End of the Festival Season

Well. For all the craziness of festival season, this blog ended up looking quite neglected. I was too busy having the time of my life interning with the Guardian Culture team, over in Adelaide to cover the Festival. It was intense and wonderful, and – quite honestly – gave me the best festival season of my life.

Their coverage was far and beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed for the arts in this country, and to be part of it was a thrill. If you missed it – or want to relive it – you can catch up on the live blogs for week one and week two; go through the archive here; and read what I wrote about the nature of criticism and The Kreutzer Sonata controversy, a review of What The Body Does Not Remember, and an interview with a company member of Hotel Modern’s Kamp.

On the beautiful new ABC Arts Online website you can also read my reviews of Sylvie Guillem in 3000 Miles Away and Larissa McGowan’s Skeleton, and thoughts about the theatre program in the first ten days of the Festival.

In my other life, I was delighted to see the stunning Symphony of Strange come to life – I couldn’t have asked for a better creative team or a better presentation space, and I am very thankful to Gareth for inviting me in to produce. The show received five stars from The Advertiser and a nomination for Best Dance – so huge congratulations to the team.

There are a few Fringe shows that I should craft my notes into reviews but now the real world is back knocking on my door, to be completely honest I don’t know when you’ll see them. I’ve spent the last two weeks since it all ended in recovery mode: illness has followed illness, all minor but draining. I think it’s just my body’s way of telling me I’m heart-broken about the Festival season leaving us. Or, maybe, that I just need to get more sleep.

Goodbye ’12, Hello ’13

It’s been a bit of a hiatus here on No Plain Jane. I ended the year in what can only be described as theatre overload. I estimate I overdosed by four productions, and perhaps would have been better off bidding the year farewell in November. Nonetheless, three of these productions have reviews in various states of half finish on my trusty computer, so we’ll see if any end up here. Also in progress are the “best of” and “looking forward” posts – stay tuned.

Primarily I’ve been hibernating away the summer, but there are a few places my work has been showing up since last time I wrote here. You can find me writing for ABC Arts Online’s Out & About series, in the current edition of un Magazine, and still with the Adelaide Review. This Fringe, I’m again putting on my producer hat with Melbourne dancer Gareth Hart’s Symphony of Strange.

I’m writing this with my copy of un Magazine by my side, a gorgeous publication with STILL FREE written down the spine. While I think the internet and blogs are incredible platforms for sharing and storing writing, there is still something special about the hard copy: about how it leads you to reading what you mightn’t had otherwise, about the record it keeps, about the cataloging and classifying and curating writing.

In her book Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton describes art magazines as a place where “art is an excuse for words”. And for one reason or a million this is an excuse I love. But what of the future for it? When Alison Croggon wrote of the hanging up of her Theatre Notes hat, I shocked even myself by crying. Alison’s blog shaped the path for me and countless other writers and while for her – and her other writing pursuits – it is clearly a positive choice, it’s hard to see its loss as anything but sad for Australian theatre.

It’s easy in these discussions to get caught up in navel gazing, but what is the future of this crazy career path I’ve chosen for myself? How long can I afford sustain it? How long can the Australian theatre industry afford to not sustainably support it?

I spoke to Chris Drummond of Brink Productions in December for the February Adelaide Review. Talking about arts writing, he spoke about the record of Adelaide theatre being lost: “the critics and then the writers who record the history make the history and Adelaide hasn’t been good at recording the life of productions, where as Sydney and Melbourne are very adept at that.” Of Theatre Notes, he said “I can easily remember a pre-Theatre Notes era. And so it’s not that impossible for that to just go away.”

This isn’t only an issue which can easily effect smaller cities like Adelaide and Perth, but there are the questions of what work is being written about in all cities – are independent companies covered? will we be able to look back on the beginnings of careers? – and, perhaps even more importantly, where is the record of work being created in our regions going to come from?

In this internet age, much work will be written about. But will it be recording a history, or will it just be written for the here and now, for those with $20 or $50 or $100 burning a hole in their pocket, deciding which show to buy a ticket for?

These are the questions I’ll be carrying with me into this new year. I’ll try and keep on asking them, and maybe even answering them. See you in the theatres.

***

For further reading, if you missed it, Jana Perkovic asked some very pertinent questions about the future of Australian arts writing on her blog in an obituary to theatre notes, and perhaps to criticism, and in theatre criticism in australia: what is actually going on?, with some stats. 

Calling Adelaide’s Young and Emerging Arts Writers

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time travelling with my writing this past year, and somehow all of a sudden I have found my writing community existing in Melbourne and Sydney, while my artistic community exists in Adelaide. I think it’s time for us young professional arts writers and critics to really start talking.

