tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37611845264472610452024-03-14T05:50:39.449+10:00Carving in SnowThoughts on arts, culture and politics <br>
David BertholdUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-47595400951753580892020-07-12T10:38:00.000+10:002020-07-12T10:46:19.542+10:00Dear Australia – 50 playwrights send postcards to the nationSometimes a person, or a nation, isn’t very good at expressing what’s at
core. It’s why we have artists. An actor sacrifices a moment of their
own life in order to give us a story of ours. A playwright scaffolds
that sacrifice.<br /><br /><div>The 50 stories of ‘Dear Australia’, <a href="http://www.pwa.org.au/2020-program/for-our-nation-dear-australia/" target="_blank">a project of Playwriting Australia</a> that livestreamed from 30 organisations between
2-5 July, express a moment in history when a pandemic changed
everything. They tell of the cracks that opened up, and of the darkness
and light revealed. They are, in turn, confronting and comforting.
Together, they are a revelation and celebration of Australian voices.
They deal with where our nation is and where it might need to go.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E54aNxTc49U" width="320" youtube-src-id="E54aNxTc49U"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>I can’t think of another manifestation of theatre in
Australia that has enjoyed such a remarkable coalition of forces working
so whole-heartedly towards a common goal.<br /><br />How
did we get there? To get an even 50
playwrights, we thought we’d ask 25 organisations from across Australia
to each select two playwrights. But which 25? Eventually, we believed
it’d be most rewarding to go to the small-to-medium sector, that under
resourced but fantastically rich spring of exploration. After settling
on 25 organisations that felt reasonably representative of how this
nation’s culture resonates, we were away.<br /><br />And what a gang.
Australian Theatre for Young People, Barking Gecko Theatre
Company, Blue Cow Theatre, Brink Productions, Brown's Mart,
Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, Griffin Theatre Company,
HotHouse Theatre, Ilbijerri Theatre Company, JUTE Theatre Company, La
Boite Theatre Company, La Mama Theatre, Merrigong Theatre Company, Monkey
Baa, Moogahlin Performing Arts, NORPA, Playlab Theatre, Red Stitch: The
Actors' Theatre, Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta, South
Australian Playwrights Theatre, The Street Theatre, Terrapin, Theatre
Works, Windmill Theatre, and Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company.<br /><br />These
organisations sometimes doubled-up on names, which meant going back to
ask for a third choice, but pretty quickly we got to a list of 50
playwrights. Without any kind of intervention, this list of 50 was
wonderfully diverse and distinctive. This indicates to me that,
culturally, something is alive and well, ready to be elevated. And
celebrated.<br /><br />Playwriting Australia, through the passionate help of
Michelle Kotevski and Leila Enright, then commissioned these 50 writers
to each write a short monologue responding to the barest of
provocations:<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><i>What is happening right now?<br />What is being revealed about us?<br />What are we not paying attention to?<br />What do we want to be to one another?<br />What do we want our society to look like?<br />Where do we want to go next?<br />What is your postcard to Dear Australia?</i><br /></div><br />And off they went.<br /><br />Sometimes
the playwrights wrote for particular actors, sometimes we helped with
casting. Eventually, 50 actors leapt at the challenge to record these
monologues, without directors, and mostly in their own homes. Such were
the times.<br /><br />Then Arts Centre Melbourne through Daniel Clarke,
thought it’d be great if the big performing arts centres got involved.
Soon, Sydney Opera House, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Adelaide Festival Centre, Canberra
Theatre Centre, and Darwin Entertainment Centre got involved, agreeing
to livestream this national moment of reflection and celebration. Sydney
Opera House livestreamed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epi9ssape4E&list=PL1O4Z0m3f1e1qsuq9uUuiVMutMFoSzHlD&index=4" target="_blank">a panel discussion</a> from the stage
of the Joan Sutherland Theatre. Arts Centre Melbourne helped guide
us to the gates.<br /><br /><div>And on top, Australian Plays <a href="https://australianplays.org/script/ASC-2255" target="_blank">published all the monologues</a>. How many will become standards in auditions for years to come?</div><div><br /></div><div>The response was amazing. “All theatregoers should see these ‘postcards to the nation’… It is a
deeply impressive act of collective imagination... a polyphonic suite of
dramatic shorts that holds a mirror to the national soul,” said <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/all-theatregoers-should-watch-this-astonishing-australian-online-work-20200706-p559cd.html?fbclid=IwAR0Sq2NuLfi7Dw_vVKVUpimU9UanxNxHl01NQUkIz_rfntGTynr1xsDIcBI" target="_blank">The Age</a>. "Over three nights, Australia's playwrights have shown us a way towards the light," said <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jul/05/over-three-nights-australias-playwrights-have-shown-us-a-way-towards-the-light?fbclid=IwAR3wlWeDW4yVqDqbcE9rDnaGR6BY63mKzdblIaxGTAIu_Tt8x7toibuoh_Y" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.
</div><br />These
50 stories are a potent record of a perturbing time. They arrived,
fearless and fun, because more than 30 organisations, small and large,
believed in the mission. They are a snapshot giving a glimpse of what 50
wondrous playwrights around Australia were observing and thinking, not
only about the present, but about the future. They are postcards to keep
and treasure. They are for Dear Australia.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-62260035325663205772020-04-05T10:23:00.001+10:002020-07-12T10:05:31.494+10:00Wringing Advantage from Virus Adversity [This article was published in <i><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/too-much-time-david-berthold-says-give-read-create-learn/news-story/06e3c3fe53d052286f7646b46d34cf61" target="_blank">The Weekend Australian</a> </i>on Saturday 28 March 2020] <br />
<br />
Crises can change behaviour permanently, sometimes for the better. For example, the need to share work around during the Great Depression helped kill off the six-day working week, creating the ‘weekend’. Unexpectedly, we discovered something we liked, and kept it. <br />
<br />
Sometimes there is light in the dark.<br />
<br />
Enforced social distancing over the coming months might also change some behaviours. We will have a different relationship with time, and some people will cope with that changed relationship better than others. Here are ten ways to make friends with time, and maybe lighten things a little. <br />
<br />
They won’t pay your bills, but they might help you wring some advantage from adversity, for you and for others, and maybe permanently.<br />
<br />
One. If you bought tickets to a live performance that’s been cancelled, consider donating to the artist or venue instead of asking for a refund. You’ll feel better. You’ll help ensure those pleasures are still there when things get back to normal. You’ll also help people eat and pay rent.<br />
<br />
Remember that this industry has casual and freelance workers at double the rate of the larger Australian population and its organisations are lean even in the best of times. This industry has been decimated. And consider that just over a month ago, many of these workers gave their time and talent for free to help raise funds for bush fire relief, the kind of community contribution they are daily asked to make. Now is the time to give back. <br />
<br />
Two. Enjoy streamed performances. During this crisis, many organisations are streaming for free. The Berliner Philharmoniker, for example, has just opened its Digital Concert Hall service for free, making available 600 orchestral concerts. Around 60 films of top contemporary performance works from around the world are available for free until the end of April at ontheboards.tv You can watch works from Faye Driscoll, Rude Mechs, Teatro Línea de Sombra and lots more. <br />
<br />
Everyday, we hear of more live streaming of performances. The Social Distancing Festival website is trying to group many of them. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra played brilliantly from an empty Hamer Hall two weeks ago. Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard is hosting musical sessions from his home studio. Global Citizen and the World Health Organization have launched a virtual concert series on Instagram called #TogetherAtHome, kicking off with Chris Martin and John Legend, and following with amazing sets from artists such as Miguel, Rufus Wainwright, Bastille, and Lindsey Sterling. <br />
<br />
Josh Gad from<i> Frozen 2</i> went live online to read one of his favourite books, <i>Olivia Goes to Venice</i>. Opera companies and indie musos are all digging in. Passwords are being removed all over the place. <br />
<br />
Dive in. You might discover a love for a new artist or artform. And you can donate along the way. <br />
<br />
Three. Read a book. How often do you say you don’t have the time? Perhaps read about something new to you - a different culture, the life story of someone very different to you, an account of an inspiring event. You might develop a new interest or understanding. During this crisis, many bookshops are offering free shipping. Get social and start a virtual book club. You might need the company. <br />
<br />
Four. Learn to cook better. Make different kinds of meals with new ingredients. If the supermarket is out of pasta, all you need to make your own is eggs, flour, olive oil, and salt. Make stuff up. When things get better, invite friends over and show off. You might turn acquaintances into friends.<br />
<br />
Five. Make music. Moog and Korg have just made their synth apps free to help musicians stuck at home. Or learn the guitar. You’ve probably always wanted to. You might discover a lifelong balm, or a special way to annoy your friends. When we’re allowed out, go to a gig, especially if you’ve never been to one before.<br />
<br />
Six. Tour a museum. The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Guggenheim Museum are just two big museums that host online virtual tours. Google Arts & Culture has a collection of walk-throughs for dozens of international museums. Art Basel just launched its Online Viewing Rooms, with 233 galleries participating from around the world, each choosing a curatorial concept for their virtual room. <br />
<br />
Then, when things get better, visit your local museums more.<br />
<br />
Seven. Create a garden. Even if it’s in a bucket. It’s stuff from nothing, and what can be bad about nurturing something into life? Coriander? Cherry tomatoes? Strawberries? <br />
<br />
Eight. Learn a new language. Learn ten phrases in Chinese or Arabic or a local Aboriginal language or Auslan. How hard can it be? And it might just open a window.<br />
<br />
Nine. Be in nature. It's the best way of getting out of the house and keeping a distance from other people. Notice things around you that you didn't see before.<br />
<br />
Ten. Learn mindfulness. It’s a superpower. <br />
<br />
We are often good at counting our troubles, but more often bad at counting our joys. So amidst these horrors, let’s try to both count and create joys, for ourselves and others, to make a different kind of weekend. A richer, kinder one. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-25550652826004981652019-10-11T11:52:00.001+10:002019-10-13T11:13:40.911+10:00Opinion Piece for The Courier-Mail: The arts can kick goals for Brissie.<br />
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">(<a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/insight/opinion-the-arts-can-kick-goals-for-brissie/news-story/fa5fe4e2ece1bca717962e5a6c2b7e8a" target="_blank">Published in The Courier-Mail</a>, 10 October, 2019) </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The great Australian sport is criticising the
Grand Final pre-match entertainment.</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">OneRepublic was caught offside before the
NRL match, after Dean Lewis missed the mark at the AFL. Daryl Braithwaite and
Paul Kelly saved the days. Arts criticism is alive and well. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">On AFL Grand Final day, I played my own
grand final. The whistle blew on my fifth and final Brisbane Festival. It’s
been a privilege to be captain of the team, and to curate
3,000 performances and 30 world premieres from 7,000 artists. This year,
we broke our box office record for the third year running, topping $4m. More than
1.2 million people turned up, many of them tourists. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But hey, arts and sport aren’t in
competition. We can be passionate about both, and on the same day. In fact, people
encounter the arts more than sport, mostly without knowing it. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Every time you mouth the words to a song in
a supermarket, or are attracted to an image on a billboard, or enjoy some Netflix
and chill, you’re an arts goer. That musician, graphic designer and actor are
all artists.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Brisbane thinks of itself as a great
sporting city, but is it a great arts city? My time with Brisbane Festival has
given me some insight, but I think the question is bigger now. Is Brisbane a
great international city?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Sensational urban transformation is reshaping the
face of Brisbane. Very soon, the city won’t know itself. But to make the most
of it, the city needs to offer what all great international cities offer: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="OLE_LINK1">a 24-hour lifestyle</a>, diverse culture, density, welcoming
public spaces, efficient multimodal transport, and an indefinable
charisma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We have a few of those, but lack some. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If the initiative and investment that is driving
the city’s physical transformation can also energise arts and culture, then we
are also closer to having a 24-hour city and welcoming, mixed-use public
spaces. It’s win-win. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The most recent research from the Australia
Council tell us that v</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">isitors to Australia were more likely to engage with arts (43%)
than to visit wineries (13%), casinos (12%) or attend organised sporting events
(6%). </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So if Brisbane is to become a
great international city, attractive to locals and visitors, then its arts and
cultural offering needs supercharging. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Brisbane has a lot of top-end
arts companies, mostly doing very good work, but it gets patchy elsewhere.
