ARTICLES
New community arts policy
Creative New Zealand
Creative New Zealand has developed a new community arts policy which will result in more funding and resources being made available to help communities participate in the arts, including a $360,000 boost to the Creative Communities Scheme.
The state of play in New Zealand
Ruth Spencer for The Sunday Star Times
The lingering effects of the recession and the Rugby World Cup contributed to a nationwide struggle for attention from a cash-strapped and distracted audience.
Diversification of both audience and performance style is proving key to the survival and growth of established companies.
Yasmina Reza: 'There's no point in writing theatre if it's not accessible'
Elizabeth Day for The Observer
Yasmina Reza's 2008 play God of Carnage was a worldwide hit. Here she talks about working with director Roman Polanski on the film adaptation and the year she spent with Nicolas Sarkozy.
Theatres suffer audience slump
Alistair Smith for The Stage News
Total audiences at subsidised theatres across England have dropped by nearly 8% over the last two years, according to figures released by Arts Council England.
Statistics reveal that the total attendances for those regularly funded organisations that reported audience levels for both 2008/9 and 2010/11, fell from 14.1 million to 13 million. The figures, taken from annual data submissions from ACE’s RFOs, also reveal that audiences are dropping disproportionately outside London.
Critic's Notebook: In Václav Havel's plays, politics was personal
Charles McNulty for the Los Angeles Times
What defines a political artist? Ideology? Activism? Revolutionary fervor?
Under the Soviet regime, the dissident playwright's political theater championed the individual. He fought against the jargon of totalitarianism with the power of farce.
Playwrights Code of Ethics
From playwright Gwydion Suilebhan’s blog
You may be familiar with a 1945 code of ethics for theater workers that’s floated around from time to time. It’s basically a list of standards that actors informally swear to uphold. It’s pretty neat.
It seems to me that we playwrights ought to have our own code of ethics. What do you think of the following ten items eleven items as a starting place?
The difficulty of making drama out of this winter of discontent
Steve Waters for The Guardian
In these tough economic times, why do playwrights seem afraid to offer an alternative, more positive vision of the future?
NZ Theatre 2012
PLAYMARKET
Homegrown writing is all the rage this coming season. All the kids are doing it. It’s ‘trending’. Keep up!
New Zealand’s major theatres and theatre companies are publishing their programmes for 2012 and there is plenty to get your wiri on about!
Read the full article here
CULTURAL STORYTELLERS: DAVE ARMSTRONG
The Big Idea
In Rita and Douglas writer Dave Armstrong explores the tempestuous relationship between writer Rita Angus and composer Douglas Lilburn, using Rita’s own words and Douglas’ music. Portraying these two great NZ icons are two of our current stage icons, actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand and pianist Michael Houstoun.
Renee Liang talked to Dave and Jennifer.
Read the article here
Playwright criticises casting for the ____ With the hat
The New York Times
In a rare attack by a playwright on a professional production of his own work, Stephen Adly Guirgis took to Facebook on Wednesday to assail the casting of two white actors as the Puerto Rican lead characters in the Hartford regional production of his play The ____ With the Hat, which was a Tony Award nominee for best play. The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors has also complained to the theater, TheaterWorks, noting that the production had casting calls in New York City, a training ground for many Hispanic actors.
Read the full article here
election 2011 - arts policies
The Big Idea
The Arts, Culture and Heritage policies were released by the major political parties on Wednesday November 2.
The Big Idea has compiled the policies, along with media coverage here.
generator - fundraising
The Big Idea
This month The Big Idea: Generator looks at Fundraising.
Visit their site here for articles, tips, approaches and exercises
short and tweet
The Guardian
In our fast, impatient, bite-size world of iPads and Twitter, surely this should be the era of the short play.
We revere the likes of Kafka, Poe, Saki and Borges primarily – if not solely – as writers of short stories, but where are the major playwrights for whom the short play is more than just an occasional dramatic away-day or bit on the side? Where, in other words, are the great short plays?
Read the full article here
will west end shut for olympics?
What's On Stage
Rumours have been circulating for some time that West End producers are considering closing their shows during the Olympics next summer, anticipating a slump in demand.
According to financial website This is Money, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group (RUG) is among those considering closing its shows, including The Wizard of Oz, during the Games fortnight, which begins on 27 July 2012.
