Playworks 21st Birthday festival 'Invisible boxes' will feature female writers from throughout Australia.
WHEN: Friday 5th to Sunday 7th
WHERE: Drill Hall, 1C New Beach Rd, Rushcutters Bay.
COST: $15 for session tickets
single day tickets $95 (concession available)
Friday opening event $30.
BOOKINGS: (02) 9264 8414
For further information on dates, times, transport and costs, please visit the playworks website on: www.playworks.org.au or info@playworks.org.au
THE PROGRAM
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FRIDAY 5th May
5:30PM THE COLOUR OF GLASS (extract)
Installation by Gabrielle Macdonald
(Short-listed for the Patrick White Award. Writer of "A Short Piece Concerning Bertolt Brecht", Playbox@Malthouse. Her next piece "Debt" plays at La Mama in August.)
6:00PM AURORA CALLING: THE RESULTS OF A JOINT OBSESSION (extract)
by Catherine Ryan
(Co-founder of Castlemaine's Barking Owl Theatre and affiliate writer with the Melbourne Theatre Company.)
6:30PM OFFICIAL LAUNCH
with Music by Helen Moran
Key Note Address: Dr Denise Varney, University of Melbourne, School of Creative Arts
(Co-writer of "The Doll's Revolution", a book that considers the contribution of women writers and directors to the formation of the contemporary Australian mainstream. Denise was recently awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant 2004-6.)
7:00PM VIOLA ENDS
by Sarah Daggar-Nickson
(Written for ABC Radio National, Triple J and the BBC World Service. In London, her writing has been performed at the National Poetry Society, Port Eliot Literary Festival and the Old Red Lion Theatre.)
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SATURDAY 6th May
9:30AM ABC RADIO PLAY
10:30AM MORNING TEA BREAK
11:00AM RENAISSANCE WOMEN (extracts and panel discussion with multi-media performance artists, producers and directors)
Virginia Baxter and Dina Panozzo (MONSTER MOUTH)
(Virginia is Editor of Real Time & previous Artistic Director of Playworks. Dina has acted with Company B, Performance Space, Playbox Theatre & STC. She won the Norman Kessell Memorial award for her performance in Kimberly Akimbo at the Ensemble Theatre.)
Catherine Fargher (THE WOMAN WHO KNITTED HERSELF A CHILD)
(Recipient of the Plaworks Varuna Fellowship 2001. Musician and performer with Urban Theatre Projects and touring artist to US, UK and Australia.)
Leah Mercer (MELANCHOLIA)
(Director and writer at Brisbane Powerhouse, Roundhouse Theatre and Metro Arts. Co-produced "Melancholia" at the Looking Glass Theatre in NYC in 2005.)
Cat Jones (catgURL)
(Previously worked in NY, where she performed with Troika Dance Theatre, Queer Bits 1999 & 2000 for "One Extra Dance", Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and "Divine Divas" at Edinburgh Fringe. Co-Director of Electrofringe, part of This is Not Art in Newcastle.)
1:30PM LUNCH BREAK (CURRENCY PRESS BOOK-STALL)
2:30PM LOOKING LOOKING LOOKING (extract)
by Kathryn Gilbey
(Writer of the Creative Writing curriculum for BIITE, the only Aboriginal written and accredited course in the country. Lecturer at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Alice Springs. Former Director of the Port Youth Theatre Workshop, now called Kurruru.)
3:00PM PROCESS: IN DIALOGUE
panel discussion with leading professional Playwrights Hilary Bell, Alana Valentine, Suzie Miller and Patricia Cornelius
4:30PM THE REAL WORLD (extract)
by Melissa Reeves
(Writer of "The Spook" for Company B - awarded 2005 Louis Esson Prize and two AWGIES for best new play, "Salt Creek Murders" - Wal Cherry Award - and co-writer of "Who's Afraid of the Working Class?" And "Fever".)
5:00PM AFTERNOON TEA BREAK (CURRENCY PRESS BOOK-STALL)
5:30PM DO NOT GO GENTLYS
by Patricia Cornelius
(Founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. Recipient of a Fellowship from the Theatre Board of Australia Council. Writer of over 20 plays including "Love" - Wal Cherry Award - "Fever", "Who's Afraid of the Working Class", "Hogs Hairs and Leeches" (2000 AWGIE) and "Last Drinks".)
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SUNDAY 7th May
9:00AM THE FUTURE OF PLAYWORKS
FREE BYO Breakfast Discussion
10:30AM MORNING TEA BREAK
11:00AM SWEET THING (extract)
by Verity Laughton
(Winner of the Griffin Prize for "Burning" and writer of such plays as "The Lighthouse Keeper" for Mainstreet and Griffin - AWGIE for Community Theatre - and "Gondwana" for the National Museum.)
11:30AM FINAL VERDICT (extract)
by Suzie Miller
(Writer of "Births, Deaths and Marriages" and "Cross Sections", which sold-out at the Old Fitzroy and the Sydney Opera House Studio and was short listed for the Qld Premier's Lit Award. Suzie's new play, "Sold", was selected for the 2005 Theatrelab program.)
12:00AM THE WRITER'S TRIATHALON
panel discussion with long-standing Playwrights and Theatre practitioners Ros Horin, Katherine Thomson and May-Brit Akerholt
1:00PM LUNCH
2:00PM SPIDERWOMAN
by Elizabeth Bennett
(Writer of six radio plays broadcast by the ABC. Current Playwright-in-Residence at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, where she is writing a stage play about women artists, the working title of which is "Dirty Women".)
2:45PM UNSPOKEN (extract)
by Rebecca Clarke
(Winner of the Sydney Theatre Critics Awards for Best Independent Production and Best Newcomer. Highly Commended for the Philip Parson's Playwright Award and short-listed for the upcoming NSW Premier's Lit Awards.)
3:30PM 11.6%
panel discussion with forward-looking Theatre makers and company producers Lyn Wallis, Vanessa Badham, Wendy Blacklock, Chris Mead & Maude Davey
5:00PM AFTERNOON TEA
5:30PM THE SEX ACT (extract)
by Alana Valentine
(Writer of "Run Rabbit Run" - Company B - "Savage Grace"- Performing Lines tour - and "Row of Tents"- NY Fringe Festival, to name a few. Winner of the Qld Premier Award 2004, Rodney Seaborn Playwrights' Award and an International Fellowship at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. Currently writing for the MTC and Company B.)
6:00PM REDHEADS (extract)
by Noëlle Janaczewska
(A multi-award winning Sydney-based writer whose plays, radio scripts, libretti, fiction and essays have been performed, broadcast and published here and overseas. Plays include "Songket" and "Mrs Petrov's Shoe".)
