New plays are my passion. No surprise I needed to go to this.

Instigated by Katrina Douglas from Q Theatre in Penrith… here is a wish of eradicating the playwriting zombies on Australian stages… you know what I’m talking about – the old work that gets dragged out to be tampered with by ambitious young directors or designers… Shakespeare, classics, errrrgh. Do we really love old work that much? Do we really love the canon THAT much? I want old plays to make up 10% or less of my theatre going because really it just makes me feel like I’ve had my brain eaten.

It’s true. We need new Australian work on our stages. And there are a lot of difficulties in getting new Australian work in programs. We need to support our living, local writers. And what are some ways we can do that?

THE FLOOR -Can we join like-minded theatre companies so that we can have joint commissions.

Anthea Williams – New work from Australia and new work from OS sells well – but the work that sells is work with the actors.

THE FLOOR – New Australian work is not the death toll of the box office.

THE FLOOR – Should there be a tax on dead writers? Perhaps 10 % of box office should go to living writers or their development or the development of new plays.

There is a thought that this should especially apply to productions of Shakespeare that have a guaranteed schools audience (and there are no royalties paid.

Should there be a demand put to the major poerforming arts companies – that there are quotas for funded companies where they must program new work?

Chris Mead – not going to happen because 10% of Government funding is not enough to leverage the companies to program to new work.

It’s true the Small- medium do the heavy lifting in the production and development of new work.

What is the mainstream? And what does it mean for a living Australian writer to be a sell out if they are successful.

What is the obstacles of producing new work?
Burdens – Creative developments and commissions – time consuming and expensive.

THE FLOOR – A suggestion that New work should be about a hybrid practice – not just new (traditional) plays.

LP – That the idea of new plays are obsessed with premieres. Why do we need to always have new works – not give older works space and time to refine.

LP mentions the opportunities of movement of plays from downstairs Belvoir to upstairs Belvoir.

AW responds saying that if the Downstairs show sold out and it could be moved upstairs it would be. Belvoir is still open to that.

Always coming back to the question – “What is a new work?”
If there is a play with a successful production at Griffin and it has a new production in Perth – then is it a new thing? What is new?
The problem with remounting shows – and the relationship with the media in that they won’t come and review a remount – a prejudice against new work.

A need to educate audiences about development and what we mean about premieres and new plays.

Leland- Candy Bowers example about the smart and strategic evolution about the ongoing life of her show “Who’s that Chick?”

Is remounting antithetical for the production of new Australian work and stymieing the vibrancy of Australian theatre?

Perhaps smaller theatre companies can co-commission?

AW – Co commissioning and co-producing is not a barrier.

LK – A change in way that artists make work. Devisors such as Version 1.0 have jumped on Programme presenters but playwrights are not necessarily.

KD – Argues that that is very different –Version 1.0 is a funded company. A playwright is often a sole artist and therefore more vulnerable.

LP – Playwrights do try to engage with a companies but the exclusion of writers are bigger and more complex. And phone calls and emails don’t’ get answered.

The small to medium are doing the heavy lifting – but why?

Most of us have writer fatigue. Because of the internet the writers are emailing scripts from all over the world to everyone all the time.

(The bell tolls… we’re not finished this talk… we get up and stumble to the next conversation…)