Th'Arts

Ooh, I love an awards night, and tonight I got to be the one to give out the gongs!

I was a judge for the creative writing entries for this year's Play Now, Act Now creative competition—a competition for young people from 16-25. The competition is an initiative of Metroscreen and NSW Health, and encourages young artists to explore the theme—"Party Smart"—through graphic design, film and creative writing, and the presentation night was held tonight at the Tom Mann theatre in Sydney.

From the Play Now, Act Now website:

Play Now Act Now recognises that young people do and will drink alcohol and possibly use other drugs, and sets out to minimise the harms associated with this.
Play Now Act Now is a health education initiative that invites young people to produce creative resources focussing on issues associated with the usage of alcohol and other drugs eg. health, social, moral or ethical issues.

My fellow judges and I (can you see the royal wave?!) had to come up with just five finalists, which was a challenge, and then two award winners, which was even tougher—especially as the entries included fiction, poetry, scripts and essays. Still, we picked five excellent pieces, and two very deserving stories took out the top (very generous!) prizes.

So, congratulations to Olivia Hambrett for "The Short Cut" and Jessica Ison for "Hours. Minutes." Both were extremely accomplished pieces of narrative prose fiction that put character, voice and narrator technique first, and allowed the "Party Smart" theme to emerge from, rather than dominate, the story.

The other fnalists were poet and lyricist Jace Ross ("Emesis"), Ashleigh Synnott for her powerful story "Rockabye Baby", told in a sequence of monologues, and Genevieve Clay's character study "Francis". All fantastic talents.

Genevieve is a bit of a Renaissance woman, it would seem—as well as being a finalist in the creative writing, Genevieve took out second prize in the film/video category. Her film "Post Its" was incredibly accomplished—all the films (and the graphic design entries—they had to design a coaster carrying the Party Smart message) were really impressive, but Genevieve's particularly impressed me with a maturity of experience, expressed through her main character (a middle-aged man) that on the face of it belied her (relative) youth.

Having said that, the winning film, "Some Random", by Sally Struthers, was a kicker—brilliantly written and performed, and very clever in its blend of character and form.

Play Now Act Now have produced a showcase DVD of the competition finalists and educational resources on a CD-ROM, and published the five creative writing finalists—I reckon if you contacted them, you might be able to get hold of a copy.

It's late so this will be shortish. I'm just in from a performance of As You Like It by the Bell Shakspeare Company at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre and Q Theatre in Penrith. I may have mentioned before, in my new(ish) western Sydney position, I am on a few invitation lists (lucky me!), and the Q very kindly invite me to some of the opening night performances out at the Joan.

I can't believe it's taken me till now to see a Bell Shakespeare production! I was teaching at a school many years ago when their education program visited, and it was fabulous, but I've never actually seen a production. Well, pity me, because if As You Like It is anything to judge by, I've been missing out!

I read the play when I was in Miss Philippa Metcalf's Year 8 English class at Parramatta High School in 1977, and what I mostly remember from that is that some student who'd had the book before me had scratched out "Like" on the front cover and written "Hate"—and that I was a bit affronted by this because this was SHAKESPEARE and that person must have been very stupid, really. And that I was one of the few kids in the class who was keen on the idea of "doing" the play—which mostly, from memory, constituted tortured lessons of people taking turns to read out loud. (Sorry, Miss Metcalf, if you're reading this, but it was the 70s and you also made us rote learn the "This Sceptr'd Isle" speech...)

I have never seen a production of the play before tonight, and beyond the "Seven Ages of Man" speech, the fact that Rosalind cross-dressed and that it was set in the Forest of Arden, I really didn't remember much of the play at all—which was kind of nice, because it allowed me to more or less experience it fresh. And fresh is the right word. A young cast—Bell Shakespeare was partly set up to give young Australian actors the opportunity to perform The Immortal Bard—but they've been touring this production all this year and so, as my friend Pamela, who came with me said, it was a very mature production. And a very joyful, funny, happy one too, with some pleasing (but not laboured) Australian flourishes. (Philip Dodd, who went to Parramatta High in the same year as my brother David—the two were friends—played the shepherd Corin in a perfectly appropriate Australian accent and not a hint of the Akubras to his outfit. And Anna Houston's Phoebe would have passed unnoticed in the nearby Penrith Westfield shopping mall!) I haven't enjoyed a night in the theatre as well in a long time.

Saskia Smith was delightful as Rosalind—sharp and funny and passionate. All the performances were wonderful, and the production (gorgeous to look at) was enlivened by music and dance. And this is a really SMART play, quick on its feet, the odd bit of exposition notwithstanding (Oliver explaining Orlando's encounter with the lion, for example—as Pamela observed, how William S would have embraced film and the possibilities of CGI!).

I really want to go and read the play again (and read ABOUT the play), with special attention to Jacques (Damien Ryan was FANTASTIC in this role). What an oddly melancholy figure in the middle of all this revelry and flirtation.

