I heard a great interview this morning on ABC612 Brisbane with Sam Strong, the ‘newish’ (since last November) Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company. Among other things, Sam sketched out some of his ideas to make QTC a national theatre leader. Anyway, it was exciting and refreshing to hear Sam hint at his plans and talk up his
Continue reading ...Like many who use social networking software to engage in conversation, I’d characterise myself as a heavy Twitter-user. And the more I use Twitter, the more followers I get; it’s the nature of viral communication. I’m now followed by 1400 + people – small beans compared with some. Now, I follow some who don’t follow
Continue reading ...Queensland Theatre Company today marks the 40th anniversary of its being signed into existence … literally … by an Act of Parliament: the Queensland Theatre Company Act (1970). It remains unique in Australia in this regard, and is one of a handful of arts Statutory Authorities in the state. Perhaps this is indicative of the
Continue reading ...Yes, it’s David Mamet in a memo to the writers of the series The Unit … how could it be anyone else with all those shouty caps. It’s an extract from Don Hall‘s blog, and the coda line is pure Hall. Read the whole thing of course, and follow Don if you like a bit
Continue reading ...Icons, branding, labels … the medium as message, but what’s the message or meaning when it comes to theatre labels? There are lots around, and I’m curious about one in particular – independent. I see it and its diminutive and the very buzzy word indie everywhere. I’m sufficiently that way inclined – too much of
Continue reading ...Read the whole piece … a review of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Interesting how for this reviewer and, let’s face it, for most of us that it’s the story that matters in the end … Such is the problem with 3D. It is so mind-numbingly amazing that narrative storytelling hasn’t caught up with the
Continue reading ...There’s a Twitter discussion happening right now hashtagged #artsed . The hashtag acts as a search key for tweets that have anything to do with arts education, but this particular thread of the discussion is focussing on the issue of professional training for artists – more particularly theatre artists, and especially actors. The originating posts
Continue reading ...I was a conference delegate last month at the Apple University Consortium’s 2009 Create World Conference. Justin Macdonnell, a keynote presenter put some nicely provocative issues to the floor of digital arts creatives and creative arts academics gathered at Griffith University in Brisbane. Justin’s keynote, ‘In the Absence of Criticism’ revolved around a couple of
Continue reading ...My last post here investigated the first 10 seasons of Queensland Theatre Company between 1970 and 1979. This post looks at the plays from the past 10 seasons. I’ve used the same breakdown in assessing the repertoire, i.e., organised my siftings using assigned historical and geographical categories: UK/Ireland; Australian; US; Other. Plays can find themselves
Continue reading ...If you subscribe to theatre-related blogs, then your feed-reader during the past week or so will be overflowing with posts where the words ‘Outrageous Fortune’ will almost certainly appear. It’s the title of a new book on the state of American playwrighting, and it’s getting the best kind of publicity on the web – the
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