Comments on: WHAT THE….? “MEDIA RELEASE: No Richard Burton Award for New Plays to be awarded in 2011”

By: Augusta Supple

Augusta Supple — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:51:35 +0000

Thanks for your response Noel,
I agree with you that if the plays submitted don’t meet the criteria they shouldn’t be shortlisted.
But often play judging criteria are very vague/esoteric measures – they use emotive words – afterall this is art – this is literature it is subjective (yes it is technical as well) but not all selection criteria can be measured and weighed.
I find it inconceivable that not one play (NOT ONE) out of 100 showed prize-worthy promise.
As far as the emerging question goes – I think that focus is lazy shorthand for “it’s because they are young that these plays aren’t very good.” I would argue its because playwrights in this country are not given constant and consitent work – they don’t get to practice being produced. They get practiced at being developed or they practice “emerging” but they don’t get to flex their muscle on stage in as fully supported context.
Because of this infantalising of our writers – they are forever viewed as “emerging.” I really absolutely think, that is the industry’s reponsibility to stop this focus on labelling artists as “emerging” – it creates self-consciousness, creative/artistic subserviance and can also effect the work (thematically is dark, depressed, depressing, existential and lonely). I beleive there is absolutely a co-relation between how a writer is treated/regarded and the themes/quality of their work. Supported, well-resourced writers (I reckon) make braver, more confident plays.
If the Burton panel couldn’t find a worthy play (which I reckon, still, in my naievity) that’s because we’ve failed our writers – NOT the writers failing us.

By: Augusta Supple

Augusta Supple — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:39:36 +0000

Thanks for writing in Noelle,
I always find it interesting when the word “development” is bandied around with wild abandon – because isn’t everything an artist experience in life a part of their development as an artist? And I think play/script development is different and particular.
It might be worth asking – are we developing PLAYS or PLAYWRIGHTS? Are we judging the potential of the PLAY or the potential of the PLAYWRIGHT?
I personally think that judging and assessing scripts is VERY relative and as soon as one commits to present a prize – that prize is for any given year’s submissions – the field as it stands.
What is this magical play (or who is this magical playwright) who can fulfill the needs, tastes, wants of a judging panel? Surely any true concensus when judging anything will result in mediocrity?
If the decision was too hard for the judging panel due to taste – I say too bad. Why does a judging panel get off so easy? Playwrights don’t. Yeah, its a tough job – I think impossible and sometimes arbitrary- to judge plays. I personally think it’s cowardly not to make a choice.

By: Noel Hodda

Noel Hodda — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:46:38 +0000

Competitions are a potential minefield. No doubt the judging panel for the Burton Award have reasons for their decision but I do find it hard to accept that out of all the playwrights across Australia who would have entered there wasn’t one that was worthy. Still, we’re not on the panel so I guess, unless they tell us more, we just have to take their word for it. Perhaps this year WAS a year of weak submissions. Perhaps all the good writers didn’t have anything new. Perhaps they had all starved to death waiting to get their previous good plays produced whilst lesser talents…no, no – lets not go down that road.

I am reading plays for a particular competition myself at the moment and there are good plays, some very good plays, that will not win because they don’t meet the particular guidelines of the particular award. Difficult as that is, that’s the way it is.

The organisation/people/person hosting any award quite justly have their criteria and if a play doesn’t meet the criteria it usually doesn’t get onto the shortlist let alone win. Sad but valid fact.

But still, to go back to the Burton, I agree with Noelle J that this decision does seem a touch mean-spirited. I’m glad I didn’t have a submission in this year – I’d be feeling quite discouraged now! And can someone explain this piece of logic from the media release to me: “The fact that there will be no winner of the Award this year highlights the ongoing need to support emerging playwrights in Australia…”? So…by not supporting anyone we are highlighting the need to support, is that it?

And don’t get me started on the constant support for ’emerging’ artists thing. Tiresome.

By: Noëlle Janaczewska

Noëlle Janaczewska — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:45:24 +0000

Awards and prizes are strange beasts—as anyone who has entered them or judged them knows. You submit your work in a ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’ frame of mind; sometimes you’re lucky and make the short-list and sometimes you don’t.

But there are 2 things that trouble me about Black Swan’s decision. A decision I find rather mean-spirited. Their press release says they will look at using the prize money to support ‘development’. When you win one of those prizes that comes with a cheque, the playwright gets the money and they can use it as they see fit. In this ‘development’ scenario, the theatre company will control how the money is spent. The other things that bothers me here is that our arts culture is increasingly a prize orientated whereby one winner is rewarded for the weeks and months spent creating a new work and any number of others are not. This is an increasingly important issue as the slow creep of prize culture replaces the steady development of new work across various fronts.