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eBULLETIN
JUNE 2013
‘Is there a better way to live a life than sitting in an audience and knowing that you have made a world that for ninety minutes or so, for four or five weeks, would never have existed without you.’
Joanna Murray-Smith
Kia ora <<First Name>>
The fact there’s been plenty to occupy us in the offices is making the months move by so quickly. In Auckland, Stuart has been reading up a storm – new client work has been flowing in and a gratifying number of scripts were submitted for the Brown and Asian Ink callout. In Wellington, Salesi has been circulating a huge number of scripts throughout the country and around the world; and among other duties has organised three clinics in as many weeks. We’ve welcomed Nick Doherty who has leapt into the numerous projects on the go at the licensing and bookshop desk. Nick is employed on maternity cover for Aneta who is now on leave. We wish her a happy time preparing for the arrival of her new baby.
All of us have been in preparation for Under Construction, our play development event in Auckland next month. We are pleased to have Playwriting Australia participating as part of our exchange programme: Tim Roseman, Director of Playwriting Australia, will be there and will participate in discussions with local professional theatres; Declan Greene, a much in demand playwright, will have one of his plays read (more on Declan here); and Jane Bodie, a terrific playwright and a very experienced tutor, will lead the playwriting workshop. I hope you can sign up for the class and take advantage of her expertise. You can find out about her work here. For the main course, four kiwi playwrights will have their work read. These plays will be announced in a few days time. Full information on Under Construction can be found below.
The three Playmarket volumes in preparation are making exciting reading and Mark Amery has the 2013 Annual, this year focusing on Wellington, under tight control. Meanwhile negotiations are underway for programming of theatres for 2014, and the growth of work being staged by community theatres and schools continues to excite us all.
Nga mihi mahana
Murray Lynch - Director of Playmarket
NEW WORK DEVELOPMENT 18-20 JULY 2013, AUCKLAND
PLAYWRITING MASTERCLASS WITH JANE BODIE
THURSDAY 18 JULY 10am – 4pm $120 (maximum of 10 participants)
Travel subsidy may be available. Apply to Stuart Hoar here.
 The masterclass will look at the fundamental mechanics of playwriting craft, with a focus on the possibilities of theatrical structure - how to structure your play to best deliver its emotional narrative.
Jane is a critically acclaimed writer for theatre, film and TV. Currently the Artistic Associate at Griffin Theatre Company, Jane was Head of Playwriting at NIDA from 2009 – 2012, having established the hugely successful course. She taught on the Young Writers Course at the UK'S Royal Court Theatre and for the National Theatre Studio. She currently works as a mentor for Playwriting Australia. Her plays, including This Year’s Ashes, which premiered to critical acclaim at Griffin Theatre last year, A Single Act (winner of the Premier Literary Award 2006), Ride, Fourplay, Out Night One and Still have played all over the world, from London to New York, Australia, Ireland and Brazil. She has also written extensively for TV and Radio, including The Secret Life of Us, Crash Burn, Channel 4’s No Angels and Moving Wallpaper and several plays for Radio Four and ABC Radio National. This year she is writing her first novel and completing a screenplay for the UK.
EARLY DEVELOPMENT SHOWINGS
FRIDAY 19 JULY 1pm, 4pm and 7pm
Rehearsed readings of three brand new NZ plays in early development. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for further details. To observe contact Salesi Le'ota here.
PLAY READING
8 GB OF HARDCORE PORNOGRAPHY by DECLAN GREENE
SATURDAY 20 JULY 1pm $10 (bookings open soon)
A rehearsed reading of a new play by Declan Greene. Eight-Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography won the Max Afford Playwrights' Award and was developed by Playwriting Australia at the 2012 National Script Workshop.
 Declan is an Australian playwright who will be in New Zealand as part of the Playmarket and Playwriting Australia exchange programme. As a writer, his plays include Moth, Pompeii, L.A., and Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography, and have been produced at the Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House, and the Bush Theatre, London. Awards include the Malcolm Robertson Prize, the Max Afford Playwright's Award, and the Green Room Award for Best Original Writing. Current commissions include Melbourne Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre. He collaborates with Ash Flanders under the name Sisters Grimm, and has co-devised and directed all their shows to date, including Little Mercy (Sydney Theatre Company) and Summertime in the Garden of Eden.
PLAY READING
TITLE TO BE CONFIRMED
SATURDAY 20 JULY 4pm $10 (bookings open soon)
A rehearsed reading of a new NZ play in late development.Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for further details.
NEWS
b4 25 COMPETITION WINNERS
Playmarket is thrilled to announce the winning plays and playwrights for 2013. Each of them will receive Playmarket development assistance.
