Copy
The PLAYMARKET eBulletin - full of News and Opportunities for NZ Playwrights.

eBULLETIN APRIL 2012 

I want Australian work, in all its diversity to form the core of our national theatre. I want it to be the main game. This is not an argument for the exclusivity of an all-Australian program. I think that what Sam Strong is doing at Griffin by continuing its tradition of introducing new Australian work whilst revisiting the company's own canon is smart. The curatorial approach to programming is strong and clear. But I would argue for the same approach to be taken by all the major companies. I would argue that Australian work should be their core business and international work the support act.
Some would argue that I am being parochial. I disagree. I believe that our work is good enough. I believe that our work is important enough. I believe that our work is diverse enough to occupy the core position of what we do. And it is only by being the central focus that it will continue to grow in strength.

Andrew Bovell (Australian Playwright/Screenwriter/tutor)

Kia ora <<First Name>> 
A healthy dose of new work is opening around the country right now and last month’s International Arts Festival in Wellington revealed a strong showing of local plays. This year’s professional calendars are presenting more NZ plays than ever; Arts festivals around the country are announcing programmes containing more local productions; Fringe Festivals in Wellington and Dunedin were packed with new plays; there are some fine commissions on the way; there are regular play readings happening in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin and some soon to be announced in Wellington; there were several exciting pitches in the Auckland Festival’s Watch This Space programme recently; and Playmarket is providing development assistance to each of the auspicious works shortlisted for the Adam NZ Play Award. All of this reveals a pretty healthy climate for playwrights.
 
Of course there are many more plays than can get onstage at any one time and many frustrated client playwrights struggle to get their work in front of that person who will click with their play and produce or direct it. We do our best to circulate plays to the most appropriate prospective producers but welcome ideas you may have, particularly names of any person or organisation that might like to receive our occasional lists promoting new plays and those from the canon to be considered for staging.
 
In this bulletin’s Opportunites section you’ll find more avenues for getting your play read and news of Playmarket’s meeting recently with the Film Commission to partner in opening more doors for playwrights. There’s more information on this below and there will also be new initiatives between the Film Commission and Playmarket that will be revealed in the future.
 
We have received a record number of entries in the Playwrights b4 25 from playwrights of the future. We are currently reading and assessing these. An announcement is due in our June bulletin.
 
Playwrights please remember to update your bio with us. You’d be surprised how often your page is visited on our website and we’d love your information to be up to date. Contact Aneta.
 
Does anyone have a copy of Playlunch: five Short NZ Plays (Otago Studies in English, No.4)? It is now out of print. Playmarket has sold the last copy we had and we don’t have one for our library. We’d love to buy one.
 
It’s a bulging edition of the bulletin this month. Read and enjoy before you pop yourself in front of the computer to continue writing your next play.


Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch
Director of Playmarket


PLAYMARKET is pleased to announce the
ADAM NZ PLAY AWARD winner 2012:

Mitch Tawhi Thomas for his play HUI
"Hui's characters are ones that have been absent from our stages. This testosterone fuelled provocation invites the male population to look closely at themselves." says Director of Playmarket Murray Lynch who announced the win at Circa Theatre on 24 April 2012 alongside four other special award winners.
Best Play by a Maori Playwright:
 Mitch Tawhi Thomas for Hui
Runner-Up and Best Play by a Woman Playwright  and The Play Press Submission to the Susan Smith Blackburn prize: Dawn Cheong for Remnants of the Silk Maker’s Ghosts
Runner-up: Philip Braithwaite for White City
Best Play by a Pasifika Playwright: Jonathan Riley for Makigi
PumpHouse Theatre Prize for an Auckland Playwright: Pip Hall for Ache
A rehearsed reading of Hui followed the announcement.
Read more here


PLAYMARKET PLAYWRIGHTS' RETREAT
18 – 25 June 2012.
The Retreat is a chance to focus on your writing in a distraction free, comfortable and inspiring environment. There will be NO cooking or cleaning to do, NO T.V. or internet to distract, nothing to organise or prepare and no deadlines to meet.
It is just a time to write.
We are now accepting submissions so visit our website here for further information and submission details.
 
Submissions close 23 April 2012



CONGRATULATIONS TO...
Pip Hall - The first recipient of the Rebecca Mason Coaching sessions for 2012.
Dianna Fuemana - off to the Solomon Islands to stage her new play Birds at the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts in July this year.
Jeff Kingsford-Brown - appointed the new Artistic Director of Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North.

