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THE PLAYMARKET eBULLETIN - FEBRUARY 2015
News and opportunities for New Zealand Playwrights.
eBULLETIN


FEBRUARY 2015

What distinguishes the theatre from all other art forms is that the theatre is the only art form that is always about social systems. Every play asks: Can we get along? Can we get along as a society? Can we get along in this room? How might we get along better?
Anne Bogart in What's the Story: Essays about Art, Theatre and Storytelling

 
Kia ora <<First Name>>

Right now we are in the throes of shortlisting the Adam New Zealand Play Award submissions and that is always an exciting process. Stuart Hoar and our guest judges are sifting through for the cream of the high quality crop. It has been wonderful to see productions of 2014's winning plays on our stages - Seed, Hikoi, The Mooncake and the Kumara and Riding in Cars with (Mostly Straight) Boys.
 
We’re getting excited too about the new scripts from clients that have been sent in outside of the competition. As soon as we work out the best possibilities for development and/or placement of those scripts Salesi Le’ota will be getting those that are ready out to companies and independent practitioners here and all over the world. Recently we’ve been getting positive feedback about the work we have sent to some high profile international literary departments.
 
Our professional theatres have a good record of staging new New Zealand work – and some pertinent revivals of NZ work too, of course. There has been a drop this year in the volume of local work scheduled but there is also a drop in the number of productions overall. However, there is a lot of work on the way from commissions not yet completed and work in consideration for 2016 programmes. I’m confident we will see this drop reversed for next year and fortunately there is no shortage of productions of NZ work to see around the country in the coming months.
 
Playmarket has secured an additional sum from Creative New Zealand to help us support the development of new work created by playwrights/creators working in collaboration. Many wonderful and enduring plays have been created in a process that is less traditional than a solo writer alone in a room. It has been a hope of mine to increase our ability to offer dramaturgical input to collaborative works in development. It is wonderful to have a restricted but dedicated sum to offer. Contact me if you have a project you think might fit the bill.
 
Progress has been made on the Scotland playwright residency project and I will have full details to bring to you in the next couple of weeks. A New Zealand playwright can apply with a project they think is pertinent to a residency in Scotland and that they would like to write for a Scottish company. We’ll assess the pitches and team the successful playwright with an appropriate company in Scotland. A stipend will cover up to three months in a residence in Scotland to write and be in close partnership with the selected company. This project will be for a 2015 residency.
 
Apologies to those Playmarket clients who received an email over the holiday period requesting they renew their membership. This happened due to a glitch in the web programme. Playwrights who are current clients do not have to renew their membership or pay a fee.

 
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket

 

NEWS

GLOBE THEATRE RESTORATION
Dunedin’s Globe Theatre was built in 1961 by Patric and Rosalie Carey, with the help of their many friends and supporters. The Careys’ enthusiasm, energy and ability to inspire others were instrumental in creating something very special not just in Dunedin but also in the cultural life of the rest of the country. The Globe has raise $465,000 for urgent conservation repairs but needs another $85,000 before these repairs can begin. You can donate to their campaign here.


CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Anthony McCarten who has had major success with his film The Theory of Everything. Anthony received the BAFTA Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Outstanding British Film. The Theory of Everything has also been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture at the 2015 Academy Awards. You can read Anthony's Toughest Scene I Ever Wrote article for Vulture here

Anthony was also named alongside Phil Mann and Eleanor Catton as Honorary Literary Fellow by the NZ Society of Authors on Waitangi Day.

Congratulations to our clients and associates who received Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards at the ceremony in Wellington in December:
Peter Harcourt Award for Outstanding New Playwright - Chris Molloy for Putorino Hill.
Playmarket and Capital E National Theatre for Children Award for Outstanding New New Zealand Play - Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis for Kiss the Fish

Congratulations to Lisa Warrington who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dunedin Theatre Awards and also to the Fortune Theatre which received the Production of the Year award for Peninsula by Gary Henderson.


FESTIVALS

AUCKLAND PRIDE FESTIVAL
7 February - 1 March 2015
New Zealand’s largest festival celebrating the colourful and diverse LGBTIQ community returns for 2015 with its largest programme to date bursting with visual arts, theatre, dance, community events and the best parties.
Check out their programme here


AUCKLAND FRINGE FESTIVAL
9 February - 1 March 2015
Auckland Fringe is an open access arts festival where anything can happen. It provides a platform for practitioners and audiences to unite in the creation of form forward experiences which are championed in an ecology of artistic freedom.

