Millennium Bridge

A contemporary Australian history

Hilary Beaton

A stage play and exegesis submitted for the requirements of the Masters of Arts (Research).

Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology

2006

ii

Keywords

Mid career, playwright profile, playwrighting,

early career, commissioning process, theatre reviews,

theatre industry, creative industries, government

funding, audience development, consumers and distributors,

Asian-Australian relations, globalisation, human rights abuse,

bridge-building.

iii

Abstract

The script, Millennium Bridge, is an investigation into the passions and fears that are

shaping contemporary Australia today. Charting the political climate of the past decade,

at the play’s centre a man is building a bridge from Australia to Asia. The central

dramatic question being asked is “In an environment where the emphasis on economic

prosperity overrides that of human rights and freedom of speech—what will be the

consequences for the Australian people?” The accompanying analysis of the ten-year

period it took to write Millennium Bridge illuminates the significance of institutional

issues on a play and playwright’s development. Written from the perspective of a mid-

career playwright, the paper argues that the professional and personal circumstances

within which a work of art is created (and their effect on the playwright’s confidence and

financial capacities) are a significant determinant of the productivity of playwrights.

iv

Table of Contents

Keywords ii Abstract iii Statement of Original Authorship v Acknowledgements vi Play: Millennium Bridge 7-95 Exegesis: Context is everything: the perspective of a mid-career writer 96-134

Bibliography 135

Appendix A: Table 1 Professional Relationships 140

Appendix B: Table 2 Time Commitments 141

Appendix C: Table 3 Financial Limitations 142

Appendix D: List of theatre credits 143

v

Statement of Original Authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or

diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and

belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person

except where due reference is made.

Signature:________________________________ Date:____________________________________

vi

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the academic and general staff of the Creative Industries Faculty at the

Queensland University of Technology and to all those who have contributed to the

process and completion of this Master of Research. Without the opportunity to work

within the structure of the MA (Research) I doubt this project would have seen fruition.

In addition, I would like to thank John Baylis from the Theatre Board of the Australia

Council whose timely feedback and sourcing of essential research material provided the

context for my personal reflection and transformed it into academic investigation. I also

wish to thank those who read Millennium Bride at various stages of the script’s

development, and who provided constructive comment: Jan McKemmish, Christopher

Smith, Tom Gutteridge, Jenny Palmer, Sue Gough, Sue Benner and Saffron Benner.

Finally, I wish to thank my supervisor Stuart Glover for his ongoing guidance, feedback

and friendship. At all stages he was the editor every writer wants—a reader who

understood what I wanted to say often before I did, and then helped me achieve it.

Without him this MA would not have been completed.

96

Exegesis

Context is everything: the perspective

of

a mid-career playwright.

97

1. Introduction

This exegesis examines the writing of my script Millennium Bridge from the perspective

of a “mid-career” playwright, particularly, the role of institutional and contextual issues

in its long delayed genesis. The case study offers an insight into the broader conditions

that shape individual playwrights’ careers, the processes of script development (in

particular, those conditions operating in the Queensland theatre industry at the time), and

the effects of those conditions on playwright development, productivity and

sustainability. While most exegeses provide clues about how and why the author wrote

what he/she did, my interest lies in the context in which the play was written and the

conditions which led to its delayed development and eventual abandonment. The exegesis

posits that it is almost impossible to discuss or understand Millennium Bridge, or indeed

any play, independent of contextual influences because they shape and can even direct

the writing process. Loosely, I argue that the protracted genesis of Millennium Bridge (it

took nearly ten years to write) and the hesitations of local theatre to take on the challenge

of producing the script are due in a large way to the cultural and industrial milieu in

which the play was written more than any inability on my part to write such a demanding

play to a producible standard. No writer sets out to write a bad play nor does any theatre

company set out to fail the writer. The aim of both parties from the outset is for the best

outcome. But as often happens in our industry, sector, art form (whatever we wish to call

it), the relationship between playwright and theatre company (or script organisation or

dramaturgical process) does not always result in producible work. And when such

endeavours fail, the writing process and particularly the playwright comes under scrutiny,

especially, when the common denominator is the playwright. My intention here however,

98

is not to highlight the shortcomings of institutions or individuals involved in the process

but to investigate these relationships via another perspective—one that rests outside the

script development process—that is, the institutional context (political, economic and

artistic) within which artists live and work. Again, it is not my intention to expose

“failure” on the part of institutions or individuals involved at any stage in the

development of Millennium Bridge. However, I do want to draw attention to the inherent

conditions both past and present within which the writing took place to expose the

particulars of that “environment” which in turn failed the writer. (It is understood, it

would then fail the theatre company and subsequently the audience.) Had any party,

including myself, foreseen the derailing of our mutual objective (of seeing Millennium

Bridge completed and produced) by the prevailing conditions and influences, we may

have been able to provide an alternative pathway or route out of the dilemma. However,

this would have required recognition of those conditions and influences within which we

were operating by those involved in the process.

For the mid-career playwright operating in millennial Brisbane these conditions

are of a particular kind.1 In the case of Millennium Bridge, it was the combination of

institutional factors (mainly the limited resources to support playwrights) and contextual

issues that failed to generate the essential prerequisites for a major work of art to be

produced. For Peter Hall, author of Cities in Civilisation, a crucial prerequisite in the

1 After the change of government in 1989 Queensland was a much changed environment in which to produce art work. A decade of policy-making and strategic planning spearheaded by the new Labor Government’s 1991 review, Queensland: A State for Arts led to the introduction of funding to individual artists (including writers) for the first time. As a consequence, “professional arts practice flourished as never before in the state and the success of writers, generally, was seen as one of the significant signposts of the state’s developing intellectual and cultural life” (Beaton 2). This seems to indicate that Queensland had become a fertile environment in which to write a play. This paper will, I hope, underline that the change was relative. Industry growth and improvement does not mean industry sustainability or sustainable careers for the artists in it.

99

process of creating a work of art is an environment where the artist is esteemed or even

over-esteemed. He insists it is a sense of self-worth that allows the artist to feel at their

best or most inspired and therefore, one can conclude, most able to create works of art.

But he warns the act of creation is almost totally and exclusively explained in terms of

individual personality.2 He goes on to say that in academic studies there “are only a few

examples that mention the social context” (Hall 10). His book, which examines the

possibility “of grafting a concept of the culturally determined milieu” (279), rejects the

idea that creativity is dependent on individuals but suggests it requires the recognition

that “creative behaviour is a direct result of the interaction of individual personalities

with their social and cultural environment.” (279) Despite claims (including my own in

other settings) that during the period of writing “professional arts practice flourished as

never before in Queensland” (Beaton “The Creative Flame” 2), this lack of esteem, which

partly takes the form of a lack of resources played a significant role in the length of time

it took to write an—as yet—unproduced play.

2.Background

The whole notion of the mid-career playwright is a hazy one. While much has been

written on playwrighting and the practice of script development for the stage in Australia

and overseas, little addresses the mid-career (or even uses the term specifically) or has

much to say on the question of the playwright’s conditions of production more broadly.

2 Hall goes on to say “The same goes for the extension of this approach into management studies, where it has been as the basis for studies of company innovation.” (Hall,10) That is to say, the search is for an individual management style rather than the creation of a particular environment.

100

Perhaps most germane is the literature that is determinedly industrial in nature, such as

published interviews in industry newsletters with established playwrights, theatre

directors and dramaturges or these newsletters (such as The Australian National

Playwrights Centre’s Dialogue or the Queensland Theatre Arts Network’s journal Ignite!)

which often feature profiles of theatre organisations or script agencies that are committed

to the production of new work. This information contributes to an understanding of the

environment in which work is created, funded, written and produced. Although we can

say that the theatre industry has been far less successful than funded institutions in other

art forms (such as the Australian Film Commission, the Australian Film Institute, or even

the national network of writers’ centres) at producing hard quantitative data about

Australian production levels and local processes of development.

The recent exception to this, and perhaps the most consolidated account of the

circumstances of Australian playwrights, is the Australia Council report, An Examination

of Resources for Writing for Performance (Tait, 2005). Commissioned by the Theatre

Board the report sets out “to examine script development organisations (SDOs) and

survey [script development] programs in Australian theatre.” (Tait 7) While writers were

asked to fill in an anonymous web-questionnaire, the focus of the report was on the

success of SDOs to produce plays not on the experience of the playwrights writing them.

The report describes writers as “generally freelance and independent artists” (Tait

6) and categorised them in the following way:

• Novice or beginner means a writer who is training in writing and/or working on his or her first script. • Emerging writer is a writer with at least one professional production. (Writer respondents in this research who nominate themselves within this category also have up to five years experience in writing for performance.)

101

• Experienced writer is a writer who has been writing for performance for more than five years, (although he or she may not have had a main stage production). This corresponds to the Literature Board term ‘developing’ writer. • Main stage writer is a writer who is experienced and has had one or more productions for the main stage. These are productions by the funded major theatre companies. He or she might also be called an established writer. (6)

An argument is made early in the report “to separate functions by using two terms:

focused ‘script development’ in a workshop and the provision of a range of services for

‘writer development’ to assist with the writing (my italics)” (Tait 6). However, both these

functions deal with the development of the writing rather than the writer or their career.

And yet, the report found “that there is no clear provision for the more experienced and

established writers not currently affiliated with a theatre” (12) and questioned whether

“experienced and established writers can be served by script development” (17). Is it no

wonder then that “writers and others therefore look overseas for examples of where the

writer continues to be esteemed and respected for what has been accomplished with a

script” (15). However, while the report does conclude “that script development programs

provide important support for writers of performance in the intervals between

productions and this vital function for the industry is extremely difficult to quantify” (15),

it also concluded that “there was a one-script-in-ten-years likelihood of production”(14).

