eBULLETIN
 MARCH 2015
It's easy to fetishize collaboration, think of it as some skill unique to creative arts. But collaboration is really another name for the challenge of human relationships, different people with different histories working together to try to make something meaningful to everyone. This involves such complex skills of knowing what you feel, learning how to articulate it, learning how to listen and how to compromise and how to deal with frustration, disappointment and disillusionment. To me what's especially exciting about this work is that these are often the dilemmas characters face in plays, when they come into conflict with themselves and others—the challenge of the rehearsal room is so often the challenge of the dramatic work and vice versa. We are all just trying to figure out how to be with and alongside one another and keep our life force out in front of our potential for destruction.
Christopher Shinn, Playwright and tutor
Kia ora <<First Name>>
What a difficult job the Adam judging has been this year. The entries were so strong we ended up with a longer shortlist than ever. Of course there are many more of the sixty-eight entries that couldn’t make the cut but that doesn’t diminish the potential for production of many of those in the future. The judges read all of the plays blind and until yesterday had no idea – maybe they could guess at some – as to who had written them. Now it’s the exciting final phase of collating the judges marking and organising the presentation to the winners later in the month at Circa Theatre.
I promised full news of the Scotland residency this month but there’s some fine-tuning going on behind the scenes at present. Application information will hopefully be available very soon…
The Playmarket publishing panel has met and decided on this year’s volumes. There will be three, including a co-publication with Victoria University Press. Details of these will be in the next bulletin. There’s some negotiation and contracting to happen first, but I promise an exciting line up.
Below you will find everything you need to know about the call out for submissions to our 2015 Brown and Asian Ink programmes. We had an increase in Maori, Pasifika, and Asian entries to the current Adam Award and I hope this means we will continue to receive more exciting scripts to consider for development. You’ve also got till April 1st to send in your entries to Playwrights b4 25. There’s some news about a function associated with that soon to be announced too.
Stuart, Salesi and Claire have all been working hard as the 2015 planning gets into full action and as the myriad licensing, assessments, reading of new scripts, preparation for competitions and call outs, organisation of clinics, and fulfillment of book sales, all start to flow we are running at our desks to keep up - and in this delightful heat. That’s not to mention fringe festivals in three cities and premieres all over the country plus the Auckland Festival in full swing - it’s very hard to keep up: the best kind of challenge to have.
I feel like the bulletin has been a bit of a tease this month but rest assured you will not have to wait long for the full details of these projects. It’s just one of those times when I’m so excited by what’s happening I had to let you know some tidbits before everything can be officially announced
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
NEWS
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ARTICLES
BOUGHT AND PAID FOR—IS ACT'S SEVEN WAYS TO GET THERE THE NEW MODEL FOR ARTS PATRONAGE?
Brendan Killey for The Stranger
At Seattle’s ACT Theatre, a first-time playwright has used his wealth and connections to guarantee the financial success of his own show.
Read more here and a response from Melissa at Bitter Gertrude here
YOUR GUIDE TO THEATRE EDUCATION: CHRISTOPHER SHINN AT THE NEW SCHOOL’S MFA PLAYWRITING PROGRAMME
David Dudley for HowlRound
David Dudley interviews Christopher Shinn of The New School’s MFA playwriting programme.
Read more here
A NATIONAL THEATRE OF AUSTRALIA IS NEEDED, AND IT’S TIME
Julian Meyrick for ArtsHub
A national theatre doesn’t have to look like the UK’s brutalist Royal National Theatre, or the wedding-cake edifices found across continental Europe. It doesn’t have to have a building at all. It can be an agenda, a programming resource that works through our existing organisations to extend what they are doing and better incentivise it, especially in the production of Australian drama.
Read more here
A STAGE OF THEIR OWN: WHY FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS ARE STILL MARGINALISED
Ellie Horne for The Guardian
At the National Theatre and beyond, female playwrights’ work is still frequently hived off in smaller spaces and slapped with the ‘radical’ tag. Are our leading theatrical institutions built on suspect foundations?
Read more here
DIRECTOR JOHN SENCZUK ARGUES THE 'PERTH SOLUTION' WOULD FUND NEW AUSTRALIAN MUSICALS
Andrew Taylor for Sydney Morning Herald
If Australians love musicals so much, why are there so few big works telling their own stories with their own music? A summary of the new Platform Paper from Currency House in which theatre designer, director and scholar John Senczuk dismisses each excuse and proposes a radical new model of development for new works.
Read more here
The Time is Ripe for the Great Australian Musical by John Senczuk is available here
THERE'S BAD NEWS FOR E-READERS — AND GREAT NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO STILL LOVE ACTUAL BOOKS
Kevin O’Keeffe for Arts.Mic
Continuing a recent trend, e-reader sales have continued to drop from their 2012 high — to the point of affecting overall revenue at major publishing houses.
Read more here |
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KATHRYN BURNETT WORKSHOPS
