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eBULLETIN
FEBRUARY 2014
A short play should not be a sketch. A short play should be a play that has a beginning, a middle and an end, and a rising tension and a sense of narrative. But what if it’s even more than that? What if it’s a huge story, an epic story, that completely changes someone’s life? And what if you could say in ten minutes everything that you could say in three hours. What if? - Angie Farrow in Twenty New Zealand Playwrights
Kia ora <<First Name>>
Fellow Kiwis have recently won the Man Booker Prize and two Grammys. This is not only an excellent booster for the winners but for all local artists. It must be time to get a playwright into the international limelight but there are few international competitions for which New Zealand entries are eligible and even here at home the opportunities are not great. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a playscript category in the NZ book Awards? The Prime Minister’s Literary Award has not been given to a playwright but some playwrights have been recognised in the New Year or Birthday Honours. The Arts Foundation do a stirling job to recognise local artists and a few playwrights have received Laureates or Emerging Artist awards; not too many opportunites. Fortunately we now have our own Playmarket Award to recognise significant artistic contribution to theatre in New Zealand, and there are a few competitions such as the Adam NZ Play Award. Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington have annual theatre awards and playwrights are acknowledged in these. The Chapman Tripps this year also recognised the founders of Playmarket giving them the Mayor’s Significant Contribution to Theatre Award.
Playmarket continues to lobby towards achieving higher recognition for playwriting. I’m pleased that one small step is that we’ve succeeded in getting a few sessions for local playwrights into the 2014 NZ Festival Writers week programme (see below)
The summer holidays (has Summer arrived yet?) are now behind us and the working year is well underway. Playmarket’s first day back this year was a matter of launching into shifting to our new premises - seen in the photo above. The new office looks large in this panoramic photo but is in fact smaller than our previous premises. Thankfully it's more seismically safe, and much cheaper. The shift went smoothly and we are settled in and working full steam on licensing, book sales, and all of our other activities. Pop in and see us if you are in town.
This weekend I’m hosting a small function at Fortune Theatre for local Dunedin playwrights, producers, teachers and theatricians to catch up and promote Playmarket. I’ll have our new publications on sale and offer a wee drink to belatedly celebrate our 40th birthday, appropriately during Fortune’s 40th birthday year.
The professional regional theatres have launched into their 2014 schedules, community theatres are confirming their own schedules with much New Zealand scripted work, and festivals abound around the country. Playmarket has already held two clinics, begun publishing meetings to confirm our line up for this year, been planning for a large conference in 2015, and preparing for our playwrights’ retreat, Brown Ink and Asian Ink clinics.
First cut of judging of the 96 entries for the Adam New Zealand Play Award has been made and entrants will hear about that within days. The three judges will be assessing the short list and we are preparing the details for the award presentation.
Don’t forget to enter or encourage others to enter the Playwrights b4 25 Competition. There will be a modest cash prize for 2014 donated by our friends at the Robert Lord Cottage Trust.
Below you will find a call for entries in our 2014 Brown Ink and Asian Ink programmes and before long the deadline for Plays for the Young will be upon us. We are looking forward to reading lots of new work.
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
NEWS
CONGRATULATIONS
 Congratulations to our clients who received Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards at the ceremony in Wellington in December;
- Outstanding New Playwright of the Year - Sarita Keo Kossamak So for Neang Neak's Legacy
- Outstanding New New Zealand Play - Ralph McCubbin-Howell for The Road That Wasn’t There
- Outstanding Composer of Original Music - Gareth Farr for Duck, Death and the Tulip
Congratulations also to Nonnita Rees, Judy Russell and Ian Fraser who received the Mayor's Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre for the founding of Playmarket - for 40 years dedication, passion, altruism, longevity and hard work in the arts." The full list of winners is available here.
Congratulations to Gillian Sutton who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Auckland Theatre Awards in December. The full list of winners is available here.
Richard Huber received the award for Narrative/Script of the Year at the Dunedin Theatre Awards in December for his comedy Songbird. The Lifetime Achievement awards went to Hilary Norris and Harry Love. Congratulations to all. The full list of winners is available here.
Congratulations to Sophie Roberts who has been appointed as the new Artistic Director of Silo Theatre. Sophie will take up the role of Artistic Director on 1 April 2014.
INKS 2014
 
Do you have a draft of a new play ready and waiting for some attention?
Do you know someone who does?
Playmarket’s Brown Ink and Asian Ink is looking for Maori, Pasifika and Asian Playwrights with the best new, exciting and original scripts.
Win a workshop with a professional script advisor and actors dedicated to helping you develop your play.
For more details see our website here or contact Script Advisor Stuart Hoar here.
Submissions close Friday 30 May 2014
WRITERS WEEK
New Zealand Festival Writers Week runs from Friday 7 to Wednesday 12 March 2014. Client events include:
   
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
12 March 2014
What do playwrights owe to the histories that inspire them? how accurate should these portrayals be? Do playwrights have an obligation to tell the truth, or do facts get in the way of a good story? Is the business of theatre, in fact, to overturn long-held assumptions about what 'truth' even is? Join Michelanne Forster, Hone Kouka, Briar Grace-Smith and Stuart Hoar in a conversation chaired by Dave Armstrong.
