“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all /Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” John Keats

I am going to declare up front that I know (socially) director James Beach and actor Andrew Henry. I have eaten pizza with James and admired his work for a long time – he has directed some of the most provocative new plays in Sydney’s Independent theatre scene and we have beautifully debated and been tangled up in conversations at great length in a mutual friends kitchen topics such as: the place of American accent on the Australian stage, politics of theatre, feminism. James Beach has my undying respect and admiration. Andrew Henry I have had coffee with, and have had charming conversations, he’s even offered his voice and mind to a reading of a first draft of new writer I am working with. Recently back from Steppanwolf, Andrew is a delightful and highly energetic artist whom I have also conversationally wrestled with about accents and new plays and the place of American writing on our independent stage. It is for Andrew that earlier this year I decided to bend my “only Australian plays” rule for 2012 – because his passion for LaBute and Reasons to be Pretty were so compelling.

Neil LaBute’s Reasons to be Pretty written in 2008, has leapt forth onto the Darlinghurst Theatre stage for its Australian premiere. This production has been well reviewed during its premiere seasons in The US and the UK – and many of the reviews have introduced it in many ways: and usually commenting on LaBute’s developing cannon and where the play fits in with his concerns of the heart/human interaction and sometimes commenting on America’s obsession with beauty.

The premise is simple – a man is caught passing an opinion about his girlfriend’s face being “regular” (as opposed to being “beautiful”) and not as “hot” as the new girl at work. Girlfriend finds out and leaves him.

The play hangs on truth. What happens when you tell the truth? Can you tell the truth and not hurt someone’s feelings? Will honesty forever destry relationships? How much do we need/want to be lied to by the people we know and love and trust?

Bertrand Russell said, “If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.”

And perhaps LaBute is showing us that.

So in honour of LaBute’ play, I am going to be completely honest about this production.

I was completely ready to be proven wrong – that this play was better than all the new work I have been reading in the last year. I was ready to be swept up by the poetry and intensity of the ideas. I was ready to embrace the “musicality” of the American accent that is so often argued, I was ready to suspend my new play politics and be converted. I was ready to be surprised by LaBute’s play.

I wasn’t. It was as I expected.

Lucky for LaBute he has a long string of plays preceeding this one, so that the reviews can hang on his over arching body of work. I can’t really think of many Australian playwrights who are afforded that quantity of production that even a fairly average piece of writing can be accepted onto the stage. I didn’t like the play: and not because the characters are all ugly and “not likeable” but because I don’t think I ever changed my opinion about them – they are largely characters sketched skin deep: emblematic and functional characters showing their agenda at every turn.

It seems that the majority of LaBute that is staged on Sydney’s independent stages is selected and championed by actors (not directors – although John Kachoyan’s offering pre-re-entering the Australian theatre scene was a LaBute’s “La Dispute” also at the Darlinghurst). I think one of the reasons why is that the scenes, individually, have a shape and an energy to them which is intense. Tight duets that rely on the actor being ready with their dialogue. LaButes plays also seem to have characters who are fast talking, big talkers (a distinctly “American” character trait it has been said) that is inherently fun and bold and exciting to channel. In my discussions about the pros and cons of American accents versus natural (or Australian) accents – even for plays written by Americans – the vernacular and the place name (even chocolate bar references) have been cited as reasons “for” the American accent. My personal taste is that I still think it is patronizing to audiences – just as Australia’s radio announcers of the 1950s spoke with a British accent for the sake of “clarity” – is equally as untrue. And this is my opinion and personal preference.

The content of the play is interesting – but in my opinion is mis-titled. It is not about beauty. not at all really. It’s about truth. A more representative title would be “Reasons to be Honest.” The play show different scenes in which friendships are fortified and compromised by lying and (in equal measure) telling the truth. The most interesting scene in the whole play is at the end when Steph (Julia Grace) and Greg (Andrew Henry), are having their final confrontation. When quietly, without heat, without knee jerk reaction they actually admit to each other what they wanted. Steph has arrived to let Greg know that she is engaged/if he wants to sweep her off her feet he should do it now and Greg responds with a statement admitting that he wasn’t really ready for that and liked her – but not that much. The interesting thing about this scene is that he might be honest here – or he might have finessed a lie in this moment to allow Steph to be free and clear of him for good. But it appears that Steph’s vanity is what ultimately sets her on the path of being free from Greg. The question for me here, is she now engaged to someone who does thinks she’s beautiful, or merely says she is – and what does she ultimately believe of herself.

The production itself is conservative, no new ground broken here. Scenes are jollied along by a juke-box of pop songs and Beach remains very truthful to the text: the mark of a director of great integrity. Design wise there isn’t much that can be done with the places LaBute has written in. So it is all about the performances, which on the whole are energetic and present though sometimes erring on the side of caricature. What I found missing from the performances was a smooth, sneakiness of subtextual strategy. The fights between Steph and Greg are pretty much one note, repeated and rapid fire… which gives little time to appreciate the “other side” of every argument, which is hurt, pain and fear. The arguments are therefore carried out as though these two have been dating for a month – not years – and as though they don’t know each other nor have compassion for each other – even at the tail end of a relationship there is usually some indication of mutual recognition of what they had/are losing.

But as Andrew said to me on opening night, that Australian plays are like arthouse Dendy films – and this LaBute is more in the realm of films like The Bourne Identity, a popular commercial play… what he’s saying is that this is entertainment. I don’t at all disagree with the need of diversity on stages – we need all types of work produced from all places, I personally don’t think there is enough new Australian work produced – and not enough new prodcutions of old Australian works either. And of course I don’t begrudge quality when it happens – and from whatever country it comes from. I just don’t think Reasons to be Pretty is one of “THE great plays.” But I can appreciate that in the context of a triptych, it is a valuable chapter.

Telling the truth in relationship IS terrifying. Telling the truth in a response to work by artists I like and admire and want to support is also utterly TERRIFYING.

There is a huge quantity of talent on stage at the Darlinghurst Theatre – all over it, in fact. And I can’t wait to see what Beach and Henry would do with an awesome, ready, worthy, brilliant Australian play.

I know that even if the three of us agree to disagree on the politics of new plays, Australian plays, American accents, Neil LaBute that there is enough respect there (from me) to tell them my opinion of their work: as scarey as it is for me. I have lots to lose – coffee and pizza dates for one, their friendship, potential collaborations. But I have written this because “Reasons to be Pretty” has shown me- it’s tough to tell the truth, it’s painful, frightening: but essential in the forging of meaningful, authentic and long lasting relationships.

Luckilly I don’t believe in ultimate truth nor do I believe I am an ultimate critical voice, nor that there is only opinion and perspective. I am just one person giving my view, and we can all rest safely in knowing that plenty of critics and reviewers have loved this production:
http://www.stagenoise.com/review/1834
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/theatre/labute-fashions-a-disarming-journey-from-inertia-to-understanding-20120510-1yfcw.html
http://aussietheatre.com.au/reviews/reasons-to-be-pretty-darlinghurst-theatre-company/
And it’s selling like hotcakes… so I urge you to get a ticket and see for yourself.

Photo by Dave Quinn

Sometimes, once in a while, there’s a play that falls into my inbox that completely opens up a new world. The world of the play is either fantasitical or familiar… and the language bubbles and delights or floats softly whispering to me through out the day. The new world of a new play sometimes beckons a new colleague and sometimes even a friendship.

Crushed is one of those plays.

I came across it in 2010, and two years on, and after a coffee, and a showing, and some time… I have lost touch (somewhat) with the play (which is now in the very capable and delightful hands of Erin Thomas) but not with the writer. And so it is with great anticipation I eagerly await the great reveal of Crushed next week at New Theatre.

Some may know that I did some of my growing (up) in a small town in country NSW and nearby was the town where I went to high school: Woolgoolga.

Some facts about Woolgoolga:

* The town billboards read:
“Woolgoolga: A hard name to say, a great place to stay” and “Woolgoolga: the missing piece of paradise.”

* Woolgoolga is surrounded by banana fields.

* The locals call it “Woopi.” When I lived there, I called it “hell.”

* Some of the Coffs Harbour high school kids referred to us as “Woopi scum” a friendly rivalry.

* There is a large sikh population – hence why there is a mini Taj Mahal and a Sikh Temple on the highway as you pass through from Coffs Harbour to Grafton.

* My parents still live in the house (north of Woolgoolga) I lived in as a teenager and it’s where I head to once a year (usually for 3 days) each Christmas.

* Woolgoolga had only one cafe worth visiting when I was a teen – called “Possums” – the ancient ladies would present you with a “mug of chino” with what I refer to as “country foam” (frothed milk that sits high and proud above the rim of the mug covered in brown dust (chocolate.))

I have very complex feelings about the place – associated with my teenage life… and so when asked by Melita to write about “Sweet Sixteen” I could only think of Woolgoolga…

Crushed is a complex and yet very familiar play for me and the thing that excited me the most was the feelings around homecoming and reunion. Pinter knows about coming home. So does Melita Rowston.

It’s been a few moons since Sydney last had one of her plays light up a stage and splash its light on the audience. So this production, in and of itself is a type of homecoming too.

So here is the blog that is my response to Rowston’s “homecoming” play.

http://crushedtheplay.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/bitter-sweet-sixteen-or-nirvana-in.html

DETAILS AND HOW TO BOOK
http://newtheatre.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=129

ABOUT THE SHOW
In the summer of 1988, ‘Sunny Girl’ Susie turned sweet sixteen. Her boyfriend Jason gave her a Poison t-shirt, her best friend Kelly gave her a name-necklace, and Kelly’s boyfriend Dazza gave her a handful of pills.

That night Susie Greene disappeared and was never seen again.

Twenty-two years later, the blood splattered t-shirt of the missing schoolgirl is unearthed in the scrub and Jason, Kelly and Dazza are brought back together for the bleakest of high school reunions. As the police uncover more evidence, Susie’s oldest friends are forced to confront their memories of a night they’d hoped to leave buried in their adolescence forever.

CRUSHED is a darkly humorous murder mystery/whodunit, a fast-paced, acerbic Gen X ride that drags the ‘lost child’ of Australian myth into the 21st century. This daring and imaginative play captures the spirit of the 80s with ironic hindsight and explores the sinister violence that lurks beneath the sun-bleached facade of Australia’s ‘she’ll be right’ culture.

New Theatre is very excited to be presenting this World premiere, in association with Chester Productions, as the first play for The Spare Room 2012 – our season of co-productions with three of Sydney’s leading independent companies.

Phone Bookings 1300 13 11 88 *$5.95 booking fee per transaction for phone bookings only

CREATIVE TEAM
Director Lucinda Gleeson | Producer Jennifer Campbell
Cast Sean Barker, Lucy Miller and Jeremy Waters
Set & Costume Designer Eliza McLean | Lighting Designer Richard Whitehouse | Sound Designer Shane Choi
Stage Manager/Operator Victor Areces | Dramaturg Erin Thomas | Photographer Ian Barry
PERFORMANCE TIMES: Tues – Sat @ 8pm, Sun @ 5pm

TICKET PRICES: Full $30 | Concession $25 | Groups (10+) $25 | Previews (16 & 17 May @ 8pm) $15 | Student Rush $17
Cheap Tuesdays – “Pay What You Can” $10 minimum (conditions apply)

RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes

Photo by Leah McGirr

“Newtown Theatre has seized business.
The local grocery store, one block up, knows that there will be a new name.
The Southend Café knows that there is a new vibe.
The Botany View Hotel bar staff knows that there is a buzz, created by a man who looks like a teacher, but is involved with the empty space across the road.
The neighbours around know that there is something in the air and are sitting at their windows, waiting for the lights to go on. The lights of:
KING STREET THEATRE
Nurturing all Arts to LIVE
Rather than just SURVIVE
King Street Theatre – the Hub of Burlesque, Grand Guignol, Cabaret, Drama, Musical, Pocket Opera, Chamber Music, Comedy, Dance and any form of performing and visual arts. The Home of laughter, tears, surprise and innovative visions. The home of the people who make life worth living. The home for everyone who is willing to enjoy rather than just go along.”
http://www.kingstreettheatre.com.au/

It’s been a long time since I ventured to the theatre at that end of King Street, former known as “Newtown Theatre” or “The Edge” depending on your age. So intrigued was I with the message statement on their website, the elegant re-branding AND the promise of a rennovated venue with a new manager who cares about and wants to program new Australian work? How could I not support this re-visioning? How could I not want to see the changes? Especially with a venue manager who keeps company with my former associate Timothy Daly? Safe and clean? AND with a view of supporting and nurturing artists – tick, tick tick, Tick. My check list of an ideal new theatre venue is nearly complete.

And indeed, the venue itself has improved – but when I arrive any possible pre-show networking is virtually impossible with loud music act pre-show and no where to stand comfortably to flit between friends, punters and artists. The foer has been decked out with shiny cafe tables and I’m left milling by the bathrooms like a misfit.

BUT More importantly to me I wanted to see how the programming of work had changed – curation a concern never far from my heart. Who was this venue now attracting – and who was being selected? Had the venue thrown off the ghosts of Short & Sweet? A venue may have great branding – but content is king. And content makes the reputation of a venue.

I don’t have a lot of go on about the history or development of this play. I also don’t have any information about the artists who have made or produced it – their vision, purpose or experience – as there was no program – I have seen some of the performers in other work. But I have not come across any of the work of writer/director Matthew Blackwood Hume previously.

The premise is simple: A man rents a haunted apartment after the break up of his relationship.

The plot is pretty much the same: Peter (David Woodland) rents an apartment haunted by the ghost of Frank Barton (Matthew Blackwood Hume) from Conrad Fox (Matt Jones) after the break up of his relationship with Tiffany (Sylvia Keays). His suspiciously thin muffin-making neighbour Lily Le Fleur (Alys Daroy) inextricably punishes herself by intruding into his life (we are told with clumsy romantic overtones) whilst he tries to release Jenny Barton (Katherine Shearer) from her mourning.

Written in a farcical style with melodramatic elements, Matthew Blackwood Hume has written archetypal characters as seen in nineteenth century melodrama whilst including jokes pitched at a contemporary audience (ie the Star Wars references).
This is one of the most unfortunate plays I have ever seen produced. And I am not referring to the production values. I’m referring to the text and the performance.

Boo lacks the pace and the complicated plot of a farce, it is without the heightened stakes and characterisations of Melodrama and is not funny.

The humour is derived from misogynist double entendres “in case she thinks there is something more going on here than you eating my muffin.”

Further more it paints women as either gluttons for punishment, ditzy, weak, money hungry, vague or nasty. The male characters are not much better: one is an adulterer, another shifty, another selfish. Disturbingly, the play seems overly sympathetic with abusive men – portraying characters who lose their temper easily and who claim “I was never a bad person, I just made bad decisions.”

(SPOILER ALERT)
When Peter tries to win Tiffany back , he gets down on one knee and proposes saying “it’s not much but it was all I could afford.” She appears delighted until he opens the box and there is nothing in there. She storms off. I’m sure that if Peter wasn’t such an untrustworthy, angry and aggressive man who had proposed with a beautiful heartfelt proposal about how he felt about her (not talk about the value of the ring), even if he did open the box and there was nothing inside, it wouldn’t matter. Consequently we don’t care she rejects him. Why would she marry him? Why would we want him to get what he wants?

Additionally when Peter, in a very confusing scene , visits Franks Widow to convince her to let go of the last and of Frank – he tries to give her a shoe box of Franks personal affects. Which she rejects. He keeps saying “Take this box” and then says “let him go”. What does he want her to do? Anyway, she ends up happily taking the box once he reveals it has a couple of thousand dollars in it.