I know this is anything but an original idea, but whenever I see Shakespeare performed, I always wonder how certain lines may have been read, or jokes delivered, 400 years ago. Even less original, what would Shakespeare think had he known his plays would still be performed and enjoyed all those centuries later in a satellite suburb of a city in a country that remained more or less just a rumour in his own lifetime. I like to imagine him transported, in the audience, delighted and charmed and perhaps a little surprised.

Anyway, no great critical commentary here—just recording and sharing a thoroughly entertaining and cheering experience and a small flight of fancy. My only complaint—I kept thinking, 'oh, I want to watch that bit again', and then remembering I was in the theatre, and there's no rewind button. The ephemeral nature of a theatrical performance always makes me sad, even when it's as happy and cheering as this one. I want to see it again!

I'm excited—my old friend Nick Stathopoulos has been selected for the 2008 Archibald Prize! Nick's portrait is of the esteemed movie critic David Stratton—snoozing in the cinema.

Nick, who is an award-winning science fiction illustrator, and has also illustrated many book covers, including for books by Terry Dowling and John Marsden. He was previously selected for the Archibald for his portrait of Mr Squiggle and his creator, Norman Hetherington.

Nick's sister Henrietta is one of my great friends from our university days—she's currently directing a production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll for Chalkdust Theatre at the Parramatta Riverside Theatres. What a clever pair!

I'm bloody sick of writing these posts.

Andrea Stretton, arts journalist and devotee of (Australian) literature, has died at the shockingly premature age of 55.

Andrea and her mother Dulcie were great supporters of children's literature and reading, and of the CBCA. Both are honoured, and missed.

I've just got home from visiting close friends who have recently had a major blow regarding their immediate future in their chosen profession. We spent an hour or so drinking wine and contemplating the difficulty of pursuing our chosen careers in the creative arts in a small country. A depressing enterprise indeed.

And I checked my email and found the results of one of those internet quizzes I took earlier today...

And this is completely unexpected and just, well, wrong!

I was expecting "You should be a wannabe scribbler of pretentious psuedo-literary novels that no-one will get past the first three pages of". (Expect with a split infinitive like that, maybe it should simply say "Hack!")

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

I was deeply saddened to read of the death of the wonderful writer Glenda Adams.

I first came across Adams' work as an undergraduate student at Macquarie University—second year Australian Literature (1983!), taught by Mark Macleod. (This was also the first time I "came across" Mark, who later became a friend and colleague in the children's literature community.) We studied Glenda's novel Games of the Strong, and it was a total revelation to me as a young lit student. From studying this book, I understood for the first time the intersection of character and plot and what we used to call "theme". I understood how literature "works"—looking back, I now see this as my early introduction to narrative theory. It was also my research for my essay on the novel (I got a really good mark, I recall—thanks, Mark!) that introduced me to Meanjin, the long-standing (since 1940), leading Australian literary journal.

Some years later (1989/1990), when I was still a young teacher—given the remarkable opportunity to teach what was then called 3 Unit English in the NSW HSC—I used Games of the Strong to induct my small class of about 12 young women into critical/analytical reading. I was then enrolled for the first time in the MA in Children's Lit at Macquarie, and a keen young thing, absorbing lit theory and wishing to incorporate it into my teaching. (I remember a DISASTROUS lesson with my very bright Year 9 English class, trying to teach them some of the fundamentals of lit theory. "Good lesson, Miss", one of my nicer students said, sarcastically, as he left the room after an incredibly uncomfortable, painful and unsuccessful 40 minutes. Oh—does the pain and embarrassment never recede?!)

A happier memory. I met Glenda in 1986, my first year teaching, at a lecture she gave at, yes Macquarie. (I'm nothing if not loyal to my alma mater. And yes, Mark Macleod had organised the session.) I don't recall the details of the lecture, but I do know that I drove Glenda home from the lecture. Rapture! She must have been one of the first authors I ever met. And I (also—hey, it was 21 years ago!) don't remember what we spoke about, but I know she was lovely, and she left her sunglasses in my car. And so I had the chance to speak to, and to meet her again, to return those sunglasses. I was 22—it was such a thrill!

Glenda was also instrumental in establishing the MA in creative writing at UTS, which has produced some of this country's finest fiction writers.

Alas, my signed first edition of Games of the Strong lies a mouldering somewhere in the storage of my old school mate David Monaghan.

But how fortunate was I to meet the woman whose fiction changed me and irrevocably educated me as a reader.

Travel well, Glenda. And thank you.

The Australian writer and Living National Treasure Elizabeth Jolley has died, aged 83. She will be remembered and revered for her remarkable talent and her contribution to the cultural life of the nation.

"Looking back at a lifetime's writing, I have been preoccupied with the territorial needs of people, migration and the refugee experience, the sense of exile."