Queensland doesn’t have a single contemporary dance company with fulltime
dancers. It doesn’t have any fulltime Indigenous performing arts company. There
are very few small theatres that give innovative artists a platform and city
villages that extra spark.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The seeds are there, but initiative and investment, wherever they
might come from, need to be there too. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Did you know that Brisbane is
probably the second most important circus city in the world after Montreal? The
work of Circa, Casus and others is in huge demand around the globe.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Contemporary
popular music is another great Brisbane strength, and getting stronger with the
recent opening of The Fortitude Music Hall </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">and the <span class="st">massive $2.1 billion </span><i><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Brisbane Live</span></i><span class="st"> project still, I hope,
somewhere on the cards. </span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="st"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We have great connections with the Asia-Pacific, particularly
through</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> the Asia Pacific </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Triennial of
Contemporary Art, QAGOMA’s flagship contemporary art series</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
and one of the world's most significant collections of contemporary Asian and
Pacific art</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">. An Asia-Pacific focus is logical for a
close, gateway city such as Brisbane.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="st"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Brisbane Festival has played to all these
strengths, premiering much new local circus work before it tours the world for
years, offering significant contemporary music experiences, and creating and
sustaining many connections with the Asia-Pacific performing arts, especially in
China.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="st"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It has also elevated First Nations
storytelling, especially through the free <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">River
of Light</i> laser show, seen by close to 500,000 people. But there’s more work
to do here, because the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures have a
great deal to offer. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This year, in particular, Brisbane
Festival became a true global player. <i>Invisible Cites</i> and <i>Rite
of Spring</i>, both reflections of China in a Western mirror, were
two glorious works from global artists redefining the art of the
possible. They were both Brisbane Festival commissions.</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> <span class="normaltextrun">Brisbane has never seen anything like <i>Invisible
Cities</i>. Actually, most of the world hasn’t. Our capacity for international
leadership was on show. </span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">We did this while also
being lovingly local, with three world premieres from Queensland arts
companies, engagement of close to 1,000 Queensland artists and arts workers, a
celebration of 30 years of Riverstage, and the sharing of many local stories. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The success of the Festival showed that
the people of Brisbane wanted this kind of ambition. It’s clear to me that they
want their city to be global player, to be a great international city. </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _GoBack;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Winning the State of Origin will always
be a great thing, no matter if the pre-match entertainment sucks. But it won’t
put us on the map. To do that, we need to excel across the field. Are we all up
for that? </span></span></span></div>
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</style>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-30894276284661097082019-02-02T15:32:00.000+10:002019-02-04T11:19:03.959+10:00Farewell, Andrew McGahan <div class="_5pbx userContent _3576" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_1sn">
My friend Andrew McGahan, that great Australian novelist, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/02/andrew-mcgahan-queensland-author-of-praise-and-the-white-earth-dies-aged-52" target="_blank">passed away yesterday</a>. Pancreatic cancer is persistent and February is the shortest month.<br />
<br />
I first met Andrew in 1991, just at the moment when <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise_(novel)" target="_blank">Praise</a> </i>changed the shape of Australian fiction and became the book of a generation. I had taken up a job at Queensland Theatre Company, charged with finding ways to develop the state’s playwriting culture. For a young director at the beginning of his career, this was quite a task. I had never set foot in Queensland. <i>Praise</i> was my introduction and Andrew became my buddy.<br />
<br />
We hit it off immediately, hanging out, devouring beers, and talking about and exploring anything that took our interest. He was very happy to discover the theatre and even became a resident writer at the company. I commissioned him to write a play. <i>Bait </i>follows the story of Gordon Buchanan, the central character of <i>Praise</i>, just as he begins working in the absurd bowels of the Department of Social Security. If <i>Praise</i> was chiselled from Bukowski, <i>Bait </i>channelled Kafka.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9jFkE1rfUA0/XFUq3WRfY-I/AAAAAAAABEM/DT13dLArpw8swhF8Xe8058lcFRNmdUrxwCLcBGAs/s1600/Andrew-McGahan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="399" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9jFkE1rfUA0/XFUq3WRfY-I/AAAAAAAABEM/DT13dLArpw8swhF8Xe8058lcFRNmdUrxwCLcBGAs/s320/Andrew-McGahan.jpg" width="212" /></a>Andrew was my assistant director for a few QTC theatre productions at that time. It was really a way for him to gather a bit of theatrical knowledge. He was an easy delight in the rehearsal room, always intrigued by what we were doing. The actors loved him. In <i>Bait</i> workshops, as we worked on the shaping of the play, he was able to bring these new skills to bear. We had such fun.<br />
<br />
<i>Bait </i>was the sequel to <i>Praise</i>, and <i>1988</i> was the prequel. One day, Andrew handed me a brown box. It contained a draft of the book in loose-leaf A4 pages. I was so excited. No one had ever given me a draft of a novel to read before! By that time, <i>Praise</i> had already entered our culture, a marker in the lives of many, so I felt I was being handed something very special. But, as with all things with Andrew, in life and in death, there was no outward ceremony. He just thought I’d be interested in reading a draft, and it’s what friends did.<br />
<br />
I still have that brown box. I have never been able to dispose of it.<br />
<br />
Many years later, I arrived back in Brisbane to take up the artistic directorship of La Boite. I inherited the 2009 season from my predecessor Sean Mee, but there was something perfect in the fact that the first production was a theatrical adaptation of Andrew’s magnificent <i>The White Earth</i>. Andrew had adapted his novel alongside director Shaun Charles, who had been part of our theatre family back in the early 1990s and had become Andrew's principal theatrical collaborator. Andrew was also co-director of the show. It gave me, and I think Andrew, a lot of joy to reunite in this way.<br />
<br />
Andrew met everything with calm and clarity, including his own death. He was also one of the most generous people I’ve ever encountered. I once rocked up to his house in Melbourne and spent most of a day drinking red wine and talking about, well, all the important and unimportant things. He always disarmed me - he always called me 'Dave' - and I think on that day in particular, through his own utterly genuine interest in the world and others, he made me effortlessly and contentedly confessional. I left unburdened, and happy. That was Andrew. Calm, clear, generous, graceful.<br />
<br />
All love to you Andrew, and to you Liesje, and to all who will so sorely miss you.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-67480838117309936142018-11-14T17:08:00.001+10:002018-11-14T17:08:43.750+10:00On Stan Lee and the Marvel of the Superhero<span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">The paeans to Stan Lee at his passing this week make us more aware than ever of the power of superheroes. <br /> <br />
They are an American invention, up there with jazz and musicals. And
the story of superheroes is the story of change in America. <br /> <br />
Superman, essentially the first, arrives in April 1938, towards the end
of the Great Depression. He fights corrupt businessmen and politicians
as a champion of o<span class="text_exposed_show">rdinary Americans.
He’s a socialist people’s hero. He is also an immigrant from another
world who is accepted and gives back. In his story is the DNA of the
American ideal. <br /> <br /> Batman, arriving in 1939, is the opposite. He
is human and urban while Superman is alien and regional. Superman is day
and idealistic while Batman is night and revengeful. They are the
Superego and the Id. This duality reflects America’s growing divide. <br /> <br />
Spider-Man is the first teenage superhero, and Marvel’s mascot. What a
gift: a confused teenager, trying to balance crime fighting with passing
calculus, becomes a superhero! Stan Lee’s great maxim, introduced in
the original August 1962 issue, becomes Spider-Man’s guiding principle:
‘with great power there must also come – great responsibility!’. It
enters our psyche. <br /> <br /> Watergate happens, and so Captain America
(whose first appearance in 1941 saw him punching Adolf Hitler) confronts
a villain who turns out to be The President. This President shoots
himself in the head in the White House. After that, Captain America
becomes Nomad, rejecting his country. <br /> <br /> The Civil Rights
Movement happens, and so The X-Men fight against bigotry in a society
fearful of difference. They reflect Harvey Milk and Malcolm X. The
rebels become the heroes. The Black Panther arrives in 1966, before the
Black Panther movement. Importantly, he’s African, not African American.
<br /> <br /> When we get to the Vietnam War, we get Iron Man. War is big
business and Tony Stark is an arms dealer. He’s based on Howard Hughes.
He has shrapnel in his heart, and is an alcoholic. Later, he renounces
the manufacture of weapons and works for the good of all. <br /> <br /> In
1975, as vets return from the war in Vietnam, The X-Men return, darker
and uglier: antiheroes. Wolverine is our Id. He has to slice himself
apart. Man or animal? <br /> <br /> Luke Cage, in 1972, is the first black
superhero to be the title character of a comic book. Unlike Malcolm X,
he has bullet-proof skin. <br /> <br /> Through the 1950-60s, Wonder Woman
(an ambassador of the Amazon people who was fighting the Nazis when she
arrived in 1941) is domesticated and de-costumed. That’s America. But,
thanks to Gloria Steinem, she returns in the 1970s, back in costume and
with her superpowers. Linda Carter! <br /> <br /> Storm arrives in 1975
too. Born in Harlem, she is the first African-American member of The
X-Men and their frequent leader. She can control the weather. The
Phoenix prevents the complete destruction of the universe. She eats
stars. <br /> <br /> The Punisher arrives at a time – in the 1970s and ‘80s
– when New York is in a crime wave. He is judge, jury and executioner,
obsessed with vengeance. We don’t always believe that what he's doing is
right. <br /> <br /> Gen X brings Deadpool, the first ironic superhero. But
he still wants to be a good guy. In the new millennium, The X-Men are
back and it now seems that being a mutant is a bit like being gay. But
the outcasts are winning. <br /> <br /> Tony Stark returns in 2008 and he’s
dealing arms in a different war. He changes his mission: from supporting
the war in Iraq to questioning the war on terror. By 2013 we get Ms.
Marvel, a Muslim superhero. <br /> <br /> This is a truly American artform.