The play disengages the audience by over explaining and articulating the subtext to every action and every character introduction. Scenes are over written and over explained to a point of leaving us nothing to discover for ourselves. Characters are one dimensional and repulsive – and so we disengage: the worst possible outcome for a comedy/farce. It is impossible to laugh with a character when you don’t care about them and their future or their present wants.

Besides the clumsy, derivative, unsuspenseful writing, the direction is bland and uninspired. The interpretation of the text is simplistic and delivers nothing but dialogue on stage. Some of the performers bumble and fumble their lines over the top of each other – others swallow their words, others given inconsistent performances that fluctuate in energy or intention.

All in all I think Matthew Blackwood Hume’s work as a writer would be best improved with the help of an experienced dramaturg. This work is not ready for the stage, and definitely not at $30 a ticket. This production requires a complete and thorough re-working- dramaturgically, even just in its line work (deleting all subtext and action descriptors) and would benefit from a sturdy director’s outside eye.

Despite this production’s many shortcomings, I hope that King Street Theatre can in the future deliver on their very worthy and altruistic mission statement of nurturing and supporting artists to produce QUALITY WORK, not just “any work” and any stage of development.

In the glimmering first moments, when the light grows up and around the actors, a feeling is established. It feels like something secret, or hidden. An animal patiently waiting to pounce. The feeling of the sky just before the first clap of thunder breaks silence. Is a quiet hum that nags and repeats. It’s the feel of the past – a bruise you just can’t shake.

At the base of Maslow’s hierarchy is a list of basic things to survive, and food is listed as one. And although one of many, this need is one which has the most variation – time, frequency, quantity, quality, social setting. Food is found in rituals, but is also one of the most frequent rituals in itself. It can be used as a symbol of homecoming, of wealth or sacrifice, marks celebration or mourning. In my life, I have witnessed food used as an emotional barometer, and a psychological one – indicating control/loss of control, a means by which to soothe or comfort, a means of displaying affection, or a means of courtship, of asserting status, of political leanings and social awareness. For me personally, I understand food as a social act, and for me, in my moments of extreme stress or self-doubt, there is nothing as satisfying as baking my own bread. Apply all you know and feel about food – making it, eating it, using it, buying it…

She dances as all those girls do – twisting easilly, loose shoulders and slinking arms, lost in the music or the moment or the sensation of it all. The dance becomes something else and our eyes flick and scan, seeing a dance and then, seeing something more, something sinister.

The other, in the kitchen, thumps life into a dumb chunk of dough. She sprinkles flour like confetti – soft like heavy snow, then thuds. And Whacks. And pushes. She’s hard at it.

Nancy (Emma Jackson) sings. Elma (Kate Box) barks.

Two women, unwittingly joined by a childhood, a deceased mother and a take away store.

The story is simple – bound together by their past, they are now in control of their future as the Take Away store of their chiko roll childhood is transformed into a slower food restaurant. And the decision demands a kitchen hand, enter charming nomadic Hakan (Fayssal Bazzi) who sings and chops and awkwardly finds his way into a job.

Steve Rodger’s script deserves more than a few wry puns, riffing on it’s title. The language is simple, the observations keen and surprising. There is a poetic which is located in familiar vernacular, and Rodgers has mastered this fine balance between functional speech and evocative imagery. He has expanded naturalism into an unnaturalism, wherein the performers are sometimes speaking their actions, as though they are having an out of body experience. Ted Hughes once said of Plaths poetry, “Her attitude to her verse was artisan like: if she couldn’t get a table out of the material, she was quite happy to get a chair, or even a toy.” And I’ve thought of this as I left the theatre, as I believe that Rodger has not only made a table, but it is beautifully crafted, like that of furniture made out of found wood, and beautiful hewn and polished and fitted. Food is a beautiful piece of writing. And at times it feels as though we could be watching a piece of short fiction being read to us – and perhaps sometimes we are, but the magic of this production comes in the synergy of the writing intersecting with movement.

Kate Champion has found balance to Rodger’s script – she shows us the private lives of the characters beyond their verbal declarations, confessions or demands, and shows us the human within the words. Within a moment, an act of delight/freedom/wonder becomes an actor of violence/yearning/fear/anger. In three moves (and fully clothed) she has orchestrated one of the most romantic sex scenes I have ever witnessed. This balance between Rodger’s keen ear for the music of his script and Champion’s elegant and forceful and genuinely fascinating movement: make this production visually and aurally sing.

There are some productions which just work – when all comes into perfect singing synergy. And this just may be the hit of Belvoir’s 2012 season. If you can get a ticket, do.

And if you can’t, take the night off, and make something beautiful for your loved one/s. Below is a pic of my latest loaf… and a recipe… because you might like to give it a go yourself…

AUGUSTA’S BREAD MAKING RITUAL IN HONOUR OF STEVE RODGER’S “FOOD”

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup milk
5 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons butter
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour
Olive Oil

METHOD
Warm up the bowl you are going to mix the ingredient in (just let hot water sit in it for a bit)
Then, mix up the yeast with 1 cup of warm water.
Melt the butter in the microwave, then add it, the milk, the sugar, and the salt to the yeast liquid and stir it
Then add two cups of flour to the mix
Then add the flour about 1/4 cup at a time, Keep stirring and adding flour until the dough is still slightly sticky, but it doesn’t stick to your hands in any significant way. Also, it should largely clean the sides of the bowl, leaving just a thin layer of flour.

Kneading. Yes. You need to knead.
Don your favourite apron.
Prepare to look like a well-groomed 18th Century German composer. You’re going to get powdery.
Flour the benchtop.
Then grab the dough ball out of the bowl, slap it down on the table, and start beating on it. Do this for ten minutes. Just take the dough, punch it flat, then fold it back up into a ball again, and repeat several times.
This is particularly good if you have suffered a few slings and arrows.

When ten minutes are up, shape it into a ball then coat the inside of the bowl lightly with oil and/or melted butter then put the ball of dough inside the bowl.

Put a cloth over the bowl and sit it somewhere fairly warm for an hour.
I’m generally impatient so I sit the bowl on the grill door of my oven (whilst it’s on, with the oven door open) with a towel over it (like some sort of sick eucalyptus inhaling child)
And that takes about 30 mins.

It should be roughly double the size that it was before.

Punch the dough down (three or four good whacks will cause it to shrink back down to normal), then lay the dough out on the floured area and spread it out in a rectangle shape, with one side being roughly the length of the bread tin.

Then, roll it up! The roll should be roughly the same size as the bread tin.
Tuck the ends of the roll underneath, with the “under” side being where the seam is.

Lightly brush with olive oil and/or butter.
Cover that loaf up with the towel, put it back where it was before,(on the grill door of your oven) and wait. Clean up the mess you’ve made. I suggest Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” as a great song to clean up to.

BAKE
Put that loaf in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for thirty minutes.
It’ll brown and you’ll know it’s done. Pull it out and immediately remove it from the tin to cool.
Let it cool down completely before slicing.

EAT
With butter. And tomato soup. Or fresh tomatoes sprinkled with posh flakey salt.
And watch a movie… maybe something French? Amelie? Or Highlander? (the pictured loaf above was my accompaniment to “THE ARTIST” the loaf pictured below was my first one this year and was my accompaniment to THE HIGHLANDER)

I have had lots of great times in play development processes… But here’s quite memorable on one from the first Queen Street Studio Off the Shelf presentation (Fraser Studios) which was in 2009. As wonderfully large Studio 14 is for rehearsal, if it rains, you can’t hear anything. After watching the weather forecast on an iPhone and watching storm clouds brew, we thought we’d chance it. Halfway through Bridget Price’s play “Harpoon” rain started to pelt down on the studio’s tin roof. We couldn’t hear a thing. Actors mouthing words we couldn’t hear. A producer’s nightmare. Then it started. Rob Brookman, Kate Gaul, Lachlan Philpott and eighty independent and emerging artists picked up their miss-matching chairs enmasse and relocated the reading to studio 10 as the visual art residents looked on, baffled. A sense of instant community was born. We laughed, chatted and settled.