For the purposes of this exegesis, mid-career for the playwright might be loosely defined

as the period between the artist’s emergence and their achievement of senior artist status.

The idea that the mid-career might be different from other two periods in a writer’s career

is founded on the notion that institutional circumstances facing writers (such as attaining

industry recognition or remuneration) influence their careers in significant ways.

102

The wider (non-industry) literature pertaining to playwrights and playwrighting

tends to focus either on the techniques of playwrighting or on readings of the

playwright’s work. Texts such as William Packard’s The Art of the Playwright, Louis E.

Catron’s The Elements of Playwriting, and Marsh Cassidy’s Playwrighting Step by Step

and Characters in Action usually pay careful attention to craft issues in the development

of the playscript: plot, act structure, characters, dialogue and the like. As these texts are

often primers for novice playwrights3, the ongoing contextual issues that might heavily

influence a writer’s career—such as the possibility of funding, commissions,

relationships with local theatre companies, the likely limits to the scale of production—

are at best secondary concerns. While unsurprising, given the market for such books,

these guides fail to represent, for example, the different kinds of conditions a playwright

might be forced to work under at different stages of their career.4 The expectations of the

solidly established mid-career playwright are different from those held by writers starting

out. Likewise, little attention is paid to the shape of the career of the writer.

The intricacies and issues of the overall career of the playwright are better

captured in the second category, which furnish us with readings of the work of

established playwrights on a case-by-case basis—in interviews, essays, or, for the

famous, through memoirs.5 Most of these texts such as Alan Bennett’s Writing Home and

3 Alan Ackbourn’s The Crafty Art of Playmaking while a primer for the beginner is also described as a refresher for the more experience writer. But the context is the British theatre industry. 4 There are exceptions. State of the Play:Playwrights on Playwriting edited by David Edgar is a forum for theatre practitioners to write about their work. While the first issue begins with a wide ranging guide to the major movements in British theatre it does not look at the specific circumstances under which playwrights found themselves writing. And once again the context for examination is predominately British. Books of this nature in the Australian landscape are few and far between. 5 Perhaps the best example is the Conversations series brought out by Faber and Faber, “a uniquely authoritative and comprehensive combination of insights into the workings of the contemporary theatre through the careers of outstanding practitioners”.

103

Steven Berkoff’s Free Association, and the numerous books written about playwrights

such as Herbert Liebman's The Dramatic Art of David Storey: the Journey of a

Playwright, Veronica Kelly’s The Theatre of Louis Nowra, again focus on the individual

playwright, generally providing a critique of the playwrights’ work. In these accounts the

progress of the individual script and the individual writers’ careers are deemed to be

almost analogous.

In a pleasing exception, Jackson R. Bryer in his book, The Playwright’s Art:

Conversations with Contemporary American Dramatists6, interviews fifteen writers7

(including luminaries such as Edward Albee, John Guare, Terence McNally, Beth

Henley, Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, Wendy Wasserstein and Lanford Wilson)

in the context of “the changing face of American theater” of the past half-century. Bryer

suggests that “Many of these changes are discussed and debated in this collection of

interviews and are exemplified in the careers of the dramatists included.” (Bryer xi). In

the interviews, Bryer invites the playwrights to discuss at length, how they got started,

who mentored them or championed their work, their education and training, as well as

exploring the times in which they were writing, including the highlights and setbacks.

Topics include the influence of technological advancements (such as television, multi-

screen cinemas and video), socio-political movements of the 1960s and 1970s such as

civil rights for Afro-Americans, women and gays, the “decentralisation of serious

theater”, the “rapid expansion of the regional theater movement”, and the emergence of

6 According to the book’s reviewer, William C. Boles, The Playwright's Art makes a perfect accompanying text for a playwriting course because the playwrights not only describe the mental, physical, emotional, and financial process of playwriting, but also provide some wonderful anecdotes about the tedious, difficult, but eventually rewarding process of production. 7 Alexis Greene’s Women Who Write Plays: Interviews with American Dramatists deals with contemporary women playwrights. These books would be a useful model for a study on Australian playwrights.

104

specialisation in “minority ethnic drama” (xviii-xvi). After establishing the playwright’s

early successes and influences, Bryer then embarked on a series of questions that looked

at the business of workshopping, developing and mounting successive new plays, levels

of artistic and financial support, the collaborative process and relationships with artistic

personnel as well as discussing alternative producers of mainstream theatre.

While not addressing the mid-career particularly, Bryer’s work provides a

comprehensive picture of the issues facing writers once their career had been established,

in particular the economic conditions which make “new plays increasingly risky and

difficult” (xii). Playwrights wrestle with the critical responses to individual plays, the on-

going “struggle to get a new play produced” (xii) regardless of their growing reputation,

the role and influence of the director on premiere productions, the lack of strong

producers who have commitments to works, the bearing theatre critics and labels have on

the playwright’s career. While it may sound as if mid-career problems are par for the

course, these comments serve a “fascination with the process of writing and producing

plays” (Bryer xii) and provide detailed profiles of the dramatists’ professional careers and

personal fates, rather than attempt to make any conclusion or assumptions on

prerequisites for success. However, the interviews do succeed in providing a broader

understanding of the playwrights’ works and the historical context in which they were

producing plays (both political and social). They also provide an insight into the

playwrights’ thinking behind the writing, and how this thinking shaped the creation of

work at a particular time in their career. There is no doubt that a similar investigation of

the careers of Australian playwrights, which discusses their work and productivity in the

context of social, political and economic changes in the Australian theatre landscape,

105

would be a valuable addition to local industry accounts, and partly address the concerns

of this exegesis.

Neither Bryer’s book of interviews nor the other books like it specifically discuss

the circumstances of the mid-career playwright unless they have reached a certain level

of success. While playwrights may have practised their art for many decades, unless they

have become household names, achieve celebrity status, are worthy of a biography or a

feature article in a weekend magazine, not much is known about them or how their work

may contribute to a greater understanding of general arts practice.

3. Argument

The brief introduction to the literature addressing ways in which playwrights create a

work of art underlines the absence of detailed accounts facing contemporary Australian

playwrights and of the intertwined nature of playwrights’ careers and the professional and

personal circumstances within which individual playwrights operate. Through a detailed

examination of my own career and my struggle to complete Millennium Bridge, this

exegesis offers insight into the environmental and institutional factors, and their effect on

the confidence and the ability of the playwright, as a significant determinant of the

playwright’s productivity.

While the discourse surrounding theatre and writer development in Australia, and

more particularly in Queensland in the 1990s and the early 2000s, has been and is one of

transformational growth, conditions for mid-career playwrights, even those with

106

established track records, were and are, in fact, limiting and discouraging for many.

Together, the state of the infrastructure, the limited financial and emotional support (for

want of a better term) for playwrights undercut the prerequisites for major works of art to

be produced. In my case I argue that there were external forces at work in the script

development process other than my ambition to write a play—forces which were more

often than not beyond my control and which created conditions that impacted the writing

process and consequently my self esteem. Playwrights work within a context and this

context is often examined in relation to the play. But if as Hall says “a recognition that

creative behaviours are a direct result of the interaction of individual personalities with

their social and cultural environment” (10-11) surely this supports the proposition that

“there is a relationship to be found between the individual [artist] and the discipline in

which the individual is working and the surrounding field or environment” (11):

“This is a crucial point (one that requires cognitive and affective support) so the artist can retain their bearings. Without this support, the artist might well experience some kind of breakdown.” (Hall 10)

It is precisely this “cognitive and affective support” that was missing in the script

development process of Millennium Bridge.

An examination of the external forces or environments within which I found

myself operating will show this interaction between the individual playwright and the

social and cultural environments in which he/she finds him/herself and are subjected to

goes far beyond how well or badly they were funded or how well or badly the play was

developed. What I am suggesting is that a work of art does not emerge from nothing and,

in order for it to emerge at all the script development process requires “cognitive and

107

affective support” from the individuals and organisations involved in the process. In my

case this can be argued through a number of stages.

Firstly, through an examination of my early career as a playwright and the

conditions of this career, I wish to establish my bona fides as plausible or promising

playwright. This section underlines that new writers of promise are often given every

encouragement to continue “but without certainty of production by major companies”

(Tait 8). Today, this lack of certainty still exists. Given it is now known that while the

number of writers is on the increase, one in four writers live below the poverty line and

with half earning less than $4,000 a year from their creative practice8, a trap is set.

Likewise, according to Tait’s research that while “commissioning remains the central

practice for obtaining new works” (Tait 7), “There is an institutional gulf in the theatre

industry between script development and production, even within theatre companies.(Tait

10)

Secondly, by mid-career, playwrights are often operating in a potentially difficult

environment where relationships with theatre organizations, directors and dramaturges

are not necessarily straight forward. As Tait finds, “It is freelance writers who are

ultimately responsible for ensuring their scripts receive adequate time [and money] in

development.” (10) It is also a competitive environment where “new works are

sometimes being equated with ‘new writers’” (10). The playwright creates her work, in

part, in the context of the work and careers of other playwrights encompassing novices,

“But there are few other professions […] that would allow entry without evidence of

prior training.”

8 In November 2003, the Australia Council published Don’t Give Up Your Day Job – An economic study of professional artists in Australia by Professor David Throsby and Virginia Hollister – the fourth report in a series spanning 20 years.

108

Thirdly, I wish to specifically examine the genesis and development of

Millennium Bridge. Here, there are a number of interlinked components to consider: a)

the script was developed in a specific political context that at first suggested an

intellectual and cultural space for the work, but changing political circumstances, in some

sense, later foreclosed on that space; b) that the work was developed within a series of

institutional attachments to theatre organizations and tertiary education institutions, yet

these relations are not always productive for the playwright and c) the work was

developed within certain financial conditions; and, despite this playwright being

comparatively well supported financially compared to other local playwrights, these

conditions can still be meagre enough to de-rail or delay the project.

4. Note on Methodology

As stated earlier I come to the writing of this paper and the accompanying play,

Millennium Bridge, as a mid-career playwright with over 70 theatre production credits

(including thirteen attributed to plays I have written or co-authored 9) and over 100

published articles, reviews and essays (including a regular feature articles and a monthly

column in Writing Queensland magazine) on arts and cultural issues. Millennium Bridge

was to be the last in a series of three plays which dealt with the continuum of a theme and

which were major pieces of work.10 That is to say, these three plays (Outside In, No

9 See Appendix D for full list of theatre credits. 10 Outside In (written in my early 20’s and fuelled by the new wave of feminism), explored the impact male-dominated decision-making had on society and concluded the innocent die young. That is, the disenfranchised, disadvantaged and dispossessed would be the sacrificial lamb in an uncaring society. No

109

Strings Attached, and Millennium Bridge) were ones I wanted to, or perhaps was even

propelled to, write. While all received government funding and two were commissioned

by theatre companies, the germinal ideas were mine, the themes were ones I was keen to

explore.

As value can be gained from reading the experiences of others, this reflection on

my own practice (and particularly on the circumstances of my practice) is intended as one

way of explicating the issues facing contemporary Australian playwrights in direct

relation to the creation of a new work. Nigel Krauth argues for a form of the exegesis as

preface in which the writer can productively address their own work:

Plenty of writers have dared to disregard the unproductive notion that only others can explain their work, and have taken on the role of—what is it?—writer who is self-critic and self-reader. (Krauth 4)

While Krauth is talking about the works themselves rather than the process of their

development, this exegesis takes the notion seriously, examining “the relationship

between the writing and the culture”—what Krauth calls “the exegetical process in action

today”.

Using Millennium Bridge as a case study, I follow Bryer’s line of investigation

which examines how playwrights got started, as well as exploring the times in which they

were writing, including the highlights and setbacks. The details of my formative and

early mid-career illustrate how this period shaped and directed future writing thus

Strings Attached (written in my mid 30’s) explored the individual’s responsibility in a given situation, their contribution to the events of their life and the part they played in the outcome. It was also about forgiveness, of others and oneself. Millennium Bridge (started in my early 40s) explored the terrain beyond forgiveness. What if a series of events where so horrific that there is no forgiveness and within that context, what contribution does the individual make?

110

providing a comprehensive picture of the issues facing writers once their careers have

been established, in particular the economic conditions which make “new plays

increasingly risky and difficult” (Bryer xii). The case study will include an examination

of the critical response to the plays, Outside In and No Strings Attached, with the

intention of establishing my reputation as a playwright and the context leading up to the

commission of Millennium Bridge by the Queensland Theatre Company (QTC).

I then examine my mid-career through the variety of relationships with

individuals (theatre professionals, critics and academics) and organisations (theatre

companies, script agencies and funding bodies) involved in the collaborative process of

developing new work. This illuminates the connection those individuals/institutions had

to the play and to me as the playwright. It also demonstrates the impact these

relationships have, less so on the play’s content and form, but on the playwright’s career

and financial wellbeing.

Finally, I examine the specific conditions for the genesis and eventual “failure” of

Millennium Bridge to reach production in three parts. The first part takes the form of

recounting the political context for the development of the work. This enables some

discussion of the significance of the political context in being able to accommodate a

work at any given time. Second, I examine the artistic support given to Millennium

Bridge by the commissioning theatre company and by other interested parties. The data

for this analysis is gathered from cross-referenced diary appointments and journal entries,

some of which is presented in table form. This analysis reveals something of the limits of

the environment within which the writing occurred. Third, I examine the financial

conditions for the production of the work through a detailed examination of my tax

111

returns for the period 1993–2004.11 It provides a comprehensive picture of the financial

realities of producing a work of art.

5. The Playwright’s Early Career

Through an examination of my early career and the conditions surrounding my formative

years as a playwright, I wish to establish that new writers of promise are often given

every encouragement to continue in the belief there is a career to be had and that

playwriting is a bone fide career choice. In his interviews, Jackson R. Bryer began his

line of questioning with “why write for theatre” or “why become a playwright?” My own

answer is found on the back cover of the published version of Outside In:

“[Beaton’s] writing grew from a rising feminist consciousness and the desire to create roles for women where they are seen as the subject and not the object.”

The publication of my first full-length play Outside In12 by Victoria University Press

(1984) followed its premiere season at Theatre Corporate in Auckland, New Zealand

(1982). Outside In was greeted as a major accomplishment, demonstrated by the critical

attention and succession of productions it received, nationally and internationally13, and

11 The mid-career is generally recognised as the period when an individual is at the peak of their earning capacity. 12 Prior to Outside In I had only written one one-act play (Sitting on a Fortune) or wrote collaboratively with acting company members of various theatre companies with whom I was employed. 13 Despite the success of Outside In, overseas, the play did not receive a professional production in Australia. One can suppose the reason for this was the popularity of Prisoner, “one of Australia's most well-known [television] series [which] became a cult classic.” (Aussie Soap Archive, Prisoner 1979-1986) While an earlier work of mine, Sitting on a Fortune, which explored the lives of three prostitutes and the business of being “on the game” was mounted by the Women and Theatre Project at the Nimrod

112

by the fact it was studied as a text in New Zealand universities for over two decades. As

Sebastian Black, then Head of English of Auckland University and champion of the

script’s publication wrote in the foreword:

The play does not adopt an aridly feminist stance of superiority towards men […] It is the first New Zealand drama that has the stink of urban squalor in its back-

ground. Beaton highlights the victims of a society where myths of equality and a classless society are being exploded. (7)

In fact, people cared less about my feminist stance than whether I had actually been

incarcerated:

When Outside In was given its first public reading at a playwrights’ workshop in 1982 a question no one dared to ask lay in the minds of the audience. Had Hilary Beaton ‘done time’? However to describe the play in these narrow naturalistic terms is to underrate both its quality and the breadth of social analysis that lies behind its deceptively documentary framework. (Black 7)

Black was clear about the play’s “fidelity to the intolerable environment within which the

characters were trapped.” and observed that “Beaton never forgets that her prison is a

microcosm of the larger world”:

Beaton offers no programme for how society could break out of the terrible impasse she has described. She has invested her characters with considerable humanity. (Black 12)

Black’s foreword was published after the play had received a great deal of publicity14 and

there is no doubt this influenced his own interpretation of the play. He did, however,

Downstairs in 1982, it did little to establish my reputation as a playwright in Australia or hasten the production process of a new play. 14 One reason for this publicity was the use of prison jargon. Another was the acceptance of lesbian relationships by correctional institutions.

113

come to the play’s defence when it was attacked by the feminist academic Dr Cathy

Dunsford after her review in Broadsheet, a New Zealand feminist magazine.

the most glaring weakness15[…] is that there are few directives which encourage the audience, unless it has a feminist perspective (8)

Sebastian Black did not agree:

[Beaton believes] playwrights must make people confront something they have never thought of before. Outside In insists that once this confrontation has taken place, what is can begin to be changed […]

Where I am confident Ms Dunsford and I would agree is that when this remarkable play is seen in the rest of the country, its virtues must be obscured by the bickering of two critics, both of whom admire it. (Black, “Letter to the Editor”, Broadsheet, 3)

Initial publicity for the play also fired up the feminist angle by beating up a controversy

surrounding an all-female cast and the ‘gutter language’. The play’s first director, Jude

Gibson, was asked by Auckland Star journalist, Vanya Shaw, “Nine women working

together. Has it drawn comment?” Gibson responded:

Yes, I was warned of the dangers of women working together, but I said: ‘Did you have this problem with Bent? (an all-male play about homosexuals in Nazi Germany)’. It’s a stunning experience working on a virtually all-women play [sic]. Hasn’t happened in this theatre16 before. (Shaw Scene 13)

15 Interestingly, no one picked up on the fact that the play did not represent the demographic of the prison population which, in the early 1980s was the same as it is today, predominately Maori. This “glaring weakness” was only addressed recently when I was commissioned by Downstage Theatre to re-write the play for a contemporary audience. 16 Theatre Corporate, Auckland

114

While it seems improbable, the play did receive unwarranted attention due to the fact it

was an all-female cast.

The celebrated New Zealand playwright Greg McGee was first to make the

gender distinction in an opinion piece he wrote for ACT, (New Zealand theatre magazine)

about the 1982 New Zealand Playwrights’ Workshop where Outside In had its first public

exposure. He said, “One final observation. […] Perhaps, it’s a cause for rejoicing that two

of the best and most powerful plays this year were by women—Hilary [Beaton] and

Carolyn [Burns]17.” He then went on to criticise Television New Zealand for not being

“more aware of that salient feature of the 1982 Workshop […] and should have focussed

on a play by a woman.” However, he then qualifies his remark by saying” without

lowering or changing the criteria, which in the end is tokenism.” (McGee 8). This implied

that the gender distinction automatically supposes a diminishing of status for the play and

or playwright.

Whether it was tokenism or not, the tag of “woman writer” remained with me

throughout the 1980s and became a prism through which my later work was to be

viewed. But despite this early controversy and attempt at marginalisation, the play was

generally well-received with particular attention paid to the quality of writing:

Outside In is a stunner—an object lesson in writing for live theatre. […it] evinces an admirable control of dramatic shape and mood, with shifts ranging from wild hilarity to tension, rage and desolation so well managed that not once is there a sense of artificiality or audience manipulation. …what we are made to discover is the human condition in all its diversity. (Leek 23) The play is a showcase of women’s work in the theatre from start to finish. […] You are sentenced to two hours of total engrossment. (MF 18)

17 Carolyn Burns, Objection Overruled

115

A powerful New Zealand play […] It’s also a horrifyingly and absorbing slice of life. (Hotspur 5) Hilary Beaton, author of a remarkable new play […] presents a picture of New Zealand today that no other playwright has approached. […] a rich and complex study of this country’s lower depths […] Taut dialogue, full of vernacular poetry—a ‘gutter poetry’—that recalls the early plays of Edward Bond. (Black 7)

International reviews were no less effusive when the play was read by the Stonewall

Repertory Company in New York in 1985, showcased at the 1986 Commonwealth

Games Arts Festival/Festival Fringe in Edinburgh and later in a season of the play at the

Latchmere Theatre, London. While not all reviews were unanimously glowing, those in

mainstream broadsheets and publications were, and this established my reputation as a

playwright.