Check out their programme here

HAMILTON GARDENS FESTIVAL
13 - 26 February 2015
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


NZ FRINGE FESTIVAL
20 February - 14 March 2015
NZ Fringe is Wellington’s biggest little arts festival – celebrating 25 years of creativity, community and chaos. The 2015 programme features puppets, ghosts, cups of tea, radio shows, a nest, Shakespeare, mind-reading hotdogs, Hillbillies, Fan-fic, divas, a paint-ball fight and a pre-work-dance-party-work-out-sexy-time!
Check out their programme here


PUTAHI FESTIVAL
24 - 28 February 2015
For the second year, Te Pūtahitanga a te Rēhia in association with Victoria University proudly presents Pūtahi Festival, 2015. This independent Māori theatre collective is bringing together some of Wellington’s most celebrated Māori Theatre Companies, actors, writers and artists for a week of choice Māori Theatre.
Check out their programme here


AUCKLAND FESTIVAL
4 - 22 March 2015
Auckland will be transformed as the 19-day Auckland Arts Festival kicks off with an explosion of theatre, music, cabaret, dance and visual arts! More than 100 world class shows and exhibitions from NZ and around the world will astound, entertain and delight audiences across the region.
Check out their programme here


 
OPPORTUNITIES



PLAYWRIGHTS b4 25

For this competition Playmarket is interested in writers under 25 who take risks and throw care to the wind, as well as those who write strong, conventional plays. Write about ANYTHING you like that matters to you in ANY way you like, for any kind of audience you like.
Submissions close 1 APRIL 2015
Visit here for more information


ROBERT LORD COTTAGE RESIDENCY
Robert Lord's worker's cottage in Dunedin is run as a rent-free residency for writers. Playwrights who have lived and worked there include Gary Henderson, Renée, Jan Bolwell, Vanessa Rhodes, Vincent O'Sullivan, Branwen Millar, Paul Rothwell, Rochelle Bright and Kip Chapman.
Applications are now being received for the two remaining 2015 slots.
15 July to 18 September 2015
15 November 2015 to 31 January 2016
Send a summary of the project you'll be working on; your reasons for wanting to write in Dunedin and your curriculum vitae to Murray Lynch here

Applications close 27 February 2015
 

KATHRYN BURNETT WORKSHOPS
Kathryn Burnett’s popular workshops are back for 2015. Upcoming workshops include Kathryn's Beginner's Guide to Screen Writing in Auckland 28 February - 1 March 2015. See Kathryn’s latest newsletter here for more.


PANNZ 2015
The Performing Arts Network NZ Market will be held 9 -11 March 2015 at Aotea Centre in Auckland. Registrations for PANNZ are now open.
See their website here for more details.


WRITER’S WORKSHOP ‘BASED ON A TRUE STORY'
As part of Wellington’s Chinese New Year Festival Renee Liang presents a three-hour workshop in which writers will be taken through a series of exercises exploring real-life experiences using the techniques of literary fiction. By the end of the workshop participants will have several first drafts of potential new works.
Sunday 15 February 2015
See here for more details
.

FULBRIGHT-CNZ PACIFIC WRITER'S HAWAI'I RESIDENCY
The residency offers a mid-career or senior New Zealand writer of Pacific heritage the opportunity to work for three months on a creative writing project exploring Pacific identity, culture or history at the University of Hawai‘i. The project may be in any genre, but priority is given to works that focus on developing New Zealand literature in the genres of fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction (including biography, history, arts-related and cultural topics) and playwriting.
The residency is valued at NZ$30,000 and includes return airfares to Hawai‘i, accommodation costs and a monthly stipend.
Applications close Monday 2 March 2015
See the website here for more details
.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SAMOA RESIDENCY
Creative New Zealand and the National University of Samoa, is offering a three month artist residency in Apia, Samoa, in 2015.
The residency offers New Zealand Pasifika artists the opportunity to develop their potential, skills and practice. It provides up to $15,000 for an artist’s stipend including accommodation and travel costs.
The residency will run during August to October 2015 and is open to established mid-career and senior Pasifika artists who are resident in New Zealand. 
Applications close 6 March 2015
See the website here for more details.


SCRIPT TO SCREEN FILMUP SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT
FilmUp Script Development enables those working with writers developing feature projects to take a big step up in their development craft. One-on-one coaching with Britta McVeigh that supports the development of a feature project will sit at the heart of the programme, and be supplemented with facilitated group work, round tables with esteemed filmmakers, and a one-day intensive with a renowned Australian script editor.
Applications close 9 March 2015
See the website here for more details
.

PLAYWRIGHTS ASSOCIATION OF NZ 10 MINUTE PLAY COMPETITION
Submissions are now open for the PANZ 10 Minute Play Competition. Finalists will all have their plays performed at the PANZ festival in September 2015.
Submissions close 30 April 2015
See the website here for more details.


TWO DAY PLAYS
Two Day Plays is returning to BATS Theatre in March 2015. This is an opportunity for teams to create a brand new piece of theatre and present it in a proper theatre environment in front of an audience.
The competition is run over four weekends. The first three weekends will be heats, each with six teams working with a couple of allocated props that they are given on Friday night. You have the weekend to put together a short play which is then performed on the Sunday night.
Six teams will progress to the fourth weekend, where the finalists will do it all over again, vying for a prize package and the title of Two Day Plays Champs. Two Day Plays is open access and there are no restrictions on the size of your team or the age of the entrants.
For further details see the Facebook page here


PLAYMARKET DATES 2015
1 April  - Playwrights b4 25 submissions close
31 May - Brown Ink and Asian Ink submissions close
31 July - Plays for the Young submissions close
22 November - Playmarket Accolades
1 December  - Adam NZ Play Award submissions close for 2016

ARTICLES

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU: CREATING EFFECTIVE POST SHOW DISCUSSIONS
Teresa A. Fisher for HowlRound
Helpful suggestions how to structure and facilitate effective post-show discussion.
Read more here

THE CASE FOR LONG-TERM PLAYWRIGHT RESIDENCIES
Deborah Salem Smith for HowlRound
Playwright Deborah Salem Smith discusses the benefits of being a long-term playwright in residence at Trinity Repertory Company.
Read more here

WHO OWNS INDIGENOUS STORIES?
Richard Watts for ArtsHub
Theatre risks offending and cultural appropriation when it tells Indigenous stories, as a recent Sydney Theatre Company production illustrates.
Read more here

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF WRITING COMPETITIONS
Madeleine Dore for ArtsHub
Writers and industry experts share their advice on how to best use competitions to get your work noticed and propel your career.
Read more here

IS THE PLAYWRIGHT DEAD?
Lyn Gardner for The Guardian
Is there an anti-writer trend in British theatre? Only if you insist on a very narrow definition of what constitutes new writing and fail to cherish playwriting in all its rich variety.
Read more here and a response from David Edgar here

SOME NOTES ON THE TEXT
Iain Sinclair for australianplays.org
A personal perspective on the fall and rise of Australian dramaturgy.
Read more here

WHY SO MANY WRITERS NOW MOVE BETWEEN TV AND THEATRE
Michele Willens for The Atlantic
For hungry playwrights, TV presents financial offers difficult to refuse, and the medium grows more prestigious and creative every year. And for TV writers used to the difficulties of collaborating on a script, the theatre offers them a chance to have the final say on their own words.
Read more here


SCRIPT TO SCREEN
Last year Script to Screen held Writers’ Room sessions in Auckland and Wellington with panelists who work across the mediums of theatre and film.
You can view the video of the Auckland session with Tom Sainsbury, Sophie Henderson, Jackie van Beek and Rachel House here. The audio of the Wellington session with Dean Hewison, April Phillips, Sophie Henderson and Bevin Linkhorn is available here.

WHAT'S ON?

My Name is Gary Cooper
by Victor Rodger

Kumu Kahua Theatre, Honolulu, USA 22 January – 22 February 2015
When a good-looking Samoan stranger arrives on the doorstep of an all-American family, the scene is set for an intriguing story of betrayal. My Name is Gary Cooper is a roller-coaster ride through cultural appropriation and sexual deception.



Demolition of the Century
by Duncan Sarkies

Circa Theatre 31 January – 21 February 2015
Welcome to the world of Tom Spotswood, an insurance investigator who has lost his socks, his suitcase, his ex-wife and his son, Frank. Duncan Sarkies stages a humorous and sometimes heartbreaking look at families, memories and the fragility of the human mind.


Shepherd
by Gary Henderson

The Court Theatre 7 – 28 February 2015
Immortality, all it costs is your life. Award winning NZ playwright Gary Henderson brings us this provocative vision of a world just one step sideways from our own. In the remote mists of Fiordland the Shepherd family run their flock, supplying a hungry world. With a contract to fulfill, and a family to shelter, they find the line between humanity and inhumanity becoming dangerously blurred.

Under the Same Moon
by Renee Liang

BATS 10 – 21 February 2015 and The Maidment 24 February - 7 March 2015
Hong Kong matriarch Porpor Grace is invited to NZ for her granddaughter’s wedding. Well, not quite. Her surprise arrival, thousand-year-old eggs and all, throws more than a few spanners in the works. A comedy about daughters and their wayward mothers.


I Wanna Be Na Nah Na Nah Nah
by Tessa Mitchell, Stephen Bain and Dave Fane

The Basement 12 – 15, 18 – 22 and 22 February 2015
Ponsonby 1983, before neighbourhood fences and fashionable bars, when the future of this working-class melting-pot was anything but certain. Audiences wearing wireless headphones are led by performers who weave true stories and real-time drama, set to a darkly pulsing 80s soundtrack. The free bus leaves The Basement, headphones are limited so book early.

Black Faggot
by Victor Rodger

Multinesia at Centrepoint 14 - 28 February 2015
It's not easy being young, Samoan and gay. A series of humourous monologues from a multitude of different characters, exploring what it means to be gay and Pasifika in today's world. Filthy and funny, raw and emotional,  Black Faggot will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the power of love.


