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?

I’ll answer that in a second…

But here are some interesting questions to consider –

What happens to playwrights when they are stuck in the eternal purgatory of developments? Do they actually develop as writers?

Is the act of sitting down and writing a play, enough?

What are the forums and opportunities writers need to develop dramatic writing?

What makes writing for theatre such a difficult and specific artform? What DO playwrights need?

The answer to many of the questions surrounding the challenges of creating new work and (as far as I’m concerned) developing playwrights is produce, produce, produce. It is not an act of theatre until someone sees it. And so the most valuable tool a playwright can have is to see and hear their work in front of an audience.
And this has been a wildly contentious issue.

Whose responsibility is it to foster, nurture new Australian writing?

Is it possible for a playwright to make a living in Australia?

There has been a bit of movement in the theatre community in recent times – where playwrights are gathering strength in their songs by forming choirs of voices to battle the industrial difficulties of culture creating and perpetuating in theatre.

Some major incidences which have been points of contention OR reasons to celebrate include:
* The non-awarding of a NSW literary prize for playwriting due to the decision being “too hard” to judge.
* The statistic of new Australian work staged by Mainstage theatre companies hovering around 11%
* the creation of Australian Women Playwrights Online – a forum for the mobilisation and vocalisation of female Australian playwrights.
* ISM hosting The Playwright’s Muster at Griffin
* The Richard Burton Award refused on the basis that there were no outstanding plays on offer for the Black Swan Theatre Company’s 2012 season.
* The rise and rise of prominence of projects by 7-On Playwrights.

With this in mind, ISM have created Novemberism – a festival for playwrights by playwrights. When I heard of this pro-active launch forward, how could I keep away? NOVEMBERISM – created by emerging playwrights collective ISM – which was primarily set up as a platform to show two new works – Tahli Corin’s One for the Ugly Girls and Kit Brookman’s Heaven and now the project has grown to include readings of plays, forums, open mic nights, theatre trivia, a writer’s room, a writer’s collectively devised project.

It’s basically a safe space for writers – to come together, talk, write, listen, learn, celebrate – get inspired or get connected.

What happens to playwrights when they are stuck in the eternal purgatory of developments? Do they actually develop as writers? Is the act of sitting down and writing enough? What are the forums and opportunities writers need to develop dramatic writing? What makes writing for theatre such a difficult and specific artform? What DO playwrights need?

The answer to many of the questions surrounding the challenges of creating new work and (as far as I’m concerned) developing playwrights is produce, produce, produce. It is not an act of theatre until someone sees it. And so the most valuable tool a playwright can have is to see and hear their work in front of an audience.

At NovemberISM:

THIS WEEK (Nov 7-13th), One for the Ugly Girls continues, and is joined in the late sessions by I Contain Multitudes, a collection of short monologues, fresh off the pen from 7-On and directed by Augusta Supple on Fri 11 & Sat 12 at 9pm.
Sunday 13th from 3pm there will be a double bill reading of Philip Kavanagh’s Plain Jane and Tim Spencer’s You show me yours I’ll show you mine.
The Old 505 Theatre (505/342 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills) is a bit of hidden gem, and only seats 30, so it’s really important that you jump in and book for Tahli and Kit’s very limited seasons through Moshtix. Everything else is free or by donation, so that you can sit through for a double-bill and keep coming back again and again throughout November without going broke. Please check out the Getting There page on our website so you don’t get lost! www.novemberism.com
We won’t lie, making this happen has been beyond immense, but we have a tingly tangly feeling that this is going to be a really special month.
Come play!
ISM xo
(Tamara Asmar, Kit Brookman, Rebecca Clarke, Tahli Corin, Joanna Erskine, Rick Viede)

It’s only on for November…

If you care about new Australian writing/ want to get connected or inspired/ see new new new fresh new work/ I recommend you get into it…

www.novemberism.com