Read more here
plays aren't fortune cookies
The Guardian
It's OK to walk out of the theatre before the show is finished. I've done it several times. No one's obliged to sit through something dull or misconceived or puerile and, when you decide you're not staying, that feeling of relief, of suddenly getting your evening back, can be as refreshing as spring rain. It needn't be, of course, a comment on the show; sometimes, you just realise you're not in the mood, you've got other things on your mind, you've got more urgent things to be doing. Sometimes you're just too damn hungry.
And sometimes the show is just not what you thought it was going to be.
Read the full article here
critical juncture
Theatre Communications Group
As theatres and audiences face a brave new digital world, 12 of the nation's most influential theatre critics talk about their towns and their changing roles.
Read more here
cultural storytellers: mike hudson
The Big Idea
A Thousand Hills opens this week in Auckland. A hotly anticipated new NZ work, it’s had a long and careful gestation in the experienced hands of playwright Mike Hudson and director Margaret-Mary Hollins.
Renee Liang asked Mike about the challenges of retelling the real-life story of Rwandan genocide survivor Francois Byamana and aid worker Bob Askew.
See here for more
theatrical tendencies
The Wheeler Centre
Between the academy and the marketplace, how well do we look after our playwrights, and what is the health of our theatre community? Raimondo Cortese, Hannie Rayson, Lally Katz and Jenny Kemp discuss the dramas of drama with Dr Denise Varney.
Watch the discussion here
should gender equality in the theatre be mandatory?
The Guardian
Playwright Julia Pascal wants more women in top arts jobs – and believes it's up to Arts Council England to lead the revolution
Read the article here
Retrofitting the Classics
The Washington Post and The New York Times
The argument over retrofitting classics for a modern audience is heating up in America. Stephen Sondheim's scathing letter to the New York Times illuminates a perplexing issue for an American theater starved for new masters and, as a result, obsessed with its old ones: How much license-taking is healthy, and how much of it counteracts the artistic intention of the original?
The New York Times - Stephen Sondheim Takes Issue With Plan for Revamped ‘Porgy and Bess’
The Washington Post - The fight over retrofitting classics
Inspiring NZ Playwrights
Sunday Star Times
The play's the thing – but who inspires the writers? Kim Knight asked six local scribes - Kate Morris; Albert Belz; Michelanne Forster; Eli Kent; Simon Cunliffe and Dave Armstrong - which playwrights they most admire.
See here for more
Demystifying IP
The Big Idea
The phrase “intellectual property” can be a little scary. Perhaps because it has the word “intellectual” in it. In this month's Big Idea Generator, Tim Riley from Dominion Law sets out to demystify the phrase and show you don’t have to be an Oxford don to master the concept.
He starts with an overview of the legal philosophy underlying IP (it is, after all, a legal creation). Then he breaks it down into its common forms and looks at some practical applications.
IP is, above all else, a valuable business asset. So now we need to get practical and work out how it applies to your business.
Read more here
Europe braces for a shift in the arts
Roslyn Sulcas for the New York Times
LONDON burns as disenfranchised youth loot and smash windows. Outside the Greek Parliament, the police, brandishing shields, confront screaming protesters. Tens of thousands camped in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square demonstrate against the soaring unemployment rate.
Perhaps, as a number of festival and theater directors hypothesized in recent conversations, people turn to art in difficult times. But, as they also soberly acknowledged, there is no doubt that the current crises that beset Europe are going to have a major effect on the arts.
Read more here
A Community-based theatre adventure
Paul Maunder
In the final year of writing a thesis on Community-based theatre in NZ, both as tendency and practice, I had the need to practice the craft again, rather than write about it. So I put a short press release in the Greymouth Star to see if anyone might be interested in participating. A diverse group of people came to the first meeting and we decided the 1080 issue was creating some energy on the West Coast. After the first training sessions with the inevitable falling off, we had a group of four plus someone acting as support person. We were all from outside the area and surprisingly experienced, people who had started off in theatre then specialised in a therapeutic role – that sort of trajectory.
