STATE OF PLAY

The stage is bare – except for a couple of barstools. Two playwrights enter. Pause.Where are the opportunities for emerging playwrights? How can playwrights continue to write in the light of savage funding cuts and risk-averse theatre programming? What are theatre companies commissioning and why?Join critically acclaimed and multi-award winning playwrights Patricia Cornelius and Tom Holloway in a lively conversation about the current state of play. “Most of the stories we are told now are corporate - in television on film. The theatre is the last place where the writers’ voice is preserved and honoured. We need that wisdom defining the psychic space of where we are.” John Lahr.About the playwrights:Patricia Cornelius Patricia is a playwright novelist screenwriter and dramaturge. Her plays include ShitSavages and Do Not Go Gentle. A recipient of the 2015 Australian Writers’ Foundation Playwriting Award a Fellowship from the Theatre Board of the Australia Council and the 2012 Patrick White Fellowship she has also been awarded (among others) the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Drama Award 2011 Victorian and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2006 Patrick White Playwright’s Award 2009 Richard Wherrett Prize. Her plays have earned her ten AWGIES for stage community theatre for young people and feature film adaptation.Tom HollowayTom’s multi award winning plays have been performed nationally and internationally including Beyond the Neck at Belvoir St And No More Shall We Part (Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Louis Esson Prize for Drama and the 2010 AWGIE Award) was staged at the Griffin and London's Hampstead Theatre. Fatherland debuted at the Gate Theatre in London. Forget Me Not was a co-commission between Everyman and Playhouse Theatres in Liverpool and Belvoir St. Most recently Tom adapted James M Cain’s Double Indemnity for Melbourne Theatre Company. Tom attended London's Royal Court Theatre International Playwriting Studio in 2006.Don’t miss the first meeting back in our newly renovated venue at The Imperial Hotel in the CBD - and make sure you join us for a drink afterwards in the roof top bar.LOCATION NOTE: Please take the stairs in the main bar located on the Spring Street side of the hotel