaker speakers.
Check out the website here for more details.
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ARTICLES
COLLECTIVE GROWTH: REPORTS FROM THE CONTINUIM OF A PLAYWRIGHT’S COLLECTIVE THEATRE
Trista Baldwin for HowlRound
There is no one producer. There is no one managing director. There is no Boss of Us. There is no shoulder to cry on. …Workhaus Collective has changed arms and legs, losing playwright-members and gaining new ones, all while keeping the collective heart beating and eyes focused on the same goal: to produce each other’s plays for the good of playwriting and the good of the audience.
Read more here
TWO THIRDS OF THEATREGOERS DO NOT READ REVIEWS – REPORT
Nicola Merrifield for The Stage
Only around a third of audience members read reviews or media coverage of a show either before or after they have attended the performance, a new study has found.
Read more here
THE SCOURGE OF ‘RELATABILITY'
Rebecca Mead for The New Yorker
Relatability has become widely and unthinkingly accepted as a criterion of value, even by people who might be expected to have more sophisticated critical tools at their disposal.
Read more here and a further response from Tim Cavanaugh in The National Review here
BELVOIR UNVEILS FEMINIST 2015 SEASON
Andrew Taylor for The Sydney Morning Herald
Belvoir's 2015 season will be dominated by women in a dramatic reversal of theatre's traditional gender imbalance. Eight out of 12 shows will be directed by women while four new plays and one adaptation are by female playwrights in next year's programme.
Read more here
WOMEN DIRECTORS PROGRAMME ALREADY PAYING DIVIDENDS FOR MTC
Richard Watts for Arts Hub
Five of 11 mainstage productions in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2015 season are being directed by women. Artistic Director Brett Sheehy says ‘I am especially proud of the new Australian works gracing our stages providing mainstage opportunities for four terrific Australian writers and two composers, and of the inaugural MTC Women Directors Programme bearing such immediate results, with five of the 11 mainstage productions being directed by women.’
Read more here
SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE 2015 THEATRE SEASON: NO BIG IDEAS, NO DIVERSITY
Steve Dow for The Guardian
Five Sydney and Melbourne theatres have been criticised for an absence of curatorial ideas in their 2015 seasons, failing to engage with contemporary Australian and world politics and for being “very cosy and white”.
Read more here
WEIRD THINGS CUSTOMERS SAY IN BOOKSHOPS
Josh Fjelstad for BuzzFeed
Jen Campbell, an aspiring English writer, maintains a blog where she posts examples of the bizarre things that customers at her bookstore, Ripping Yarns, say to her. Given the nature of many of these, it seems like most of these people have never even been to a bookstore before.
Read more here
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