Welcome to our May newsletter! After a short break in April, we are back with our monthly author interviews – this month, we got to talk with playwright Noëlle Janaczewska. Also in this issue: All about our new titles, highlights at ASSITEJ 2008 and the Sydney Writers’ Festival, special offers and competitions, news and awards and – as always – the latest on what’s happening on stage. Enjoy!

Noëlle Janaczewska is a multi-award winning Sydney-based writer whose plays, libretti and radio scripts have been performed, broadcast and published throughout Australia and overseas.

We talked to her about her plays Songket and This Territory, about what it means to be Australian and if the Australia we see on stage fairly represents the Australia we see in the streets. To read the interview, click here.

Songket / This Territory

Noëlle Janaczewska

Two new plays by Noëlle Janaczewska:
Songket is about different cultural notions of love and how the law does, or doesn’t, accommodate cultural diversity.

‘A beautiful and thought-provoking new play . . . this is a major new work by one of our best writers.’ The Australian

This Territory was developed in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots and centres on a violent incident witnessed by a large group of young people. In trying to get the story straight, the characters start to navigate relationships across the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, education and prejudice. They are Australia – a hotbed of cultures, and they are on fire.

Songket / This Territory will be available later this month. For more information and to pre-order your copy, visit our website.
 

Toy Symphony

Michael Gow

Michael Gow’s first full-length play in a decade is a dazzling tour-de-force of theatrical invention.

Roland Henning has writer’s block. When he tries to explain the situation to a therapist, his story begins to tumble back and forth between his childhood in The Shire and his work as a playwright.

Toy Symphony is a wrestle between the vicious bastardry of being an artist and the sheer exhilaration of the creative act.

‘Michael Gow’s Toy Symphony is rich and exhilarating.’ Bryce Hallett, SMH

Winner of the 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards for best New Australian Work.
For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
 

The Great

Tony McNamara

Russian History...? Well no, not exactly.

The Great is Tony McNamara’s distinctive comic take on the rise and reign of Catherine the Great of Russia. It is at once a coming of age story, a family drama and a wild satire on power.

The Great is the second title in Currency’s new STC imprint and will be available in time for the production, opening 31 May. Check our Special Offers section for an exclusive ticket offer, courtesy of Sydney Theatre Company.

For more information on the script and to pre-order your copy, visit our website.
 

Beautiful Words

Sean Riley

An epic chronicle of the refugee experience, Beautiful Words weaves together three very different stories of survival, told through the eyes of three children in different times and places.

Over three hours, with some 20 characters, Beautiful Words tells an engaging story with poignant comedy and unashamed feeling.

For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
 

FROM OUR AGENCIES

NICK HERN BOOKS

Fast Labour

Steve Waters

A ruthless illegal immigrant rises to the top in a play exposing the underbelly of the labour market.

Premiered in Leeds then Hampstead, Fast Labour is an epic play charting the rise and rise of a charismatic tough guy through the murky underworld of contract labour.

Fast Labour will be available in Australia late May. For more information and to pre-order your copy, visit our website.

Jonah and Otto

Robert Holman

Otto, 62, and Jonah, 26, meet on the South Coast near Beachy Head. Otto is a clergyman but also a serial adulterer. Jonah is an epileptic and an itinerant magician. He has his baby daughter with him in a shopping trolley. Initially hostile to each other, Jonah and Otto begin to develop a strange, shy intimacy in the course of which each reveals more than they even know themselves...

For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.
 

OBERON BOOKS

Actors Speaking

Lyn Haill (Editor)

In 1986, Peter Gill, the then director of the National Theatre Studio, sent a group of young actors to interview their seniors about speaking on stage. The transcripts provide fascinating insights into the theatre of the past, but they also show how little has changed: the actor’s primary tools are still the body and voice.

Actors interviewed include Harry Andrews, Alec Guinness, Rex Harrison, Robert Stephens and Margaret Tyzack, with notes from John Gielgud. Peter Gill provides an introduction.

