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eBULLETIN
APRIL 2018
Shane Bosher accepts the 2018 Adam NZ Play Award for his play Everything After.
Image: Philip Merry
Kia ora <<First Name>>
Our biggest news of the month is of course the announcement of the winners of this year’s Adam NZ Play Award. We had an excellent afternoon at the presentation event with a huge number of playwrights in attendance. The awardees are listed below. It was thrilling (and made judging difficult) that we received such a strong line up of submissions this year. And it is particularly wonderful to know such a lot of them are hitting our stages – or have already opened. Two plays had already received non-professional productions before being entered, two productions have opened since the deadline for entries, four are scheduled to open in the coming months, and Playmarket is working to encourage productions of the remaining shortlisted plays (as well as some others that were entered in the competition). As I was able to report on the day, since 2008 when the competition began, there have been 51 shortlisted and winning plays that have been produced in 80 different productions.
The country’s largest arts festivals have both concluded for 2018 and it was gratifying to see New Zealand work stand proudly alongside the well-worked-in international shows.
Recently, I went to Playwriting Australia’s Play Festival. I think this was their best festival I have attended. An exciting range of work was on show in readings and I came away with excellent provocations from the industry sessions and the public conversation events were informative and entertaining. I received much positive feedback on Playmarket’s showcase at the last festival which has helped increase our profile with the leading theatre companies and it is great that some of our playwrights are getting programmed and commissioned in Australia.
Last month I was part of the selection panel for the 2018 Scottish playwright residency in New Zealand. The selected playwright Morna Young will be here for three months and be hosted by BATS theatre, Toi Poneke Arts Centre Wellington, and Playmarket. Morna will be attending our retreat, completing a commission funded by Creative Scotland, and participating in Rough Mix which is presented by Magnetic North and Creative New Zealand.
We are still open for applications for the 2018 Playmarket retreat and information can be found below. This is an excellent opportunity to write without distraction and with the stimulation of a group of other writers around you – including the aforementioned Scottish playwright.
Lastly, in the mode of providing information requested in our client survey feedback, I though I would tell you about the prescribed text and electronic distribution licences that we issue. These licences were created to help loan manuscripts to universities for course study while ensuring playwrights receive royalties like they do for the photocopying licences we issue with our regular licences. The scripts we supply are stored on a file or software at the university library where a student can download, print or read one copy of the script. The electronic distribution licence allows loans of the script for an unlimited term to unlimited users, but as it is a library loan the pdf will be set to expire for the individual user after the set library issue period. The library is charged a fee for the use of each title. The prescribed text licence makes the script available electronically for a term of one year, to x number of users simultaneously for study on a course. The library or course coordinator is charged a fee per user of each title.
As a great philosopher once said: Now the colder weather is settling in writing a play near the heater is a wonderful way to spend your time.
Ngā mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
ADAM AWARDS
Playmarket presented the winning plays and playwrights for 2018 at Circa Theatre on 7 April. Congratulations to all!
Adam NZ Play Award: Shane Bosher for Everything After
Best Play by a Māori Playwright: Albert Belz for Cradle Song and Jason Te Mete for Little Black Bitch
Best Play by a Pasifika Playwright: Suli Moa for Tales of A Princess
Best Play by a Woman Playwright: Angie Farrow for Before the Birds
Congratulations also to our shortlisted playwights; Claire Ahuriri-Dunning, Aroha Awarau, Sam Brooks, James Cain, Emily Duncan, Chye-Ling Huang, Justin Lewis, Jacob Rajan, Vela Manusaute, Arthur Meek, Joe Musaphia, Dean Parker, Bruce Clyde Thomson, James van Dyk and Roy Ward,
Thank you to the Adam Foundation for their generosity and Circa Theatre for their support. You can check out the photo gallery of the event on our Facebook page here.
NEWS
 AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 15 - 20 MAY 2018
One of our favourite festivals returns for 2018 with some great theatre related content.
PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST MONGREL: ROWLEY HABIB
A delight of music, readings and performance, directed by Nancy Brunning and with a distinguished cast including: Rawiri Paratene; Te Kahu Rolleston; Tanea Heke and Mitch Tawhi Thomas, in celebration of labourer turned award-winning Māori writer Rowley Habib (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Lebanese). Hear Habib’s words championing the urban Māori voice and then join in the post-show kōrero.
18 – 20 May, Herald Theatre Aotea Centre
VICTOR RODGER: FOUR PLAY TOOLS
One of New Zealand’s most successful playwrights, Victor Rodger, offers a tour of the four basic tools for telling compelling stories: strong characters, believable dialogue, engaging conflict, and goals and obstacles which protagonists must face.
