2004 Annual Report - Queensland Theatre Company

Artistic DevelopmentWriting ProgramThe Queensland Premier’s Drama Award– Theatre and Public LifeThe Queensland Premier's Drama Award - Theatre andPublic Life encourages Queensland playwrights to develop abody of work focusing on Queensland life and our collectiveexperiences of living in Queensland. This drama award isunique in that it provides the opportunity for the professionaland creative development of a number of Queensland writersand contains a commitment on behalf of the Companyto stage the work of the writer. This innovative program,conceived by the Premier of Queensland, the Hon. PeterBeattie MP, puts Queensland at the forefront of writingdevelopment for the theatre across the country.In 2003 Queensland Theatre Company called writers tosubmit expressions of interest for The Queensland Premier'sDrama Award - Theatre and Public Life 2004-2005 andreceived a total of 40 entries. The judges Michael Gow,Professor Sharon Bell (Pro Vice Chancellor, Equity andCommunity Partnerships of Griffith University), Ms FionaMcKersie (Department of Premier and Cabinet) and MrIan Brown (Executive Director of Playlab Inc.) selected thefollowing three plays for development in 2004:Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset byStephen CarletonConstance Drinkwater resides in the settlement of Somerset,on the far northern tip of Cape York, in the late 1890s.Somerset’s glorious future is suddenly looking precarious:Constance’s husband has been killed on a political missionto Brisbane; five of her seven children have died of fever;the maid, the cook and the governess have disappeared.Constance is left to hold the irrepressible forces of nature atbay as the ghosts of empire encircle and stalk the doomedsettlement.Welcome to Dreamland by Philip ChappellDreamland is a small, forgotten, coastal town where nothingmuch has happened in the past 25 years. Then, Cell arrivesand, taken by her vision for the town, the Mayor decidesto turn things around and develop Dreamland into a havenfor the rich and famous. Questions are asked and secretsare spilled. Is this the beginning of the end for the Mayor orDreamland?Mano Nera by Adam GrossettiWhen an Italian migrant’s dream of a better life in Australiaturns foul, he relies on the extortion methods of hispredecessors as a sure fire way of making money. ManoNera (the term commonly associated with extortion gangsoperating in Italy and America in the early 1900s) thrivedin the cane growing community of Ingham in Far NorthQueensland in the 1930s.30A n n u a l R e p o r tThese three plays were given dramaturgical supportby dramaturg Peter Matheson and Queensland TheatreCompany’s Artistic Director Michael Gow, and received publicreadings as part of The Works in June 2004.Deliberation meetings took place on 24 and 25 June 2004and on 2 July 2004 the Premier announced the winningscript, Mano Nera, by Adam Grossetti. Mano Nera will beproduced by the Queensland Theatre Company as part of its2005 Season.The Queensland Premier's Drama Award - Theatre andPublic Life 2006-07 was launched by Premier Beattieon 29 September 2004 at the Premier’s Literary Awardspresentation ceremony.The WorksFor the fifth year running, Queensland Theatre Companypresented The Works, a week long festival of professionalplay readings. The week began with readings of the threefinalists of The Queensland Premier's Drama Award - Theatreand Public Life 2004-05. Following great success in 2003,The Works again included an international component withan exciting line up of plays provided by the Royal ExchangeTheatre Company (Manchester, UK), The Playwrights’Center (Minneapolis, USA) and Theatre Network (Edmonton,Canada) as part of Queensland Theatre Company’sinternational script exchange program. This program allowsfor a new Queensland script to travel to these three countriesand be read at each of the companies. The exchangeprogram gives a local writer the opportunity to connect withan international network and allows Queensland TheatreCompany to promote local talent on a global scale. The newQueensland script was also read as part of The Works. Inaddition, there was a reading of the 2004 winning scriptof Queensland Theatre Company’s popular George LandenDann Award for playwrights aged 19-25 years.The selected Queensland work for the internationalexchange was:The King of Car Tapes by Simon BrookA man with no memory sets out to absolve himself from theguilt of his past. Travelling across the fringes of society heplucks three strangers off the side of the road to help himfind peace before the darkness and forgetting takes himcompletely.The winning script of the George Landen Dann Award in 2004was:I Witness by Aedan WhyattDrunkenly forlorn across a deserted park bench in thelate hours of the night, a former UN Force commanderdesperately seeks to make sense of his past. His oncelogical and lucid mind has drifted into the nightmarish worldwhere there are no distinguishing factors between past andpresent. As he recollects a daunting account of genocide,moral questions of courage and responsibility tear at hisconscience.