Thanks to the support of the SA Writers Centre, I would like to extend this invitation:

Young and emerging arts writers and critics are invited to an informal discussion about arts writing and Adelaide. This meeting is designed for people who are pursuing a professional career in arts writing and/or criticism, and are interested in discussing and analysing the state of arts writing and the arts industry in South Australia, what it means to be a young professional arts writer, future directions for the craft, and the relationship and intersection of arts writers with artists.

The discussion will be at the SA Writers Centre, October 29 6:30pm. Please email me janehoward at ozemail.com.au with any inquires and with your RSVP. I really want this discussion to be free wheeling and driven by all in attendance, but I have some plans up my sleeve and I’d like those interested to get in on the ground floor. Look forward to having you.

90 hours and 137 cakes later

I am back in Adelaide after my whirl-wind trip to Sydney. I saw a few shows (a couple of reviews pending), caught up with some wonderful friends (including two favourite fellow arts writers), and spent over fifty-hours surrounded by cake and feminist performance art.

Over the four days, I asked who gets to call themselves a feminist? and does it matter if young women aren’t feminists?; I thought about the difference between a “cook” and a “chef” (and an “artist”); I interviewed a young show baker and the VP of the young, feminist, CWA, the Perth Belles; and I thought about the state of internet bullying. I summarised the room with 57 Hours, 46 Minutes, 38 Seconds to go; 42 hours, 51 minutes, 40 seconds to go; at the end; and out the other side.

I read-up on my favourite CWA cookbook rules; gave two notes on egg anatomy; linked to My Drunk Kitchen, and instructions for the perfect icing colouring. I documented what I didn’t feel like doing on my worst morning, and pushed through to write the piece I’m proudest of through the whole process.

If you have the time, please check out the whole website. There are hundreds of photos, many more essays from Ianto Ware, and quite the collection of baking-related youtube videos. You can also watch the final cake judging – an incredibly bizarre and regimented set of rule-based judging for a theatre critic to witness.

Thanks to those who followed along the way – we were absolutely blown away by the scale of online engagement. And massive thanks to Brown Council for having me – you can feed me cake and ask me to write about feminism anytime.

Brown Council: Mass Action

This week, I’m off to sunny (please be sunny) Sydney to be a writer in residence with Brown Council‘s Mass Action.

As a part of Performance Space’s Halls for Hire, Brown Council –  Kelly Dolly, Kate Blackmore, Diana Smith, and Fran Barrett - will be spending ninety hours at the CWA in Potts Point baking all 137 recipes in Jam Drops and Marble Cakes. Ianto Ware and I will be the writers in residence, writing about all things feminism, cake, and art.

If you’re in Sydney, you can drop in and see the work Tues 12pm – 3pm, and Wed – Fri 10am – 3pm. There will also be an afternoon tea on the Saturday which is now booked out, but Performance Space has details about the wait list.

You can follow the action and read my and Ianto’s writing at the Mass Action website, or follow along on twitter #BCmassaction

 

Play Me, I’m Yours

 

A short video I made with Brad Halstead and Shane McNeil during the 2011 Come Out Festival, using pianos placed around Adelaide with Play Me, I’m Yours.

 

In Brief: Helpmann Nominations

Leaving alone the East-coast dominance debate for now, or the relative merits of An Officer and A Gentleman, can we look at the bizarrity which is the phenomena of four nominations in the 2012 Helpmann Awards going to dead, white, men for work they created before I was born?

Michael Bennet (1943 – 1987) is nominated for his direction and choreography of his 1975 Off-Broadway (and then Broadway) musical A Chorus Line, which opened in Sydney in 1976.

Tony Tripp (? – 2003) is nominated for his scenic and costume design of Melbourne Theatre Company’s 1988 production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

There are some other shows nominated which were first produced outside of the cut-off period (such as Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer and Boats), but these works are still of the contemporary repertoire, nominated now because they have only just reached the levels of touring success it takes to have a small show noticed. And yes, both A Chorus Line and The Importance of Being Earnest  were both remounted in the last year. But the works – and the artists – are of an entirely different era. Why are they nominated in a contemporary ceremony?

On another note, if the local media coverage of the Olympics have taught us anything it is: being nominated counts for nothing. Whoever doesn’t win at the Helpmann Awards, looses. They’re probably a disgrace. But on the upside, they clearly deserve more funding.

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Winter hibernations

Apologies for the silence around here. I’ve been in a state of hibernation the past few weeks and Adelaide’s also been quiet on the theatre front which, of course, doesn’t help matters much for this blog. I saw a handful of shows in the Cabaret Festival, but I find that genre has its own particular challenges when it comes to reviewing, and with a confluence of factors I never quite got around to writing about any. I’ve got a few projects I’m working on at the moment – both blog and non-blog related, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the habit of posting on here a bit more.