Vale.

Margo Lanagan's extraordinary (and well-deserved) success continues as Red Spikes is shortlisted for the South-East Asia and South Pacific region for the 2007 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book. Go Margo!

You must (I insist!) listen to this interview with the fabulous Dr Anita Heiss; writer, academic, poet, activist, single chick and, dare I say it, the Aboriginal Alibrandi?! Anita has written the first Aboriginal chick-lit novel Not Meeting Mr Right; I missed the launch this week, but I am told it was brilliant, as one would expect.

It's a great interview, canvassing many important social, cultural and political issues with Anita's characteristic intelligence and humour. I have learned so much from (and laughed so hard with) Anita, and I am thrilled that her wit and wisdom is available online for all to hear and appreciate and enjoy.

She's a good woman. She's a good catch! Can't wait to read the novel.

A question was recently posed on the child_lit listserve about which Blake poems informed Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Philip himself responded, and he has given me permission to publish here this wonderful observation about reading Blake. Enjoy!

The Songs of Innocence and of Experience

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Auguries of Innocence

... will take you most of the way. It requires an iron will to read all the
way through the big prophetic books, unless you can get together with a
bunch of friends and stay up all night to read one aloud, taking turns to
voice the lines and lubricating the experience with whisky. Some passages
from them rise out of the smoky obscurity on wings of genius, such as the
great passage from 'America' that begins "The morning comes, the night
decays, the watchmen leave their stations", but for a lot of the time the
experience is like being trapped blindfold in a blacksmith's forge where a
mad god is shoeing a herd of wild horses.

Here's an interesting article by Robert McCrum about plagiarism and originality in the writing of fiction:

One person's 'homage' is another's 'copyright infringement'. The question of originality in literature is complicated. Until the mid-18th century English writers did not hesitate to borrow from each other's work. Good writers, if they are honest, will acknowledge that when they come across a good thing in someone else's work, either consciously or unconsciously they store it away.

Now, off with the cricket, disconnect the internet and get back to work, woman!

Bernard Fanning, (a heavily pregnant) Clare Bowditch and Kasey Chambers singing "Watch Over Me" on the ARIA awards.

A hymn, if ever I've heard one. I hope they record it.

Tonight I (briefly) attended the opening of an exhibition of photography by Ian Dodd at Stills Gallery in Paddington. Back on the day before we had an inhouse designer, and everything was cut and pasted by hand, Ian did layouts on a freelance basis for School Magazine, and he's remained a friend of the magazine ever since. Ian also happens to be one of Australia's leading photographers, working in traditional fashion with a 35mm camera, black and white film and a darkroom.

Ian's photos are just beautiful—moody and evocative, he plays beautifully with light and shade. His subject matter is eclectic—architecture, portraiture, landscapes, interiors and suburbia. I was pleased to discover that Ian has a book of his photography—a career retrospective—published by WriteLight. (Ian's book isn't on the website yet, but I note they have a book called Cats of Sydney!) I'm so pleased to have a copy of the book; with photographs dating back to the 1950s, it's as much a glimpse into Ian's life as it is a tribute to his craft. (And some of the phots are dead sexy!)

The exhibition is on for a month, so if you're in Sydney, get along and enjoy!

       

I've just spent a very pleasant Saturday evening with Jonathan and his beloved Penny, Pamela and Cassandra at an a capella performance, presented in the Paddington Uniting Church by Eastside Arts. The reason we went was that our friend and School Magazine illustrator Kerry Millard's group Dog Walking Backwards was performing, supporting leading Australian a capella group The Idea of North. What a great night! The acoustics in the church are fabulous, and I just love live singing, especially of the quality of these two bands. I bought two of The Idea of North's cds; their new The Gospel Project and the 2003 eclectic collection Here and Now.

Before the concert, J,P and P and I had a delicious dinner at Big Mama; I had the seared scallops, which were sensational, and we shared a side of spinach, suggested by the waiter, which was surprisingly satisfying and yummy.

Back to the music.

Best songs tonight?

Dog Walking Backwards: Where or When and Blue Velvet.

The Idea of North: When All is Said and Done (although they shouldn't have dissed ABBA!), Man in the Mirror and But Not For Me.

Aah, those Gershwins!

It's the end of what has felt like a long week, and it's the first really stinking hot day of the season (35C), so it must be said that productivity lagged a little this afternoon. Conversation, however, did not, and in the course of it my colleague Geoffrey McSkimming pronounced the following:

The two most evil characters in 20th century literature are Mrs Danvers and the fish from The Cat in the Hat.

Now, it is true that Geoffrey is wont to make such pronouncements, but I think he might be onto something here.

So, let's take a vote. Agree? Disagree? Which other characters might qualify? I'm going to have to think about it before I decide whether or not I agree with Geoffrey. In the meantime, add your own thoughts via the comments.