It’s inclusive, speaking to colour, gender and religion. It makes
superheroes of rebels and underdogs. It inspires us to something beyond
ourselves. <br /> <br /> Stan Lee didn’t create all of these superheroes,
but he was the greatest of the creators. His influence, I think, is up
there with The Beatles. He taught us that we all, despite our flaws,
possess superpowers. He made us believe that we can impact the world in a
great adventure, being kind and good, even though our life might still
be a mess. Excelsior, he exclaimed, imploring us ever upward. And now,
in heaven or wherever he is up high, he is bending the ears of angels
with astounding tales, and they are marvelled.</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-4212756519935444272018-02-12T09:49:00.002+10:002018-02-12T09:49:58.190+10:00Strangers in Between<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Last night, in Melbourne, I saw a new production of Tommy Murphy’s <i><a href="http://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/wp2016/event/strangers-tommy-murphy/" target="_blank">Strangers in Between</a></i>. It’s a play I developed with Tommy at Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney back in 2004/05, before directing the premiere at Griffin in 2005. It was such a show of strength from Tommy that I quickly commissioned him to adapt <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holding_the_Man_(play)" target="_blank">Holding the Man</a></i>, which we got on stage a bit over a year later.</div>
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I hadn’t seen the play onstage since then, and perhaps because of that I was caught off-guard. Here <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">was a mature play, perfectly measured. Tommy was only 24 when he wrote it, but scene after scene displays a writer in clear command of comedy, character and, perhaps most impressively, of the contours of human emotion.</span></div>
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It’s also, in the words of director Daniel Lammin, ‘a play whose heart is wholly good’. You can’t fake that. And it’s emboldened with that heart’s blood that the actors thrive. Wil King inhabits Shane, Guy Simon summons up two fantastically different characters with disarming ease, and Simon Burke brings an ocean of understanding and, well, love.</div>
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It was particularly special to see Simon play this role. Back in 2004, Simon participated in the very first workshop of the play at Griffin, reading the same role he essayed tonight, and for which he was then much too young. When we transferred Tommy’s <i>Holding the Man</i> to London’s West End in 2010, Simon, then living in London, graciously took on one of the roles for the ten-week run. During that run, a reading of ‘Strangers in Between’ was given, and Simon read that role once again. I guess it was always meant to be, somewhere, sometime.</div>
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<i>Strangers in Between</i> has ghosts in its bones. And for me, last night, as I breathed with the artists in front of me, I also sat with the ghosts of that wonderful original cast – Sam Dunn, Brett Stiller and Anthony Phelan – remembering them living in Alice Babidge's designs and appreciating afresh the love they brought. Like these new actors, they filled characters who manage to close the in-between gaps and make family. What a thing, to bring a play to life. And what a thing to renew a play, allowing it to speak with clear new currency. At both these things, and for the lives these characters seize, I dropped a tear or two.</div>
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<i>Strangers in Between</i> heads to Sydney’s <a href="https://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/strangers-in-between/" target="_blank">Seymour Centre</a> in a few days. See it. Like all of Tommy’s plays, it speaks of love. And we are always in need of that.</div>
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<img src="https://localz.events/fb/01-2018/strangers-in-between-by-tommy-murphy-cover.jpg" /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-59817696054293658872017-10-03T12:27:00.000+10:002017-10-04T16:15:08.152+10:00Brisbane Festival breaks records<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/" target="_blank">Brisbane Festival</a> wound up on Saturday night after 22 days. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">There were 540 performances, 60 productions, around 20 venues, five world premiere commissions, 11 Australian premieres, and more than 1,400 artists from here and around the world, including those from 28 Queensland arts companies. Those artists, through their skill and insight, shared wonderfully different ways of living in and looking at the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">We broke lots of records: the biggest box office ever, the biggest crowds at our hub at Treasury Brisbane Arcadia (</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">mostly enjoying free shows), our largest ever Theatre Republic, the most number of performances.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">At Treasury Brisbane Arcadia alone, around 300,000 people engaged with the Festival – that’s an average of 15,000 people for every day it was open. Amazing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Saturday night's massive festival finale was Sunsuper Riverfire, Australia's longest fireworks display, drawing around 500,000 people to the edges of the winding Brisbane River and a great many more to the live television broadcast on Channel Nine. It's Brisbane's biggest annual public event. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">But there are many ways of measuring success. The biggest doesn’t always mean the best. I could share many stories of success that have nothing to do with the sale of a ticket.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zEqqpkpDrU8/WdLyKBfb57I/AAAAAAAAA7g/_NfZt-3Wh640SZPpNqJgVHOMMwuFypLMgCLcBGAs/s1600/BF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zEqqpkpDrU8/WdLyKBfb57I/AAAAAAAAA7g/_NfZt-3Wh640SZPpNqJgVHOMMwuFypLMgCLcBGAs/s200/BF.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here’s one I like. This year, we had around 320 volunteers. In events like ours, if you fill 70% of the shifts you’re doing very well. Volunteers can lose interest over time, and work and study can get in the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year, we filled 98% of our shifts. Our volunteers believed so much in the ethos and offerings of the Festival that they maintained their enormous commitment right to the end.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">That belief, that commitment, was evident among many, not least the audience. And for that, I am grateful. </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-72340314415915495862017-08-29T12:50:00.001+10:002017-08-29T22:45:45.582+10:00Brisbane Festival and the Road Less Travelled<div class="tg-tlc-storybody_intro" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #232323; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">
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(<i>This article was <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-the-brisbane-festival-will-open-your-mind/news-story/d264b1362f55e840a41fd42b06a91b7c" target="_blank">first published in </a></i><a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-the-brisbane-festival-will-open-your-mind/news-story/d264b1362f55e840a41fd42b06a91b7c" target="_blank">The Courier-Mail</a><i> on 24 August 2017</i>)<br />
<br />
I HAVE just returned from the world’s largest arts festival. I travelled down many paths searching for work to include in next year’s <a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/" target="_blank">Brisbane Festival.</a></div>
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The Edinburgh Fringe offers 3600 different productions from every corner of the globe. Its open access philosophy – anyone can be part of it, if you’re prepared to lose money – means that much of the work is pretty rough. But taken as a whole the event provides a fascinating snapshot of the things that are occupying the world’s artists. Right now.</div>
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There are many shows about Trump, democracy, Brexit and migration. There is an Arab Arts Focus and the transgender experience is the subject of a number of very good shows.</div>
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The arts can explore complex things in ways that surprise us. We all live in echo chambers of some sort, and that’s not always good. The arts extend our contact with the world beyond the boundaries of our lot.</div>
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This is part of a greater humanist project – to increase the level of empathy in the world and to make a more civil society.</div>
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We can see all around us, in Charlottesville and in Barcelona, and more and more it seems, what happens when civility breaks down, when echo chambers go unchallenged.</div>
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If the Barcelona terrorists had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of those they mowed down, they would not have done what they did. It’s difficult to be cruel once you’ve allowed yourself, feelingly, into the mind of your victim.</div>
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Their crimes, and those of the American white supremacists, come from a failure of imagination and a victory of ignorance.</div>
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This year’s Brisbane Festival, like all arts, is part of that great humanist project. It is full of surprises. It is joyous, and offers great nights out to get the mind and heart singing. Amongst it all you will find shows to crack the echo chamber.</div>
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You’ll encounter shows from our neighbours in the Asia Pacific – from China, Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. You’ll make discoveries about race, politics, terrorism, Islam, gender, and autism. You’ll hear love stories and stories to love. If you think you might vote ‘no’ in the upcoming postal vote on same-sex marriage, then there’s a show or two that might encourage you to think differently. You’ll find places to party, too.</div>
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A great festival, like all storytelling, is like a magnet dragged through the randomness, pulling the chaos of things into some kind of shape, and, if we’re lucky, some kind of sense.</div>
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A great festival is a cube, not a square. It’s best enjoyed when you take hold of it and turn it around to discover what’s on the other side. It might not be what you expect. It might be a marvel.</div>
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Actually, it’s not even a cube, because across the 22 days of Brisbane Festival there are 513 performances to choose from. There are plenty of perspectives on offer, plenty of paths you can take.</div>
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So trust your gut, dive in, take chances. See some favourites, but also take the road less travelled. It will make all the difference.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-23109469571237675912017-04-24T10:25:00.000+10:002017-04-24T10:31:00.758+10:00Old and New, Glass and Rachmaninov<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for alexander Malofeev" src="http://www.rolf-musicblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Malofeev_Christophe-GREMIOT_20082015-2_v4.jpg" height="425" style="background-color: transparent; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexander Malofeev</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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I had a wonderful experience with the <a href="https://qso.com.au/events/maestro-series/qso-glass-and-rachmaninov" target="_blank">Queensland Symphony Orchestra</a> on Saturday night. An 80-year-old American man gave us the rhythms of life, then a 15-year-old Russian boy gave us the melody of life. Alondra de la Parra, from Mexico, was in charge of all. Almost Trumpian geopolitics.</div>
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The Philip Glass Symphony No. 11, commissioned by the Bruckner Orchestra, the Istanbul International Music Festival, and the QSO, had its second ever performance, following its January premiere at Carnegie H<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">all in NYC on Glass's 80th birthday. We heard the repeated rhythms of living, and the jagged.</span></div>
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The audience loved this new work from an old man.</div>
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Then an old work from a boy when Alexander Malofeev ravished the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto, that miracle of melody. This Russian prodigy, winner of the 8th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2014, is the real thing, brilliant and brave. We leapt to our feet. Nice to know that in July last year he recorded his debut DVD in the Queensland Conservatorium Theatre, performing works by Tchaikovsky, Medtner and Liszt.</div>
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A Medtner Fairy Tale encore was a blast.</div>
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A nourishing night of life's contrasts and contours.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-41943354326564501142017-02-09T22:02:00.000+10:002017-02-11T20:37:08.106+10:00Ripples of HopeI am in the middle of directing Tommy Murphy's new play, <a href="http://belvoir.com.au/productions/mark-colvins-kidney/" target="_blank"><i>Mark Colvin's Kidney</i></a>, for Sydney's Belvoir. It's been extraordinary. <br />
<br />
I remember being glued to the Leveson Inquiry. All that rigorous
interrogation and the testimonies of the famous, including a
fragile-looking Rupert Murdoch. It felt like we were witnessing the fall
of a media empire. It felt like the world was about to change and that
‘truth’ and ‘ethics’ and ‘justice’ would somehow flourish.
<br />
<br />
Five years on, that feeling is foreign. ‘Alternative facts’ fight
with the truth, and justice for many seems more distant than ever.<br />
<br />
I was not aware of Mary-Ellen Field’s story until Tommy Murphy, that
most intrepid of playwrights, brought it to my attention. Things struck
me with immediate force. Here was a very successful woman, a member of
the Conservative Party, who bit by bit had her natural faith in the
cornerstones of British justice eroded. More specifically, here was
someone who had been treated savagely by the media and yet decided to
give her kidney to a journalist. How does that happen?<br />
<br />
Altruism is mysterious. Evolutionary biology and neurobiology tell us
that we’re hardwired for it, but that the trigger can be untouched. We
are often suspicious of those who say they expect no reward for their
kindness. The idea of absolute selflessness (is there such a thing?)
doesn’t quite gel in times when empathy seems to be in such short
supply.<br />
<br />
But, it happened. Mary-Ellen gave Mark Colvin, that exemplary journalist, a kidney, that spectacular
centre of the body’s waste disposal system. That act of kindness, in its
private, personal way, helped to cleanse. It added, in its modest way,
to the sum of goodness in the world. Perhaps, in the face of crushing
malice and injustice, that is the best we can hope for. Perhaps, though,
such acts, however small, accumulate and cultivate.<br />
<br />
Perhaps <i>Mark Colvin’s Kidney</i> can be part of that current, its own ripple of hope.<br />
<br />
“<i>Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of
us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all
those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from
numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is
shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the
lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny
ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers
of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down
the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”</i><br />
<br />
(Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation address delivered at the University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-63481209729017116442016-10-07T17:09:00.002+10:002016-10-07T22:21:52.397+10:00Have you ever been to a movie?<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_9k">
<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sell-blue-poles-and-end-public-funding-for-sport-and-the-arts-says-liberal-senator-james-paterson-20161006-grww1s.html" target="_blank">Senator James Paterson wants Blue Poles sold</a>, and all funding of arts and sport stopped, to help pay off our national debt.<br />
<br />
The estimated $350 million the painting might gather would represent about 0.07% of our $470 billion gross national debt.<br />
<br />
Paterson claims that we "fund $7 billion a year into the arts". He's wrong. Federal spending on the arts this financial year is $639 million. Not even close. <br />
<br />
The
budget he's referring to is the culture budget and includes everything
from arts, the ABC, libraries, museums, and even zoos. I imagine he's not actually suggesting we wipe all those things
away. Or does the Senator genuinely believe that a society with a little
less debt is better than one with libraries, a national broadcaster and
working artists? Has he ever been to a movie?<br />
<br />
Does the Senator also realise that
the $7 billion government investment in culture makes a $50 billion
economic impact? Does the Senator mean that we should ignore
this return?<br />
<br />
Does the Senator understand the reality of "subsidy"? Very few areas of our society are not subsidised.<br />
<br />
Mining gets about $4 billion a year in government subsidy. The big four
banks – among the world’s most profitable – are subsidised, through
various provisions, by almost $6 billion a year. Education, agriculture,
health and manufacturing are all heavily subsidised. Maybe that's as it
should be.<br />
<br />
Whatever view you take on government support of
these sectors, it's fair to say that the arts sector is one of the
nation’s least subsidised.<br />
<br />
It's telling that when the Senator
refers to Blue Poles, he talk of now being a good time "to cash in on
our investment". Is that the language of someone who understands the
place of arts in a society? <span><span data-offset-key="4unku-0-0"><span data-text="true">It appears that Blue Poles is only worth something when it's sold. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
I'm reminded of Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic: knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-39046548247403289462016-09-18T22:31:00.000+10:002017-10-04T09:57:01.190+10:00On the Value of Arts and the Place of Subsidy <style>
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</style><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[A version of this piece <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-arts-enrich-us-all-in-so-many-ways/news-story/65f4baa1dfa6b864c82d80c4e1df0885" target="_blank">was first published</a> in <i>The Courier-Mail</i> on 5 September 2016] </span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">More Australians go to art galleries
each year than go to AFL and NRL games combined. The creative industries employ
more people than agriculture, construction or mining.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Around one million people will
experience this year’s Brisbane Festival, Brisbane’s international arts
festival. Theatre, dance, circus, music, stand-up? With almost 500 performances
across three weeks, it’s all on the menu.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">How do we value this love for arts and
culture?</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">A festival is a remarkable thing.