The label of “woman writer” initially proved advantageous in my early career by

providing funding and employment opportunities. It was a critical reason for the play’s

initial funding from the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council, New Zealand’s federal funding

body to the arts, led to an invitation to join the Women in Theatre Project in Sydney in

1981, and later became a context for the commission of No Strings Attached in 1988. It

was only as I approached my mid-career that this early success and recognition as a

feminist writer proved to be a burden rather than a boon. As I observed some 10 years

later in Playworks’ celebratory publication Playing with Time—women writers for

performance:

The label woman writer is a double-edged sword. It can clear the way, cut you loose and stab you in the back. It is a weapon and a wand. (Beaton “Dear Playworks”, 10)

116

Despite the early controversy and subsequent attachment of the label “woman writer”, I

was encouraged enough to take on the role of playwright which was a departure from my

original desire “of becoming a famous dramatic actress of stage and screen” (Beaton

“Brisbane State High School Graduation Speech 2001”, 1). The cumulative effect of

these early influences provided me with a platform from which a plausible and promising

career was launched.

6. Entering Mid-Career

By the early 1990s, I was well into my mid-career with two AWGIE nominations 18 and

one Matilda Award and 11 staged productions to my credit. As previously stated,

institutional factors, such as the change of state government in 1989, increased arts

funding to individual artists and the emergence of specialized support services had their

effect on the confidence and capacities of playwrights living and working in Queensland

at the time. As I was living in Australia, I sought and received subsequent financial

support and encouragement from a range of funding bodies and script agencies including

the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Queensland, the Australian National Playwrights’

Centre, Playworks, and Playlab for my next major piece of work, No Strings Attached

(NSA). While this may sound like comparatively good support, it did not alleviate the

“struggle to get a new play produced” (Bryer xii) nor lessen the mental, physical and

emotional pressure of finding on-going financial support for the writing. In my case, 18 Australian Writers Guild (AWGIE) awards for Trading Hours 1991, No Strings Attached 1995.

117

levels of funding ranged from $10,00019 for a project grant to $150 for dramaturgical

assistance. While readings and workshops garnered attention for the play and funded

theatre professionals such as actors, dramaturges and directors involved in the script

development process, it did not attract remuneration for the playwright, as in the case of

the latter two SDOs, nor an income for future revision and re-writing. As Tait says,

“opportunities can be time poor and often without strategies for progression” (13).

No Strings Attached dealt consciously with the theme of feminism and, in

particular, those issues facing the women’s movement in the late 1980s. These themes

were identified in the published script’s foreword by means of a quote from A Passion for

Friends by Janice Raymond:

Sisterhood did not mean that women automatically became friends or shared a common world beyond the struggle. Many women who fought hard in the common cause of feminism felt that this would give them more than it did. […] This over-investment in friendship and sentimentalizing of female bonding caused women to become disaffected from other women and alienated from feminism. (xi)

Given the socio-political environment of the time, it is not surprising that Melbourne

playwright Hannie Rayson, who dedicated her play, Falling from Grace, to her “dearest

women friends” (ii), was also dealing with similar themes—“that women were more

moral, more trustworthy, more giving, more intelligent” (Beaton No Strings Attached)—

during that period which was often referred to as ‘post-feminism’:

Falling from Grace explores how women—three friends in this instance—deal with the tensions between their private and public lives, developed through the dramatic structure of a medical scandal surrounding the side-effects of the pre-menstrual syndrome drug Zed400 […] Critic Helen Thomson wrote (The Australian August 12, 1994) that Falling from Grace is a new Australian play to

19 This $10,000 from the Australia Council funded two projects, one of which was NSA, the other was Trading Hours (Street Arts Community Theatre, 1991).

118

celebrate: “utterly contemporary, thought provoking, polished, witty and absorbing. (Kelly 21)

While there were many similarities between the two plays (such as a storyline which

explores the friendship of a small group of female professionals and a bruising extra-

marital affair.), there was one glaring disparity. Rayson’s play was described as “a new

Australian play”, but nowhere was No Strings Attached given national status. The attitude

was that mine was a local rather than a national work was reinforced by local critics and

reviewers:

[No Strings Attached] is the best-crafted new play by a Queensland playwright in a long time (and certainly the best among new plays by women this year). (Gough 34) A new play by a Brisbane playwright is always something to look forward to. And when it is as good as this one, with an overlay of sassy wit and humour, enough mystery to keep you fascinated to the end, […] and a thought provoking sub-text, it revives your faith in the power of live theatre. (Cotes 26)

It seems that even Queensland critics, at the time, didn’t see the work in the national

context and while this should not matter given that Millennium Bridge would eventually

be developed in this state it potentially narrowed a) the marketability of No Strings

Attached interstate (particularly in Sydney and Melbourne where theatre companies

generally were better resourced20 and b) the financial viability of further productions.21

Subsequent productions provide playwrights with opportunities for revision, profile-

20 The original script required a visual landscape representing falling or flying which was dropped due to financial limitations. 21 Not to mention spin-offs such as successive amateur productions and publication.

119

raising and income from advance royalties and box office (although this is less reliable22).

But there were a range of issues surrounding the production of No Strings Attached which

highlighted the absence of “cognitive or affective support”.

Rayson’s Falling from Grace was commissioned by Aubrey Mellor, while he was

the Artistic Director (AD) of the Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) from 1988-93, the

exact timeframe in which No Strings Attached was developed and written. Both plays

premiered within a month of each other in 1994. Admittedly, by mid-career, the

environment within which my work was being created was more competitive and,

therefore, it is natural to assume my plays were being viewed in the context of the work

and careers of other playwrights.

In 1989, after my return to Brisbane from Sydney and prior to La Boite Theatre’s

interest in the play, I submitted a draft of No Strings Attached to QTC for consideration.

The script’s original title was A Fall from Grace (Rees 1) and both scripts were handled

by the same literary manager.23 While it is accepted as the artistic director’s prerogative

to commission and program as he see fits with the final choice made on personal

preference, this exegesis is not written from the point of view of the theatre company.

These incidents are viewed from the playwright’s perspective and the theatre company’s

choice to go with an interstate playwright or depending how you look at it, the decision

not to nurture a local playwright24, had its impact on my career.

22 In 2006, the issue of viability is still a major issue for artists. According to the Queensland Government’s 2006 discussion paper Queensland Arts Industry Sector Development Planning, “the existing local market is too small to support a cultural sector” (3) and this points to the sector’s heavy dependence upon government subsidy. 23 The script of No Strings Attached remained with QTC until 1992. 24 On learning of Rayson’s commission, I changed the title and the central character’s name from Grace to Clare. This had a profound effect on the writing as it took me a while to adjust to the new circumstances. Being a pragmatist, I persevered and remained determined to see an eventual production.

120

Perhaps, the reason for Mellor’s choice is simply that, like Rayson, he was from

Melbourne and therefore he was more familiar with her work than mine.25 It is equally

possible he simply preferred Rayson’s writing and the play as a whole. Regardless of his

reasons, put in the context of career development, a production of my work by a state

theatre company was a lost opportunity. Mellor was later appointed the artistic director of

Playbox where Hannie Rayson was among “the 200-plus writers associated with the

company and its script development programs” (Tait 29) where “a legacy is currently

evident in the contrasting styles and prominence of writers such as Hannie Rayson […]

these writers had the benefit of key relationships with directors and/or stable production

teams in their formative writing period” (30).

The desire to be considered worthy of national status on the one hand while being

nurtured as a local playwright on the other, while contradictory, is best understood in the

context of its time. I was resident in a capital city, but Brisbane did not undergo a

“regional theater movement” of the kind Bryer discusses in The Playwright’s Art, until

after the 1996 federal election:

While writers living and working in regional and remote areas of Australia help to shape the national identity […] in the regions [professional practice] is simply overlooked. (Beaton Hot Iron 225)

While the Queensland industry had seen advancements in regional art infrastructure and

funding to artists, resulting from the recommendations of the government’s 1991 review,

25 Mellor was later appointed the AD of Playbox. Hannie Rayson was one of the 200-plus writers associated with Playbox and its script development programs where “a legacy is currently evident in the contrasting styles and prominence of writers such as Hannie Rayson […] these writers had the benefit of key relationships with directors and/or stable production teams in their formative writing period.” (Tait 29-30)

121

the tag “regional writer” (in 1994) was still a form of marginalisation by the national

mainstream.

This experience of marginalisation and general competitiveness between

playwrights was compounded by a decision made by La Boite Theatre’s management

who licensed the performing rights to No Strings Attached in 1993. During rehearsals of

the play in August 1994, two weeks out from the opening night, I was informed in

writing that Louis Nowra’s highly successful season of Cosi was to be extended by a

week. While the company was exercising its right to an extension that capitalised on box-

office receipts, the decision led to a reduction in the number of premiere performances of

No Strings Attached from 24 to 14 (including previews26), significantly limiting the

play’s income generating power.

While an economic imperative can be acknowledged as a theatre company’s

prerogative, it takes no account of the impact on the playwright’s financial situation or

professional reputation. This non-negotiable decision by La Boite did result in reduced

earnings (discussed in a later section) and diminished exposure of the production.

