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eBULLETIN
NOVEMBER 2012
"I've got to write often to try to stay 'in-form'. I try to keep business hours to stop from going insane, but don't always manage it. And 99 per cent of the writing I do is so God-awfully bad you'd be offended by it, but I don't believe there is any such thing as 'waiting for inspiration'. You have to seek it out."
Tom Holloway (Published in Australian Writers Guild Magazine Storyline: issue 32)
Kia ora <<First Name>>
Since I began in the role of Director of Playmarket almost three years ago I have been charged with undertaking a review of the organisation. Last year we updated and revised our rules of incorporation to respond to changes in the way Boards currently operate. The Board has also reviewed its composition, its governance policies, and delegated authorities, and I completed a review of all of our operational policies.
More recently I have been reviewing the operational structure. This has involved asking questions about what staffing structure best aligns with Playmarket’s strategic and business plans and what structure allows us to operate most efficiently - among other factors. Since May I have been analysing this, and seeking feedback. As a result I have adopted a realignment of our staffing structure and Playmarket is currently in transition to this different structure. The model we have adopted realigns a number of tasks and the allocation of responsibility for fulfilling them; it also reallocates the time spent on specific projects. It moves from a model with six staff mostly working on a permanent part time basis, to one of four full-time staff. This is not a reduction in hours or our programme or in the capacity of the organisation.
To guide Playmarket clients and our constituency into the future there will be three new full time roles working with the Director: A Licensing Administrator and a Market Development Administrator working out of our Wellington office; and a Script Development Advisor will work out of our Auckland office.
The change means that some roles no longer exist, which will bring change within our staffing. This is unfortunate, because all of our staff have worked tirelessly for the organisation. I am sure you will join with me in wishing those staff who are leaving us at this time all the very best for the future.
I feel confident however that the new structure will serve us well, and I feel that despite a difficult transition we will be moving to a model that improves our capability and our efficiency. I hope that all of our client playwrights, the producers we work with, and the theatre community can work with me to ensure a healthy and effective transition that will be completed by early 2013.
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
NEWS
CIRCA AND PLAYMARKET PRESENT
A REHEARSED READING OF
MIKE & VIRGINIA
BY KATHRYN BURNETT & NICK WHITE
Circa Two - Saturday 17 November 2012 - 2pm
“Let us consider the ludicrous nature of romantic comedy…”
So begins this witty, fast-paced romp that sets out to subvert every romantic comedy convention in the book.
Mike & Virginia. Both competitive. Both film lecturers. Her speciality is romantic comedy, his is monster movies. She thinks he’s a knuckle-dragging ape, he thinks she’s an uptight cow. All it takes is some bad advice from respective best friends and an appalling screenplay by a student called Sven Bangley to set this romance on its inevitable path.
But what happens when love turns out to be the most terrifying monster of all?
Book now
CONGRATULATIONS TO...
Arun Subramaniam - Winner of Playmarket's inaugural Asian Ink competition and selected for a clinic in December for his play A Moment or Two.
Fiona Samuel - 2012 New Zealand Television Award winner (Best Director Drama/Comedy) for Bliss – The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield.
See here for the full list of winners as announced at the ceremony in Auckland on Saturday.
John Broughton and Taki Rua Productions - Michael James Manaia played at the Melbourne Arts Festival last month to rave reviews.
Long time Hamilton client Campbell Smith who has been sending plays to Playmarket since the 1970s, and has 25 plays on our books. The 25th arrived a few days ago, The Red and Gold, a play on the Waihi Strike, 1912, which is being performed by the Waihi Drama Society next month as part of the strike centenary.
We would like to congratulate Campbell on three other counts. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato, and his involvement in the building of the new Art Gallery and Museum has also contributed to him being cited as having made “a special contribution to the arts in Hamilton”.
Also, this month a volume of Campbell’s plays is due to be launched, published by Steele Roberts, which we will have on sale in our bookshop as soon as it arrives.
The impressive list of Campbell’s plays includes many based around NZ historical and political events and characters, and includes – Burning Sun (Thomas Kendall), Mabel (Mabel Howard), Soldier’s Song (Anzac), Luck of the Game (Kingsford-Smith), Whitebait Running (race relations), From the Port Hills (Ursula Bethell), Frances Hodgkins, Painter; Blighty (WWI), Through the Dark Clouds Shining (Ettie Rout); and Sapper Moore-Jones, painter of Gallipoli – as well as some complete originals, and work for children.
DAVID CARSON-PARKER
A prominent figure of the Wellington arts scene, David Carson-Parker, died last month - reportedly on the way home from the opera.
A statement from the Arts Foundation described Mr Carson-Parker as a dedicated and generous supporter of the arts who would often ring the office with ''great enthusiasm for a new idea, scheme or solution''.
During his long career in the arts, Mr Carson-Parker's positions included chairman of the printmakers council, member of the board of directors of Downstage Theatre, president of the Friends of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, founding director and chairman of the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra Trust and a trustee of the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.
ATC NEXT STAGE
Three exciting new plays have been selected for Auckland Theatre Company's festival of new work, THE NEXT STAGE. The annual work-in-progress public season will be held from 16 - 18 November at Auckland Theatre Company's studios in Dominion Road.
Read more here
The 2012 festival begins with PANIORA! by pre-eminent playwright and screenwriter Briar Grace-Smith, the inaugural recipient of the Arts Foundation Laureate Award (2000). Directed by Colin McColl with Miriama McDowell, Calvin Tuteao, Jarod Rawiri and Nancy Brunning the play weaves an enthralling tale about the unique culture of the Paniora, the Maori-Spaniards of Taiawa on the East Coast, and one man's desire to reignite the fire that burned in the belly of his forebears.
Friday 16-Nov 7.30pm
Saturday 17-Nov 4.30pm
THE TREES BENEATH THE LAKE by Arthur Meek, recent winner of the Harriet Friedlander New York Residency, is a challenging piece about politics and family where high-flyer William Lyders makes a last ditch attempt to save his reputation and his personal fortune. Simon Bennett directs and the cast includes Michael Hurst, Theresa Healey and Catherine Wilkin.
Saturday 17-Nov 1.00pm
Sunday 18-Nov 3.30pm
Set in Wellington in 1881, NATIVE AFFAIRS by award-winning poet, essayist and fiction writer Alice Miller, is directed by Andrew Foster. Alongside Tandi Wright and Laurel Devenie, Stephen Lovatt plays ambitious newspaper proprietor Lawerence Foster, who is determined to become the next Premier of the new colony.
Saturday 17-Nov 7.30pm
Sunday 18-Nov 1.00pm
BATS THEATRE FINDS TEMPORARY HOME
BATS Theatre has announced that it will temporarily relocate to the McKenzie Theatre in the Capital E centre in Civic Square, opening its first season there in early 2013. The move will allow for planned earthquake strengthening and refurbishment work to take place at 1 Kent Terrace, the theatre’s home for the last 22 years.
The temporary relocation will mean BATS can continue to present the majority of its regular annual programme in the city centre. The 2013 BATS programme at the McKenzie Theatre will include the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, Young and Hungry Festival of New Theatre, BATS' own STAB programme and selected seasons of theatre works by New Zealand artists.
THE NEW ZEALAND THEATRE ARCHIVE
Many of New Zealand's theatrical records are lost forever. You can help save what remain and keep them for the future.
The New Zealand Theatre Archive (NZTA) is a charitable trust promoting the preservation of theatre archives. They aim to identify all New Zealand's theatre archives, to list them, and encourage theatres and individuals across the country to place their theatre treasures in repositories where they can be professionally preserved. The NZTA also supports theatre groups in the management and preservation of their own archives.
Check out their website for more information.
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ARTICLES
DOES WILLY NEED PROTECTING?
Terry Teachout for The Wall Street Journal
Simon Stone, the resident director of Belvoir St. Theatre, an Australian company, jumped head first into a pail of boiling oil when he took it upon himself to rewrite Death of a Salesman.
No sooner did ICM, the agency that represents Mr. Miller's estate and licenses his plays for production around the world, get wind of the changes than Belvoir was informed that if the company didn't perform Death of a Salesman in its entirety—complete with epilogue—the production would be shut down.
Read the article here
CARYL CHURCHILL BY THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HER BEST
The Guardian
Her plays arrive fully formed – and she refuses to talk about what they mean.
In the light of Churchill's silence, Mark Lawson talks to actors, directors and her publisher about what really makes Churchill tick.
Read the article here
MADAM MIAOW MAKES MINCEMEAT OF THE RSC OVER NON-CHINESE CASTING
Safron Wlaking’s blog Shakespeare Travels
Madam Miaow, aka steampunk poet and Chinese cultural activist Anna Chen, is leading the campaign to ‘out’ Greg Doran (Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) and the RSC as culturally insensitive (at best) or institutionally racist (at worst) after they cast predominantly non-Chinese as leading roles in the classical Chinese play The Orphan of Zhao, by Ji Junxiang. To add insult to injury, the poster only mentions the name of its adaptor, James Fenton. Furthermore, the three Chinese cast members play ‘two dogs and a maid’… Admittedly, the maid is a fairly main part and the dogs are talented puppeteers, but in all the RSC’s research did they not realise the cultural significance of equating Chinese with dogs?
Read more here
MORE OFTEN THESE DAYS THE DIRECTOR IS A SHE
Matt Wolf for The New York Times
More women directors are proffering their work in London than I can ever recall and at a level lately that has often eclipsed the men in their midst. Why this concentration of talent?
Read more here
THE HIGH OF LO-FI
Greg Bruce for The Pantograph Punch
No matter when you’re reading this, there’s a good chance Tom Sainsbury has a play on. On the off- chance he doesn’t, he’ll probably be writing one.
Last week, he was at the Basement co-starring in a series of short plays he co- wrote; tonight, he’ll be at the Maidment studio, co-starring in a dance thriller he wrote; and late last year, Greg Bruce followed him through the production of one of his myriad plays to find out what it’s like being New Zealand’s most prolific playwright.
Read more here
THAT'S MY PROFESSOR CURSING ON STAGE
Allan Kizinn for The New York Times
David P. Schmidt stood center stage at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University here and glowered through his glasses at the audience before leaping into a corrosive, expletive-laden monologue from Glengarry Glen Ross. His character, Blake, is a hotshot manager, sent by the home office to inspire a handful of real estate salesmen with a contest: First prize, an Eldorado. Second prize, a set of steak knives. Third prize, you’re fired.
Read on here
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