After a rather successful two week run last year, I will be returning to the helm as Season Artistic Director of New Theatre’s Playwright’s festival: Brand Spanking New. Last year included the talents of writers such as:
Jessica Bellamy, Alex Broun, Jo-Anne Cahill, Alexandra Cullen, Joanna Erskine, Patrick Lenton, and Augusta Supple, Van Badham, Hilary Bell, Suzanne Hauser, Tom Holloway, Noelle Janaczewska, Nick Parsons and Lachlan Philpott
And directors: Paul Appleby, Melissa Bruder, Zoe Carides, Nick Curnow, Jane Eakin,Travis Green, Mark Pritchard, Boris Ivanoff, Anne-Maree Magi, Felicity Nicol, Danielle O’Keefe, Kate Revz and Jocelyn Speight
Complimented by a design by Canadian designer Barbara Bryce and local Composer/musician Catherine Robinson.
Who knows what this year’s festival will bring! Read more

I first encountered Brink Productions very early on in their inception: I was a robust and angsty Performance Studies Student in 1999.. and we were witness to BRINKs workshop of Heiner Muller’s Quartet under the direction of Holger Teschke: the then Artistic Director of the Berliner Ensemble. And I spent a full week silently watching a Vicoria Hill, Michaela Cantwell and Patrick Dixon amongst others play in a room 8 hours a day with the text. Now here is a show which has been in development for 4 years… and I was keen to see what had transpired over the last 10 years.
Read more

The first showcase for OFF THE SHELF, a playwriting hothouse run by Queen Street Studio is less than three weeks away.
Plans are in motion, catering is being ordered, invites are being sent out.. and soon 5 new works by local artists will be on show for all to see….
“Gravity Waves” by Will Snow, Directed by Jonathan Wald
“Yellow Brick Road” by Bridget Price, Directed by Mark Pritchard
“Retale” by Patrick Lenton, Directed by Anne-Maree Magi
“a road maybe, at night maybe” by Kit Brookman, Directed by Amy Satchell
“Boxing Day” by Phil Spencer, Directed by Scarlet McGlynn

If you’d like more details on the showcase, artists or OFF THE SHELF program please don’t hesitate to contact me offtheshelf@queenstreetstudio.com

Stage Juice is a bright young performance collective lead by artistic Director and performer Katy Green and In the Shadows is the debut production (from what I gather) of this new collective.
Read more

This is not a review: more of an internet-note on a show I saw last night at The Old Fitzroy Hotel in Woolloomoolloo: Bluey by Phil Spencer and directed by Scarlet McGlynn. Read more

A really interesting event is about to take hold: and my interest in it, is because in the last 3.5 years since coming back from living and working as an artist in Canada.. I have been hell-bent on re-defining theatre practice in Sydney. Obsessed with new writing, I have created production platforms which by the end of this year will have ensured that over 50 works (which does not include my own work) have been nurtured and brought before an audience… culminating in over 200 opportunities being forged for emerging artists… and WE ALL MAKE a difference!
Check out this event! Details below…
Read more

Devastated to hear that four competant and out of work actors are going to be “doing a course” with a 40-something year old TV actor and paying him $1000 for the priviledge I was outraged and depressed. This actor has not made it big, is difficult to research and is scarcely in work, yet, he is a good talker and full of anecdotes. Needless to say, I think he is a hack and a parasite looking for vulnerable actors to pay him ($70 and hour for a “private lesson”) in which he chats about the industry from his “successful standpoint”. Here’s my advice for actors who are in between jobs, looking for inspiration and just needing to get back on the stage/ or in front of a camera. Read more

Just a quick notice to advertise that the new brave venture I am heading for Queen Street Studio at the Fraser Street Studios. Out of a wad of applciations, I have chosen 5 new projects to be hothoused and developed in a 4 week period. I have selected the teams based on the potenital of the script (either form or story), the quality of the team/partnership and the long range plans of the projects.
They are as follows: Read more

This is an unofficial reflection on the play: not a review as I was not invited to this as a reviewer but as a practitioner, and it is with my director/dramaturgy hat I write about this piece, not my reviewer’s “will the audience get their money’s worth” hat. Read more

This review for AustralianStage.com contains extra rant at the end I didn’t include in the review.
Read more