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
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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.
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