People relax and become more receptive to the unfamiliar. It’s all in the name.
During the festival of a holiday or the festival of a dinner party, we let our
guard down and allow ourselves to absorb new ideas and experiences.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">It’s also when artists reach for things
at the very edge of their imaginations. You could say that ‘‘why not?’’ is the
festival spirit.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Part of it is making sure people have
access. Brisbane Festival spends more than 20 per cent of its program budget on
free events. Ticket prices to other shows are kept low. Specially built
performance spaces are also great social spaces – look at Arcadia in front of
QPAC, by the river.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Like many arts organisations, Brisbane
Festival is supported by government. That investment generates many benefits.
It enables an exhilarating gift to the city, enriches countless lives, and
delivers an unmistakable economic impact.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Each year Australia’s creative
industries make a $50 billion economic impact against a government investment
of $7 billion. But we sometimes hear that arts should pay for themselves. This
misunderstands the reality of subsidy. Very few areas of our society are not
subsidised.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Australian Institute of Sport spent
$332 million of public money on the recent Olympics campaign. Mining gets about
$4 billion a year in government subsidy. The big four banks – among the world’s
most profitable – are subsidised, through various provisions, by almost $6 billion a year. Education,
agriculture, health and manufacturing are all heavily subsidised. Maybe that's as it should be. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whatever view you take on government support of these sectors, it's </span>fair to say that the arts <span style="font-family: inherit;">sector</span>
is one of the nation’s least subsidised.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">But let’s leave money and think of
value. People have a right to arts and culture. It’s a right equal to
political, social and economic rights, and is universal. The value of arts and
culture – how they enrich and enliven, comfort and challenge, help make us more
engaged, empathetic human beings – is where we best begin.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Then we can think of broader
educational and social benefits, which are many, and then of economic value.
That’s the best order. Otherwise we fall into Oscar Wilde’s definition of a
cynic: knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">So I’m looking forward to Brisbane
Festival. Perhaps a show that blows expectations apart, the discovery of an
amazing artist, enjoying a new space for a great night out, the highest note,
the deepest current, the widest embrace of that ‘‘Why not?’’ spirit.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-3471941256413904892016-06-13T21:24:00.001+10:002016-06-14T08:39:00.777+10:00Orlando, Hate and Homophobia<span style="font-family: inherit;">The attack in Orlando was a gay hate crime.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Prime Minister today initially omitted this fact from his expression of sympathy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He later <a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2016/06/13/statement-mass-shootings-orlando" target="_blank">changed his language</a>, calling the mass shooting “an attack on
the gay community and an attack on all of us - on all our freedoms, the
freedom to gather together, to celebrate, to share time with friends.”
He went on to say that there “are people outside our country, and some
within it, who hate the freedoms that we enjoy and would seek to
threaten them and undermine them with violence... Together, at home and
abroad, we continue the fight against terrorism and stand up for the
values of our free nations.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There seems to be no acknowledgment
of the glaring irony. What are these “freedoms that we enjoy”?
Certainly not the freedom to marry. For that, we must argue the case during a plebiscite that is sure to unleash homophobic hate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's difficult to feel that it's "an attack on all of us" when the LGBTQ community are not equal citizens. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here in Brisbane, it’s great to
see the Story Bridge, City Hall and Victoria Bridge lit in the colours
of the US and rainbow flags, and the Pride flag flying on City Hall.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uAxSW35H0Go/V16Wf-lOdwI/AAAAAAAAAxw/-mAtOYtcg8QqpsN6fQU7zoorD4Nmi8algCLcB/s1600/13413158_10153641173562060_5023790033776874657_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uAxSW35H0Go/V16Wf-lOdwI/AAAAAAAAAxw/-mAtOYtcg8QqpsN6fQU7zoorD4Nmi8algCLcB/s320/13413158_10153641173562060_5023790033776874657_n.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="44tfi-0-0"><span data-text="true">Yet alone among Australian states, Queensland's age of consent laws remain unequal. T</span></span>hose under the age
of 18 engaging in anal sex face up to 14 years in jail. The age of
consent is 16 for oral and vaginal sex. Also in Queensland, a person
charged with the murder of a gay person can use the “gay panic defence”.
This allows the killer to claim they were provoked by an unwanted
homosexual advance, a claim that can act as a partial defence reducing
the crime to manslaughter. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Under Queensland law, fear of gays can be partially acceptable as a reason to kill.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Legislation to remove the defence is expected
to be introduced to the Queensland Parliament later this year. Let's
hope it passes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s also remember that 79 countries still have anti-homosexuality laws on the books.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let's not <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/prayfororlando?source=feed_text&story_id=10155023363744408"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">PrayForOrlando</span></a>. Religion often sits at the source of hate and homophobia. Instead, stand up, be heard, demand. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Brisbane Pride invites those wishing to express their grief and mourn
the loss of those in Orlando to gather at Reddacliff Place in Brisbane
at 6pm on Tuesday, June 14. Candles will be available on the night.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-33547532480591269912016-05-14T21:25:00.000+10:002016-06-13T21:33:39.676+10:00Australia, the Australia Council, and the Erosion of Cultural Rights<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
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{margin-bottom:0cm;</style><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">This week the Australia Council allocated more annual fund<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ing</span> to
small-to-medium arts organisations than ever before.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, you heard right. In announcing $28 million to go to these
organisations each year, it invested more, not less, in operational, multi-year funding than it had in recent years. This funding round </span>saw more of a realignment of support than a reduction. <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/news/australia-council-annual-report-2014-15.pdf" target="_blank">Here are the figures: </a></span><br />
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 83.4pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">2009-10</span></b></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">2010–11</span></b></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">2011-12</span></b></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">2012-13</span></b></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.15pt;" valign="top" width="55"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">2013-14</span></b></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 60.75pt;" valign="top" width="61"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">2014-15</span></b></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 83.4pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">To Key Orgs</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$21.2m</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$22.1m</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$21.4m</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$21.1m</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.15pt;" valign="top" width="55"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$22.8m</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 60.75pt;" valign="top" width="61"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$23.1m</span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: 1.0pt; border: solid black; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 83.4pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Total Funding</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$163.5</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">$163.8</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">164.5</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 2.0cm;" valign="top" width="57"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">174.8</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.15pt;" valign="top" width="55"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">199.2</span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: 1.0pt; border-bottom: solid black; border-left: none; border-right: 1.0pt; border-right: solid black; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: .5pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 60.75pt;" valign="top" width="61"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">191.5</span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It remains unclear, though, what other programs will be available to complement this multi-year funding, if any. In the past, a good variety have been available to organisations both with and without operational funding. It will be important to see how many of these, and indeed others available to individual artists, have been dissolved in order to reach this higher level of operational investment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I think the frustrations of the
last few days are, in some part, misdirected. It’s easy to blame the ‘</span><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-13/eltham-brandis-extraordinary-raid-of-the-australia-council/6467534" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;" target="_blank">Brandis Raid</a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘
of May 2015 – and indeed there’s a great deal that was very wrong about that
action – but there's a bigger story. The results of this funding round also have much to do with the philosophical shift that emerged after a long consultation process with the arts and culture sector aimed at finding a new funding model for organisations. As part
of the shift, the Australia Council set new strategic goals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This recent round was
the first time that organisations across all areas of practice were
assessed at the same time, thus enabling a full national view. It was always possible,
even likely, that there’d be a big shake-up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">There was a similarly seismic shake-up following the 'Make it New' shift that found its resolution in late 2008. It's periodic. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It was the view of the peer
assessors – and let’s remember that arts peers, not government bureaucrats, make
the decisions – that a raft of new organisations had better claims to
multi-year funding than some others that had been supported for many years. The
status quo was rejected. Organisations working in Indigenous arts, for example,
have emerged with new, long-term support. So have many in regional areas. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> third of the organisations funded are new to multi-year funding. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There
has been disappointment, but also delight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Nevertheless, there is a serious money
problem<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CNij4BxkZPs/VzcbOdNOaiI/AAAAAAAAAxA/uQCTWid0H5Eb1vjPbYcaxiLh7S1FkV_rACLcB/s1600/BPH_Il_Ritorno_1_2015-1178x663.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CNij4BxkZPs/VzcbOdNOaiI/AAAAAAAAAxA/uQCTWid0H5Eb1vjPbYcaxiLh7S1FkV_rACLcB/s640/BPH_Il_Ritorno_1_2015-1178x663.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Circa's <i>Il ritorno</i> (Image: <span class="st">Damien Bredberg)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It’s abundantly clear that many of the organisations that were not successful in achieving multi-year funding were fully deserving of support. I’ve had off-the-record conversations with several of the peer assessors involved in this round, and they all related how heartbreaking - distressing - it was not to be able to fund to the level of displayed excellence. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Let’s remember that it was this very predicament that motivated the federal government in its </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2013-14 Federal Budget to provide an additional $75.3 million to the Australia Council over four years.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> It recognised that there was a </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">crisis of ‘unfunded excellence’, deeply affecting the health of the sector, and did something about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then things changed. The May 2014 Budget took most of that increase back, and then in
the May 2015 Budget more funds were diverted
to what is now called Catalyst, to be administered directly by the Ministry for
the Arts. A terribly topsy-turvy time, and not at all good for the
stability of the nation’s principal arts funding body and the artists it
serves, and nor for trust in government. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Let’s be blunt. The Australia
Council is not allocated enough in the Federal Budget to properly achieve its mission.
This is despite the fact that each year the creative industries make a </span><a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/research/arts-nation-an-overview-of-australian-arts/" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;" target="_blank">$50 billion economic impact</a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> against an investment of $7 billion. The Australia
Council’s budget is a tiny fraction of that investment, but is one of the
principal drivers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It’s difficult to understand the
reluctance to more reasonably support arts and culture. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">More Australians go to art galleries each year than go to the AFL and
NRL combined. The creative industries employ more people than agriculture, construction or
even mining, and indeed contribute as much as 75% of the economic benefit of
the mining sector.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The argument is regularly heard that the arts should pay for
themselves. This misunderstands the reality of subsidy, because the fact is
that there are very few areas of our society that are <i>not</i> subsidised. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Mining receives about <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/coal-oil-and-gas-companies-receive-4-billion-dollar-in-subsidie/5881814" target="_blank">$4 billion a year</a> in government subsidy. Believe
it or not, government subsidises the big four banks – among the most profitable
in the world – to the tune of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-imf-says-australias-big-4-get-a-huge-government-subsidy-and-need-more-capital-2014-4" target="_blank">something towards $6 billion a year</a>. Health, education, agriculture
and manufacturing are all heavily subsidised. So too, sport. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
Australian Institute of Sport spent <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/olympics/off-the-field/what-price-medals-20120810-23zua.html" target="_blank">a record $310 million of public money</a> on
the London Olympics campaign, </span>its worst result in 20 years.<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> Th</span>at
cost taxpayers $10 million for each medal won.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Actually, culture is one of this nation’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">least </i>subsidised industries.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This deficit of support is also evident when there's talk of an innovative, clever nation or
state, or an 'ideas boom'. In these discussions, strangely, our governments largely ignore arts and culture, the great engines of creative thinking. </span>Neither
major federal political party has an arts and culture policy of any note. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It’s an attitude that makes no sense. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So let’s get serious. Let’s not talk simply of restoring funds recently
taken from the Australia Council. In Federal Budget terms that’s loose change.
