It sounds like an interesting scene, Doug. Stewart Lemoine strikes a
faint bell somewhere, I might go google... Yes, it's very hard to
write good comedy.
To generalise wildly, we have the Melbourne/Sydney nexus, and
Melbourne has the more interesting independent theatre and Sydney the
more interesting mainstream. Work in Darwin, Perth, Brisbane &
Adelaide (though less so these days) tends to be a little
marginalised. (Ask Andrew! Though one of the brighter young sparks on
the directing scene, Matthew Lutton, is a Perth boy). And people know
hardly anything at all about work from Central Australia. Partly, as I
guess it might be in Canada, it's simply distance between cities.
xA
On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 3:41 AM, Douglas Barbour
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Oh yeah, there are the big international names, but I was thinking of the
> various local companies etc; Toronto's always had a large local playwriting
> scene as well as theatres doing everything, & Edmonton, too, with some
> intriguing local authors, like Stewart Lemoine, who formed a company to
> present his, mostly lightly comic, but actually very witty, in the best
> sense, plays (to write really good comedy takes a certain genius). We have a
> bunch of local playwrights, & theatre groups, which sounds a lot like you
> do. And a wide range of theatre coming from them.
>
> And something similar can be said of the local, often not well known beyond
> the city, theatres in Vancouver, Regina & Saskatoon, Calgary, Winnipeg, just
> in Western Canada (which is pretty well ignored in Ontario & Toronto; do you
> have that problem with Sydney?).
>
> Doug
> On 30-May-09, at 4:13 PM, Alison Croggon wrote:
>
>> Thanks Andrew - if you invest in the paper you get a gorgeous shot of
>> Cate and cast in the War of the Roses (did you see that when it was in
>> Perth?) - Doug, I wouldn't be surprised, although I don't know a lot
>> about Canadian theatre - Lepage and Marie Brassard and a couple of
>> others. I guess we have similar histories as colonies and Commonwealth
>> countries, though significant differences too.
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> Swept snow, Li Po,
> by dawn’s 40-watt moon
> to the road that hies to office
> away from home.
>
> Lorine Niedecker
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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