Platform Papers > Issue 17: What is an Australian Play?

What is an Australian Play?
Have we failed our ethnic writers?

by Chris Mead

Read the first three pages (PDF).

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Paperback. $14.95 rrp. Publication July 2008

ISBN 978-0-9802802-7-2, Series ISSN 1449-583-X

Has our theatre failed our newest writers? Those first- and second generation immigrants who speak another language at home? Their diversity makes Australia a rich land with a wealth of stories, but how much reaches our stages? Chris Mead traces the growth through the 1980s that saw the overthrow of inherited traditions and a flowering of immigrant writing and Indigenous performers. But where are the plays today? Getting a play on stage is hard for any writer. For writers of diverse backgrounds it is almost impossible.
 
But others have done it. The United Kingdom has transformed its cultural attitudes. In New Zealand, Pacific Islanders make theatre on their own terms. Aboriginal performance has come a long way since the 1970s; but for others the divide is too great. It is time to discard the old methods and begin again, writes Mead, PlayWriting Australia has embarked on an ambitious community program to place creativity at the centre of daily life. Mainstream theatre is urged to join the outreach. It is a delicate task needing money and persistence—a job for the whole of society, because it is about who we are.
  
Dr Chris Mead is founding artistic director of PlayWriting Australia, the national playwriting advocacy body, which fosters new writing from first draft to full production. His career has included festival director of World Interplay, Literary Manager of Company B Belvoir St Theatre, and producer of the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2LOUD developmental program.

This issue also includes responses to Peter Rechniewski.

Platform Papers invites considered responses to Chris Mead’s argument for publication in the October 2008 edition.