OPPORTUNITIES


PLAYS FOR THE YOUNG COMPETITION 2012
Playmarket is putting a special effort into gathering and co-ordinating the best of all plays that fall into this category, from adaptations of fairy tales for tiny children, to plays written by teachers especially for the classroom, to the most searing explorations of adolescence written by teenagers themselves. We want to encourage strong, original and inventive writing for young people both from those new to writing for the young, and the experienced. 
See our website here for more info.
Submissions close 31 July 2012


AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY NEXT STAGE
Submissions of full length plays for The Next Stage are now being accepted.
Three plays will be selected for a 10 day workshop process followed by a season of three public presentations November 16-18.
Submission deadline 2 July 2012
See their website here for more details


DARK MONDAYS
The PumpHouse is calling for writers, directors and actors to become members of Dark Mondays, The PumpHouse’s new script development initiative.
On a regular basis they will host a Monday play-reading with a director and actors chosen by the playwright and the Dark Mondays’ team.
Anyone wishing to join Dark Mondays or submit a script for play-reading please contact David Martin or call The PumpHouse on 09 486 2386.

NZWG - DATE NIGHT
14 April in Wellington
This is structured networking event for writers, directors and producers who are looking for new partnerships and projects. 
See here for more info and to register.


PLAY LISTS
Calling directors, drama teachers, producers and theatre companies of all sorts - let us know if you would like to be included in one of our special mailing groups to receive a regular list of new and newly available playscripts. We send synopses and cast breakdown, and reminders of older works that may be suitable too. We send free perusal ecopy of any play that appeals on request. All you need to do is email Jean with your details and you will be included on the appropriate list.

WRITING COURSES 2012
EVENING COURSE WITH GARY HENDERSON

Writing Theatre is a year-long programme with celebrated playwright and teacher Gary Henderson and consists of four eight-week terms. You’ll learn the art and craft of writing for live performance, using the spoken word, action, light, sound, and design. You’ll discover your own unique voice and create stories that will touch and move an audience. You’ll learn skills which you can easily adapt to other forms of writing or storytelling.
See here for more information
Term one starts 3 May 2012

 
SCRIPTWRITING FOR BEGINNERS
Victoria University short course

Learn what makes an effective screenplay and how to engage and hook an audience. Explore why we connect with certain film or TV characters and not with others, how to keep your story interesting, keep it moving along and how to avoid the problems that make you hit the wall with your writing. Tutor is Gavin McGibbon.
See here for more. 
 

TUTORING
Ever wanted to write a play? Got a great idea but just need some help getting it on the page? Got it on the page, but need some help to improve it? Hit a brick wall? Help is here, insightful, expert guidance that will put you on the track and help you to complete that special piece of theatre you've always wanted to.  
We can put you in touch with excellent playwright/writing tutors who are running a variety of courses - online or in person; long, short, group and one-on-one - for very reasonable fees.  
If you would like to know more, send your requirements to Jean Betts and she will explain the options and suggest appropriate mentors - all professional playwrights and senior Playmarket clients.




The Playmarket eBulletin is published monthly.

Submissions relevant to playwrights are welcome for consideration, but must be received by the end of the previous month to make our deadline.
Submit here

Highlights of the Festival include an hour with prize winning and Booker-nominated Irish novelist, playwright and poet, Sebastian Barry; Kathryn Burnett's popular “directed creativity” sessions; an hour with expat New Zealand writer, scriptwriter and film director Anthony McCarten and ATC's reading of Stuart Hoar's Exile.
The 2012 programme is now online here.

STAGE TO SCREEN: 
Playmarket and the NZ Film Commission
Playmarket and the New Zealand Film Commission’s Development team have been brainstorming ways to bridge the gap between stage and screen for working writers.  The team conveyed a strong desire to work with more playwrights to develop complementary screenwriting careers, whether through creating new work specifically for screen or adapting existing plays for cinema. The NZFC is excited by the potential to work more closely with Playmarket and see this as win-win for writers.
Playmarket and the NZFC are now developing a number of initiatives aimed at supporting professional development and project opportunities for dramatic writers in New Zealand. In the interim, the NZFC encourages writers interested in developing projects for cinema to review the NZFC Development guidelines on their website and/or contact NZFC Development Coordinator
,
Faith Dennis  with any queries and for guidance on the most appropriate steps to take. 
(Playmarket will also be suggesting work that we feel might have feature film potential, so get in touch with us directly if you are keen for us to submit work on your behalf, or would like advice.)
 

When the NZFC reviews short story documents, its team looks for a clear sense of the story as the audience would see this unfold. It’s not about camera directions, it’s about capturing on the page the experience of engaging with the story in a visual way, rather than resorting to extensive dialogue or prose elements that explicate internal mental/emotional states but which an audience could not observe, intuit or feel. They are looking for simple, present tense, active language that is spare, visually evocative (without being florid) and avoids getting bogged down in scene detail at the expense of an unfolding, organic narrative.
 

New Zealand Writers Guild Treatment Workshops
The NZWG has been running a number of these recently with writers/script consultants Steve Barr and Kathryn Burnett. We encourage you to join the NZWG and to engage with these sessions. The NZWG website also includes a useful Beginners Guide for Film.
 
Script Factory
The NZFC has licensed a Foundation Script Development Training Workshop from the Script Factory, a leading UK-based private development training agency.  This is a free two-weekend workshop for writers, developers, creative producers and all those who work with story.  It’s now run by the NZWG and sessions are held throughout the country as demand and convenor scheduling permit. Contact Steven at the NZWG for more details or see the NZFC website for an overview of the format.


ARTICLES

Why Isn't Theatre Dead Yet?
Radio New Zealand Arts on Sunday
A panel recorded at the recent New Zealand International Arts Festival Writers and Readers Week in Wellington, debating the premise that theatre is dead. Ken Duncum, teacher of Victoria University’s scriptwriting course, led a discussion with playwrights and screenwriters Dave Armstrong and Robert Shearman.
Listen here.

Rethinking Intellectual Property
Isaac Butler for HowlRound
"There is a general sense—both within creative communities and the public at large—that efforts by large corporations to control their intellectual property have gotten out of hand."
Read more here

 
Arts Cuts - England
Nick Collins for The Telegraph
Some of England's leading independent theatres are facing an uncertain future after more than 200 organisations were told their Arts Council funding will be withdrawn. Some 1,333 arts companies applied for funding but from next April the Arts Council's portfolio of 849 regularly funded organisations will be slashed to just 695, which includes 110 new additions.
The settlement means hundreds of groups now have a year in which to find new sources of funding, restructure their finances or close entirely.

Read the full article here

Joining forces - the mother of invention
Michaela Boland for The Australian

When corporate Australia stumbled, and private donors watched their fortunes ebb and flow, arts companies who were reliant on their donations were forced to adjust expectations. Artistic Directors and major companies in Australia are now working together to create more opportunities for local talent.
Read more here


Write what you know - the most misunderstood piece of good advice ever
Nathan Englander on Big Think

The critically acclaimed author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank says that “write what you know” is one of the best and most misunderstood pieces of advice, ever. It paralyzes aspiring authors into thinking that authenticity in fiction means thinly veiled autobiography. If you’re a drunken, brawling adventurer, like Hemingway, no problem. But Englander, who grew up in the Orthodox Jewish community of West Hempstead, New York, says he spent a lot of his childhood watching TV, playing videogames, and dreaming about being a writer. Was he required to write about the Atari 2600?  
Read the full article here

ACE and BBC Theatre content  online
The Stage News

Bristol Old Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe and Sadler’s Wells will be among the first companies to create theatre content for a new online arts channel being launched by Arts Council England and the BBC. The channel, called The Space, will launch on 1 May and will be available via PCs, smartphones, tablets and internet-connected televisions.
Read more here


FROM THE ARCHIVES

Congratulations to last month's winner Erin Banks who correctly guessed Squatter by Stuart Hoar and won a copy of Playmarket's latest publication Katydid

This month's From the Archives is in honour of NZ stage legend Grant Tilly, who passed away this week. 

"Grant Tilly is magnificent and poignant in this Herculean role, one moment a monster, the next a devoted friend, one moment a child, the next a man alone" Lynn Freeman

What is the play? See here for competition details and to enter the draw to win a copy of the play.
THEATRE CALENDAR

LIVE AT SIX
By Dean Hewison and Leon Wadham
Cuba Creative

Downstage Theatre 13 - 28 April 2012 
When footage of a celebrity news anchor misbehaving goes viral, both her network and the competition have less than 24 hours to package the story. Whose version will the public believe – and more importantly, whose will they tune in to?
  
A SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS
By Roger Hall
Circa Theatre
 14 April - 26 May 2012 

"There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them" - Vicki Baum
A fabulous new comedy about the lives, loves and misadventures of a folk-dancing class, A Shortcut to Happiness has all the usual Hall trademarks - shrewd observations, much mocking of Kiwis' curious customs, and of course, plenty of laughs.
 
YOU CAN ALWAYS HAND THEM BACK
By Roger Hall
Centrepoint Theatre 14 April - 26 May 2012 

WORLD PREMIERE - You Can Always Hand Them Back is an hilarious but insightful comedy about the highlight of the twilight years - doing it all over again in the baby trenches. Grandparents dodge dirty nappies and deal with sleep deprivation and portable cribs. This show brings to light all the little pleasures and smelly surprises of the joys of grandparenting.

OTHER PEOPLE'S WARS
By Dean Parker
The Bacchanals
BATS Theatre 17 - 28 April 2012

The so-called ‘War on Terror’ has been the longest foreign war in NZ history, yet most New Zealanders know almost nothing about our part in it. Since 9/11 the NZ military have successfully duped both public and government over the true nature of our involvement in America’s illegal invasion of Afghanistan, hiding behind a cloud of bogus PR tales of ‘peacekeeping’ and ‘humanitarian aid’. 

FLORAL NOTES
By Geraldine Brophy
Circa Theatre
 4 - 28 April 2012 

Told with humour and charm, Floral Notes is a touching, sometimes poignant story of two childhood pen pals whose lives are enriched when their friendship is re-newed. A fabulous new musical play starring  Geraldine Brophy and Jane Keller.


Copyright © 2012 All rights reserved.