For more information and to order your copy, visit our website.

 

Theatre as Witness: Three Testimonial Plays from South Africa

Yael Farber

‘These texts are three flames that burn in the darkness of silence and may speak for countless South Africans whose stories will never be told.’ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The horrors of Apartheid inspired South African theatre artists to share their stories with the world. Johannesburg-born playwright and director Yael Farber has been at the forefront of this theatrical movement, earning an international reputation for powerful works that articulate the experiences of ordinary South Africans.

Featuring: A Woman in Waiting, Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise and He Left Quietly.

Theatre as Witness will be available in Australia end of May. For more information and to pre-order your copy, visit our website.

 

The festival season has begun and first in line are ASSITEJ 2008 and the Sydney Writers’ Festival:

Adelaide is host of ASSITEJ 2008, the 16th World Congress and Performing Arts Festival for Young People.
From 9-18 May, ASSITEJ celebrates theatre for children and young people made by artists from across the globe. Join hundreds of national and international guests from around the world, along with thousands of children and young South Australians. Aside from the Festival program, ASSITEJ registered delegates can participate in a diverse variety of professional forums, workshops and industry events. For the full program, visit http://www.assitej2008.com.au.

A production of Angela Betzien’s Hoods is part of the program so if you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you don’t miss it. Sunday, 11 May at 1pm and 5pm and Monday, 12 May at 10:30am and 1:15pm.

There is also a production of Angela’s latest work, Girl Who Cried Wolf. Inspired by media reports involving the story of a girl who faked her own abduction, Girl Who Cried Wolf examines the cult of celebrity and the machinations of the school playground hierarchy. Sunday 11 May at 7.00pm; Monday 12 May and Tuesday 13 May at 10.15am and 1.00pm.

Playwright Slams at ASSITEJ. Based on an American model, the Playwright Slams feature live readings by playwrights in a relaxed, cabaret setting. Angela Betzien will be reading on Sunday 11 May at 8.30pm along with Vicky Ireland from the UK who has adapted three of Jacqueline Wilson’s books (the most borrowed author from UK libraries): Bad Girls, The Lottie Project and Midnight. To purchase copies go to our website.

Debra Oswald will be reading on Tuesday 13 May at 8.30pm.

SYDNEY WRITERS’ FESTIVAL is opening its doors from 19-25 May. Below, we have picked a few performing arts related highlights from this year’s program.

Currency authors at SWF
Gail Jones, author of the Australian Screen Classics title The Piano, will appear three times at the festival:

Event 46: 21 May 6.30-7.30pm: Writers as Readers at Riverside Theatres, Lennox Theatre, Cnr Church and Market Streets, Parramatta

Event 64: 22 May 11.30am-12.30pm: Just Words: Australian Authors Writing for Justice at Sydney Dance Company, Studio 2/3, Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay

Event 247: 24 May 3.30-4.30pm: Michelle de Kretser in conversation with Gail Jones at Pier 2/3 Downstairs, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Bookings 9250 1988 or www.sydneytheatre.org.au

Tommy Murphy has won multiple awards for his play Strangers in Between and for the stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s memoir Holding the Man. He will hold a workshop in playwriting and will participate in a discussion on stage adaptations.

Event 6: Workshop: 18 May 9.30am-12.30pm: Dramatic Action – an introduction to writing for the stage with Tommy Murphy, $80/$70, bookings 9250 1988 or www.sydneytheatre.org.au. Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, Woolley Room, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney

Event 188: 23 May, 6.30-7.30pm: The Art of Adaptation. Luke Davies and Tommy Murphy discuss why they adapted their work, how they did it and whether they would do it again. $15, bookings 9555 9757, NSW Writers’ Centre, Callan Park, Balmain Road, Rozelle

