Dear Australia – 50 playwrights send postcards to the nation

Sometimes 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.

The 50 stories of ‘Dear Australia’, a project of Playwriting Australia 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

What is happening right now?
What is being revealed about us?
What are we not paying attention to?
What do we want to be to one another?
What do we want our society to look like?
Where do we want to go next?
What is your postcard to Dear Australia?

And off they went.

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.

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 panel discussion from the stage of the Joan Sutherland Theatre. Arts Centre Melbourne helped guide us to the gates.

And on top, Australian Plays published all the monologues. How many will become standards in auditions for years to come?

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 The Age. "Over three nights, Australia's playwrights have shown us a way towards the light," said The Guardian.

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.