Together with critical reviews that celebrated a local achievement and another production

dealing with similar themes being circulated in the marketplace, the small window of

opportunity to promote the play closed, lessening its chances of being re-mounted

interstate and reaching a broader audience.27 It also led to an inevitable break down in

professional relations between the playwright and the theatre company. But perhaps the

most significant consequence of this situation was my loss of “esteem” (to use Hall’s

26 Box office income is less on previews due to discounting. 27 Other companies are more likely to remount works if the premiere production sustained a successful run of the play. The reduction of performances denied the play the opportunity to prove its audience potential and when compared with Rayson’s play, faired badly.

122

prerequisite for successful practice). I no longer felt at my ‘best’ or ‘most inspired’—also

crucial prerequisites for success according to Hall.

7. Case Study: Millennium Bridge

As previously stated, by mid-career, playwrights are often operating in a potentially

difficult environment and one that can be considerably less supportive than that

experienced by the emerging playwright. The business of workshopping, developing and

mounting successive plays is a demanding process and as demonstrated not always a

productive one for the playwright’s work or their career. While the decision to be a

professional artist is rarely an economic one, by mid-career a great deal of time and

income has been forfeited by artists continuing with their practice. As Bott observed in

her Commentary:

Artists are the greatest subsidisers of the arts. […] Australia’s capacity to create art is constrained by low income and economic factors. As a result, thousands of internationally and nationally recognised artists in Australia with skills, talent and experience are spending time away from their profession because of insufficient income. This makes Australian professional artists a significantly under-utilised cultural and social resource—they would create many more plays, artworks, novels and performances if the income they received for their art was even marginally increased. (3)

By 1995, when Millennium Bridge was commissioned, I had been working as a

freelance theatre practitioner for over 15 years and was successful enough to claim the

status of a home owner with sole responsibility of monthly mortgage repayments. Fifteen

123

years of freelancing also equated to 15 years of unpaid holiday with no prospect of long

service leave and minimal superannuation benefits. While financial pressures were to

become an ever-increasing burden throughout the script development process, it was not

the only issue.

Other issues aligned with employment in the arts were identified in the Australia

Council report Don’t’Give Up Your Day Job, where it states “Artists usually work two to

three jobs ─ their art practice, an arts related job such as teaching and a non-arts job in an

area such as hospitality. […] This in turn diminishes the creative capacity of professional

artists.” (Throsby and Hollister 1) While I was fortunate enough not to have to undertake any

non-arts jobs, I was engaged in my art practice (Millennium Bridge) and arts related jobs

(teaching, dramaturgy and journalism) but also subjected to “bridging industry gaps”. As Tait

observed in her report on Resources for Writing for Performance:

Freelance writers generally bridge industry gaps between the writing, development and production on the basis of their own submissions at each stage. (14)

All this equated to a situation where the writer, in order to maintain her career ambitions,

had to hold down numerous jobs while undertaking the onerous responsibility of raising

funds for new work and promoting and selling previous work to potential producers.

In 1995, QTC was having its own difficulties. The company was without an

artistic director and the invitation to write a new play came from the then Chair of QTC,

Stephen Armstrong, after I submitted a proposal and outline of the play for the

company’s consideration. A submission was made to the Theatre Board of the Australia

Council with the proviso that if the application was unsuccessful the company would

124

honour the commissioning agreement. The application was not funded by the Theatre

Board and as per the agreement the commission went ahead the following year in 1996,

the year Robin Nevin was appointed Artistic Director.

Intellectually, I wanted to write a play that explored the gap between political

opponents and subsequent social divisions. The germinal idea took the form of a

metaphor of a man building a bridge from Australia to Asia with divisions manifesting in

his close relationships (his brother, his wife and his new lover). In addition to this idea, I

had three other professional objectives in accepting this commission.28 Firstly, I wanted

to respond to the political climate of the time, in particular reflecting the rise of One

Nation in Queensland and eventual demise of the Keating Government. Secondly, I

wanted to be produced by a state theatre company (thereby increasing my chances of

being produced nationally29), and thirdly, I wanted to reach a wider (and larger) audience

in order to make money and sustain my career as a playwright.30

7.1 The Political Conditions for Millennium Bridge

While the writing process was shaped by the need to earn an income as well as raise

development money for the play and maintain the interest of the commissioning theatre

company, the driving force was the desire to tell a story. The political context of the time

seemed to indicate a response was needed from the theatre community, that is, from my

perspective, the availability of intellectual and cultural space for the work seemed likely.

28 These objectives are quite distinct from my artistic imperative. 29 Outside In had been produced nationally and I saw no reason why this could not happen again. 30 I was determined to remove myself from the funding trap.

125

However, the ability to tell the story—that is bring it to the stage—is partly dependent on

the understanding of the existing political conditions in which the play was developed by

the prospective producers and their audiences not just the playwright.

Initially, Australian relations with Asia (exemplified by events surrounding the

1994 Australia Today Indonesia trade and cultural exchange) gave me the setting for the

play—but eventually a change in the conditions made the production of the play less

likely, as political events escalated in the region. Early in December 2004, Millennium

Bridge was presented at Off the Map a program of play readings written by 11

playwrights undertaking a Master of Arts (Research) degree at QUT. By way of

introduction to my reading, I referred to some key political events of the late 1990s to

illuminate just how much world events had changed since work started on the play:

I began writing Millennium Bridge in response to Keating’s push for Australia to reposition itself within global politics by becoming part of south-east Asia [...] which fuelled the rise of Hansonism. In 1996 Paul Keating lost the federal election and One Nation raised its ugly head. It was the year John Howard became Prime Minister; three years before Australia led an international peace-keeping force into East Timor, or before the introduction of the GST or the Sydney Olympics became a reality, and long before September 11 or the Bali bombings [...] in 1996, my parents were still alive. As you can see, there has been a lot of water under the bridge.” (Beaton “MAP Opening Night Speech)

While this is a problem for any play written in relation to specific events, particularly

given the lead time for plays and for subsequent funding, it important to establish the

genesis of the play and the political context in which it was written. It will also help to

shed some light as to why the company and I persisted with the play for so long.

126

In 1994, the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had been invited by President

Suharto to visit Jakarta with the intention between the two countries of “developing a

closer relationship and deeper mutual understanding” (Watson 167). In her book, A

Woman of Independence, author Kirsty Sword Gusmao writes of events that led to East

Timor’s independence. In particular, she recounts a day in June 1994 when a small

Sydney-based theatre troupe, Scud, staged a small protest during the Australia Today

Indonesia trade and cultural celebrations. Gusmao wrote:

Polite smiles were exchanged between politicians and their hosts, who sat at the foot of the dais, and then…the tallest and lankiest of the performers quickly drew a white silk banner from his shirt pocket. He held it aloft, and we could make out the words: ‘Indonesia—Australia—Hands off East Timor!’ […] A full six minutes passed before an intelligence operative in a batik shirt made his way onto the dais and took the man […] and led him to the side of the stage. (75)

An Australian, Gusmao had worked as an undercover activist on behalf of East Timor

before becoming the nation’s First Lady. She observed what happened next:

I learnt later […] he had been escorted back to his hotel where he received a dressing-down from officials of the Australian Embassy. He remained there under virtual house arrest until he was flown back to Australia the following day. (76)

The Prime Minister justified these actions by declaring “Australia would not look at

Indonesia ‘through the prism of East Timor’”(Watson 165).

All this happened during daily protests by students who were holding massive

demonstrations in response to the closure of three popular magazines by the Indonesian

government and imprisonment of numerous journalists and broadcasters. Riot police

127

lined the main streets of Jakarta in full gear ready to take on those who had been critical

of the New Order regime. It highlighted to me, in a very real way, as it did to Gusmao,

that our country’s leaders were placing greater importance on economic prosperity than

on human rights abuse (or freedom of expression of Australian citizens and its trade

partners). This series of events had a profound impact on me and became the inspiration

for the writing of Millennium Bridge.

Early drafts, explored Australia’s new role in south-east Asian politics, the demise

of Labor as a political force in the face of the new globalism, the attack on unionism and

changes to industrial relations. The script depicted a nation divided, an Australian

occupation of East Timor and, in particular, looked at the theme of domestic terrorism,

long before the reality was a threat to this country. And finally, the script asks what—in

an environment where the emphasis on economic prosperity overrides that of human

rights and freedom of speech—will the consequences be for the Australian people. These

themes gave rise to the comment in a personal communication from QTC’s current

Artistic Director, Michael Gow, that the play “was prophetic”.

Two weeks after the reading of Millennium Bridge (draft 8) at QUT in November

2004, an article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald entitled “Open books, closed

minds” with the sub-heading “political disengagement is a worrying trend among

Australian writers”:

I will say simply that many writers do not seem politically engaged; they do not share the British and American literati’s sense of obligation to speak to issues of national significance. (Adler “Spectrum” 9)

128

Penned by Louise Adler, Chief Executive Officer of Melbourne University Publishing,

her essay was specific to Authors Take Sides, a book (edited by Adler) adapted from an

earlier British edition that asked writers for their response to the Iraq war. In the article,

Adler asked the question whether Australian writers are in part to blame [my italics] for

“Australia’s current anodyne political culture” (22). The article assumes so much about

the reality of career writer; how contemporary work is produced, the environment in

which it is produced and the audience, whether theatre-going or a newspaper-readership,

that is purported to be eagerly waiting in the wings. Even Adler conceded that writers of

fiction are viewed with suspicion in Australia: “Australian writers,” Adler wrote, “are no

longer seen as shaping the national imagination—even when that is what they are doing.”

(22)

Millennium Bridge attempted to portray a significant period in Australian politics

and the rise of divisions within the society, the consequences of which we are living out

today, and therefore, was worthy of serious consideration as the subject matter for a play.