Let’s talk about doubling them. The Australia Council is one of the most
efficient government bodies around. Why not let it do its work? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Earlier this year, in a game-changing moment, the Canadian Federal Government doubled the budget of the Canada
Council – the equivalent of the Australia Council – as part of an
injection of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/arts-federal-budget-canada-council-heritage-1.3501480" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">$1.9 billion into arts and culture</a> over five years.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> It was a "<a href="http://canadacouncil.ca/council/news-room/news/2016/budget-2016" target="_blank">vote of confidence</a> in the capacities of the arts to invigorate our economy and support social cohesion". It was the result of</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> a long-term concerted effort. It's an effort we need to make.
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Let’s also talk about a National Lottery for Arts and Heritage. Such things
can be huge sources of funds for governments, and could fund ten Catalyst
programs, or similar programs devoted to the things that best express who we
are or might want to be. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Let’s talk about STEAM rather than STEM. S</span>cience, technology,
engineering, arts and mathematics should all be key parts of our education
curriculum. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Decades of research shows
that artistic engagement nourishes all learning, so if we want an innovative,
imaginative and well-rounded nation, let’s have one. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Let’s also talk about how a serious NBN could enable all Australians,
wherever they live, to have access to the great cultural work our nation
produces. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">People have a right to arts and culture. It’s a right equal to political,
social and economic rights, and it’s universal. All citizens have a right to engage
with both cultural heritage and </span>new artistic creation. They also have
the right <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">to engage in their own forms
of creativity, to have access to the knowledge and skills needed to play a musical
instrument, draw, dance, compose or design. This universal cultural right is eroded whenever we fail to properly fund the arts organisations and
artists who provide that access to the tools and the expressions.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Let’s have the conversation. Because if we don’t, and if we’re not
careful, one day we’re going to wake up and realise that the books we read and
the films and television we watch are all from overseas, that the songs we
listen to are not in our voices, and that our stages are not telling our
stories. Then we will ask, ‘when did this happen?’ On whose watch, we will
wonder, did we decide that it didn’t matter? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It’s on our watch. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-8855003014263050402016-04-04T22:24:00.002+10:002016-05-16T08:11:40.851+10:00Vale, Bob Ellis, an Australian Colossus. Bob Ellis, one of the great, Protean figures of Australian
cultural and political life, passed away on Sunday afternoon after
battling a rare liver cancer. A magnificent fig has fallen. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qw-klAU3Pw4/VwJWt4IGpeI/AAAAAAAAAvw/2t1Wpb7GR6k9uWER7F69OYW7r9yEYOSMQ/s1600/Bob-Ellis.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qw-klAU3Pw4/VwJWt4IGpeI/AAAAAAAAAvw/2t1Wpb7GR6k9uWER7F69OYW7r9yEYOSMQ/s1600/Bob-Ellis.png" /></a></div>
Bob was never dull - he was hyperbole's bosom friend - and always wrote and behaved with the future and morality of his beloved
nation at heart. He could compose a phrase like no other, making it sing
like a thought never before sung, whether for a
politician's speech, an essay, criticism, or a film or play. He was one
of our great writers, a thinker, a contributor, a scoundrel, a
provocateur, a melancholic warrior, a comrade. His roguery and relish
marked him as an Australian Gore Vidal. Like no other, he inhabited the
forests of politics, arts and culture equally. He was indisputably an
Australian colossus.<br />
<br />
Many years ago, I loved directing a workshop of one of his plays at Sydney Theatre Company. Ever since, like many others in my field, I mostly saw Bob in theatre foyers. The fellowship was enduring and I usually came away knocked-up and nourished by at least one outlandish claim. But this was his mode: he was one of our great mythologisers. <br />
<br />
His books are pleasure gardens of insight, and I own them all. I was a daily reader of <a href="http://www.ellistabletalk.com/" target="_blank">his blog</a>. On Sunday night, Bob's son, Jack, posted Bob's school report on the blog. It is touching in its accurate simplicity.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zFfxujkwlRA/VwJcgRJgRqI/AAAAAAAAAwA/9Ihq3_lsTroM4NHT-Ke64L6b1bgFwpJkA/s1600/Ellis-High-School-Reference-807x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zFfxujkwlRA/VwJcgRJgRqI/AAAAAAAAAwA/9Ihq3_lsTroM4NHT-Ke64L6b1bgFwpJkA/s400/Ellis-High-School-Reference-807x1024.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
A sad Sunday night. And so it goes...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-80107712933535988982016-04-03T17:35:00.000+10:002016-04-04T10:00:03.819+10:00On Simon Stone's 'The Daughter'I saw Simon Stone's debut feature film '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daughter_%282015_film%29" target="_blank">The Daughter</a>' recently.<br />
<br />
It's a
terrific film, with an Ingmar Bergman-like tautness and a keen
understanding of film form that makes for a deeply affecting experience.
<br />
<br />
The film is derived from Ibsen's 1884 play '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Duck" target="_blank">The Wild Duck</a>',
which also stimulated a stage production <a href="http://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-wild-duck/" target="_blank">written and directed by Stone in 2011</a>. That production has played a few places in Australia, as well
as Amsterdam, Vienna, London, and at Oslo's Ibsen Festival.<br />
<br />
Stone has had <a href="http://carveinsnow.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/the-playwright-and-director-australian.html" target="_blank">a sometimes uneasy relationship</a> with Australian theatre, particularly in regard to his adaptations of plays by other authors. But it has not affected his now terrifically successful career in Europe. Last year his production of Ibsen's <a href="http://www.burgtheater.at/Content.Node2/home/spielplan/event_detailansicht.at.php?eventid=963897697" target="_blank"><i>John Gabriel Borkman</i></a> for Vienna's Burgtheater <span lang="EN-US">and Theater Basel </span>earned him a best director award. In March this year, he staged Ibsen's <a href="http://www.schauspielhaus.de/de_DE/kalender/peer_gynt.13158606" target="_blank"><i>Peer Gynt</i></a>
in Hamburg, while in July his take on Lorca's <a href="http://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/yerma" target="_blank"><i>Yerma</i></a> will open at London's Young Vic. In August, Stone will direct his debut opera, <i>Die tote Stadt</i>, in Basel - <span lang="EN-US">he is the <a href="http://www.theater-basel.ch/team?id=772F389D-DC38-2EFD-73D6C4CBFC2F5C57&CFID=37860559&CFTOKEN=87520213" target="_blank">in-house director at Theater Basel</a> - </span>followed soon after by Debussy's <i>Pelléas et Mélisande</i> for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Another opera will follow
in late 2017 at the Salzburg Festival. That's a packed creative itinerary. <br />
<br />
The film's set<span class="text_exposed_show">ting
in a contemporary Australian logging community feels like a nod to
Norway, but still feels very much of this country. The language is
authentically Australian, effortlessly so, and the film even manages to
unmask some of the class issues of a nation that likes to tell itself
that it doesn't have any. </span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<br />
The cinematography and production design are beautiful and precise -
each with a coherent and purposeful language (rare in Australian film) -
and <a href="http://unitedagents.co.uk/mark-bradshaw" target="_blank">Mark Bradshaw</a>'s score is one of the best I've heard. All of the
performances are top notch, but Ewen Leslie, who played the same role in
the stage version, sits at its blood heart. A privilege to watch him. <br />
<br />
The audience I saw the film with were clearly gripped, with some, I
sensed, experiencing this story of family and secrets as a reflection of
their own. Gasps towards the end, and tears. A wonderful experience.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gVvGSat7g9k/VwDDdALpPuI/AAAAAAAAAvg/zgHFo74Dlw42zFNIFf4IvlZAFzZjruAnA/s1600/fd209841bc363fa966197835117ee142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gVvGSat7g9k/VwDDdALpPuI/AAAAAAAAAvg/zgHFo74Dlw42zFNIFf4IvlZAFzZjruAnA/s640/fd209841bc363fa966197835117ee142.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-42015956317794974762015-12-27T21:35:00.003+10:002016-10-08T21:07:17.524+10:00On Visiting ParentsLast week I visited my parents at The Entrance, on the Central Coast, about
an hour north of Sydney. We holidayed there every year when I was a kid,
and I sometimes even got the last week off school to do so. My parents
always said that when they retired they’d move there, and that’s what
they did.<br />
<br />
When I visit now, I arrive as a ten year old, excited at being
back in a place of childhood delight, my muscles and synapses defying
time.<br />
<br />
The choc-dipped ice cream, probably deficient in da<span class="text_exposed_show">iry,
is still to be found, though the price is not, with 40c transformed to
$4.50. The pelicans are still fed, but now it’s a daily 3pm tourist
attraction. The jetty where I used to fish is untouched, though now
seems so much smaller, just like the bream. The Housie Hall is now one
of those Base Warehouses, where quality is an apparition and everything
is cheaper than you’d imagine. </span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<br />
This year is different. My parents are living in a new place, closer to
the water. When I scan the rooms, I see furniture in three worlds at
once: in this new address, in their first coastal house, and in the
ghost of our family home in Maitland.<br />
<br />
But that chair never used to be
near that table. That wall hanging, which I never really liked, should
be to the left of the table, not the right. And why that new fruit bowl?<br />
<br />
“Where’s the brown bookcase?”, I enquire, affecting calm. <br />
<br />
"Oh, we gave it away. It was too heavy to move and it was old.” <br />
<br />
<i>Too heavy? Isn’t that what removalists are for? Don’t you remember that
it was MY bookcase, the first I ever owned. Why the fuck didn’t you ask
me about it? </i><br />
<br />
I didn't actually say those things, because the adult subsumed the boy. I now realise
that after decades of unbroken neglect I no longer have rights over the
bookcase, any more than I have rights over the presence of a fruit bowl.
Physical ownership is now a memory, just like the books the bookcase
once cherished, books now lost to student days, though still written, shakily, in my thinking and feeling. Newer books live in a new home,
where I live, where they stare at me from new shelves, some grumbling at
not being read, some waving at me with their pages, reminders of love
and loss.<br />
<br />
You can never truly own a book, only the paper it's
printed on. Nor can you pin the past to a wall, like a tortured
butterfly, demanding it remain in an eternal present. To do so is to
mistrust the future, and that is a crime.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-10751155130754908622015-11-26T16:56:00.000+10:002015-11-26T17:01:47.578+10:00Andrew Bolt's Fear<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bolt" target="_blank">Andrew Bolt</a>’s first published work was written when he was 13.<br />
<br />
It was a poem published in <a href="https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2011/08/saying-what-i-think/" target="_blank">Quadrant</a>, called 'Fear':<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The jeering, gloating ring of youths <br />
Closed in around a solitary boy,<br />
Teasing and taunting him<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> Because he was black.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="text_exposed_show"> The boy staggered from a blow;</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"> The yells grew louder,</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"> Humiliating and bewildering</span><span class="text_exposed_show"> the boy.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"> The colour of his skin was a cause</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"> For ridicule.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"></span></blockquote>
<span class="text_exposed_show"> I wanted to help him<br /> But fear sealed my mouth,<br /> Held me back.<br /> And soon I was yelling with the rest.</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0WBWvBJgB_U/VlasdPuRb1I/AAAAAAAAAs0/VCRV8aYzDpg/s1600/1383898285700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0WBWvBJgB_U/VlasdPuRb1I/AAAAAAAAAs0/VCRV8aYzDpg/s640/1383898285700.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Bolt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-70470432163731969292015-09-29T21:06:00.000+10:002015-09-29T23:35:01.337+10:00On completing Brisbane FestivalAn arts festival is an opportunity for artists and audiences to take
risks. It’s a chance to experience new forms and new ideas and to lift
our gaze beyond the everyday.<br />
<br />
The arts enable us to walk in the
shoes of another for a short while, to experience a different kind of
exhilaration or disturbance or reflection or joy, and it has always been
my simple hope that those experiences might make us more empathetic,
more generous, more valuing of things outside our daily selves.<span class="text_exposed_show"> </span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<br />
<a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/" target="_blank">Brisbane Festival</a> is part of that huge ongoing human project, and it gives me hope that making a difference is possible.<br />
<br />
This year’s Festival, my first, tied together work from five continents
and many, many hundreds of artists, all of whom had something to say.
