"I'm most proud of the things that took me the most courage"
Jean Betts

Image: Circa 2. Janie Walker 

 

Write Out Loud

WRITE OUT LOUD

DUNEDIN AND WELLINGTON

 

Write Out Loud Wellington

Playmarket held the inaugural Write Out Loud season in Wellington in October 2008. This weekend of readings of vital new work by Wellington playwrights and talk gathered together some of Wellington’s finest theatre talent.

Principal Sponsor: Wellington City Council
Supported by: Circa Theatre

Presented at:- Circa 2 

Saturday & Sunday October 11th and 12th, 2008

Meat by Geraldine Brophy

Where Are You My Only One? by Vanessa Rhodes

Postal by Lucy O’Brien

Under the Hood by Gavin McGibbon

   

 

Write Out Loud Dunedin

Write Out Loud - New Plays on the Dunedin Stage
Play readings of two new plays - your opportunity to see plays, fresh off the page

30 November 2008
Fortune Theatre Studio

12pm Powdered Milk by Thalia Henry
A man, sitting by Lake Avemore, offers a woman a cup of tea, equipped with powdered milk, and changes her life. Forever.
   
1.30pm Glorious By Richard Huber
A man stands by a river under the starlight, meets a woman, offers her a cigarette, and changes their lives forever. 

Tickets: $5 door sales only

In its third year, Write Out Loud continues to present great work by local writers.

Plays presented in previous years have then gone on to appear at professional theatres around the country, but saw their first light of day in Dunedin – something vital for every playwright and local theatre community.

“It’s an integral part of their success as a playwright,” says Playmarket’s script developer Janie Walker. “Theatre makers and audiences can see the talent that’s already in their own back yard.”

Ms Walker says playreadings are becoming more popular with the public, here and internationally.  “There’s something very exciting about being witness to creative work that’s still forming.” 

Write Out Loud is also a chance for the industry to network. Co-ordinator Clare Adams from newly formed Stage South says, “We are proud of our local writers and would love to see more opportunities for the local community to view their work.”

Based in Wellington, Playmarket is New Zealand's only playwrights' agency and script advisory service. They are at the heart of New Zealand theatre and focus on the development and representation of New Zealand playwrights and their plays. 


About the Plays and Playwrights

Glorious by Richard Huber
Playwright Richard Huber says his play Glorious is about how it’s hard to love someone. “Love challenges the established order: it makes us behave in ways that take us beyond the way we think life is. And love changes the world because it changes the way people see things and how they live. But none of this guarantees a happy end - a happy end is still something you have to choose for yourself.”

Richard is an actor, director, teacher and playwright. He is currently working at the University of Otago teaching Theatre and Interdisciplinary Performance.

Having Glorious seen off the page is a great chance to test the play on an audience. “And a chance to see the characters in the flesh and see if the ideas work,” says Huber.

The idea for the play came from another script. “I had two characters from another script and wanted to keep working with them. I like American screwball comedies and wanted to write in that style. It gave me the opportunity to explore romantic comedy in the context of a form that also has a strong thread of social comment. Also it gave me a chance to mix the conventions of Film and Theatre.”


Powdered Milk by Thalia Henry

Thalia Henry was a southern winner in Playmarket’s New Zealand Young Playwrights’ Competition last year. Her play Sound of a Car was selected and workshoped and presented in Auckland for a week last year and received great feedback. She grew up in Karitane and studied theatre and film at Otago University.  She wrote Powdered Milk while she was living in Korea, reminiscing about New Zealand's scenery in comparison to the Korean apartments that surrounded her.
 
“Write Out Loud is a wonderful opportunity for me,” says Thalia. “It means a great deal to be able to hear the words spoken by actors, rather than in my head.”
 
The play didn’t come easy at first.  “I was starting to feel sorry for the wellbeing of the trees, given that my wastebasket had been filled so many times and thought it was time to stop messing about and just get on with it.”
 
The title for the play came from a camping experience as Thalia added powdered milk to a cup of tea. “Once powdered milk is added, the tea soon becomes cloudy and this is what happens to the characters too; their lives become cloudy, changed and confused.”

Presented by Playmarket, Write Out Loud is made possible with the great support from: