Made in Canberra 2010 – The State of New Work

Thank god for The Street Theatre’s Artistic Director/CEO director, Caroline Stacey! While Canberra Theatre Centre’s billboard for Bell Shakespeare’s King Lear dominates the Canberra skyline, Stacey launches her 2010 Made in Canberra season. While John Bell produces yet another version-of-a-version, seemingly mere muzak for high brow audiences, Stacey is forging the creation of new work. While Bell Shakespeare reaps the box office rewards from the certainty of school bums on seat, Stacey demonstrates her courage in taking artistic risks. While Canberra Theatre Centre imports theatre practitioners from interstate, Stacey identifies and nurtures local talent. The Street Theatre is the site of a good night out.

Love Cupboard by local playwright, Emma Gibson launched the 2010 Made in Canberra season. New Australian drama is not the result of solitary writing. An emerging play is moulded by workshops, discussions with dramaturgs, rewrites, try-out production seasons and further re-writes. It can take years of the play being aired before it is complete. Therefore the Made in Canberra season, in addition, to exposing Canberra audiences to premieres of local Australian drama may also serve to measure the quality of associated dramaturgical support.

Given that many new plays are written by young playwrights, the standard of dramaturgy has significant implications for …