These voices spoke powerfully across the city, sharing with us views and
experiences of the world that were both challenging and refreshing.
Sometimes our securities were shaken, and often our hearts went out. <br />
<br />
I found myself particularly affected by the powerful presence of
artists who carry with them an experience of the world that is not mine,
but which has enlarged mine and, I believe, made me a better person. I
can only trust that others have felt similarly. <br />
<br />
As the world
becomes smaller and more connected, and the value of creativity and
sharing becomes clearer, I hope that Brisbane Festival will reverberate
with increasing depth and consequence. <br />
<br />
The Festival staff and
volunteers have been extraordinary. It has inspired me to see how much
they’ve all have cared: the insanely long hours, the utter belief in the
work, the clear desire to get it right, the generous disposition to
artists and audiences. Truly amazing. I thank them all.<br />
<br />
I’m longing to get on to the next edition.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-73105244096573633772015-08-25T12:11:00.001+10:002015-09-29T22:48:51.064+10:00Holding the Man: The Three Champions of Australia's Greatest Love Story<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Last week, before a preview screening in Brisbane
of the <a href="http://www.transmissionfilms.com.au/films/holding-the-man" target="_blank">film version of <i>Holding the Man</i></a>, I joined writer Tommy Murphy for a
public talk about how the story came to be, first as memoir, then as theatre,
and now as film.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It was lovely to be with Tommy, such a crucial
figure in how this story has reached a wider audience, and to reflect on what
is now a 20-year history adorning the 15-year relationship between Timothy
Conigrave and the man he called his husband, John Caleo.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tim was an actor and playwright, but his final form
was memoir. Following John’s death on Australia Day 1992, Tim was determined to
write a book about his lover. In an <a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/627500" target="_blank">interview with James Waites</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> for a National
Library oral history project on HIV/AIDS in Australia, Tim says</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">‘The only thing I have to live for is these two
things that I am writing, which I’d like to finish both of. One’s a play that
involves stuff about AIDS but it’s not really about AIDS, and the other one is
the book that I’d like to write about my lover and I, which I’ve started.’ </span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The interview itself is quite extraordinary. Over
almost three hours, recorded at his home in Sydney on 13 January 1993, Tim
tells stories of his life, his time with John, and his current health. Many of
these stories are clearly well rehearsed, probably told at hearty dinner
parties, and many are in a form similar to how they’d eventually arrive in the
book.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Two weeks before this interview, Tim met the first
of several people who have been crucial to how this story came into the world,
and to how it has endured. At a New Year’s Eve party in Melbourne’s St Kilda in
1992, Tim met <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Cunningham" target="_blank">Sophie Cunningham</a>. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HKXfCFGhNLE/VdvKHbkJ-SI/AAAAAAAAApc/fZmzXGQvo1Y/s1600/sophie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HKXfCFGhNLE/VdvKHbkJ-SI/AAAAAAAAApc/fZmzXGQvo1Y/s1600/sophie.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sophie Cunningham</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tim told Sophie one, or a few, of those long-rehearsed stories. Then, in a fateful moment, he whispered to her that he
wanted to write a book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">
<br />
‘You’re not interested in this’, said Tim with uncharacteristic, but perhaps
strategically placed doubt. ‘Tim, I’m a publisher,’ replied Sophie, fascinated.
Now a highly regarded novelist, Sophie was then working at McPhee
Gribble/Penguin.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Sophie commissioned the book.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In June 1993, Tim faxed her two short stories from
the ACON office. One, “The First Boy I Loved”, had already been published
in <i>Outrage</i>, a Melbourne-based gay magazine. Then Tim would send new
chapters to Sophie. ‘It was in rough shape, but I knew I was onto something
special,’ <a href="http://www.wheelercentre.com/projects/the-long-view/holding-the-man-and-aids-in-australia" target="_blank">Sophie told Benjamin Law years later</a>.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> ‘There was something about the voice, clarity, humour and directness of it.
It’s the book I’m most proud of having published.’</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In September the following year, Tim delivered the
completed draft to Sophie over lunch, then died a few weeks later. ‘It’s like
he held himself together through sheer force of will,’ Sophie told Ben. True to his
character, the last thing Tim ever said to Sophie was that she looked good
blonde, and should keep her hair that way.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">There was a person helping Tim as he prepared the
book for his publisher – the second crucial figure in this story – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Enright" target="_blank">Nick Enright</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VFVO9Xj_ofY/VdvKV4YymsI/AAAAAAAAApk/qmi3iNIUff8/s1600/nick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VFVO9Xj_ofY/VdvKV4YymsI/AAAAAAAAApk/qmi3iNIUff8/s1600/nick.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nick Enright</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Nick was Tim’s acting teacher at NIDA. Nick was not
only one of our finest teachers, but also a talented writer, principally of
plays. He also had a superior talent for supporting talent in others. Nick, only nine
years older than Tim and also gay, saw in Tim someone capable of making a
difference. How shrewd Nick was. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Nick helped Tim shape the book. Early on, Tim wanted to write the story as fiction - the story of two boys who fell in love.
But all those around him, including Nick, urged him to write the story as
memoir. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I saw some of Nick's shaping first hand. In early
1994, I was living in Nick’s house in Sydney. At that time, Nick often visited
Tim in hospital, or at other places, working on drafts of chapters. Nick knew
that Tim’s health was failing, and that working on the book was probably
keeping Tim alive.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Typed copies of draft chapters sat on top of Nick's
piano. I would read these loose A4 pages, struck and intrigued by the things
that would later come to mean so much to me and others. I would also be amused
at Nick's furious corrections of Tim's punctuation. IT'S = IT IS!, the thick
pencil would often scream. It seemed natural that Nick would become Tim’s
literary executor.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">These notated drafts, along with the galley proofs
Nick corrected for McPhee Gribble/Penguin, now sit with the rest of Nick’s
papers in the <a href="http://lib.unsw.adfa.edu.au/speccoll/finding_aids/enright_nick.html" target="_blank">Australian Defence Force Academy Library</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> in
Canberra.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tim and Nick were playwrights, men of the theatre,
and they gave the memoir a scenic shape and a lean, dramatic thrust with crisp,
honest dialogue. They could see the value of the <i>Romeo and Juliet </i>motif,
and enjoyed sequences set in theatres and drama school. It is perhaps a natural
part of this story that the third crucial figure in its history is also a
playwright </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6666669845581px;">– <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Murphy_%28Australian_playwright%29" target="_blank">Tommy Murphy</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wO2-L2rWcDU/VdvKi6vawQI/AAAAAAAAAps/sTHzNbzTYZ8/s1600/tommy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wO2-L2rWcDU/VdvKi6vawQI/AAAAAAAAAps/sTHzNbzTYZ8/s1600/tommy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tommy Murphy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In 2005, when I was Artistic Director of Griffin
Theatre Company, the very theatre where Tim had been so involved, I asked Tommy
to adapt the book for the stage. Tommy and I had enjoyed many theatrical
endeavours together, and I was keen to challenge him. To my surprise, he had
not read the book. But on reading it, in April of that year, he accepted the
mission and began working out how to turn memoir into drama. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://carveinsnow.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/holding-man.html" target="_blank">I've written elsewhere</a> about
how we shaped this story onto the stage, and <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2015/08/22/holding-the-man-labour-love/14401656002267" target="_blank">Tommy has also written</a> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">about
he has lived with the possibilities of <i>Holding the Man</i> for
stage and screen. That is now a remarkable ten year history. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tommy has held this story in his hands with love.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Early on, he was thoroughly systematic in breaking
the book down into little story bits. That excel spreadsheet is vast and full
of speculation. He contacted pretty much anyone he could find who appeared in
the book, and sometimes spoke at length with them, sometimes finding himself
counsellor</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> or </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">confessor.
Others contacted him, and he was always ready for conversation. He consulted
with those who were, in the book’s time, on the frontline of the HIV/AIDS
battles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Later, he would grow close to the Conigrave family,
ensuring that they felt comfortable with how he was transforming their son’s
story. Over many years, they gave him their trust, and their love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Through ten years, through many iterations of the
play and as the film found definition and then full life, Tommy has been the
caretaker of this story. I can’t imagine anyone else possessing better qualities
for the task. Tommy has the generational distance </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6666669845581px;">–</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> probably a telling factor </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6666669845581px;">–</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> but also the right mix of humour, sensitivity and hunger for living. Tommy rejects the sentimental in his life and in his art, and this has been critical for a sure sheparding of this story. All along the way, he has shown an open heart, enormous
generosity and a genuine love and respect for his two subjects. Oh, and then there’s the enormous
talent. We have much to thank him for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Of
course, many others have been champions. Tony Ayres, who befriend Tim towards
the end of his life, has been a constant and kind advocate. Cameron Huang, who
saw the play and immediately had a vision for a film, has been the angel
investor without whom a film would have been unlikely. Rosemary Blight and Kylie
du Fresne of Goalpost Pictures, who saw early on the role this story could play
on film, have driven the enterprise to fruition with heart and clear dedication.
Neil Armfield, who directed the fine film, has contributed his trademark eye for
human detail. And of course Anna Davison, Tim’s sister and now literary
executor, has been the astute and generous gatekeeper ever since Tommy and I first made
contact with her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">All of these people have played full parts.
But Sophie, Nick and Tommy are the three who have enabled this story to flow freely
into the world. Without them, and their very particular qualities, there would
not be a memoir, a play or a film. Without them, this story of two adoring men,
held back from holding each other, would not be on our bookshelves or in our
hearts. Without them, the world would be a little less informed, a little less empathetic,
and a little less loving. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-31411712155241696632015-08-18T22:27:00.000+10:002015-08-19T09:33:27.797+10:00Hansel and Gretel in BrisbaneWhat a fabulous night.<br />
<br />
I'm just back from Humperdinck's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansel_and_Gretel_%28opera%29#cite_note-2" target="_blank"><i>Hansel and Gretel</i></a>, a student production at the <a href="http://www.conevents.com.au/hansel-gretel/" target="_blank">Queensland Conservatorium</a>, directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gow" target="_blank">Michael Gow</a> and conducted by <a href="https://qso.com.au/musicians/orchestra/conductor-laureate" target="_blank">Johannes Fritzsch</a>. How blessed
these students are to be working on this glorious score with two great
artists. And the design by recent NIDA grad Charles Davis is worthy of
any opera house. Great to see the Con devoting significant resources to
what must be a priceless learning experience f<span class="text_exposed_show">or the students involved, in the pit and on the stage. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
I love this opera. I've known every note for 25 years, and it's a score
that keeps on giving. It's a miraculous synthesis of German folkiness
and Wagnerian complexity. Humperdinck was a student of Wagner's - he
assisted at the premiere of <i>Parsifal</i>, and even wrote a bar or two for a
tricky scene transition. <i>Hansel and Gretel</i>, completed in 1893, with a
libretto by his sister who urged on the project, is full of Wagner -
the climaxes, leitmotifs, and thick chromaticisms. Richard Strauss conducted the premiere in Weimar, then Mahler conducted the Hamburg premiere in the following year. Not bad. Within a year of its premiere, the opera had been performed in more than 70 theatres.<br />
<br />
The dramatic construction is immaculate. It flows beautifully, while
allowing for some great set pieces. But it's an incredibly difficult
sing - the father in this story needs to be pretty much Wotan - and it
doesn't give up.<br />
<br />
This production delivers. Sure, student singers cannot ever be expected
to deliver the full goods with a score like this, but they do a mighty
job, singing their hearts out across a big orchestra, and clearly
relishing every moment. This story of hunger, kidnapping, cannibalism
and witch burning seems right up their alley.<br />
<br />
Go see it. You have until Friday.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ixOMad7CrtQ/VdMkDfscRjI/AAAAAAAAAoU/V-W7GO6XW34/s1600/Hansel_Gretel_15_event.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ixOMad7CrtQ/VdMkDfscRjI/AAAAAAAAAoU/V-W7GO6XW34/s640/Hansel_Gretel_15_event.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-82450451655943805672015-07-31T16:47:00.001+10:002015-07-31T16:49:21.388+10:00On the Occasion of La Boite's 90th Birthday<style>
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</style><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Today is the
90th birthday of <a href="http://www.laboite.com.au/" target="_blank">La Boite Theatre Company,</a> making it, perhaps, Australia’s oldest continuously
running theatre company. I’m really looking forward to <a href="http://www.laboite.com.au/cms/page.asp?ID=267" target="_blank">tonight’s big birthday bash.</a></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sv_6Cu7cc28/VbsZxKeCkcI/AAAAAAAAAnY/RnJJxalPq7g/s1600/LAB_90_Bday_Ball_15_event.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sv_6Cu7cc28/VbsZxKeCkcI/AAAAAAAAAnY/RnJJxalPq7g/s640/LAB_90_Bday_Ball_15_event.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">On this day
in 1925, the first show was staged: a one-night season of A. A. Milne’s comedy <i>The Dover Road</i> at the Theatre Royal in Elizabeth Street. The following day
The Brisbane Courier raved: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Nothing was
left to chance. The cast was admirably chosen, and the large audience was held
by the splendid acting f<span class="textexposedshow">or two hours and
three-quarters. The players, one and all, rose to the occasion, and satisfied
the sceptics that the repertory movement in Brisbane has come to stay; it will
grow from strength to strength; it will enlarge the communal mind, and prove a
great and joyous power in our cultural life.”</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I love that
last stretch: “it will enlarge the communal mind and prove a great and joyous
power in our cultural life.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It’s quite
confronting to lead a theatre company, as I did La Boite between the end of
2008 and the middle of 2014. What do I really believe in? What do I think is
good theatre? Who will I champion? What changes need to be made? How can I best
enlarge the communal mind? </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It’s a
phrase that sticks.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I’m honoured
to be part of the huge La Boite clan, and particularly of its family of
artistic directors. I hope I played a useful part, as many have, in enabling
the company to enlarge the communal mind. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Long may she
continue to be "a great and joyous power in our cultural life”, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">a theatre </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">that invigorates our minds, stirs our
emotions and inspires our better natures, a theatre that enthrals, enlivens and
entertains, a theatre of daring, dash, and distinction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-65351188393339058382015-07-29T18:19:00.001+10:002015-08-02T07:54:42.399+10:00Arts, Politics and Brisbane Festival<h6>
<b></b></h6>
Politics and the arts are family. Both are concerned with the affairs of the people. Whenever anyone questions an accepted reality, it
becomes a political act – and many people do that most days, whether
they think of themselves as artists or political or not. Ai Weiwei, the Chinese
artist and vocal critic of his government, goes further: “Everything is
art. Everything is politics." <br />
<br />
It’s
easiest to see this in the extreme. The success of any revolution
depends on a rupture with the past. In February this year, ISIS burned
100,000 books in the central library of Iraq’s second largest city,
Mosul. UNESCO called it “one of the most devastating acts of destruction
of library collections in human history."<br />
<br />
Look at any revolution –
French, Boshevik, Chinese and so on – and you’ll find a similar
pattern. As Orwell reminded us, “he who controls the past controls the
future. He who controls the present controls the past.”<br />
<br />
Wars against a people always go hand in hand with a war against culture.<br />
<br />
The
CIA believed that the arts could win a war. During the Cold War, it
financed and assured the success of the American abstract expressionist
movement as a weapon against the Soviet Union. Its Congress for Cultural
Freedom had offices in 35 countries, published around 30 prestige
magazines, and held large exhibitions and international conferences. Its
mission was to encourage the intelligentsia of Western Europe away from
a lingering fascination with Communism. Artists such as Jackson
Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko were held
up as exponents of what Rockefeller called ‘free enterprise painting’.<br />
<br />
The
Brisbane Festival is not attempting to win a war, but it does have a
political energy this year, one that tries to help us make some sense of
how the world is – a natural role of art. It’s possible to follow
themes of race, colonialism and discrimination through the three weeks
of the festival, and to discover things we might not have known.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XrunMhgY_qk/VbHZXP3IRMI/AAAAAAAAAmw/RFzFc2Yc37w/s1600/Brett%2BBailey%2BMacbeth%2B2%2BDR%2BOpe%25CC%2581ra%2Bde%2BRotterdam.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XrunMhgY_qk/VbHZXP3IRMI/AAAAAAAAAmw/RFzFc2Yc37w/s400/Brett%2BBailey%2BMacbeth%2B2%2BDR%2BOpe%25CC%2581ra%2Bde%2BRotterdam.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Macbeth</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>The
West has a big blind spot when it comes to the Democratic Republic of
the Congo. When King Leopold II of Belgium made this country his private
property between 1885 and 1908, ten million people were killed, perhaps
half the population. Largely forgotten. In the recent civil wars,
around six million lives have been lost: the deadliest conflict since
World War II. Largely ignored.<br />
<br />
You know that smart phone in your
pocket? It couldn’t work without a mineral called Coltan. 80% of the
world's supply is in the Congo. Your phone might have blood on it.<br />
<br />
This nation, the size of Western Europe, in the very heart of Africa, in the cradle of all humanity, should be front-page news.<span data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" style="color: blue;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" style="color: blue;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/experience-brisbane-festival/congo-connections" data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/experience-brisbane-festival/congo-connections" style="color: blue;">We’ve gathered four spirited productions</a></span>
– all exclusive to Brisbane – and we hope that they will help open our
eyes to the power, politics and, perhaps above all, the vivacious
personality of this utterly unique nation.<br />
<br />
Do black lives matter?
#BlackLivesMatter is all over Twitter in the United States. From
Ferguson to Baltimore, police killings of unarmed black men in
questionable circumstances have sparked widespread social revolt. The
story is not going away. Race is America’s weeping sore.<br />
<br />
In such circumstances, sometimes new languages are required. <span data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" style="color: blue;"><i><a data-mce-href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/flexn" data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/flexn" style="color: blue;">FLEXN</a></i></span>
unveils a brand new dance form – flex. This show features 15
African American dancers from Brooklyn – the pioneers of flex. It’s a
jaw-dropping show, developed late last year just as juries decided not
to indict the police officers who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson and
Eric Garner in New York, and made with the collaboration of perhaps the
greatest living American theatre and opera director, <a href="http://www.polarmusicprize.org/laureates/peter-sellars/press-material/" target="_blank">Peter Sellars</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="alignnone" data-mce-selected="1" data-mce-src="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/media/1861/hero_flex_web_banner.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&quality=90&width=1920&format=jpg&slimmage=true&rnd=130801555720000000" src="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/media/1861/hero_flex_web_banner.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&quality=90&width=1920&format=jpg&slimmage=true&rnd=130801555720000000" height="126" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Flexn</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It should be clear that the story of <i>FLEXN </i>resonates
deeply with the Australian story. Indigenous Australians represent just
3% of the total population, yet make up more than 28% of the prison
population. We have our own weeping sore.<span data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" style="color: blue;"><i> </i></span><br />
<br />
<span data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" style="color: blue;"><i><a data-mce-href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/beautiful-one-day" data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/beautiful-one-day" style="color: blue;">Beautiful One Day</a></i></span>
takes us to Queensland’s Palm Island where Cameron Doomadgee died in
dubious circumstances while in police custody. Riots ensued and the
Premier declared a state of emergency. This story is also not going away
– a class action is due to be brought by the residents of Palm Island
against the State of Queensland in the Federal Court this September.<i> </i><br />
<br />
<i>Beautiful One </i>Day
is a gripping account of what happened, and what didn’t. Three of its
performers are Palm Islanders, including Doomadgee’s niece. In the week
before it plays at Brisbane Festival it will play for the first time on
Palm Island itself. It will arrive to us charged, and will play side by
side with <i>FLEXN</i> – a profoundly powerful double.<br />
<br />
While the
Congo is one of the largest and poorest nations in the world Singapore
is one of the smallest and richest. We’ve made a collection of five or
six shows that offer snapshots of a neighbour nation which this year
marked the death of Lee Kuan Yew and celebrates 50 years of
independence.<br />
<br />
One of those shows is Oscar Wilde’s <span data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" style="color: blue;"><i><a data-mce-href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/the-importance-of-being-earnest" data-mce-style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/the-importance-of-being-earnest" style="color: blue;">The Importance of Being Earnest</a></i></span>. It’s produced by what <i>Lonely Planet</i>
called Singapore’s sexiest theatre company – W!LD RICE. This is an
all-male production – though NOT in drag – and through endless laughter
it manages to call up questions of identity and sexuality – particularly
potent questions in a nation where homosexuality remains illegal. It’s
the same law, inherited from the English, under which Wilde was famously
gaoled.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="alignnone" data-mce-selected="1" data-mce-src="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/media/1945/hero_2_the_importance_of_being_earnest_web_banner.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&quality=90&width=1920&format=jpg&slimmage=true&rnd=130801555670000000" src="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/media/1945/hero_2_the_importance_of_being_earnest_web_banner.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&quality=90&width=1920&format=jpg&slimmage=true&rnd=130801555670000000" height="126" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Importance of Being Earnest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I enjoy the way things connect and accumulate in this
festival. I think it’s what an international arts festival can do best.
If you look closely, you’ll even see shapes in the fun stuff. For me,
there’s not much distinction between the meaty and the merry.<br />
<br />
At
each of the almost 500 performances of almost 80 shows, springing from
five continents, I hope that the boundaries between artists and audience
will dissolve, and that together we will see that questions can have
more than one answer and that neither words nor numbers can exhaust what
we can know. I hope that spirits and appetites will be lifted beyond
the drum and dust of daily life. I hope that these shows will both
brighten and enlighten.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-60449105822319259152015-07-23T23:43:00.003+10:002019-10-13T11:49:47.512+10:00On Dealing with Doubt: QUT Graduation Ceremony Commencement Address<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Today I gave the Commencement Address at the graduation ceremony for the Creative Industries Faculty of the Queensland University of Technology, held in the Concert Hall of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Here is what I said:</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I really don’t know why I’m here.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I think you've been fooled into thinking I'd have something interesting
to say.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But no.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I’m a fraud.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Standing here, I remember my late friend Nick Enright. He was a great
Australian theatre artist. As a playwright he gave us a few classics – <i>A
Property of the Clan, Blackrock, Good Works</i> and an adaptation of <i>Cloudstreet</i>.
As a librettist for musicals he gave us <i>The Boy from Oz </i>and <i>The
Venetian Twins</i>. As an acting teacher at NIDA he taught Mel Gibson and Judy
Davis and a raft of other big names. He was loved, and a great mentor to many.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for George
Miller’s film <i>Lorenzo’s Oil</i>. Nick and I spent a lot of time
together during this period. After his nomination – he lost to Neil Jordan for <i>The
Crying Game</i> – Nick was inundated with Hollywood film offers. I
remember Nick taking calls from Steven Spielberg. His house in Sydney's Newtown
was full of scripts commissioned by American studios. He was being paid a lot
of money.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">At the height of this success, Nick turned to me and said, "One day
they’re all going to wake up and realise I’m a fraud."<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We all have moments like this. We hold our secret doubts and put a
confident face to the world. When I was appointed Artistic Director of Brisbane
Festival, I secretly thought to myself: "Well, I guess I fooled some more
people. One day they’ll realise."<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In the darkest of these times, in those moments when doubt gnaws like a
sewer rat, I comfort myself by remembering that more talented people than me
have these same feelings.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It was Robert Hughes, perhaps the world’s greatest art critic, who said:
“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is given to
the less talented as a consolation prize."<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">You will feel doubt more and more. There’s really no way around that.