And I think development programs are essential in the support of artists and specific work…
There are many script development programs in Australia, and they’ve been proliferating since I first started developing and showcasing work by emerging artists in 2007. There is no doubt there is a need and a desire for playwrights to hear their work. What set the program apart from others was the practical feedback sessions and the continued mentoring. Its one thing to hold a showcase, another to sustain relationships with the artists. There are many dramaturges and script doctors, and people specialising in directing of “old” plays running workshops, and they have their place, but to be given practical advice about how to go the next step to get your play produced/noticed/promoted once it’s completed, is another thing – and most developments see the development as an end in itself – which is really only half the process of writing for theatre.

I am very proud of the company I’ve kept over the past six years working exclusively on new play development. All the participants have something to offer the creative community. In fact all of them already have. There is not one writer, director or actor who hasn’t continued to make work. But if you’re wondering what else the OTSers have been up to?somewhere in the world. Phil Spencer is now the Associate Artistic Director of the TRS, Scarlet McGlynn is powering on with her company Tin Shed, Jonathan Wald has worked int he States and Vienna with Elaine Hudson and last year directed God’s Ear at the Seymour Centre, John Fraser has a show at the Old Fitz this year, Alli Sebastian Wolf has had multiple shows at festivals and on radio, Jasper Marlow is writing TV, film and for a new project called “Heart Dot Com” coming up. Talya Rubin continues to bounce between Canada and Australia touring her shows, Andy Leonard writing and performing, Alison Rooke has just returned form a play reading in New York. Patrick Lenton has retunred from Adelaide with his second adventure work “100 Years of Lizards.” Emrys Quin, the youngest writers from Off the Shelf has had work staged and published earlier this year via ATYP (published through Currency Press) and is now working with Subtlenuance on Bare Boards Brave Hearts. Kit Brookman has been a finalist for the Griffin and the Patrick White Award and continues to rise and shine on stage as actor and writer – and has just started directing. Paige Rattray’s company Arthur has been acknowledge at the Green Room Awards and Zoe Hogan’s Small Life was included in the National Play Festival last year.

And if you were to ask me what as a producer matters most to me?
Quality work by quality people. Quality work goes without saying (I want surprising, sophisicated, innovative, intriguing new work)AND I’m looking for the best possible people to work with. I don’t care if you are a genius but you are a jerk. “Jerk” cancels out “genius” in my opinion. I have no interest in supporting, engaging with or promoting nasty, aggressive, arrogant people – I have no time nor energy for that. Theatre is hard enough as it is, without having to suffer jerks. I have heard storys from many of Australia’s most inspiring and prolific playwrights about bad or poor processes – processes where directors lost their tempers and walked off on helping “solve the script.” Appauling. In all acts of production what matters most is how the participants feel about what they are doing, who they are doing it with and why. It is essential that people feel their contribution is valued and an important part of the whole process. It matters that there is a sense of cohesion, a sense of acceptance and community – because theatre is such a social act of community – whatever happens behind the scenes, affects that which happens with an audience. I think planning is important, clarity of communication and respect are non-negotiables and above all if anything doesn’t go to plan, the team comes together, not fall apart.

And I spend a lot of time thinking about what it is that artists (particularly writers and directors) need to make the best possible work.
All artists need a huge amount of support – from their family, friends, peers, colleagues – from their community, just as any one who isn’t an artist does. The difference is that in the case of playwrights, they need feedback about their work. Somewhere there is the romantic idea that the writer or artist is in a type of solitary confinement, creating alone. And there is some truth in that, but for the playwright and for the director and the actor, they are reliant on audience for their work to exist and makes sense. It is not enough to offer development space for workshops – audience and diverse audience feedback is essential to help the artist refine what they are making, to whom they are making it. It is not enough to offer production without development. It is all these things and most importantly to ensure artists continue, it is essential that they experience sustained, diverse, quality conversations about their work.

I think it’s tricky field to negotiate.
New play culture is in crisis. And it’s not specific to Australia. And it is not merely a case of “not enough new plays are being developed.” Plenty are. And it’s not a case of the mainstage is not producing new work – they are, it’s just not necessarily local, nor are those plays written by writers. Generally, how companies treat, talk to and engage with writers (established and emerging) varies wildly. A reassuring/eye-opening/disturbing book handed to me by Adelaide’s own lady Blogger Jane Howard (aka No Plain Jane check her out HERE) has deepened my thinking on the field. Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play by Todd London, Ben Pesner, Zannie Giraud Voss is a stunning look at the field of new work in the States…

Is the grass is always greener? Or is that just astro turf?

Hard to tell sometimes.

Instead I spend every spare moment of my time reading scripts, developing projects, talking with artists. Working on new plays is a specialised skill – each playwright works differently, and at a different pace and in a different style… and with their own personality. It may seem obvious, but working with a playwright is very different to working on a dead man’s script. And working on a new play is very different to working on something tried and tested. Some times over written, sometimes under written. Sometimes there are missing scenes or too much information. Sometimes the logistics of space require more or less of something.

We have an obsession with premieres. New plays (if they are lucky to get a production) – may only get it once…. or be remounted with the same director and the original cast.

There is an application culture even in companies which stifles opportunities for artists. Artists with huge track records who have a great idea and great team may not write a great application and so be discounted from development opportunities. One annecdote I heard yesterday demonstrated how a great application and a great artist with a great project was denied a residency “clearly yours is the best application with the best ideas, but we feel we have supported you enough and should go out and do it on your own.”

There is a crisis also that most new Australian plays are written by the middle class and highly educated people. We still don’t have plays written, developed or produced in languages other than English – and if we are a multi-lingual society – why don’t our plays reflect that? We see operas in Italian. We listen to Spanish and German music…

Also there is a very VERY stupid tendancy to label the artist, not the work, as “emerging.” Not all young writers with less than 5 stage credits need the patronizing label of “emerging” and some of our senior writers need much more time, care and support despite the fact they are labelled as “established.” Let’s get rid of this “funding body speak” and start talking about the work – and if the work is new or has been through many drafts.

How you develop artists and how you develop work are totally different, but not mutually exclusive. Many writers have the play “they had to write” so they could move onto their next great play… the process is long – and will take a lifetime – and success, fashion, money, energy will fluctuate and waiver. But I really think that regardless artists need support, they need individual development and their work needs close and compassion care.

And above all I believe that artist need to be given a bit more credit. Because they are hard enough on themselves, without curators and administrators or beaurocrats making it arduous and exhausting and mysterious in the name of “transparency” and “rigour.”

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Dylan Thomas said it then. Don Reid is showing us now. Do not go gentle.

Go with a steely confidence. Go with defiance. Defy the contemporary world’s obsession with youth, and body beautiful and tight-faced “perfection!”

Deny the concept of aging being synonmous with “invisible,” “obsolete,” “unattractive,” “useless!”

Rage. Rage against the placid, docile, knee-rugged existence and the assumption of being a “sweet old person.”

Wear purple.

It is not common, nor fashionable to have a two-hour long new Australian play. It’s not usual that local place names are inserted into the play (yes localises it too much for the overseas market. It is not common or fashionable to deck a play out with one gender, one room (sans revolving stage). It is not fashionable to have puns and one liners scattered about in the dialogue. It’s also not fashionable to have five women in the full bloom of their lives on stage. Furthermore a play espousing feminism, written and directed by men? Forget it. And yet… here it is: the complete and utter rage against fashion: Biddies.

And Don Reid is raging. Writer of “Codgers” – the male companion piece to Biddies (or vice versa depending on how you look at it), actor and founding member of the Ensemble Company. And here he has written for the most celebrated and experienced Australian actors.

The premise is simple:
Five old ladies, under pressure to complete and show up their rival church cushion stitchers, become trapped in their infants school. Tensions arise when the pressure mounts, personal struggles are revealed when a ghost from the past arrives to hold them all accountable.

But, don’t be fooled. In the hands of any other director (of his generation or older) this could have dissolved into a very pastal evening of sop. And if you think that, you grossly under estimate Wayne Harrison AND the charisma of these women. Don Reid is a subversive punk. He has refused to follow fashion or inject contemporary playwriting craft into his script – and why should he? This works. It works for this audience and it works for these actors and this story. He is defiant. He is standing his ground. Absolutely. Luckily Wayne Harrison and Christine Dunstan are there to ensure his punk tendancies are kept in check.

Harrison is one of the sharpest practicing dramaturgical minds in my opinion because he never ever sacrifices two key elements of a new work: entertainment and heart. And Biddies has both. Sometimes – a little too much of both – but it’s there. Where this could have been a very watery, reverent “honouring” of our elders, Harrison gives us a full frontal explosion of entertainment – jokes, villains, singing, dancing, girl power and needlework and a disco ball. What more could you want?

For some, seeing their elders ham it up will be a difficult watch – but for those of a more mature generation will delight in it’s yester-year stylings. Sturdy, classic comedy.

For me, the genre is difficult to relax with (I am of a different generation and sensibility) – theatre is less and less about music hall and vaudeville and more about poetic realism (yes, drab in comparison). This play has a familiarity and accessibility which many will find charming. For some this will simply be a little too old-fashioned, or quaint. I know that in the age of insatiable “youth” and “innovation” and “advances in technology” – one of the biggest rebellions there is to be conservative and to make theatre not for the “younger demographic” – but for your peers. This isn’t a show for restless school kids – this is a show for groups of older women to go to with their girlfriends after too many gin and tonics. And why not? What’s wrong with a bit of exclusive fun?

Maggie Blinco, out in full force – voice as clear as a bell, bashing out a musical number, reeling off her best Robbie Burns impression and hoofing it like a woman half her age (yes it’s a shame her last costume doesn’t show off those legs of hers). Annie Byron cute and ditsy and relishing her
white satin costume, Vivienne Garrett transforms delightfully, Julie Hudspeth the goody two shoes we love to hate, Donna Lee as the sexy subversive, Linden Wilkinson mustering all the depth of her mellow-toned voice.

Incredible.

And so to see that Harrison has absolutely whipped them into a frenzy of costume and dance and comedy – it’s a big show. These are our elder stateswomen of the theatre, giving it every night and touring. The energy is astounding. The rambunctiousness astounding.

And so to see these women, giving it all – showcasing their voice and bodies in all their fully aged glory – wonderous! To watch one of my favourite women, Maggie Blinco in the spotlight is wonderful. I love her for her defiance, her wit, her cheeky, sassy sense of humour – she is, as all the women are, a reminder to us to never assume that we are too old to have a good time and tell a few saucy puns.

Some people look at a few hundred dollars as the cost of a flight to New Zealand, or a modest bill at a fancy restaurant, or perhaps the cost of a cheap suit or an outrageous hair treatment from an innerwest hairdresser. I don’t. A few hundred dollars for me is the start of something new.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’ve not really been the lonely holiday/pricey food/cheap suit/hair treatment type of person.

The options for me as an artist are few and far between – if I wait for the results of funding rounds – or to be granted a residency somewhere – I will never ever do anything.

I’m not good at that.

So a few hundred dollars and a wild notion that what I would do is buy some space off my old employers to run my own sessions, my own residency… and I called it WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW.

The idea is to respond actively to playwrights – to answer some questions I have about writing. Questions like: How do I start directing new work before it has already had the life and vigor work-shopped out of it? How to I nurture and connect with playwrights on a practical level? What can I offer that no one else can? What if playwrights were priviledged and supported before they even wrote their great play? What if playwrights had some one to come to with a wild and dangerous idea – and what if they were greeted with a “yes, tell me more” rather than silence or rejection or a “answer these questions to fit our criteria” stuff? What if playwrights were asked to write on the spot? What if playwrights were given spontaneously stimuli and challenges to write to spec? What if writers were selected not by a project – but by their interest in a potential project? How to you make playwriting immediate? How do you write collegiate? What happens when you confine the writer in a time and space? Writer’s block or writers unblock?

So I sent out this call:

“Write Here, Right Now will be encourage a select group of playwrights to write on site, within a finite period of time – this is a hot, ready multi-playwright project for those who love writing to spec, writing in the company of others and who love a deadline. (Or have a “Just do it!” attitude) If you have any questions or need more information, don’t hesitate to send me an email augusta@augustasupple.com … I’d love to hear from you.

To submit your expression of interest: Please provide the following by 6pm on the 7th March to augusta@augustasupple.com:
• Your contact details (Name, mobile number & email address)
• A sample of your writing (2 pages)
• A brief bio (1/2 page)
• A brief response outlining what interests you about this project (1/2 page)

And I hired a space.

I received over 150 submissions from Sydney writers. I selected 10 (double what I expected) and I held a bonus group for 15 invited writers who weren’t selected for the monday night sessions, for a one night only sample of how I work and what I like to work on.

A response came from one of the “bonus” writers who blogged about the experience here http://ildikosusany.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/day-sixty-two-of-366/ (I really recommend her blog)

“The highlight of my day… was a most splendid and insightful writing session lead by Augusta Supple as a side-project to her Write Here, Write Now writing program. I am ever so indebted to her for inviting me to be a part of such a perfect evening of writing and sharing. Augusta set us off on an imaginative, creative – and I must say easy – journey of writing and devising. I say easy, because, as Augusta mentioned, sometimes as writers we get “stuck” or we make writing seem harder than it is (well, sometimes it is)! However, with just a few simple exercises or a piece of stimulus – a song here, a smell there, a fistful of words/names/adjectives/locations/fears/wishes scribbled furiously on a series of place cards, we can have a whole play and a whole world of creativity within the palms of our hands! Even passing around a contrived text message conversation and adding to the dialogue can get the ideas flowing! Stream of consciousness writing is such a powerful, whimsical and productive way of getting something, anything, down on paper – and it can be such a perfect way to get the left brain working and to get you moving towards something big, new, exciting and… unexpected! I will definitely be using some of these wonderful exercises in the workshops I am running with refugees in Brisbane for the creation of a new theatre piece created and performed by the participants themselves!
It was so lovely and special to meet with other writers and their work was incredible and beautiful and poetic and mesmerising – I have my work cut-out for me and a lot of learning ahead of me on this journey! It was so magnificent and intimate – to hear the work of others and to share in something poetic and thoughtful and magical. I loved it! What a night! Augusta is a gem and I wish her all the best with her Write Here, Write Now project! I was very pleased and very humbled that she follows my blog and it’s good to hear that people enjoy sharing in this journey – and in some cases, being a part of it! I learnt a great deal and I wrote a great deal! Additionally, I am re-re-enthused about getting back on the horse and getting this play to a play-reading standard! Whatever that may be.”

We met, drank tea, wrote wrote wrote. Shared work. After two months of writing and meeting and pitching and emailing… the initial face-to-face sessions are over. And in two Thursdays time, we will be testing out the works via the voices of generous actors in a reading situation. I’m still not sure what sections will be offered, how much or what will be read… but it’s been really wonderful to share this time.

And I’m looking forward to the reading of the new material, Thursday week.

Here’s a little bit about the writers: Pretty interesting people, I think you’ll agree?

Melita Rowston
A graduate of VCA (BFA-Painting ‘97), NIDA (Grad Dip-Directing ‘00) and UTS (MACreative Writing ’10), Melita has directed, dramaturged and written for many independent theatre, dance and cabaret productions.
Melita’s plays include ‘Crushed,’(New Theatre’s Spare Room Season ’12), ‘The diver’ (short), ‘SPEW,’ (Darlinghurst Theatre ’04), ‘Sugarbomb,’ (TRS@ The Old Fitz ’04), ‘Solitude in Blue,’ (Griffin stablemates ’02), ‘Swing Girl,’ (Griffin stablemates ’01) and ‘Night Reflections,’ (NIDA ’00). Melita was a resident playwright at Griffin Theatre Company in 2005/06. From 2007- 2010, Melita trained as a screenwriter and novelist at UTS. She is continuing to develop the screenplay (‘Solitude in Blue’) and fictional memoir (‘The art of failure’), commenced during her Masters. Also in development are text and illustrations for a children’s book, a one-woman show: ‘The Wonder from Downunder: The search for Gippsland’s Giant Worm,’ and a new full-length play: ‘Goodnight Moon.’

