2012 National Play Festival Program Announced
At the official program launch, PlayWriting Australia‟s Artistic Director Chris Mead announced the full program of events on offer at the 2012 National Play Festival which comes to Melbourne for the first time this year.
Celebrating excellence and ingenuity in Australian playwriting, the fifth National Play Festival showcases the best new Australian plays plus a curated program of public talks and industry discussions to inspire playwrights, producers and audiences alike.
“This is a Play Festival where we are bringing the world to our shores by the sheer force of our imaginative landscapes. We have an international collaboration, top-line guests, brilliant new writers from the Kimberley, great panels; all clustered around five powerful new plays. This year we are focusing on the business of looking outwards, forwards and upwards – we want our playwrights to be canny about markets beyond our own cities but also ensure that our international colleagues understand just how good our work is.” said PlayWriting Australia Artistic Director, Chris Mead.
Featuring five playwrights in the showcase series Destination: Australia, audiences will be able to view polished readings of new works by Australia‟s most innovative playwrights Gary Abrahams (Therese Raquin), Vanessa Bates (Every Second), Nicki Bloom (The Sun and the Other Stars), Victoria Haralabidou (One Scientific Mystery, or, Why Did the Aborigines Eat Captain Cook?), and Tom Holloway (Faces Look Ugly).
The National Play Festival will host international producers and theatre-makers to contribute to the debate on global connections. Guests include: Sebastian Born, Associate Director (Literary) at the National Theatre in London; Jason Loewith, Executive Director of the National New Play Network in the United States; Colin McColl Artistic Director, Auckland Theatre Company; Huzir Sulaiman Artistic Director Checkpoint Theatre in Singapore; and George Aza-Selinger the Literary Manager at the National Theatre of Scotland and Alison Hindell (Head of Audio Drama BBC). With the support of the British Council, we will also welcome Owen Calvert-Lyons (London‟s Arcola Theatre) and Peter Higgin (UK‟s Punchdrunk) who will be working with Melbourne playwrights on the immersive Living Cities: Melbourne project.
In addition, a number of highly regarded Australian playwrights and theatre professionals are taking part in the Play Festival, including Joanna Murray-Smith, Daniel Keene, Raimondo Cortese, Jane Bodie, Görkem Acaroğlu (Melbourne Workers Theatre), Van Badham (Artistic Associate (Writing) at the Malthouse Theatre), Anna Messariti (EP Radio Drama ABC Radio National), and many more.