WINNERS: Sam Brooks for Queen and Jess Sayer for Speak
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Cassandra Tse for Right Dishonourable
Congratulations to Sam, Jess, Cassandra and all our other finalists.
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to our friends who were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours:
Albert Wendt, CNZM, appointed as a Member of The Order of New Zealand for services to New Zealand.
Dawn Sanders, QSM, appointed as an Officer of The New Zealand Order of Merit for services to theatre.
Sam Scott, appointed as a Member of The New Zealand Order of Merit for services to theatre.
Phillip Braithwaite, this year's Adam NZ Play Award winner, has been appointed the William Evans Teaching Fellow in Theatre Studies (Playwriting) at Otago University.
 
Congratulations to Lauren Jackson who won the Children's Jury Evo Promotional Award at the 59th International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany for her short film I’m Going to Mum’s. Lauren’s film is also a finalist in the NZ International Film Festival’s Short Film Competition as is Oscar Kightley’s film Tom’s Dairy. Read more here
Pacific Underground, New Zealand’s longest running Pasifika performing arts group, celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a series of shows. Island Summer by Pos Mavaega opens at the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin on Saturday 8th June 2013. Read more here
MATARIKI DEVELOPMENT FESTIVAL
Matariki Development Festival by Tawata Productions is an international indigenous playwrights’ festival held in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Developing new scripts by Maori playwrights and featuring international artists, Rachael Maza from Aboriginal Australia and Yvette Nolan from First Nation Canada.
Playwrights featured in the MDF 2013 include Nancy Brunning, Vicki-Anne Heikell, Rob Ringiao Lloyd, Moana Ete, Tangaroa Emile, Kali Kopae & Miria George.
Rehearsed Readings 1pm Friday June 21 and 1pm Saturday June 22 at Circa Theatre. Nau mai, Open to All, Free of Charge!
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ARTICLES
THEATRE DIRECTORS ARE HOOKED ON CLASSICS AS THE ADAPTATION TAKES OVER
Rosemary Neill in The Australian
A wave of adapted, foreign classics surging across the Australian theatrical landscape is alienating playwrights and ratcheting up tensions between supporters of a director-led auteur theatre and a more literary, writer-centred theatre.
Read more here
THE LOCAL VOICES BEING SWEPT OFF THE STAGE
Rosemary Neill in The Australian
Following on from her original article Rosemary Neill finds that in some areas of Australian theatre there is an astonishing lack of respect for dramatists and the literary value of plays.
Read more here
THEATRE DEBATE IS A GENERATIONAL BATTLE FOR THE AGES
Ralph Myers, Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre, responds to Neill’s articles here
NOT TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER
Bill Aitchison for artsHub
Having twice been rejected for Arts Council funding, British artist Bill Aitchison took matters into his own hands, with surprising results.
Read more here
JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH ON SUCCESS
From www.pwa.org.au
2013 is a milestone year for Joanna Murray-Smith, one of Australia’s most acclaimed playwrights. Four main stage theatre companies in Australia will present her work this year, with new plays opening at Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company as well as a new adaptation at State Theatre Company of South Australia, plus a production at Black Swan State Theatre Company in Perth in June. Sounds like a playwright’s dream, right?
Read more here
WHAT DOES FREELANCE SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?
Eleanor Turney in The Guardian
Success. It's a slippery word, isn't it? And outside a traditional career model – without appraisals, line management, incremental pay rises, feedback, promotion paths – it's even harder to get a grip on what it might mean. Outside a standard career, when do you know you've made it? From commissions to cash, Eleanor Turney counts the ways
Read more here
TAKE (MORE THAN) FIVE: THE ARGENTINE PRODUCTION MODEL
Paz Pardo for HowlRound
In the Argentine model of theatre making on the independent circuit a year of rehearsal is normal and three months is rushed. Where, in the United States, many productions close seven weeks after the first read, successful shows in Buenos Aires measure their run in years.
Read more here
FRANCA RAME OBITUARY
John Francis Lane in The Guardian
Obituary for Franca Rame, leading Italian actor, playwright, actor and militant leftwing politician who was the wife and professional partner of Dario Fo.
Read more here
HOW DOES COPYRIGHT WORK IN SPACE?
Glenn Fleishmann for The Economist
Chris Hadfield has captured the world's heart, judging by the 14 million YouTube views of his free-fall rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded on the International Space Station. But when the man fell to Earth in a neat and safe descent after a five-month stay in orbit, should he have been greeted by copyright police? Commander Hadfield was only 400 km up, so he was still subject to terrestrial intellectual-property regimes, which would have applied even if he had flown the "100,000 miles" mentioned in the song's lyrics, or millions of kilometres to Mars. His five-minute video had the potential to create a tangled web of intellectual-property issues. How does copyright work in space?
Read more here
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