Jasper Marlow
Jasper Marlow’s resume encompasses credits as a producer, playwright and screenwriter, across film,
theatre and commercials. His first full-length play Zetland debuted at the 2010 Sydney Fringe Festival where it was nominated for Best New Work at the Fringe Awards. He has been a member of ATYP’s Fresh INK ensemble 2009/2010 and received mentorship from Lachlan Philpot, Matthew Whittet and Jane Fitzgerald. An avid theatre writer, his short-plays have been performed in Tasmania and New South Wales. These include: ‘Deep Space 9mm’ (Onefest-Hobart, 2009) ‘Stories from the 428’ (Sidetrack Theatre,2010) ‘Zetland’(Sidetrack Theatre, 2010) and Tell it like it isn’t (ATYP, 2011). Trained at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, his debut short-film ‘Reception’ has been an Official Selection in both local and overseas Film Festivals. Most recently it won Best Thriller/Horror at the Hollywood International Student Film Festival where Jasper was invited to attend the ceremony and received the award from legendary Actor Edward Asner (Up, El- Dorado). He is currently working on a new play and short-film which, fingers crossed, will be completed before the 2012 Armageddon.

Carolyn Burns
Carolyn’s first two plays, Careers for Attractive Ladies (2010) and Mongrel (2011) were both official selections of the Sydney Fringe Festival. As a 2011 member of the Australian Theatre for Young People’s playwright development program, Fresh Ink, her monologue ‘Stick’ was selected for inclusion in The One Sure Thing and published by Currency Press as part of The Voices Project 2011-2. She is a member of Alana Hicks’ online comedy collective The Kvetch Set, and her screenplay, Detroit, is a finalist in the 2012 Australian Film Festival’s upcoming FutureFilm screenplay competition. Carolyn graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master’s in Literature and Modernity in 2009. She also holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Sydney, where she is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of English, conducting research into adaptation and twentieth century lyric drama. While at the University of Sydney, Carolyn has been extensively involved in student publications, writing regularly for Honi Soit and The Bull, and served as an editor of Hermes, the University of Sydney Union’s annual literary anthology. She is currently developing a situation comedy about a high school debating team (pilot episode in post-production) and a longer play about primordial monsters who avenge murders in suburban Australia.

Georgia Symons
Georgia is a writer, director and producer for theatre, film, print and radio. She has studied writing in its various forms at NIDA (Young Writers and Directors Studio), Metroscreen (ArtStart Young Screenwriters’ Program), UTS, and as a member of ATYP’s Fresh Ink Young Writers’ Ensemble. Her first two short works for theatre, Mollycoddled and Dear Diary Today I… were performed at the 2011 Short + Sweet Theatre Festival, Sydney. She was subsequently awarded the Best New Talent Award in the festival, and Mollycoddled received another production in Auckland. She has had her work published twice in the UTS Writers’ Anthology, and once with Currency Press as part of The Voices Project. Her monologue Twisted featured in The One Sure Thing, produced by ATYP. In 2011, Georgia’s film projects included All Bound (producer), Death By Diamonds (producer, costume designer), Sister Death (production design, 1st AD), Tell (writer, director, editor, sound designer), and Honourable Discharge (production design). Her short film, Tell, was nominated for Best Experimental Film at the Golden Eye Film Festival, and pre-production on her next project as writer/director, Shoebox, begun in January. Her theatre directing credits include Beach (Timothy Daly, Fort Productions), Ruby Moon (Matt Cameron, Hatter Productions/Seymour Centre), Margin Walker (Luke Scholes, Short + Sweet Sydney), Dear Diary Today I… (Short + Sweet Sydney), and Dangerous Lenses (Brooke Robinson, Queen Street Studios residency). She has interned in various capacities at ABC Radio National, Belvoir Street Theatre and Griffin Theatre. Georgia also performs in poetry slams around Sydney. Georgia is currently working in production and development at ABC Radio National’s Radio Arts unit. She holds a Certificate III in Entertainment, Live Production and Events (Technical Production) and is studying a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Media Arts and Production) and in International Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.

James Pike
James Pike is an Australian playwright, cultural activist and labourer. He was born in Hornsby, Sydney in 1988.
His first work ‘Pendeo’ was performed by alumni of the American Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA) at both the Charles Jehlinger Theatre in Los Angeles and at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006. His lived and wrote in Aix, France in 2007 before undertaking a Bachelor of Communication (Theatre/Media) at Bathurst, NSW in 2008. His works ‘Fly in the Ointment’, ‘Archie’ and ‘Before and After Knockoff’ (all written in 2009) all received immediate performance while the latter was selected for the 2010 Sydney Fringe for performance at the New Theatre. Funding bodies ArtsOutWest and Local Stages supported a regional tour of the work. His short plays ‘The Crib Room’ (2006), ‘Bernard and Leon’ (2007) and full-length ‘Cotton’ (2011), ‘Ballad of a Locksmith’ (2010), ‘Penelope’ (2009) ‘The Unit’ (2007) are yet to be performed. His writing subjects unintentionally herald the lives of entrenched Australians and his style can be described as playful, symbolist and colloquial while retaining classical story design. His plays arehigh-staked and visceral with intention to move and provoke thought.
James works as dramaturg, facilitator and secretary for Desert Pea Media, an indigenous cultural development organisation operating in remote communities around the country. His travel and work in rural and indigenous environments has affected the subjects of his recent stories. He plans to base himself in Sydney while continuing expeditions to minute communities intermittently over the next few years. His current project is on the shearing industry and has taken him from Casterton, VIC to Collarenebri, NSW where he temporarily works as a rouseabout.

Guy Birks
My name is Guy Birks and I am a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). I graduated from the NIDA Playwrights Studio in 2007 was then mentored for 2 years by Francesca Smith, then Director of the Playwrights Studio. Since then I have completed several plays – including We Do Invisible Mending, Visiting Hours are Over, and The Door that Does Not Open – and have had work performed at NIDA, the Powerhouse in Brisbane (with Arts Council funding) and in venues in Sydney. Currently, I am working on the text for a one woman musical play called Why Lions (and humans) Live Longer in Captivity, and my musical collaborator on this play is a post graduate student at the Conservatorium of Music. I am also about to workshop my one act play We Do Invisible Mending with actors Fiona Butler, Richard Hilliar and John Michael Burdon. I have been a member of the Australian Writer’s Guild for a number of years.

Alli Sebastian Wolf
At twenty six years old I have been quite lucky in my creative life; working as a visual artist, playwright and theatre maker I have been widely published, exhibited and performed. I have been supported by numerous grants and residancies and won prizes including the Patrick White Young Playwright Award, The Sydney Fringe Festival Best New Theatre Award and am currently on a Sydney Premiers Fellowship. My dioramas have been seen in national magazines and in solo shows in Sydney and Melbourne, winning prizes and receiving grants since 2009. I write for and creatively direct a performance collective Deep Sea Astronauts who are staples at arts and music festivals in Australia. My latest play The Importance of Being Ernest Dragons and Other Classic Tales As Told By An Octopus at the old Fitzroy Theatre, Sydney, opened to great response.

Melissa Lee Speyer
Melissa graduated from NIDA’s full-time Graduate Diploma in Playwriting in 2011. Her plays have been performed in Australia as part of NIDA’s Festival of Curious and Original Things, Griffin’s Festival of New Writing (24 Hour Play Project), Crash Test Drama in Newtown, Playtime in Kings Cross, Short & Sweet Short Play Festival and Playwriting Australia’s Kicking Down The Doors initiative.