Some links from me: A few reviews of Next Wave have been posted on RealTime – the Day Pass and an overview of a few works. A piece in the current Adelaide Review on the lack of rehearsal space in Adelaide. From way back when, the audio of the panel on criticism I did at the AFC, from which I quite possibly disagree with everything I said. Saying things out loud and having to rethink over that really forces you to question your thoughts.

A quick note: Actors’ Equity in the UK has sent a letter to 43 subsidised theatre companies questioning their lack of employment of female actors. I think this is exactly the sort of action which needs to be happening across the sector: change is entirely an action of people drawing things to attention and making questions heard. I don’t, however, agree, with playwright Stella Duffy saying we need to avoid male-dominated plays [UPDATE: Her full argument is here, and much broader than the Guardian's summary]. Perhaps there is something to be said about making more of an effort to see plays where women take a central role, but the fact I want to see more women represented in theatre doesn’t take away from the fact that their are many brilliant plays which are male dominated. Looking at theatre seasons in Australia this year, there is more than a little deja vu in London critic Matt Truman’s tweet: “If Equity’s gender campaign leads to book-balancing productions of Top Girls & Daisy Pulls It Off etc it will have failed massively.”

And to just join every feminist on the internet this week, some words from Nora Ephron:

Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.

A Next Wave wrap up: Perhaps we’ll see how little we see

So I went to Melbourne for nine days.

I saw much more art than I ever expected too. I wrote much less that I planned. Scribbles in notebooks don’t count. I did go on the radio, though.

I saw thirteen Next Wave visual art and/or sound exhibitions/works over twenty-two different locations; seven with some kind of performance element. I saw eighteen Next Wave performance/dance/theatre works. The lines between types of works are almost all blurred, and I’ve no doubt you would count differently than me.

I saw two visual art exhibitions and two theatre works which weren’t connected to Next Wave – I could have chosen from dozens more. I only found the time to listen to two of the five audio plays from the Living Cities Tours. I don’t think you could say I even scraped the surface of the Emerging Writers Festival.

I went to Breakfast Club nine times for nine days. Some days I was more present than others. I spent four nights dancing to DJs at Wake Up. I went to one official feminist dinner and one official feminist breakfast. I went to Bone Library four times, and then found myself shackled with fear of responsibility and couldn’t take one home. I went to one closing night party, two after parties, and then got straight on a plane back home.

I acted in a TV cop show; I had my first manicure; I paddled a boat across the Yarra, I hugged one stranger, and I had my photograph taken with another; I got married in what is still revealing itself to be one of the most emotionally complex works I have ever been a part of; I went into space twice; I wore headphones a lot.

I saw work which I am still struggling to unpack, to understand, to find the vocabulary for, to explain. I saw how little I see.

I met and re-met some of the most inspiring staff, interns, volunteers, artists, residents, and audience members. I really did feel embedded in the culture. I hope you all stay in touch.

Given the choice between seeing work and writing about work, I chose the former. Back home, it’s time to choose the latter. I’ll be writing about the festival for RealTime, so the balance between writing for the publication and writing for the blog will take some time to reveal itself to me as I begin to type. Expect much more from me, though.

Thanks to everyone involved.

It was truly remarkable.

I am overjoyed.

An Open Letter to the Adelaide Festival Centre (Or, food and the AFC, part three)

Dear Adelaide Festival Centre,

I know it was a long time ago, and I’m really dredging things out of the past now, but remember a year and a half ago when your kitchen wasn’t open post shows in your bar the Bistro?  But then you realised this was a miss-service to the thousands of people you could have through your doors on a typical night, and you changed it?

It has been a really fantastic year, I must say.  The chips are no longer my go-to food, but those spiced chickpeas are divine.  I love going down there post show for a glass of wine and some bar-snacks.  Your website informs me “Bistro by the food business offers idyllic à la carte, pre and post theatre dining experiences,” and who doesn’t love post theatre dining experiences?

Although, maybe the answer is you?

Tonight, I went to the Adelaide Festival Theatre to see A Streetcar with the Adelaide Festival. Afterwards, I planned to take Melbourne theatre critic Cameron Woodhead down to the Bistro for a drink and a debrief on the show.  Imagine my surprise when we found ourselves, with several dozen other people who had just been at the show, staring at the locked glass doors to the Dunstan Playhouse foyer.

It was great to introduce someone to this city by telling them the biggest theatre venue in this town doesn’t open its bar on the opening night on one of the biggest theatre productions in the Festival. Really makes us look swell as a happening city where the festival season makes things happen.

It’s nice to know that, once again, as a venue, you’re fine for thousands of people to not sit around to drink, eat, and talk about the work they’ve just seen, engaging beyond sitting inside the theatre itself.

But seriously: I thought we’d worked this out already?

Looking forward to your reply,

Jane