Away from the comfort of the finite world in which you’ve lived and created
over the last few years, the world will conspire to make you think yourself a
fraud. You will say to the world, "I am not yet being recognised for my
talent", but secretly you will doubt you have talent at all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I do.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But remember this. You're not a fraud; you’re simply human. Doubt is
normal, and it is important. It keeps us honest. It makes us question. It makes
us strive. It is not something to be avoided. It is something to manage.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">How might we deal with doubt?<o:p></o:p><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><b>First tip? Just do it.</b><o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Doubt can get a footing when we dwell too long on a single project. I
see this in playwrights all the time: chipping away, for years, on one play,
circling into a dramaturgical hell.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">My advice? Forget it – move on to your next play.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As Sturgeon’s Law has it, 90% of everything is crap. And when you’re
deep into something, it’s hard to know if it’s crap. But the chances are good.
As Henry Ford, one of history's great entrepreneurs, said: "I know only
half of my advertising works. I just don't know which half." He was aware
that at least 50% of his marketing was ... well ... crap.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There’s a telling exchange in Voltaire’s <i>Candide </i>that
goes like this:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">'How many plays have been written in France?' Candide asked the Abbé.</span><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">'Five or six thousand.'</span><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">'That's a lot,' said Candide. 'How many of them are good?'</span><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">'Fifteen or sixteen,' replied the Abbé.</span><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">'That's a lot,' said Martin.</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I know a young artist named Jake Connor Moss. He just turned 21. I’ve
never come across anyone like him. Last month, I helped launch his first
exhibition at a gallery in Paddington. What was launched? Three walls of
paintings, three walls of photographs, a novel, a memoir, a book of poems and
three feature films.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">This was a fraction
of his output. Jake set himself the task of making a painting a day for
something like a year. Through all that - and while studying for a few
degrees - he wrote endless poems, took thousands of photographs, wrote a
200-page memoir of his school days and a 200-page novel, made the films and so
on and so on.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Do you know what?
Amongst the crap Jake churns out, there’s good stuff. One of the photographs I
saw on the gallery wall was breathtakingly beautiful. A handful of his poems
are cut-glass gems. One of his paintings was so good I wanted to buy it, but I
was beaten to it. I don’t know if Jake will ever be a great artist, but I do
know that his creative muscles are match fit. I know that he has vastly
increased his chances of making something that isn’t crap and might just be
gold.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">And I know that
Jake has no time for doubt. He’s too busy doing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As Andy Warhol put
it, “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else
decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While
they're deciding, make even more art.”<b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><b>A second tip? Develop a hinterland.</b><o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The most interesting people in the world have a rich hinterland. What’s
a hinterland? It’s that place on the outskirts of your life where the
intellectual pursuits outside of your career thrive. The back paddock of ideas
and influences that make us fuller.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I know a surgeon who reads old Italian poetry – it reminds him that his
patients are people with deep histories.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I know an urban planner who reads Stephen Jay Gould – he finds that it
opens his mind to new ways of thinking.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">When he was Prime Minister Paul Keating used to listen to Mahler or
Bartok symphonies when he was reading cabinet papers at the Lodge. He said it
made him think bigger.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It’s too easy to get trapped in the small circle of our work, caught in
a cycle of tasks and deadlines and conferences. Our work might be interesting
and important, but the world is always bigger, and it is ready to give up its
gifts. A rich hinterland makes our doctors more empathetic, our teachers more
exciting, our politicians more human and our scientists more creative.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">And it will make you better at what you do.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So be curious, for curiosity is doubt's principal enemy. Cultivate a
hinterland. Plant it lovingly, and don’t let it go to seed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Without it, your spirit might starve and you will be, well, just a bit boring.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But if you have a rich hinterland, you’ll always have somewhere nurturing to go
when doubt wants to imprison you.<o:p></o:p></span><b><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">A third tip? Look outward to your audience.</span></b><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It’s likely you’ve been looking inward these past few years. Focused on
your subject and on impressing your teachers and peers. Now it’s time to look
to your audience. To the public.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Now, I don’t mean that you should just give people what they want, that
you should simply be driven by market demand. That’s deadening.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I mean that art is a dialogue, not a monologue. I mean that people will
look to your creative gifts for their own nourishment and that there is a kind
of human obligation to provide it. How often have you visited a theatre or
gallery and been frustrated or (worse) bored because the artists have not been
clear and have been only interested, you suspect, in talking to themselves?<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Creating a dialogue means sharing a story. What is your story? How
clearly are you telling it?<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I think this is really important, because I think people are now craving
story. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I sense that the world can now feel so fragmented,
so uncertain, so breathtakingly full of a million unconnected things all
available with the touch of a screen, that we need stories even more. We need
their structure and form to help us make sense of things.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Think about it. We spend a phenomenal amount of our
daily lives with stories – telling them, listening to them, reading them,
watching them being acted out on Netflix or on TV, or sharing them on Facebook
or Twitter. The news is presented in the form of stories. “Today, a man was
caught…” Much of our conversation is taken up recounting the events of everyday
life in the form of stories. "How was your day?" "Well, let me
tell you…" As small children, we have no sooner learned to speak than we
begin demanding to be told stories.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The need for story is part of our DNA. We're
hard-wired that way. Neurological studies tell us that the same part of
the human brain that recognises the self is also responsible for inventing
narrative.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What is your story? If your story is rich and
clearly told to your audience</span><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">, if there is dialogue and not monologue, then that audience will be
your support when doubt wants you lonely.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I envy you. You are going out into the world, as creators, at a time when
anything seems possible. The internet is still a baby. Sharing is a new
currency. We share every day on social media, and more and more we live in a
share economy. This is a world ready for a conversation. A conversation with
you.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I’m reminded that at the beginning of the Vietnam peace talks in Paris
in the ‘70s, they spent the first two years arguing over the shape of the
table. What shape would permit all parties to sit down so that everyone could
feel they were being heard?</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In this wondrous new age, with New Horizons past Pluto and the
world shifting from west to east and from north to south, your generation will
determine the shape of the table. You will create the space that will help
bring the wildly disparate elements of our society together. Your story, and
how you share it, will help people feel included. Your careers, and the
hinterlands that nourish them, will help us all understand more about what it
is to live in this world at this time.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">You have in your hands something the world needs.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So now is the time to deal with doubt, the time to
be brave, the time to share your story and </span><span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">to release the power, beauty, grandeur, courage and
danger that is present in the creative act. This is the time to go forth and to
create a more substantive, more sharing world. A world not of doubt, but of
hope; not of terror, but of beauty; not of apathy, but of empathy.<o:p></o:p> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Your world. Go forth. Make it. </span><br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761184526447261045.post-76525898907055312422015-06-30T21:16:00.000+10:002015-07-01T19:47:35.525+10:00The Great Forgetting - Brisbane Festival and the Congo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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--></style><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Democratic Republic of Congo sits in the very heart of Africa</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, in the cradle of all humanity</span>. It is the size of Western Europe with a population of 75 million. It has an astonishing history. But what do we know about it?</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Arts festivals are made for illumination. In September this year, <a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/" target="_blank">Brisbane Festival</a> offers <a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/experience-brisbane-festival/congo-connections" target="_blank">a series of brilliant works</a> from or about the Congo. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Why shine a light here? Because the Congo has helped form the history of the world.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In more
ways than you might think…</span>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Congo's Curse</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Congo is blessed with more natural resources than almost any other country on
the planet. <span class="st">A Congolese legend has it that<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">God</span></i><span class="st"><i>, </i></span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">tired after creating the world, stopped at this part
of the earth and dropped all his sacks of riches. And these riches have helped
make the world as we know it. </span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When the
world needed rubber for the tyres of the newly invented motorcar, the Congo was
there with half the world’s known supplies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When the
world needed copper to feed its need for electricity and industrial expansion,
the Congo was there with the world’s largest supply. This same copper formed
the bullets that won World War I. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When the world
needed tin for the conductors used in almost every electrical circuit, the
Congo provided. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When two
atomic bombs dropped on Japan to finally end World War II, the uranium came
from the Congo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That smart
phone in your pocket? It couldn’t work without a mineral known as coltan. And
yes, you guessed it, 80% of the world's supply is in the Congo.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The world has benefitted
hugely from the Congo, but not always honourably.</span></b><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
1924 Joseph Conrad, author of <i>Heart of Darkness</i>, set in the Congo,
called this reaping of resources the ‘vilest scramble for loot that ever
disfigured the history of human conscience’. He didn’t see half of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is
Congo’s curse. This nation, home to so many natural treasures, should be one of the
richest on the planet. But it is the poorest. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Congo,
in helping to make the world, has been consumed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Great Forgetting</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When King
Leopold II of Belgium made this country his private property between</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1885 and 1908, he sent much of the population
into forced labour – slavery – in order to better plunder the rubber for tyres.
His private army cut off the limbs,</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and
sometimes heads, of slaves to enforce the quotas that would make him an immense
fortune. During this ‘red rubber’ period, ten million people were killed,
perhaps half the population.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And Leopold
never once set foot in the Congo. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is one of
the </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">great atrocities of the 20th century, and is now largely
forgotten.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Following
Belgian colonial rule through to 1960, and then the dictatorship of Mobutu who </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">snatched 40% of Congo’s wealth for his personal use through to 1997</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, civil wars broke out. These wars, triggered
by the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, have caused unfathomable poverty, pain,
sickness and death. 54% of the population have no access to clean drinking
water. Only 4% have electricity. 30% are illiterate. Life expectancy is 48.
There is unspeakable and unchecked sexual violence, a means of</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">traumatising not only women and girls, but
whole families and villages – a weapon of war. The United Nations has called
the Congo the 'rape capital of the world'. The death toll is staggering –
around six million have died, half under the age of five.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The ‘Great War of Africa’ is the deadliest
conflict since World War II, and is largely ignored. </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Why isn’t this front-page news?</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The thing
is, the situation in the Congo now is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">just
too complex</b> for us. Our media can’t tell the story in a clear overarching
narrative, so largely don’t bother. There is no Hitler or Pol Pot. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Capitalism
isn't fighting communism. Sunnis aren’t fighting Shiites, or Kurds fighting
Turks</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. How do you talk about a war involving maybe 30 different rebel groups and the armies of nine countries,
yet does not seem to have a clear cause? It is an uncinematic war. A war of
ragged edges</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Even more
insidiously, it’s probably best for business if conflict continues. During the
slave trade, chaos was deliberately created in the Congo so that slaves could
be more easily harvested. In our time, rebel militias, neighbouring nations and
complicit multinational corporations prefer a cash-in-suitcase economy to one that
is taxed and regulated. It’s no accident that combat, even now, sometimes
shifts location with the rise and fall of commodity prices. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Congo at Brisbane Festival</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Brisbane has
a large and lively African community. The annual <a href="http://www.qacc.com.au/africadayfestival/" target="_blank">Africa Day Festival</a> alone
draws over 7,000 people in a daylong celebration of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">African art,
clothing, dance, music and food. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Congolese community is a significant part of that wider African presence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It seems
only natural that Brisbane Festival should offer a fresh dimension to this
growing part of the city’s personality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Four Festival works, across all art forms,
draw attention to the Congolese and their history, arts and humour. </span></b><a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/coup-fatal" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Coup
Fatal</span></i></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/coup-fatal" target="_blank"> </a>glows with a generosity of
spirit – it is said that Kinshasa IS music, and this show proves it. <a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/macbeth" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Macbeth</i></a> comes from South Africa but is
set in the Congo and speaks directly to the battle over mineral resources: the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Macbeth</i> of Shakespeare and Verdi proves
a magnificently illuminating metaphor. In <a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/le-cargo" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le Cargo</i></a>, Faustin Linyekula writes a history of the Congo with his body and
his conversation with us is heartrending in its honesty and warmth. <a href="http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/prize-fighter-1" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prize Fighter</i></a> tells a staggering story
from a Brisbane perspective. </span>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jsdYdiLHUxs/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jsdYdiLHUxs?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Coup Fatal</i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These four shows are terrific nights in the
theatre.</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> But I hope
they offer more. I hope they inspire empathy, kindle curiosity and encourage
action. The Congo has provided much to us all, to its incalculable cost, and
now I hope that Brisbane Festival audiences will discover just a little of the richly
creative and resilient spirit of this remarkable nation.</span></div>
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