Read more here
TRUE TO LIFE: RENÉE
12 March 2014
Dramatist and fiction writer Renée reflects on her career to date in conversation with fellow playwright and author, Vivienne Plumb.
Read more here
THE DEMOLITION OF THE CENTURY
11 – 15 March 2014
Become enveloped in the world of Duncan Sarkies’ new novel, and hear stories of a man who has lost his socks, his ex-wife and, most importantly, his son Frank.
Read more here
SCENES OF SECRETS AND DISGUISES
9 March 2014
Five actors read scenes from Arts Foundation Laureate Damien Wilkins' seventh novel, Max Gate.
Read more here
FESTIVALS
 AUCKLAND PRIDE FESTIVAL
6 - 23 February 2014
A celebration of Rainbow Community culture and identity including a diverse array of local and international theatre and cabaret, music, visual arts exhibitions and installations, film, literature, debates and discussions, drag and burlesque and so much more
Check out their programme here
 NZ FRINGE FESTIVAL
7 February – 2 March 2014
The New Zealand Fringe Festival is stoked to bring Wellington the biggest Fringe ever! The programme features 121 events, performing over 700 shows in 45 different venues. Among the veritable feast of events is a mix of hard-core bingo, fairy tales on fire, a musical for toddlers, books, buses, dinner with friends, ghosts, aerial yoga, sci-fi, great advice, a trip down an old forgotten stream, films by city lights, and a visit from Uther Dean.
Check out their programme here
 HAMILTON GARDENS ARTS FESTIVAL
14 – 27 February 2014
What has now become an iconic open-air summer festival for the city, the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival combines a plethora of visual arts, music, comedy, film, theatre, literature and dance, offering something for all ages and tastes.
Check out their programme here
 NEW ZEALAND FESTIVAL
21 February – 16 March 2014
The New Zealand Festival welcomes the world to Wellington. The Festival enlivens the world's coolest little capital with over 300 events in outdoor spaces and indoor stages across the city. An iconic event on New Zealand's cultural landscape and a leading multi-arts festival in Australasia.
Check out their programme here
 PUTAHI FESTIVAL
25 February – 1 March 2014
Te Pūtahitanga a te Rēhia, an Independent Māori Theatre collective of long time theatre professionals such as Jim Moriarty, Nancy Brunning, Tanemahuta Gray and Hone Kouka; and including many more of the Wellington Māori Theatre community, will be adding to the arts festivities in the city by offering Pūtahi Festival – a week of choice Māori theatre and a celebration of the diversity of Te Ao Māori. Featuring work by Hone Kouka, Helen Pearse-Otene, Nancy Brunning, Jamie McCaskill, and Steph Matuku. Check out their programme here
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ARTICLES
WHEN A DIRECTOR GOES TOO FAR
Terry Teachout for The Wall Street Journal
What happens when a director thinks they know better than the author? Asolo Repertory Theatre’s recent production of Brian Friel’s play Philadephia Here I Come was shut down after massive changes were made to the script without first obtaining permission.
Read more here and further commentary by Howard Sherman here
VOICES: ASIAN INVASION 2014!
Lynda Chanwai-Earle for Radio NZ
With our fastest-growing population needing a voice in drama and education, Asian Invasion 2014 is the title of EnsembleImpact’s latest dynamic theatre programme touring secondary schools across New Zealand this year. It’s a timely and much needed gig, however, when producer KC Kelly initially tagged Asian theatre practitioners across the country on Facebook with just the title to provoke their responses, he got quite a bite back!
Listen to the podcast here
A PLAYWRIGHT RESIDES
Tom Horan for HowlRound
Tom Horan, Playwright-in-Residence at Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis, asks
“What is a Playwright-in-Residence? What could it be?”
Read more here
THE CURSE OF THE ‘PROMISING’ PLAYWRIGHT
Lyn Gardner for The Guardian
The tag "promising" comes with the burden of expectation that you will some day get past the point that you have currently reached, suggesting that playwriting is not so much an art as a mountain that you are trying to ascend inch by inch, play by play. Some people do their best work early; others have early success and then consolidate; still more branch out in startling new directions. It is seldom a progression in the way that "promising" suggests.
Read more here
OFFSTAGE, DRAMATURGS ARE PLAYING A PROMINENT ROLE
Joel Brown for The Boston Globe
Dramaturgy is a job that’s, at best, dimly familiar to the audience. Partly that’s because the role of the dramaturg changes from show to show and company to company. Even dramaturgs say the job is not easy to explain.
Read more here
WRITING FOR THEATRE? BE PRACTICAL
Miriam Gillinson in The Guardian
Playwrights need instinct and heart but must also be pragmatic. The presentation of the play, the lay-out, stage directions and even the cast list – all these aspects matter greatly.
Read more here
WE CALL THAT FAILURE ART
Tony Kushner in The New Yorker
“All I really know about writing is that if you’re a writer, writing is what you do. The work, intellectual, emotional, physical work, is everything—the means, the ends, the justifications, and the doubts, the ignominy, acclaim, disappointment, and elation, everything that can happen will happen only when and if you write.”
Read more here |
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