Katherine Thomson will appear at Event 114: 22 May 6.30-8pm: Words and Vision: Foxtel Screenwriters’ Address. Katherine Thomson, multi-award winning writer for stage and screen, presents the inaugural Foxtel Screenwriters’ Address, created to recognise the role the writer plays in shaping our society and culture. $15/$10, bookings 9250 1988, www.sydneytheatre.org.au. Customs House, Barnet Long Room, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay

Other performing arts related events:
Event 323: 25 May 4-5pm: Where’s the Drama in Australian Screenwriting?
Jan Sardi, academy award nominated writer of Shine, thinks Billy Marshall Stoneking may know where it is. They discuss how Australian definitions of cinematic drama, versus the rest of the world’s, impact on audiences.
Sydney Philharmonia Choir Studio, Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay

Event 18: 9 May 6.30-11pm: NSW Premier’s Awards Dinner. $130, bookings 9228 4351. Art Gallery of NSW, the Domain, Sydney. For more information, see our Awards section.

Event 194: 23 May, 7-9pm: Patrick White Playwrights’ Award 2007
$5, bookings 9250 1777, www.sydneytheatre.org.au
Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 2, Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
For more information, check our Awards section.

For the complete program, visit the festival website: www.swf.org.au

The 2007 Patrick White Playwright’s Award will be announced by Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton on Friday, 23 May at 7pm at the Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 2. Followed by a rehearsed reading of the play by STC artists. Nominated are: Wretch by Angus Cerini, The Man in the Attic by Timothy Daly, War Poems by Suzanne Hauser, The Ides of March by Duncan Ley, Bare Witness by Mari Lourey, Concussion by Ross Mueller, Precipice by Catherine Ryan and The Water Carriers by Ian Wilding.
Limited tickets for the event are available from the STC box office:
(02) 9250 1777 or sydneytheatre.com.au

The winners of the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards will be announced on Monday, 19 May at an Awards Dinner at the Art Gallery of NSW. The prizes will be presented by the Minister for the Arts and the Premier of NSW. The guest speaker is Peter Goldsworthy. The nominations for the Play Award are: Alana Valentine for Parramatta Girls, Wesley Enoch for The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table, Debra Oswald for Stories in the Dark and Nicky Bloom for Tender (to be published November 2008).
There will also be a reading from the winning publications as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival on Wednesday, 21 May from 6-7:30pm at The Mint, 10 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

The 2007 Green Room Awards have been announced.
In the category Music Theatre Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical won six prizes, including best Music Theatre Production and Best Costumes. If you’re a fan of the movie, have a look at Al Clark’s production diary The Lavender Bus or read Philip Brophy’s critical essay in our Australian Screen Classics series.
And congratulations to Raimondo Cortese for winning the award for Best Australian Writing for his play Holiday.

To see the full list of winners, click here.

Special Offer: This month, The Great opens at Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 1 theatre. We are delighted to extend this exclusive ticket offer from the Sydney Theatre Company:
Book your tickets for one of the following performances before Friday 23 May and pay only $50 per ticket - Save $27 per ticket! Available dates are Friday 6, 13, 20, 27 June at 8pm, Friday 4, 11 July at 8pm. Call the STC Box Office on (02) 9250 1777 and quote the ‘Great Friday Night’ offer. Please note: tickets are subject to availability, a $7 booking fee per transaction will apply.

Win tickets to Colder: Written by Lachlan Philpott and inspired by actual events, Colder explores the infinite unknowns surrounding missing persons and the fog of purgatory that engulfs those left behind.
Win a double pass to a production of Colder Friday 2 May to Saturday 14 May. Email admin@griffintheatre.com.au include ‘Colder – Currency Press’ in the subject line and your contact details in the email. First email received will win the double pass. For more information on the production, check On Stage.

Special Offer: Darlinghurst Theatre Company offers all Currency newsletter readers concession price tickets to the production of Christopher Johnson's new play La La Land. Pay only $20 to all Tuesday performances and $25 to all other performances. To book, call (02) 8356 9987 and quote ‘Currency offer’. For production details, visit darlinghursttheatre.com.