Robin Goblin
by Paul Rothwell

The Basement 16 - 19 February 2015
Robin has just made her first million - she's smart, successful and on top of the world. At least that's what she tells other people. Inwardly she's plagued by the notion that she's taken somebody else's life and is on the verge of being unmasked as an impostor. It's time for her to learn the truth about who she really is.

The Two Farting Sisters
by Renee Liang

BATS 17 – 21 February and Maidment Theatre 3-7 March 2015
The Two Farting Sisters is a delightfully cheeky and beautifully crafted show about a girl whose flatulence causes blossoms to bloom. This traditional Chinese fable is re-imagined in modern day New Zealand using shadow puppetry, 3D puppets, light and shadow to inspire the inner child in everyone.


The Shittiest Theatre You’ll Ever See
by Tom Sainsbury and Natalie Medlock

The Basement 18 February 2015
You got it, guys, this is the shittiest theatre you'll ever see. Needless soliloquies, questionable aging makeup, high emotions, bizarre plot twists, ineffective use of spotlights, an efficient stage management crew…
Come join the cast of nobodies as they tread the boards in this hilarious parody of theatre itself.

The Brave
by Massive Company

Hannah Playhouse 18 – 28 February 2015
Eight men take to the stage to honour those people who are or once were in their lives. Combining true confessions with raw athleticism, the men in THE BRAVE find strength through love, loss, belonging and brotherhood. The Brave lays it all on the line. It’s time to man up!


Bill Massey’s Tourists
by Jan Bolwell

Museum of City and Sea, Wellington 19 February 2015
Jan Bolwell shares the story of her grandfather's war on the Western Front. Is it, as Latin poet Horace claims, 'a sweet and honourable thing to die for your country'? At first her grandfather is reluctant to talk about the war but gradually Jan coaxes him to reveal what actually happened to him and his mates in the trenches of France and Flanders.

I Am A Cat
by Joseph Harper

The Basement 19 – 21 February 2015
Rota fortunae set to the sound of hard electronica and broken dreams as told by a cat.




The Vultures
by Miria George

Tawata Productions at Studio 77 24 – 28 February 2015
Sister Nurse Hinemoa and her siblings were raised in the glow of privilege.
Long after their childhood, the race for wealth and empire has splintered the whanau and their children. Finally the family has been called together – they must agree to expand the empire – even if it means destroying the world in the process. Money can’t buy you happiness. No wait – maybe it can.

A Tale of Three Lonely Men and their Quest for an Audience with the Elusive Moa by Jamie McCaskill
Tikapa Productions at Studio 77 24 - 28 February 2015
When you wake up with a head-ache to the deafening sound of birds and your bed is made of coloured leaves it’s time to cut back on the drink. When a guitar-playing hermit offers you drugs while talking to a flying weta it might be time to reassess your life. And when you fail your job interview with a racist spotted Kiwi, it’s time to seek spiritual advice from the elusive Moa!

Black Dog Relief - A Cabaret for Robbie Tripe
Q Theatre 1 March 2015
A one night only performance to honour a actor and writer Robbie Tripe. The stellar ensemble cast comprises celebrated performers including Colleen Davis, Andrew Laing ,Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Rima Te Wiata. The song list for Black Dog Relief has Robbie’s personal touch – his legacy, which he intended to perform in collaboration with artistic director Ward-Lealand, musical director Paul Barrett and producer Sharu Delilkan over two years ago.

Pupil Zero
by Paul Rothwell

Big Lies Theatre Company at Gryphon Theatre 4-7 March 2015
Over the course of 60 breathless minutes two actors play the entire cast of this new dark comedy by award-winning playwright Paul Rothwell. From the ancient forests, an unknown virus has been unleashed on a small rural primary school. Quarantined and isolated from civilisation, who will rise above the Ebola-like hysteria and restore sanity to heartland New Zealand?

Hīkoi
by Nancy Brunning

Auckland Festival at Q Theatre 4 – 8 March 2015
Husband and wife Nellie and Charlie are at odds with each other. With their family's future at stake they can't agree about whether to fight for what they believe in or forge a new future and forget past grievances. Meanwhile, their five hard-case teens, fed up with their parents' silences, secrets and quarrels pack their bags and take off in search of answers.

The Mooncake and the Kumara
by Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen

Auckland Festival at Q Theatre 5-10 March 2015
Nearly 90 years ago on a market garden in New Zealand, two families, one Māori and the other Chinese, became part of a romance that would uproot their lives over generations. Layered with myth and fable, this is a story about a mixed-up, Māori-Chinese love affair that sprouts among rows and rows of potatoes. It's a story about history, duty, secrets and the delicate balance needed to grow families.

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