2015 Day of the Playwright

Session One: 10am –12pm Artistic Director Panel – The stories on our stages in 2016 …

Kate Cherry Artistic Director Black Swan State Theatre Company

Black Swan’s Artistic Director is Kate Cherry who was appointed to the position in 2008. Cherry was previously an Associate Director for Melbourne Theatre Company and Playbox Theatre and has additionally directed for Sydney Theatre Company Adelaide Festival Brisbane Festival Glenn Street Theatre Oz Opera Hit Productions Ensemble Theatre NYC (New York) Shakespeare & Company (Lenox Massachusetts) American Conservatory Theatre and the California Shakespeare Festival (California). Cherry’s critical successes include Helpmann and Green Room nominations and awards as well as a Gielgud Award for Best Emerging Director of the Classics in the United States. She has been the recipient of an NYC Drama League Fellowship and a Williamson Leadership Program Fellowship.

Wendy Martin Artistic Director Perth International Arts Festival

Wendy Martin’s career embraces television production theatre and dance programming and production event production and a contribution to the arts through board membership. She has a track record as a commissioner of innovative theatre and dance projects and of developing major programming initiatives at a number of the world’s leading performing arts centres. Previously Wendy was Head of Performance and Dance at Southbank Centre London where her achievements include creating the acclaimed disability arts festival Unlimited. A celebration of disability arts and culture on an unprecedented scale Unlimited had its inaugural outing during the Paralympic Games and was a highlight of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Matt Edgerton Artistic Director Barking Gecko Theatre Company

A WAAPA graduate and a Churchill Fellow Edgerton comes to BGTC as a highly regarded director performer and arts educator with over 15 years experience of making theatre for young people. Widely recognised as a strong creative leader he has worked across a diverse range of exceptional Australian companies including Bell Shakespeare Ensemble Theatre Poetry in Action Sport for Jove Monkey Baa Theatre and WAAPA making and touring professional theatre work to every state and territory of Australia.

Lunch Break: 1-2pm (local cafes)

Session Two: 2-4pm Collaborative Practice in 21st Century Theatre Making – the artists the dramaturg and the lawyer

The Last Great Hunt is a new theatre company in Western Australia. The Last Great Hunt have developed an innovative artist lead business model in order to develop new work. The writer the director and the performer collaborate early in the development of new work and recognition is shared in many projects.

The model for developing new work in theatre companies is changing. At a national level theatre companies are requesting that new Main Stage work is developed through a process of earlier collaboration in the writing of the stories for stage.

In this model writers are requested to submit an idea to develop in a direct collaboration with the director. We will discuss the shift in making contemporary theatre and the changing place of the playwright in developing new work with The Last Great Hunt (the artists) a dramaturg and a lawyer – discuss collaborating for new theatre.

Jeffrey Jay Fowler - Artist

A playwright actor and director. He runs his pen on the line between entertainment and subversion play and savagery. Works include Minnie and Mona Play Dead (Fringe World 2013 Martin Sims Best New WA Work) Hope is the Saddest (Fringe World 2012 Best Theatre Award) Second Hands Elephents (PAWA Best New Play) A History of Drinking (2009 Blue Room Judges Award) and Fag/Stag (Fringe World 2015 Tour Ready Award). He is currently an associate director at Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Chris Isaacs - Artist

A performer writer director devisor composer and lighting designer. Credits include as a writer Old Love and Fag/Stag (Fringe World 2015 Tour Ready Award) and Flood (PAWA Best Script 2015). As Co-creator and performer All the Glitters Falling Through Clouds and the award winning It’s Dark Outside. He is a member of the creative team behind the multi award winning The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer.

Gita Bezard - Artist

A playwright performer and devisor. Gita has written Yoshi’s Castle Girl Shut Your Mouth (winner of the Black Swan Emerging Writer’s Award) and House and Brood. Gita was awarded the StagesWA Co-Commission to adapt two plays by Eugene Ionesco for Perth Theatre Company in 2012. She has performed in Minnie and Mona Play Dead (Fringe World 2013 Martin Sims Best New WA Work) and Elephents.

Michael McCall – dramaturg

A director actor playwright dramaturg script editor arts advocate and educator in stage and screen and arts education in Australia since 1997. He is a graduate of Curtin University (1997) with BA English as well as a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) Acting Course (2001). He completed a Masters in film and television directing and screenwriting at the WA Screen Academy (2008-09) and is in the final stage of a PhD in Performing Arts at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Michael Tucak – Lawyer

An enthusiast of the arts and he is philanthropic in his approach to arts and creative industries. He is also a skilled and experienced arts and entertainment lawyer over a 15 year career. Michael currently sits on the Board of Perth-based interdisciplinary tactical media arts group PVI Collective and was until 2013 a Board Member and Secretary of the Emerging Writers’ Festival.

Session Three: 4-5.30pm Networking Drinks PICA Bar platters + cash bar