Festival Eases Journey From Page To Stage
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 9, 2008
Writers, directors, actors and audiences are coming together this weekend to shape the nation's theatre, writes Angela Bennie.
IN NOVEMBER 2006 the Australian National Playwrights' Conference and the national script development organisation Playworks were merged into one body, PlayWriting Australia. Dangling a yearly budget of $330,000 for three years, the Australia Council gave the new body the task of "facilitating a national conversation about writing for performance" and nurturing "great new Australian writing for performance". With Michael Gow as chairman of its board, and Chris Mead, a former theatre director, dramaturge and the convener of the last two playwrights' conferences, as artistic director, PlayWriting Australia wasted no time getting out of the starters' blocks.Its activities were structured into two clearly defined streams. One would be developmental: Mead saw the organisation's task as nurturing playwrights and providing a climate that would encourage the writing of new plays. He also saw it guiding the development of the play towards a standard that enhanced its chances for performance.The organisations's other strand was showcasing: to provide the wherewithal for the new plays to be performed by theatre professionals, but in an environment that promoted discussion and debate - and feedback - about writing for performance.Last June, PlayWriting Australia held its first developmental conference, in Canberra. With Mead at the helm, 20 actors, four dramaturges and a clutch of directors worked over two weeks on eight promising scripts chosen from 160 submitted from around the country. Tomorrow the second strand of the organisation's raison d'etre comes under the national spotlight when its National Play Festival 2008 opens in Brisbane. Over two weeks, eight new works will be showcased in performance before an audience of theatre company managers, directors, agents, actors and writers - and the general public. Accompanying the performances will be a program of forums, talks and debates on the state and problems of playwriting in Australia.Three of the plays came from the conference in Canberra last year, Mead says. "Another five were selected from those that were sent in from around the country. The variety was amazing. All the plays were initially read blind, and it wasn't until about the third round that we discovered who the authors were."But the ultimate decision was mine. I also wanted to surround the performances with discussion, and this is how I have structured the forums and access sessions. I really want the general public to take part, so I have made lots of events free."The writer and performer John Doyle, whose first play, The Pig Iron People, is part of this year's Sydney Theatre Company season, will open the festival."In my address I will acknowledge that my association with the theatre ceased some 20 to 30 years ago," Doyle says. "And I intend to talk about the changes I have perceived in the way theatre works today compared to days gone by. Then it seemed to me to be a hotbed of political unrest, filled with rampant nepotism and pure disenchantment among the rest of us."Doyle said he believed PlayWriting Australia helped "grease the wheels between people beavering away with scripts in their homes and getting them being done on the floor"."Playwrights need to see their words in mouths in a space and the best education for a playwright is seeing their work being done. This is why the two organisations under the one umbrella is a good idea. I recognise and agree that there have to be gatekeepers, but I hope that those who do get through all the dramaturgy and officialdom will be works free from the effects of political correctness and the arcane politics of the past."The National Play Festival 2008 runs in Brisbane until February 23.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald