It’s been an intense few days – and I think I am hitting a saturation point. It is a magnificent form of torture being surrounded by 260 odd (and I mean odd) people, having confronting conversations and asking provocative questions. It has been great. Huge. Challenging. Great. It’s been great. Read more

Emerging from the Open Space discussions, key priority areas will be discussed in further detail with breakout groups devising a series of strategies and actions. FACILITATOR: Wesley Enoch

Post coffee and a biscuit (well two biscuits… I needed them…) we now confront the tough work of the Forum… detail around the key topic areas.

Yesterday’s discussions have been distilled down to ten key focus points. And we have been asked to choose one topic to contribute 5 action points (recommendations) for these topics: Read more

“Responding to audience demand for more connection, for the more experiential – artists and companies are experimenting with new modes of engagement that have the capacity to deepen and re-imagine relationships between artists and audiences.”
Facilitator – Annette Downs (Tasmania Performs), Kristine Landon-Smith (Tamasha, UK), Steve Mayhew (Country Arts SA) Kyle Morrison (Yirra Yaakin), Sam Strong (Griffin)

Sam Strong gives us a Social media strategy of Griffin – especially around his Between the Lines program – a program of one off theatrical events and audience engagement activities Read more

“Lenine Bourke (Contact Inc.) and Darren O’Donnell (Mammalian Diving Reflex, Canada) compare their respective companies’ models and processes and freewheel their way through the principles underpinning their work – social practice, working with non-artists and international collaboration.”

With the assistance of Skype a huge face patiently stares at us on the stage from the Powerhouse. We have been a bit slow and meandering this morning and it seems like it’s all running 15 minutes late. Read more

Last day of the Australian Theatre Forum – and as promised, Jane Howard and I are having a frock off… She’s in yellow and I’m in blue… It’s a lovely Brisbane day and it’s a big day ahead. Read more

SPEAKERS: Paschal Berry (Independent), Sam Haren (The Border Project), Yaron Lifschitz (Circa) & Rosemary Myers (Windmill) FACILITATOR: Jo Porter (Malthouse)

“Over the last decade, there’s been a welcome increase in partnering and collaboration among the sector – between small and major companies, independent artists and venues, across cultural and national borders. Artists and companies collaborate to share resources, practices and audiences, to create work that neither partner could produce alone. A panel of practitioners will share their experiences of partnering and the impact it has had on their work – negotiating different ways of making, working in culturally and economically unfamiliar conditions, optimising both successes and failures.”

By the time this panel rolled around at 2pm I was more than fried. 4160 words today. (I know they’re not GREAT words…in fact I don’t even think I’ve spelt most of them properly or know what they mean any more…) I was sitting in the theatre whimpering and wishing for chocolate treats, hugs and flattery. All I can say is thank god (or ROBYN ARCHER) for Jane Howard AKA “No Plain Jane” – despite hopping around the Forum on a bung foot (8 hours of adventuring around Brisbane can do that to a girl…) she is like a machine – a smart, pretty, hopping machine… and she has written this panel up beautifully. Check it out here – Read more

Let’s talk about production NOT Just development of New plays. We are living in an age of Australian playwriting where development is the major concern of playwrights.

I say. No.

Time to stop being behind the door. Stop developing… Stop being academic about this. Time to just put the thing on. Where’s the money for new play production – I dunno – tied up in the production of old plays or paying overseas royalties? Time to just do it. Let’s get the work on.

Nothing makes a playwright work like a deadline. Especially a deadline of an audience. It’s gotta be ready.

For me the major thing is – playwrights need to be empowered.

I reckon this: playwrights know what’s wrong with their plays 80% of the time. I reckon Playwrights know what they are doing. I reckon more comes out of having faith in playwrights then being suspicious of their plays. I reckon audiences are a great judge of quality.

What if playwrights were granted more opportunity, more prodcution (shorter runs).. what if companies regarded their playwrights as their rock stars? Read more

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. Read more

OK. Upfront I am going to declare that I am a pretty terrible note taker. Always have been. Uni? Terrible. Look at those notes and you’ll find pictures and coffee smudges and lines of dialogue for potential new plays. And I think it’s because I am often distracted by new ideas that crowd like excited seagulls as soon as someone says anything. And also because I start thinking about more questions and answers… and unfortunately – due to the clumsy virtue of having my computer on my lap at most times, the default position of scribe fell on my fingers… and all I can say is sorry… I wish I was a stenographer. Read more

Shouldn’t work for a young audience which is their first theatre experience, be better resourced – at the scale of Opera?
What if in 10 years children’s theatre was given the level of support that mainstage/commercial musicals are? Would that be a wonderful investment in the future of theatre? It would surely entice the younger audiences to attend.

Or would it? Read more