Community Services Reference Group - North Sydney Council

Report of Narelle Spooner, Coordinator of Arts & Culture
Re: PTS Workshop Presentation 2010
LINK TO MANAGEMENT PLAN
The relationship with the Management Plan is as follows:
Direction 6: A Sense of Community
Program 6.2: Arts & Cultural Services
BACKGROUND
Young Dramatists Page to Stage was part of North Sydney’s cultural landscape for 15 years. The
concept of young people writing and performing their own plays was instigated by local drama
teacher Eileen Hoare and Wendy Michaels from the NSW Board of Studies. The original project
took ten months to complete and eight plays were performed annually at the Ensemble Theatre
under the guidance of theatre professionals. In 2008 the project folded because of the heavy
workload experienced by the artistic directors, Bill Conn and Elaine Hudson who found that this
level of commitment was no longer sustainable. As Council was not keen to lose the project
altogether, it was replaced in 2009 by a more low-key program involving just three schools over
the course of one term each year. This has proven to be more manageable for the students,
schools and directors involved and the standard has remained high.
SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT
The following table provides a summary of the key sustainability implications which are
addressed in full in this report:
QBL Pillar Implications
Environment • Limited lighting used in production, slightly more traffic congestion for
one night only.
Social • Excellent benefits in development of young writers, actors and social
interaction between students. Young people with disabilities also involved
in the project.
Economic • The cost of hiring professional directors is of great advantage to the
schools/students involved due to the higher quality of writing/performance
gained in the workshops/presentation.
Governance • This project complies with Council’s Strategic and Management Plans.
(2)