
In the corner of a room, floorboards. An armchair. A rug. A shelf with a CD player, books and sketch books, paintbrushes. A short bookshelf of books, an easel. A few pencil sketches taped to the wall. more…

In the corner of a room, floorboards. An armchair. A rug. A shelf with a CD player, books and sketch books, paintbrushes. A short bookshelf of books, an easel. A few pencil sketches taped to the wall. more…

We are a week into November… and you may have heard of a word whispered in foyers, or “liked” on facebook… and you may have thought, WTF is Novemberism? And why is everyone talking about it? more…
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Last year, the NSW Premier made a terrible mistake. Terrible. The decision was made not to award a literary award for playwriting. Terrible. And yet… wonderful. more…

Playwrights are my rockstars.
Some of them even wear leather jackets (Caleb Lewis), some of them are dashing silver foxes who used to wear leather jackets (Ned Manning), some of them are bright eyed stylish ladies (Tahli Corin) and some are just so unbelievably cool they make you want to move to London and start a new life (Suzie Miller)… I love them. Not just those mentioned above – but the whole colossal lot of them – fiercly, funny, articulate – and as is the lot for many playwrights – extraordinarily hard working and patient. more…

It’s not a secret. There is an abundance of short form theatre proliferating on Sydney stages. And it’s not just in the independent and amateur sector – with two of Sydney’s main stage companies turning to short form theatre to fill their season – Sydney Theatre Company’s Money Shots (6, 15 minute plays about money) and Belvoir’s The Kiss four short plays bundled together from Australia and beyond to examine The Kiss. more…

Theatre is the occupation of romantic nerds.
We believe in ideas. We believe that ideas can change people- and people can change the world. We are, as Alana Valentine suggested in her key note speech last year, conservatives- http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/captivated_reality.shtml we love to conserve what we have. We are loyal. We feel the injustice when loyalty is betrayed or abused. We believe that there is nothing more powerful than the potential of space. We are compelled to express ourselves in an ancient art form which we participate in with other people, for other people. more…
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A flurry of text messages had been flying around. “Did you hear some playwrights have decided to hold their own night on Monday? Are you going?” “Are you going to the playwright’s thing?” “How do I RSVP?” In the past few weeks, I had been casually thumbing through newspapers at cafes when waiting for my coffee, to see if and when and how the topic of the absence of a play shortlist for the 2010 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards had been noted. Not really… one article from Bryce Hallet:
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/playwrights-snubbed-by-award-judges-20100516-v6aa.html and this one from Marc McEvoy http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/playlist-for-judges-in-search-of-a-premier-shortlist-20100412-s413.html
No response from Kristina…
more…
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When the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards were announced last month, there was one thing that no one expected… there was no shortlist for the Play Awards category.
Was no play worth even nomination? Surely this was a clerical error- had the envelope bearer had lost the nomination envelope in a taxi on the way to the announcement? Had there been a cut and paste error on the website?
Nope. No clerical error. A major philosophical one though- a major political one.
Instead $30K has been offered up, not as an award celebrating excellence- but has been transposed into a grant “to support professional development opportunities for new playwrights in 2011.”
No clerical error. But a major political error.
Development? Development? Sorry… What? No shortlist, but a grant for Development? more…
Jack of all trades… master of none?
As it gets to the narrow end of the year, it’s not surprising that I seem to be dipping into moments of introspection and retrospection – as I gear up for production – namely Vanessa Bates’ The Night We Lost Jenny and Alana Valentine’s The Sex Act for the season of Women, Power and Culture – and Platonic a site specific work by Playwriting Collective 7-ON.
After a massive 2010, 2011 has been a time of finding balance and scale. more…