FRESH NEW WRITING at MTC

MD is strongly represented in the developmental readings this week at the MTC Lawler Studio.

The pieces are eclectic, original, and unlike anything you will have seen on Melbourne stages this year.

And, they include a number of MD members at the helm!

• Wed 11th @ 7pm --> Elise Hearst & Sam Strong's The Sea Project
• Thu 12th @ 7pm --> Amelia Roper & Naomi Edward's Hong Kong Dinosaur
• Fri 13th @ 7pm --> Declan Greene @ David Mence's Pretty Baby

Come along and see what we have been up to over the last few months. It promises to be a lot of fun and there will, of course, be plenty of red wine and Q & A afterwards.

Conversations on Casting

The racial diversity in Australian theatre issue has flared up again, this time finding a more dialogical home for itself online.

Point your browser to Red Stitch's online forum and check out the discussion.

I don't want to write a big post about it here (I've already done that over at the forum) so it will suffice to say that I believe strongly in the need for Australian theatre companies and directors to make cross-racial casting part of their everyday practice.

I'm not really sure how this intersects with our concerns as writers; whether, for example, we think that diverse casting practices are more important to uphold than the writer's intentions?

For me, though, seeing The Birthday Party at MTC the other night was a good example of how diverse casting can open up new layers of meaning in a text. And, a few small annoyances aside (since I know the text religiously), I thought that it was well handled.

Any thoughts or comments?