Luke Carson
I am an emerging playwright in Sydney. I am currently writing a third draft of a full length play Second Time Around (It’s a play about sexuality, fidelity and a search for personal truth in a world built of image) dramaturged by Augusta Supple and she just directed Stephen Wilkinson in Boys’ Night as a part of Griffringe. I am also writing the first draft of a comedic play called That’s great … Now act gooder! Focusing on a one month rehearsal period leading up to opening night of a Narrabeen Amateur Dramatic Society production of Working Title. A devised play written by an anonymous writer and directed by the infamous Arthur Flagontout. N.A.D.S. is an independent amateur theatre company fighting to stay in the game. They are going through a name change from N.A.D.S. to N.A.D.S. replacing the amateur with actor. This boost in street cred along with the help of well-loved community actors and an E-Street star will hopefully put NADS on top. Welcome To Sydney: Now Get Out Of Our Way is a collaborative project in its development stage with Stephen Wilkinson & Elizabeth Heaney, from our company Cut The Bull Productions. This is a play exploring what it is like to live in Sydney from an outsider’s perspective. Featuring a collection of monologues and scenes on the eclectic people you meet in the City of Villages. Cut The Bull are also working on a rap video called East Suburbia Gangsta about living life on the other side of the Coca-Cola sign. Tellin like it be told from the ’hood of Vaucluse the Hugo Posse Bosse leave no check unturned yo!

Grace De Morgan
Grace is a Sydney-based writer/performer who finished her Masters in Writing for Stage & Broadcast Media at the Central School of Drama, London in December 2010. Her performed works include: My Brother’s Keeper and Three is Not the Magic Number (short plays staged as a part of Theatre 503’s Rapid Write Response initiative).
After her first play Integrity’s Wench was long-listed for the Edward Albee Script Competition Award in 2010, the Australian Writers’ Guild invited her onto their Pathways program. In July 2009, she spent two weeks on a writing internship at Channel Ten’s Good News Week and has had five ‘Postcard’ articles published in the
Sun Herald Travel lift-out since November 2008 – February 2012. Grace is currently working as a captioner at Red Bee Media, volunteering as a Short & Sweet script assessor, doing an online copywriting internship at Todae.com.au and redrafting her second play, Said a Father to His Son. Her short play Riding the Red is
was performed as part of the Short and Sweet Festival at the Sidetrack Theatre, Marrickville.

*****

And whilst I continue to work with the writers individually and in a group setting… they continue to work on their own projects…

Here’s some of what’s coming up by these writers:

CRUSHED by Melita Rowston:

AM I GOOD FRIEND directed by Georgia Symons:

HEART DOT COM with work by Jasper Marlow and Luke Carson
Five newly commissioned monologues/small-handers directed by Olivia Satchell written by Luke Carson, Ellana Costa, Alison Rooke, Jasper Marlow, Katie Pollock
exploring the absurdity/beauty of searching for love without being able to touch/see the other person.

EAST SUBURBIA GANGSTA written and performed by Luke Carson:
Showing at Cut & Paste
DATE: Sunday May 13th 2012
TIME: 8.00pm
WHERE: The Old Fitzroy Theatre
COST: $12.00 (door sales only)

MICRO FOREST PERFORMANCE created by Alli Sebastian Wolf
HOME BREW FESTIVAL
Venue: The Old Fitzroy Theatre
Dates: May 17th – 19th 2012
Times: 7pm doors.
Tickets: $35/$30
Bookings: www.rocksurfers.org or 1300 241 167

“If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you.”

Henry Rollins travels the world insatiably inhaling information. Previously he has admitted to having a touring pattern of inhalation (swallowing information) then exhalation (spewing out ideas to an audience on tour.) He is an intrepid traveler, a work slut (not a workaholic – the distinction is he’s at the mercy of his curiosity and freelancing lifestyle), and an activist.

The history of Rollins is deeply embedded in music – Black Flag, The Rollins Band – but spreads across everything, all media, all form of communication – TV, film, documentary (National Geographic the most recent), books, radio, spoken word, video games and even blogging and you can follow his adventures on Twitter: @henryrollins (yes this is real)

What I know him for is his spoken word. And I’m only a recent fan… (first attended 2010 – Enmore Theatre for Frequent Flyer tour, then at the gaelic club in 2011 for his 50th birthday bash and this year 2012 for the Sydney Comedy Festival) and I have the shirts to prove it…

I'm a fan, I've got the shirt to prove it.

What I think is so fascinating about Rollins is how much he challenges his audience to think, to do, to be optimistic, to be present and aware of the mechanations of the world. I also think it is interesting his fan base – largely punk rock fans – black clad and alternative… and I suppose I’m identifying with that too (I like to refer to myself as “lady-punk”). What I think is interesting is that the music scene is so often saturated with image-driven advertising – with drugs and alcohol abuse (and other forms of chemical self abuse), the lifestyle excessive and perhaps kamikaze. Violent. Nasty.

BUT, Rollins, despite the inky flesh, and the black attire and the military hair cut – is not presenting a physically violent, self-destructive human, he is not hating and spitting on his audience – an open palm sweeps across our gaze as he says how obsessed he is with us, how much he thinks about us… this is a man in love with the performance act.

And I’m in love with performance, so it’s a pretty easy synergy to work out.

By the way, this post is about prejudice.

So, it’s a tough gig for an American in the Australian cultural landscape. Generally we admire and hate Americans – we see their loud voices as over the top or arrogant, we look down on their spelling (color, favor etc) we look down on their health care system, their fast food culture. Rollins understands this, as he is not the walking epitome of American emperialism. His message is largely one of united understanding and appreciation of difference and the amazing, fluxing, throbbing, diverse thing which is the many nations of the world. It’s fairly easy to assume that his muscled 51 year old body is a sign of masculine anger, or meat-headedness. But if you think that, you’d be wrong. It’s easy to assume that his life has been a constant ride of excess and substance abuse. You’d be wrong about that too.

In fact, the extreme opposite is true. A hard worker. A sharp mind. A funny guy. A guy with a lot of humility and time for people (who contact him often in a state of pain or confusion it seems) A passionate human rights activist he has said “This is where my anger takes me, to places like this, not into abuse but into proactive, clean movement”.

“If you hate your parents, the man or the establishment, don’t show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against your parents: out learn them, outlive them, and know more than they do.”

Interestingly, when i mentioned once to a friend how taken I am with Henry Rollins’ work ethic, philosophy, world view etc, she replied: “but isn’t he a misogynist?”

So I had a look around to see what I could find… I found this:

And I found this.

So… wow, huh?

How do I see that? What do I do with that?

OK…

A couple of things.

I don’t think Rollins just thinks like that about lazy women – I’m sure it might apply to men too. I think Rollins is about being the bet version of yourself – whatever that means

The internet is a large and unforgiving memory – it can either keep us preserved as we were for all time – of offer a perspective of how far we’ve come… but it depends on the reader of that information.

Youth is a very unforgiving state of existence – things are hard, life is frustrating, devastating… relationships are difficult – and people, luckilly, grow out of being young. I think if we were all judged by our younger selves – well – no one would get a break. Rollins may not think like that now, I don’t know for sure, but I’ve not heard any anti-female sentiments from him in the last 3 years/occasions of seeing him perform. I’m sure I wouldn’t buy his shirts if he made me feel at anyway he hated women, or their body parts or their bodies.

On Wednesday night at the Seymour centre – there was a bit of vagina talk. He did talk about old men who are nasty (especially in American politics) to all those in the world because they no longer have access to (because they are not desirable to) Vaginas. Rollins talked about frustration with vaginas – but not with women. And this is also usually accompanied with a self-deprecating story about being an old man, and his lack of relevance to being a sexual threat or icon. He spoke of his support for a family planning centre in Austin Texas. I do get the impression that Rollins finds women a bit of an enigma. But I don’t think he hates them.

Rollins’ technique in spoken word is to illuminate and inspire through example of living – of conviction and the transformative power of language. His aim is to break down prejudice – and that all is linked with and starts with him – what prejudice we have toward who he is, where he’s from what he’s said/done previously.

Interestingly a technique of wearing his audience out (2.5 hours of straight thinking, talking, performing, impersonating, recounting – no water, no interval) talks of stamina and strength – and he often shows his audience up as fidgetting numb-bummed slackers by the end of the night.