If, as Adler claims, writers are in part to blame for “Australia’s current anodyne political

culture” (22), a question that begs an answer is “who takes responsibility for the other

part?” The answer may well be found in Tait’s report:

The question about the selection of new works facing Australian theatre is: What makes freelance writers for performance, and in particular the experienced, persevere and continue writing? One answer is that script development programs provide important support for writers of performance in the intervals between productions, and this vital function for the industry is extremely difficult to quantify. (15)

As an experienced freelance writer, what made me persevere and continue writing was

the potential of the story—the thrill—if you like or “flow of experience from being on the

129

edge” (Hall 10). It is the place where an artist’s intuition senses they are on the verge of a

breakthrough that is, as yet, according to Hall, little understood even by the artist. This is

the crucial point—the one that requires cognitive and affective support so the artist can

retain their bearings. Script development programs supplied the income.

7.2 Millennium Bridge: Institutional Arrangements

Table 1 (Appendix A) details the dramaturgical processes Millennium Bridge underwent

during a seven year period (1995–2001) encompassing the initial approach by QTC to the

company’s decision to relinquish their option, and then the company’s renewed interest

and final workshop facilitated by the current artistic director, Michael Gow. The data

helps us understand the relationship between an individual artist’s work and the

representative individuals and institutions involved in the process of its development.

While, I had an established working relationship with QTC31 prior to the commission of

Millennium Bridge, it was not with any particular individual. During the period 1995–

2001, the play was delegated to a succession of directors, artistic associates and

dramaturges. Of the six individuals who either read the script, and/or gave dramaturgical

31 Under Aubrey Mellor’s directorship, I was a member of the Affiliate Writers’ program 1990-93, co-ordinated by David Bertholt. Under Christine Johnson, I was commissioned to write Worlds Apart, with Brolgas—the youth arm of QTC.31 Commissioned in 1992 the play was scheduled to tour school 1993-94. I was a judge for the George Landan Dann Awards (1992), the Comalco Young Playwrights’ award (1994-95) and had written seminar notes which were distributed throughout Queensland schools, and, with QTC’s literary manager, Jo Flemming, conducted workshops in regional Queensland in the lead-up to 1996 competition and employed as a tutor during QTC’s Theatre Experience Week. I was also engaged to write program notes for the company’s 1996 season of plays (an agreement that was terminated after two plays as a result of a change in policy under Nevin’s appointment).

130

input or feedback which led to a subsequent draft and/or major re-think/re-write of the

script, only one individual had a prior working relationship with me or a connection with

my previous work. This person, however, had no role in the decision-making regarding a

production of the play. Any consistency of vision or commitment to see the work realised

with a view to production was successively jeopardised, as no individual except the

playwright was championing the play. 32 Once again, this is the problem for any play

written in relation to specific events, such as in my case, the turnover of staff at QTC.

Table 2 (Appendix B) presents a comparison of the contact time spent on the

script by the commissioning theatre company with the hours spent developing the text by

the playwright. The data shows that for every hour invested by a QTC employee, the

playwright invested sixteen hours writing time on the script. The original commissioning

fee of $8,000 meant the rate per hour was approximately $20 before tax. However, this

analysis does not include time taken in research, reading, note taking, journal entries,

interviews, or thinking time, all of which were extensive and, over a two-year period ─

1996 and 1997─impossible to calculate. Nor does it include similar hidden costs the

company carried such as preparation (including reading and report writing),

administration and execution of dramaturgical sessions, the public reading and several

workshops. While no individual championed the play, some acknowledgement must be

made of QTC’s Artistic Associate, Tom Gutteridge, who offered on-going dramaturgical

work “without charge” (Gutteridge “Letter”) even after the company relinquished the

rights to produce the play in 1997. Regrettably, I had commenced full-time employment

and declined his generous offer. After successive failed attempts to secure on-going

32 However, this possibly reflects the shift from freelance writer to the executive officer of a state writers’ centre, where the reality of completing a major piece of work became an extra-curricular activity rather than a main focus.

131

financial support for Millennium Bridge from Arts Queensland and the Australia Council,

I had to take a full-time job ending 18 years of freelance work, but finally providing long-

term financial security. As Bott observed in her report: “Low incomes affect the amount

of art that is produced in Australia. Professional artists do not spend more time on their

art practice because they cannot earn enough from it.’ In my case, the issue of fulltime

work prevented the script’s completion and far out-rated any other issues I was dealing

with as a mid-career writer.

7.3 Millenium Bridge: Financial Limitations

The financial limitation of the script development process was very real: it was

fundamental to my failure to complete the work. As signalled above, despite growth in

the Queensland theatre scene and my credentials as a playwright and theatre director, by

mid-career, I found funding the freelance life difficult to sustain, and therefore, gave it

away for fulltime work.33 An examination of my tax returns for the period 1993–2004

(Table 3) provides the financial conditions leading up to and in which writing on

Millennium Bridge occurred. Prior to full-time employment (1997–2004), my total

earning over the four year period was $70,600—an annual income of approximately

$17,650 which was well below the national average at the time34. A journal entry prior to

this period articulates my on-going concern about the financial sustainability of a

freelance career:

33 My commencing salary was $42,000. 34 The majority of self-managing writers earned less than $5,000 from creative incomes and would rarely earn more than $30,000pa overall.

132

I have been thinking lately how hard it is at times to stick to one’s resolve [of writing full time]. For instance last year I was very busy35 but very unhappy. […] This year, however, my direction is different. I want to establish my work within mainstream and distinguish myself as a writer. The decision to do this was not easy. It has meant almost four months of a very meagre income and at times I have really wanted to chuck the whole thing in and accept anything again. (Beaton “Journal” 66)

Prior to taking on a full-time position as Director of the Queensland Writers’ Centre

(QWC) in 1997, and in addition to writing Millennium Bridge, I had been forced to

diversify and seek out alternative producers to mainstream theatre in order to generate a

viable income, a common career move identified in The Playwright’s Art”:

once their career had been established, and in particular the economic conditions that made new plays increasingly risky and difficult, playwrights were forced to seek development opportunities outside of the mainstream [which] in turn, affected the form and content of the plays [my italics] (Bryer xii)

This experience of seeking development opportunities outside of the mainstream was

reflected in my own shift from writing for main stage to community theatre (which

incidentally reflected the priorities of arts funding bodies at federal, state and local levels)

and shows the predominance of dramaturgy over paid writing assignments or

commissions.

In her review of No Strings Attached, Kate Herbert described me as being “well

known for her scripts for young people’s theatre in both NZ and Australia.” (Herbert

182). She also went on to say “No Strings Attached reverberates with 1980’s community

35 In 1990, I was awarded an Australia Council grant of $10,000 specifically to complete Trading Hours and No Strings Attached. Both plays received AWGIE nominations (1991 and 1995 respectively) with No Strings Attached, also receiving a Matilda Award Commendation in 1994 and publication.

133

and youth productions”. In actuality, I wrote my first play for community theatre in

1988.36 Prior to that, I had worked within mainstream theatre as an actor and director and

written predominately for main stage. I began to offer writing and dramaturgical services

within alternative fields such as circus, community, multi-cultural, indigenous and

children’s theatre in the early 1990s out of economic necessity. Once again, Herbert’s

comments could be construed as a devaluation of the work being done, and, while

inaccurate, a means of viewing the work, which contributed to mainstream producers’

perceptions of the work and/or inhibited the possibility of future work within mainstream

theatre, as I was now seen as a community arts practitioner.

While I was unable to complete Millennium Bridge, during the first year of

salaried employment, I did adapt Jenny and the Tennis Nut from the original story by

Janet Schultz for KITE Theatre which received an AWGIE award for Best Adaptation in

the category Theatre for Young People (1999) and assisted with the screen adaptation of

Chinese Take Away. Jenny and the Tennis Nut toured extensively throughout Queensland

and NSW, earning royalties of $3, 953—by no means a liveable wage. However, it is fair

to say that, while financial remuneration appears to be the persuasive factor for taking

full-time work and certainly contributed to my ceasing work on Millennium Bridge, it

was not the single deciding factor. Rather, its impact was felt in concert with the other

reasons discussed above.

36 Taken for Granted with students from Grant High School, Mt Gambia, 1988

134

8. Conclusion

In addressing the trajectory of the playwright’s career and the professional and personal

circumstances within which a work of art is created, this paper suggests, the context of

institutional factors and their effect on the playwright’s confidence and financial

capacities, are a significant determinant of the productivity of playwrights. As

demonstrated through my examination of the professional relationships, time

commitments and income from writing, no amount of investment by governments or

theatre companies into resources to arts and cultural development, will change the fact

that, as a profession, playwrighting in this country is rarely viable. One reason

Millennium Bridge did not reach its potential or an eventual production was simply the

fact that by mid-career, one hopes and deserves to be earning a liveable wage.

In addition, the environment was not always supportive. In the early 1990s,

Queensland saw successive turn-overs of staff at the State’s leading theatre company so

that any relationship or connection that had been established was broken and required

regular re-building which proved time-consuming. This disruption to professional

relationships was exacerbated by a perceived lack of interest in my work (my artistic

objectives and/or previous writing) or recognition that Millennium Bridge was the third

work in a series of three thematically linked plays. The focus was always on the

production at hand. Consequently, my professional objectives were not a consideration of

the funding body or of the theatre company undertaking the commission. While both

agencies were aware of these considerations, it was not perceived, at least where the

company was concerned, their responsibility. But if as Hall suggests the act of creation

135

requires cognitive and affective support, at a crucial point in my career, this is precisely

where and when support of this nature was needed.