As in many provincial areas, theatre on the Coast is moribund, apart from an operatic society, school productions, a small speech and drama children’s group, and an occasional visit from the Court with a show suitable for the local middle class. Certainly, that rich amateur movement that began in the 1930s, and which saw theatres in places as remote as Granity, died with the advent of TV and shift work. In Greymouth it had also seen a vibrant school drama department at Grey High and the production of Susan Battye and Thelma Eakin’s community play on the Brunner Mine Disaster. Alas, the satellite dish has taken over.
Read more here
Brushing up on the practice of gratitude
The Australian
Nothing wrong with wanting great plays, concerts and books. But I have a sneaking suspicion that we want something more from artists. We expect them to be grateful.
This is a sensitive subject that is rarely spoken about publicly: the relationship between artists and the funding bodies, sponsors and donors who enable them to do what they do. It's tricky, because without that public and private money there would be no art. Nothing. This column isn't going to kick against the funding system.
No, what irks is the way the deals are done: the humility and gratitude that artists and arts organisations are expected to show. As in so many other areas of life, there has been a corporatisation of grant-giving, sponsorship and philanthropy that is undignified and rubs the wrong way.
Read more here
You Me...NOW!
Radio New Zealand
You Me… Now! is an award-winning 'soapie' about a bunch of young people who live in the city. As well as the central characters - Alice, Johno, Lucille, Jarrod, Terry, Joel and Gavin - there is an array of other colourful characters that come and go as the story progresses.
You Me… Now! is commissioned and produced by Radio New Zealand Drama in Wellington. The Executive Producer and Director of the series is Adam Macaulay. The series is written by a team assembled and organised by the production/performance company All the Way Home Ltd. The writing team are experienced young actors and they play many of the central roles in the series.
The first 8-minute episode of You Me… Now! went to air in September 2010 and attracted more than a little attention. The first series of 25 episodes went on to win the Best New Drama Award in the 2011 New Zealand Radio Awards.
You Me… Now! resumes with episode 26 on 22nd August 2011 and is now an on-going global podcast/online series delivering three episodes per week all year round.
For more, or to download the podcasts, visit here
Is it fair to jeer?
The New York Times Arts Beat
David Fox, who teaches theater at the University of Pennsylvania and is a theater critic for the Philadelphia City Paper, wonders if booing at the theater should make a comeback.
You hear it at Bayreuth and at the Met. Some places in Italy are so famous for it you’d be disappointed not to hear it. Booing at the opera may seem like a breach of protocol, but for better or worse it’s a tradition. In some circles, it’s even a sign of good taste.
So I wonder … if we hear booing at the opera, why don’t we hear it at the theater? And — dare I ask — should we?
Read full article here
Unexpected Benefits
By Michelanne Forster
Twice every year life coach Rebecca Mason offers six free sessions to playwrights, in honour of her father, Bruce Mason. I must admit I was a bit dubious about the value I would get from a stranger's comments via skype, but I had heard from Briar Grace- Smith that the sessions were very helpful so I decided to apply. In the back of my mind I was sure that the issues I needed to address were about being a better businessperson and promoter of my work. I've always found this aspect of playwriting a burden. I was surprised to discover after a number of exercises and guided discussions with Rebecca that my main preoccupation was actually...
Read the full article here
CNZ 21st century arts conference 2011
The 21st Century Arts Conference is an annual event attended by arts leaders, managers and marketers from arts organisations. The conference encourages cross-disciplinary teams to engage with 21st century ideas.
The latest conference was held in June 2011 in Auckland. This year’s theme was based on the last two of the Seven Pillars of Audience Focus: Interactively Engaged and Personalised.
Visit their site here for videos, photo's and other resources from this years conference. This a useful resource for anyone in the arts and includes the keynote speech videos from Andy McKim (Theatre Passe Muraille), Rob Fyfe (Air NZ), Victor Samra (MoMA) and Stephen Wainwright (CEO Creative New Zealand) and more.
Arty Bollocks Generator
Do you hate having to write your artist statement?
Generate your own here for free, and if you don't like it, generate another one. For use with funding applications, exhibitions, curriculum vitae, websites ...
Family History Of Alcoholism Raises Risk Of One-Man Show
The Onion
The study found that males raised by alcoholic parents are 40 percent more likely to someday force their friends to attend a self-penned theatrical production about their life experiences, and the same painful behavior is eight times more prevalent in women over the age of 30 who have alcoholic fathers than those who do not.
Full article here.