For me, I find him to be an example of extreme living and thinking – always proactive and always optimistic.

“I don’t want to know. I don’t need it. I don’t want the information that millions of people have. I don’t want to be fed these boring facts and figures. Then you’ll become one of the masses. I’d rather starve my mind a bit and have to search out nutrition in stranger places.”

One of most pleasurable things you can witness is someone doing something well. And for me that can be anything from watching my favourite barista at Pausa cafe wiggle the milk into a fern frond, those hard rock- candy guys in the rocks snip and twist hot sugar, or a skilled performer do what they do – entertain.

There is also a grand pleasure in works of art made for children – literature, music, theatre – and I indulge and delight in it frequently (yes, I have a collection of vintage golden books to prove it). In my Canadian life I am the writer of many children’s musicals and plays – it’s something I really relish and delight in. And there is little that can inspire and delight me more than an afternoon show made for children. There is a style of adventure and morality and humour and theatricality that delights me – gives me permission to react – and reminds me of important life messages “be patient,” “be brave,” “believe in yourself”, “sometimes adults are crazy,” “it’s ok to make mistakes” etc. Stuff that we all need to be reminded of.

It was the second last performance at the Ensemble of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, a delightful adaptation by Anna Crawford & Mark Kilmurry of the book (and rhyme) by Michael Rosen. A cast of four – Felix Gentle, Douglas Hansell, Catherine McGraffin, Shondelle Pratt and a character list that includes a bear, a dog, a goofy dad, a flatulent baby, a boy, a girl and a whole bunch of sounds.

Set up on the side of the stage a jumble of sound makers – found objects, toys and musical instruments waiting to make some noise… when I sit down (the only unaccompanied person there – yes I was there without a parent, nor a child) the actors are busy giving high-fives to children who are shy or violently excited. The air thick with anticipation.

Before long the show starts we can see and hear the live foley (as created by Shondelle Pratt). Felix Gentle (boy) and Catherine McGraffin (Girl) are in the usual sibling rivalry – and before long Dad reveals his secret past as a bear hunter… and the mission to hunt a bear begins.

It is impossible not to delight in all the transformations in this show – as audience we delight in the transformation of the adults into children, we delight in the sounds coming from the objects on stage, the songs, the vulnerability/bravado/stupidity of dad (Douglas Hansell). We get into the rhythm of the refrains “Can’t go over it, can’t go under it…”
It’s a constantly moving, progressing and revealing show – where all the characters are interesting – even the baby (puppet work by the cast, gurgles/voice by Shondelle Pratt). I must say though – one of the more dramaturgically confusing numbers is “Doglish” where Max the dog explains to us how to speak dog- language – thankfully it’s saved by the fact it is spell binding to watch the choreography of a dog puppet who is manipulated by three actors – outrageously delightful with a touch of sassy Mick Jagger thrown in. Awesome.

Catherine McGraffin has a fine and strong voice – and plays the evil sister with relish, Felix Gentle is our soft hero who makes good, Douglas Hansell is the charming/goofy dad who we all love and all find comfortably flawed. Shondelle Pratt gives a punchy, sassy, performance – with the skill of an orchestra’s percussionist (all those different instruments and cues!). Anna Crawford keeps the story moving, and there is more room for audience interaction and engagement – but it’s such a rollicking adventure sometimes it seems a shame to break the momentum.

And at the end of it a story about friendship and courage and adventure and cooperation and problems solving… (if only the season was extended/I caught it earlier to make it more recommended viewing.)

All in all – a beautiful, fun, creative and engaging show for all ages, done well – and so, a complete pleasure.

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract by Rousseau is probably one of my favourite philosophical works. At 17 I carried a battered copy under my arm, whilst I ran to my philosophy lectures at Sydney Uni (often in my flannelette pyjamas and over coat…) It explores the evolution of our lives into what we refer to as “society” – we enter into an agreement – that to enjoy the safety and prospertity that participating in society, we forego our natural/primitive instinctual state and submit to law. Rousseau also talks about how these laws are created – who decides them, bearing in mind, of course that (wo)Man is instinctively selfish and operates within self interest.

Published in the late 1700s, there is something about Rousseau that ressonates more than ever. The western world – sometimes known as the “free world” is anything but free. Suffocated with choice? Perhaps bound by social obligation? Perhaps strangled by the myth of independence?

The Great Lie of the Western World is an interesting night at the theatre – both in content and in form. And I enjoyed many things about my night at the theatre, the night I attended. I think the ideas were really timely, I also love the sense of place and location within the writing. I like the age of the characters.

Not often do we see plays of this (broadly speaking – A classical structure where the protagonist is visited by an “outsider,” has personal (internal) struggles to overcome, a truth is revealed and a choice needs to be made.) traditional structure and duration in independent theatres. Perhaps the rise of the Fringe Festival with it’s portable opportunity has scaled-down or limited most playwrights to placing their writing in a 60 minute duration? Not so with The Great Lie of the Western World.

I have not read the script – nor have I come across Alistair Powning or Michael Booth’s writing previously – so much of my reaction to the texture of the work is based on performance.

What is interesting about the structure of the work is how much the writing varies between characters. Most notably the style of delivery between the two male characters, Simon (Powning) and Emerson (Both) is casual and seemingly spontaneous – with the same invisible inkmarks like that of a Woody Allen film (that is, when Woody Allen is playing himself or perhaps in a similar flavour of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.)
At times the “realness” of the delivery is as spontaneous and real (or not) as reality TV. The female characters, Paige and Fiona (Jessica Donoghue and Kate Skinner respectively) however are highly structured and delivered in a tradional naturalistic style. Powning and Booth may have more liscence as the writers – but the style suggests improvisation – though I have been assured it’s not – think Belvoir/Malthouse’ Thyestes without the adaptation backbone.

What is gained is a sense of voyeurism. What is lost is clarity of delivery. But this is only for the male characters – is this a gendered choice for the sake of the story? A choice indicating something of the characters? Are the men lost? Have the female characters got their lives more “together” hence why they don’t fumble and bumble their way through a conversation? Or is this a case of the writers taking licence?

Within the content we see lives in crisis – exhausted, lost, lying, distrusting. We hear the philosophical musings of Emerson, who walks the earth…

Fiona and Simon are both trapped within their own decisions, life choices and life-style and life expectation (wealth, marriage, relationships). Emerson actively challenges these beliefs and constructs. Paige tempts both with an alternative. Both antagonise the protagonists.

However – all these challenges remain a fantasy as the ultimate result do not really reach the characters enough for them to make a significant change. The ideas float and remain on the surface, not under the skin- as Fiona decides to stand by her man. When really, more than anyone, she needs emancipation from her duty, her nurturer role, her self-limitations. And for me, the end of the play tells us that love strangles and shackles us to struggle. A tragedy.

There is no doubt that much about our contemporary lives is in crisis – and The Great Lie Of The Western World is a portrait of that crisis, but offers no definitive message, nor suggests a way out or way forward. Should it? I don’t know. Perhaps paralysis and maintainence of that paralysed life is the point?

As a piece of theatre, though I am in favour of innovative experiments with form and style, I think any production interested in cimmunicating with an audience should practice that communication with a director. Clarity, sight lines, lighting choices, design choices seemed sacrificed for the auteur control of the writer/performers. I think if this work aims at reaching beyond an intimate venue like The tap gallery (with a maximum of 45 at a time) either Cathode Ray Tube must honour its name and dive into small screen (or big screen) production, OR start reaching out to like minded artists who are passionate about their vision for contemporary, devised script writing, and nuanced invisible acting. But, as it is, I think the start of something very evocative is there – but needs more support to reach the audience it deserves.

Read more from Kevin Jackson: http://kjtheatrereviews.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/great-lie-of-western-world.html
OR
Jason Blake: http://eightnightsaweek.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/review-great-lie-of-western-world.html#!/2012/04/review-great-lie-of-western-world.html