eBULLETIN
MARCH 2016
Playwrights enjoying lunch at the 2014 Playmarket Retreat. 2016 Applications are open now.
Fans tend to think of artists as "stepping into some pure divine state, and occasionally there is transcendence involved, but almost every artist is a mass of neurosis and self-doubt, petty concerns, strange competitive urges and feelings of dissatisfaction... I still get them..." Neil Finn
Kia ora <<First Name>>
This weekend is a big one for playwriting. On 11 and 12 March, Circa Theatre with Playmarket and NZ Festival Writers Week support have put together Spotlight on Playwrights. There are several panels, a reading of Anthony McCarten’s terrific new play funnygirl which has just premiered in Salzburg (click here to see their trailer), and a playwrights’ brunch. Circa are offering $10 tickets to all of the panels. Just mention you want the Playmarket discount.
Playmarket has the presentation of the Adam NZ Play Award on Sunday morning 13 March. In association with Writers Week we also have the Roger Hall Roast on Sunday afternoon. This event sold out within a few days. This is part of our celebrating 40 years since the premiere of Glide Time which opened in the same year as Circa.
The 2016 Adam NZ Play Award had 76 entries and the standard was so high we shortlisted 20, and even then some terrific plays missed out. The announcement and presentation of the winners this year will be in the new format we introduced last year. There will be a showing of scenes from some of the shortlisted plays followed by announcement of the winners. No-one yet knows (not even the judges) who has won any of the categories so the excitement is high. There are some seats still available so it is not too late to join us. Just email us before the end of the week.
Playmarket staff have managed to catch some of the New Zealand work appearing in the current Auckland and Wellington mainstream and fringe festivals. A great range of excellent well worked-in productions were/are on offer as well as development showings.
The quality and range on stage reflects the standard of the 70 or so works pitched at PANNZ this year. By all accounts, including their own, the international visitors on the CNZ Te Manu Ka Tau programme were impressed with the work on offer. This year’s PANNZ was universally praised for the organisation and the collegiality of the event.
We have held three clinics for new work already this year and there’s some really promising work in development there too.
Elsewhere in the bulletin you’ll see the call out for applications for our biennial retreat at Strathean June 21-28. Ten playwrights will be selected to spend a week in the country being fed and looked after while they write. This is a wonderful opportunity and several notable scripts that have been generated during our retreats have gone on to full fruition and production.
Not much time left before the deadline for our Playwrights b4 25 competition. We are partnering with Auckland Live again this year for the presentation of awards and scenes and there’s a cash prize for the winner donated by the Foster family in memory of Nathan Foster. So get your submission in good shape…
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
ADAM NZ PLAY AWARD
The Adam NZ Play award celebrates the best new writing for the theatre. We are excited to announce the shortlisted plays and playwrights for 2016.
Te Pō by Carl Bland
The Atom Room by Philip Braithwaite
Lucky by Kip Chapman with James Milne, Sam Berkley and Chris Parker
The Politician’s Wife by Angie Farrow
The Vultures by Miria George
The Devil’s Half-Acre by Ralph McCubbin Howell
Anahera by Emma Kinane
Smiley by Tom McCrory
12th Round by Suli Moa
A Love Like Ours by Joseph Musaphia
Tumanāko by Olga Nikora
Fool to Cry by Steven Page
Ports of Auckland by Dean Parker
Scarlet & Gold by Lorae Parry
The Property Developer by Vivienne Plumb
Tan-knee by Maraea Rakuraku
Rogues and Vagabonds by Elspeth Sandys
My Dad’s Boy by Finnius Teppett
Sean Penn is in His Boat by Josephine Stewart-Tewhiu
Te Puhi by Cian Elyse White
Winners will be announced at a presentation at Circa Theatre, 11 am, Sunday 13 March 2016. If you'd like to attend the presentation please email us here. The award is generously funded by the Adam Foundation. Playmarket is also very grateful for the support of Circa Theatre, and major funders: Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.
SPOTLIGHT ON PLAYWRIGHTS
Circa Theatre and the 2016 New Zealand Festival Writers Week in partnership with Playmarket present a series of events, conversations and readings.
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED
Friday 11 March 11am - 12 noon
    Chaired by Emily Perkins with panelists Lorae Parry, Lynda Chanwai-Earle, Miria George, Jess Sayer
The Guardian UK’s list of the 101 Greatest Plays in any western language included only one woman (Caryl Churchill). Are New Zealand’s women playwrights as invisible?
Book here.
WHO THE HELL ARE WE?
Friday 11 March 12.30pm – 1.30pm
    Chaired by Dave Armstrong with panelists Pip Hall, Hone Kouka, Nancy Brunning, Carl Nixon.
Reflections of Kiwis on stage both challenge and entrench our unique lifestyle. From Foreskin’s Lament to Waiora; from Middle Age Spread to The Motor Camp; from Wednesday to Come to Hikoi – are we representing our nation honestly on stage?
Book here.
LITERATURE OR EPHEMERA?
Friday 11 March 2 – 3pm
    Chaired by Allison Horsley with panelists Roger Hall, John Smythe, Alison Quigan.
Too few plays get repeat showings. Some gather dust, few go on forever. Even Bruce Mason and Roger Hall, who are household names, have not had all of their plays staged. Some plays are studied, some seen often, some are devised and some forgotten.
Book here.
THE THEORY OF ANTHONY
Saturday 12 March 10 – 11am
 
Anthony McCarten in conversation with Miranda Harcourt.
What are the keys to Anthony McCarten’s success? From Ladies Night to The Theory of Everything; Wellington to Hollywood – Not only is Anthony an internationally successful writer and producer for stage and screen, nominated for Academy Awards, and winner of BAFTA awards, he has also written several best-selling novels translated into 14 languages.
Book here.
PLAYREADING: funnygirl BY ANTHONY McCARTEN
Saturday 12 March 2pm
Anthony McCarten has dramatised his explosive novel; pleading for tolerance, the freedom of individuals, and the freedom of art. Azime is 20 years old and shy. She is Kurdish but grew up in London. She lives in two different worlds. She secretly visits a comedy course, and later slips into a niqab and becomes the world’s first Muslim comedian. Her appearance is explosive: her family is against her, the British press celebrates her as a sensation, and the Internet is hot with death threats.
Book here.
All sessions are at Circa Theatre. (Writers Week multi-passes are available).
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ARTICLES
KILL NEW PLAY DENIERS
Ira Gamerman for HowlRound
Ira Gamerman reports on Australian playwright David Finnigan's new play Kill Climate Deniers that has been funded through an arts grant from the Australian government and called out as a waste of government arts spending although it hasn’t premeried yet.
Read more here
HITTING THE ROAD: SHIFTING A PLAYWRIGHT’S PERSPECTIVE
Patrick Gabridge for HowlRound
Playwright Pat Gabridge describes the experience of seeing the same production of his play in Massachusetts and Maryland.
Read more here
QTC SETS UP NATIONAL TEAM TO POWER STATE'S THEATRE
ArtsHub
Queensland Theatre Company’s new Artistic Director Sam Strong is thinking nationally with a new approach to artistic direction.
Read more here |
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SCRIPT TO SCREEN FILMUP 2016