The range of “tags” or “filters” through which my work was viewed (“woman

writer”, “local playwright” and “community artist”) at various stages of my career, gave

rise to an experience of marginality, initially, from the (male-dominated) mainstream

industry, then from national appraisal or recognition, as well as from main stage theatre,

that I believe produced within me an unproductive angst. I also see myself and my work

being at the brunt of an intellectual conformity inherent in institutional structures, and

that it was this conformity, by its very nature a threat to the individual artist, and one that

did not value the work being pursued. Finally, for the playwright to meet industry and

public expectation requires a societal change which engenders political debate within a

broader cultural context that not only “esteems” but also financially values our

playwrights. The protracted period of development for Millennium Bridge meant the

actual social and political conditions of the play were constantly changing. This had an

enormous impact on the content of the play and its prospects for production. Amidst the

research for this exegesis I came across a letter written to me by Irene Stevens from the

Australia Council:

I think you are right in your definition of there being two types of writers – people who write plays and playwrights. The latter, of course, become very committed to their craft, deepen and extend their knowledge of writing for performance in an extremely professional way and don’t expect too much too soon. I’m sure you are one of these and the time you have spent developing your connections with theatre companies, directors, etc. certainly should bear fruit for you. (Stevens “Beaton letter”)

136

Did I expect too much, too soon? Or did I demand what I thought was rightfully mine

given my preparedness to put so much effort into the writing of the play? What of those

connections with theatre companies, directors etc.? Will they bear fruit? And Millennium

Bridge, will it ever get a production? It is unlikely, because it would require several

important prerequisites: money and time and a sense of esteem even over-esteem to once

again approach the work from a position of being “at my best” or “most inspired”.

137

Bibliography Ayckbourn, Alan The Crafty Art of Playmaking. US: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Adler, Louise. "Open Books, Closed Minds." Weekend edition ed., sec. Spectrum: 9.The

Sydney Morning Herald 18-19, December 2004.

Aussie Soap Archive, Prisoner 1979-1986, March 2003 2000, Webpage, Yahoo,

Available: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~fangora/index.html.

Beaton, Hilary.

---. "Opening Night Speech." 2004.

---. "Graduation Speech Brisbane State High School." Ed. Address to students. Brisbane,

2001. (Speech of 25 minutes in length on the subject of my career in the Arts.)

---"The Creative Flame." Ignite The Queensland Theatre Journal 4.July 2000.

---. "Dear Playworks." Playing with Time. Ed. Colleen Chesterman: Playworks, 1995.

---. No Strings Attached. 1st ed. Brisbane: Playlab Press, 1994.

---. "Letter to Jenny." 1992. Vol. Blue Book Journal 1992.

---. Outside In. 1st ed. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1984.

Bennett, Alan Writing Home, UK: Faber & Faber 1994.

Berkoff, Steven Free Association . UK: Faber & Faber 1996.

Black, Sebastian. "Victims, inside or Outside." The NZ Listener,1982.

Bott, Jennifer "Commentary on Don't Give Up Your Day Job" Australia Council,

Sydney, Australia. July 2004.

Bryer, Jackson R. The Playwright's Art, Conversations with Contemporary American

Playwrights. 1st ed. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1995.

Cassady, Marsh Characters in Action. Colorado, US: Meriwether Publishing Ltd, 1995.

138

Cassady, Marsh Playwriting Step by Step California, US: Resource Publications, 1990.

Catron, Louis E. The Elements of Playwriting. US: Waveland Pr Inc, 2001.

Cotes, Alison. "Soaring to New Heights." Theatre review. Brisbane Review 15

September 1994:6 Dunsford, Cathie. "Outside In." Broadsheet 1983.

Edgar, David State of the Play: Playwrights on Playwriting Ed. UK: Faber & Faber,

1999.

Gough, Sue. "On Their Way Down." The Bulletin 22 September 1994 1994: 99.

Greene, Alexis Women Who Write Plays: Interviews with American Dramatists. US:

Smith & Gusmao, Kirsty Sword. A Woman of Independence a Story of Love and Birth of

a New Nation. 1st ed: Pan Macmillan, 2003.

Gutteridge, Tom. "Letter." Ed. Hilary Beaton. Brisbane: QTC, 1997. (Option lapse and

TG's offer to continue to work on the play free of charge)

---. "Re: Millennium Bridge." Ed. Hilary Beaton. Brisbane, 2005. email.

Hall, Peter. Cities in Civilisation. 1998. 2nd ed. London: Phoenix, an imprint of Orion

Books Ltd, 1999.

Herbert, Kate. "Theatre Review: No Strings Attached." Australasian Drama Studies

28.April 1996.

Hotspur, Johnny. "At the Theatre." Theatre review. Evening Standard 1982.

Greene, Alexis Women Who Write Plays: Interviews with American Dramatists. US:

Smith & Kraus, 2001.

Kelly, Patricia. "Murder She Wrote?" Perform September 1994.

Kelly The Theatre of Louis Nowra. Australia: Currency Press, 1998.

139

Kingston, Margo. Off the Rails the Pauline Hanson Trip. Allen & Unwin, 1999.

Krauth, Nigel. TEXT 6.1 (2002).

Leek, Robert-H. "Women Maintain High Standard." Theatre review. sec. Life Times: 10.

New Zealand Times, 1982.

Liebman, Herbert The Dramatic Art of David Storey: The Journey of a Playwright UK:

Greenwood Press, 1996.

McGee, Greg. "Second NZ Playwrights Workshop." ACT. Wellington, 1983.

MF. "Two Hours of Life Inside." Theatre review. New Zealand Herald Auckland, 1982.

Raymond, Janice G. A Passion for Friends - a Philosophy of Female Affection. 2nd ed:

Spinifex Press, 2001.

Packard, William The Art of the Playwright. New York, US: Paragon House, 1987.

Rees, Nonnita. "QEII Arts Council." Ed. Andrea Kelland. Auckland, 1989.

Shaw, Vanya. "Beyond Those Male Labels." Auckland Star 1982, sec. Scene.

Stevens, Irene. "Australia Council - Lit Unit." Ed. Hilary Beaton. Brisbane, 1993.

Tait, Peta. "An Examination of Resources for Writing for Performance" October 2005.

Theatre Board of the Australia Council, Sydney, Australia.

Throsby, Prof David and Hollister, Virginia. "Don't Give Up Your Day Job" November

2003. Australia Council, Sydney, Australia.

Watson, Don. Recollections of a Bleeding Heart. A Knoff Book, Australia: Random

House, 2002.

140

Appendix A Table 1: Professional relationships

Draft Inst. /year Individuals involved Individuals’ relationship to play

Individuals’ relationship to playwright

Rough draft

ANPC 1995

Janis Balodis (playwright)

Dramaturgical assistance.

Janis had read both previous plays, Outside In and No Strings Attached in his capacity as Literary Manager of the Melbourne Theatre Company. Neither play was produced.

1 QTC 1996 Robin Nevin (AD, actor), Tom Gutteridge (Director)

Commissioning theatre (inherited commission). Outcome: Offer of dramaturgical treatment with Jo Fleming.

No previous working relationship with playwright 37

1 QTC 1996 Jo Fleming (Lit. manager/ playwright)

Literary manager. Outcome: Left position before dramaturgical sessions completed but re-draft completed.

No previous relationship. Jo and I had attended the inaugural three-month writing course run by Paul Thompson at AFTRS as students and were members of Playworks.

2 QTC 1997 Tom Gutteridge (Associate)

Associate Artist. Outcome: Company relinquishes option. Tom offers on-going input free of charge.

Previous relationship of one year.

2 UQ 1997 Jan McKemmish (Head of Creative Writing, author)

Interested party with request for professional development. Outcome: re-draft.

No previous relationship with playwright.

3 QTC 2001

Michael Gow (AD, Playwright)

Commissioning theatre. No previous relationship, had worked with playwright before (ANPC)

4 Metro Arts! 2004

Sue Benner (Arts administrator)

Interested party – professional development. Re-think but no re-write.

Previous relationship. Had worked together (various) administrative functions.

5-6 QUT 2004

Errol Bray (Course co-ordinator, writer)

Playwright’s cohort director.

No previous relationship with playwright.

7-8 Freelance 2005

Saffron Benner (freelance dramaturg, writer)

Interested party – paid freelance.

Previous relationship, student of playwright.

37 No previous relationship means that the individual or organisation had no connection with my previous writing or had worked with me in any professional capacity.

141

Appendix B

Table 2: Time commitments38

Year/Draft Commissioning theatre Playwright Outcome: 1996 Draft 1

Feb 20 1 dramaturgical session of approx. 90 mins (taped interview 1) Jul 31 1 dramaturgical session (approx. 90 mins)

Script work: Mar 3, April 5*, 10-14, 17-19, May 15-17, 21-24 June 20-28 [*Full day = 6 hours] Aug 8 — 98 pages Jul 30 – 15 Dec — 115 pages

April 5 Offer of on-going dramatur-gical treatment with literary manager. (taped interview 2) Dec 3 – LM leaves for Sydney (letter)

3 hours 204 hours 1997 Draft 2

Feb 26 1 dramaturgical session (approx. 90 mins) Mar 26 Draft 2 with revisions submitted

Jan 6 – 30 Jan 31 – delivered to company

Feb 25 - Company acknowledges receipt of play. April 15 – QTC relinquishes option. Offer from Tom Gutteridge (TG) to provide services with no obligation. April 30 – TG’s offer declined by playwright

3 hours 150 hours 1998 Draft2

Aug 31 – 1 x half hour meeting with TG. Sep 3-5, two day rehearsal and public reading (with discussion) directed by TG approx. 12.5 hours

Theatre requires further work/no financial support for revision

Offer of reading. No immediate outcome.

13 hours 1999 Draft 3

Draft 3 submitted for further consideration

Mar 30-Apr 6 No immediate outcome.