5 – 6:30pm 19 May 2018
STAGE WOMEN: LISA DWAN
Anna Karenina, Antigone and the women of Beckett are just some of the roles that Irish actor Lisa Dwan has fashioned as her own in an illustrious theatrical career. As heated debate continues over the position and representation of women on and off the stage and screen, Dwan joins Fiona Samuel for a conversation about towering female literary characters, what they reveal about both the past and current stirred-up times.
11:30am 19 May 2018
See here for more information and the complete programme.
 SOME IDEAS FOR NZ THEATRE MONTH SEPTEMBER 2018
Not everyone can put on a New Zealand production during NZ Theatre month. But there are many other ways that NZ Theatre can be celebrated.
During the month, Auckland’s Q Theatre is having four conversations with playwrights; Dolphin Theatre is devoting each of the Monday nights to a topic on NZ Theatre.
Many suggestions have come in.
Holding a reading of a classic NZ play that you love but have trouble casting in normal circumstances; or a play you might consider for your next year’s programme.
Displaying costumes or models of sets from some previous productions at the library or in a local store window.
Hosting a morning or afternoon tea to honour the founders, long term members and leading lights of your organisation? (It is too rarely that we take time out to share stories and successes of those who have driven the society/theatre company forward.)
Are there local theatre heroes (not necessarily directly linked to your theatre) whom you can honour?
A quiz with a NZ Theatre theme. (Possible fund-raiser?).
One suggestion has been that we dedicate one day in the month to all the skilled people who work back stage: set designers; costume; lighting, sound, stage manager. They probably all deserve a day to themselves, but the point is how much is the average theatre-goer aware of their skills and what they do? Give your audience the chance to hear how a set designer goes about their work; how does the wardrobe designer get the clothes... or are they made specially? What does a stage manager do (and do they have any horror stories? Most do). Maybe link any of the above with back-stage tours?
An exhibition of posters of the works you have staged over the years in your theatre foyer, library or a local store window.
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ARTICLES
THE NICK ENRIGHT KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY WESLEY ENOCH
PLAYWRITING AUSTRALIA NATIONAL PLAY FESTIVAL 2018
THE BILL OF WRITES – THE RESPONSIBILITIES, RIGHTS AND COST OF BEING A WRITER
Telling stories bind a society but in a world of increasing commercial pressures are we losing our way? Writers have the responsibility to use their creative vision to help comment on the world and shape discourse, to prototype behaviours, vocabularies and role modelling for an imagined future. Too often the most important social concerns are left on the cutting room floor as we self-censor and avoid offence in favour of mass appeal. What does a playwright have do to fulfill the unspoken contract with a society?
Read more here or watch it here.
WE ARE HIGHLY, HIGHLY INDIVIDUALISED CREATURES
Declan Greene for Audrey Journal
Declan Greene fires back at comments made by Wesley Enoch in his Nick Enright Keynote Address.
Read more here.
IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS LITERATURE IN TARANAKI?
David Hill for The Spinoff.
An occasional series which investigates whether any literary activity exists in the provinces.
Read more here.
MOVING ON UP
James Cain for The Big Idea
James Cain’s play 'Movers' was been shortlisted for the Playmarket Adam NZ Play Award. He reflects on how working in a small business with a big heart influenced his art.
Read more here.
THE TIME FOR ART IS NOW
by Claire Messud for The Paris Review
Art has the power to alter our interior selves, and in so doing to inspire, exhilarate, provoke, connect, and rouse us. As we are changed, our souls are awakened to possibility—immeasurable, yes, and potentially infinite. If ever there was a time for art, it's now.
Read more here.
WHY IS COUNCIL SHORT CHANGING THE ARTS AND SPORT?
Simon Wilson for NZ Herald
Auckland Council had two big plans out for community consultation. One was a refresh of the Auckland Plan, the vision statement for the city reaching ahead to 2050. The other, a new version of the council's 10-year budget, formerly known as the long-term plan. In neither document has the council been kind to the arts or to sport, at the levels of either community engagement or elite performance.
Read more here
A BUNCH OF AMATEURS? PLAYWRIGHTS' ASTONISHING AM-DRAM EXPERIENCES
Matt Trueman for The Guardian
David Eldridge, Simon Stephens and Alecky Blythe have all been moved by watching non-professional productions of their plays. They explain the appeal.
Read more here |
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PLAYMARKET RETREAT
PLAYS FOR THE YOUNG COMPETITION
BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO SCREENWRITING - AUCKLAND
WRITING FOR THEATRE
WRITE ROOM - SCREEN WRITING RESIDENCY 2018
Easy Money
The First Time
Movers
Still Life with Chickens
Pippi Longstocking
Badjelly the Witch
Odd One Out
A Paintbox of Clowns
Robin Hood
Twinkle
My Fat/ Sad
Self Helped
Giggly Gerties