0 hours 48 hours 2001 Draft 3

1-day QTC workshop approx. 6hrs.

Theatre does not pick up option.

6 hours Total Hours 25 hours 402 hours

38 As noted previously, this analysis does not include time taken by the playwright for research, reading, note taking, journal writing, interviews, or thinking time, all of which were extensive and impossible to calculate. Nor does it include similar hidden costs the theatre company carried such as preparation (including reading and report writing), administration and execution of dramaturgical sessions, the public reading and several workshops. If reflects contact time on the script only.

142

Appendix C

Table 3: Financial Limitations Yellow highlight indicates a period of full-time work Tax return Total income Income – Arts

Related (teaching, dramaturgy etc)

Income – Writing related

Royalties

1993-94* $29,092.00 $17,774.00 $10,307.00 (Ozco grant)

$1,011.00 (World’s Apart/NSA)

1994-95† $15,820.00 $13, 851.00 $1,969.00 (NSA/7 Stages)

1995-96 $13,914.00 $13,914.00 (QTC commission)

NA

1996-97‡ $12,736.00 $7,000.00 $5,736.00 NA

1997-98 $42,015.00 $42,015.00 NA NA

1998-99 $42,975.00 $42,495.00 $480.00 NA

1999-2000§ $61,105.00 $55,046.00 $2,725.00 (KITE commission)

$3,334.00 (Jenny & Tennis Nut)

2000-01 $57,227.00 $55,714.00 $894.00 $619.00 (Jenny & Tennis Nut)

2001-02 $59, 734.00 $59,734.00 Nil

2002-03 $62,788.00 $61,673.00 $217.00 $898 (7 Stages)

2003-04|| $62,692.00 $55,208.00 $4,970.00 Nil

2004-05# $27,277.00 $15,967.00 $6,652.00 87.00 (Chinese Take Away)

*Year of 3rd audit †Year in which No Strings Attached was produced ‡Commenced full-time work §Year of rental income || Inheritance #2nd Inheritance

143

Appendix D: Theatre /Writing Credits

Produced Plays

Jenny and the Tennis Nut KITE Theatre, Brisbane 1998 (national Tour 1999)

No Strings Attached La Boite Theatre & Darwin Theatre Co 1994

Outside In Theatre Corporate, Auckland 1983 and many subsequent productions in NZ,

UK, USA & Aust (1995)

On the Line Contact Youth Theatre Brisbane 1993

Worlds Apart QTC Brolgas production, Brisbane 1993-1994

Giving Up the Ghost Icy Tea, Inala Community Theatre1991

Trading Hours Street Arts Theatre 1990

Where’s Your Hat Peggie Louise? Brisbane Theatre Company Puppet Workshop 1992

Taken for Granted with students from Grant High School, Mt Gambia, 1988

Finger Painting Theatre of the Deaf 1981-82

Sitting on a Fortune, Theatre Corporate, 1978 Auckland, Downstage, Wellington 1979

Christchurch Theatre, 1980, Nimrod Downstairs, Sydney 1981

The Divine Sarah and the Bernhardt of the Halls with Margaret Bray, Centrepoint

Theatre, NZ 1977

Directing Credits

Wordpool –literary cabaret, Queensland Writers Centre 1997-2004

Writers’ Speak Easy Café – Queensland Writers Centre 1999-2003

Strong Brown God Experimetro! 1996

Tom’s Egg, Out of the Box, Festival of Early Childhood 1996

The Secret Fire National Theatre of Australian Theatre 1995

144

Outside In La Boite Theatre 1995

Innerface/Interface, Pile Driving, Hard Hats and Donkey Dick, Just Us Theatre Ensemble

1994-1995

Hush, Starting Point, Passing On, House is Live! 1993-1994

Out of The Blue Street Arts 1993

The Secret Down Under, Chrysalis, KITE 1992-1993

The Green Sock QPAC/JUTE, Cairns 1992

Do As I Do La Boite Theatre 1990

What Accent? Brisbane Ethnic Music Arts Corp 1990

A Lone Woman/Alone Women Queensland Performing Arts Centre 1990

Jigsaws La Boite Theatre 1990

Good Ol’ Paddo, Looking for Mermaids, Brisbane Town Hall 1989

The Black Sheep Mainstreet Theatre 1988

A Mouthful of Birds Walkers and Talkers STC Wharf Studio 1987

Spill – The Musical, Tektite Productions1987

Outside In Theatre New Zealand 1986

Sitting On a Fortune The Depot Downstage Theatre 1980

Published Plays

No Strings Attached Playlab Press 1994

Outside In University of Victoria Press 1984

Published Essays

Defining Acts-Australians on Stage—Queensland performing Arts Museum publication

2001

145

River of Silk – a dramaturge’s reflections on the script development of Chinese Take

Away Three Plays by Asian Australians Playlab Press 2000

A Story of One’s Own, Seven Stages of Grieving—Playlab Press 1996

Screen Writing & Script Editing

Chinese Take Away, SBS 2001,

Jumping the Gun AFTRS Student Film, 36 international screenings 1993,

Writing For Business NSW University business video training package 1990

146

Program notes

Mannie Manim Productions, South Africa Skylight by David Hare1996: Heart to Heart -

an interview with David Hare.

Melbourne Theatre Company Skylight by David Hare1996: Heart to Heart - an interview

with David Hare.

Queensland Theatre Company Skylight by David Hare 1996: Heart to Heart - an

interview with David Hare, It was all my fault, Possums! A Respect for Acting – a look at

the HB Studio, New York, New York

Queensland Theatre Company Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward 1996: The Role of the Stage

Ghost, The Haunted Coward, Noel Coward – the playwright, Company chats on Coward

Queensland Theatre Company Impressions of Mount Isa 1992

Dramaturgical work

A Life a Grace and Piety by Wesley Enoch, Kooemba Jdarra & Just Us Theatre

Ensemble co-production 1996 and subsequent International Tour

Strong Brown God by Steven Lang, Experimetro! 1996

Tom’s Egg by Jan Russell, Out of the Box festival, QPAT 1996

Chinese Take Away by Anna Yen Brisbane Festival 1995

7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, Kooemba Jdarra 1995

Bag O Marbles by Kathryn Ash, Just Us Theatre Ensemble 1995

The Dark Rock n Roll Circus Brisbane & national tour1994

Demolition, Pile Driving, Hard Hats and Donkey Dick by Susan Prince, Just Us Theatre

Ensemble 1995

The Secret Fire by Maree Cunnington, national festival of Australian Theatre 1994

147

The Waking Hour, Surreal Visual Theatre by David Bell, David Walters and Bill

Haycock, Brisbane Festival Qld Art Gallery 1993

Body Slam Rock n Roll Theatre

Hush by Daynan Brazil, House is Live! New Boards 1993

Starting Point by Maryanne Lynch, House is Live! New Boards 1993

Passing On by Clive Williams, House is Live! 1993

Under the Tin Top, Rock n Roll Circus, national & international tours 1993

Out of the Blue by Therese Collie, Street Arts Community Theatre, 1991

Out of the Wasteland by Sue Rider, Australia Council Grant 1990

Yellow Brick Dreaming by Elizabeth Smith, Brisbane Theatre Company 1990

The Black Sheep by members of the Naracoorte Drama Society with Mainstreet Theatre

1988

Reviews: theatre and books

The Courier-Mail The Peculiar Memoirs of Thomas Penman by Bruce Robinson Oct

1998

The Courier-Mail Maria’s War by Amy Witting Sep 5, 1998

Australian Book Review Letters Dec/Jan 98/99

Lowdown Peter Pan QTC Feb 1995

Lowdown Any Pal O’Meeno, KITE Oct 1994

Network News No more! Icy Tea (Inala Community Theatre) p25

Theatre Industry Journals/Magazines

Ignite! The Queensland Theatre Journal, guest editor, writing for theatre 2000

Ignite! The Queensland Theatre Journal, contributor 199?

148

Playlab News Pro/Text May 1997

Playworks Playing with Time 1995

Artwork Magazine Profile: Hilary Beaton 1995

Artwork Magazine Perfect Strangers Issue 28 1995

Dialogue 6 (ANPC Newsletter) Trading Hours – the work in process

Dialogue 7 (ANPC Newsletter) Writing for Youth

Network News Giving up the ghost – tales from Inala past, present and future 1991

Network News More Adventures in Wonderland

Lowdown Reflection on Idea – the 2nd world congress of Drama/Theatre and Education

Aug 1995

Lowdown Between the Idea and Reality April 1995

Lowdown Where I walk now Profile: Wesley Enoch April 1993

Brisbane Theatre Magazine Australian National Playwrights Centre Report 1992

149

Editing & Publishing

The Australian Writers’ Marketplace—QWC publication 2004 and 2005 editions

Writing Queensland magazine—QWC publication monthly editions 1997-2004

Hot Iron Corrugated Sky—100 years of Queensland writing,UQP/QWC 2002

Queensland writing—The Courier-Mail supplement.2000

Word for Word— an inspirational handbook for writers and teachers of writing,

published by QWC 2000

Newspapers

The Courier-Mail A fresh focus 2001

The Courier-Mail Christmas family cheer comes in 20,000(sic) pieces Dec 2000

The Courier-Mail Shakespeare 617 June 1997

Awards

2001 Centenary Medal for Services to the Writing Community

1999 Jenny and the Tennis Nut AWGIE Theatre for Young People (Best adaptation)

1995 No Strings Attached (Playlab Press, 1994) Matilda Commendation Award

1995 Demolition, Hard Hats and Donkey Dick, JUTE award for excellence

1994 No Strings Attached AWGIE nomination

1991 Trading Hours AWGIE nomination

1990 Putting You Out of Mind, 1st Prize, Myer Open Poetry Prize

1988 Write for Business First Prize, Aust. Training and Film Awards, Communications

Category