Theatre as life and death

"So now it is time to go back into the theatre, and it feels right because I've always been a great believer that one of the functions of theatre is to help us to discover how to live even in the face of death, and that all great storytelling helps to heal."

And so goes Lyn Gardner's beautiful account of what the theatre means to her. It's a stunning blog post that is one of the more touching and passionate entries I have read about this most amazing art form that I love similarly.
It would be refreshing if a bit more theatre criticism was a little more passionate and little more personal. Simply put, why do critics try and pretend to be objective when criticism is nothing more than subjective opinion?

Thankfully there is a bit of passion going around at the moment. Alison Croggon at Theatre Notes brought my attention to a bit of passion from Senator Kim Carr who has always impressed me - especially when he was the number one opposite to the then Arts Minister George Brandis.

His speech at last week's National Press Club address is a ripper and ends with this;

I believe the creative arts – and the humanities and the social sciences – make a terrible mistake when they claim support on the basis of their commercial value.

Whatever they may be worth in the marketplace, it is their intrinsic value we should treasure them for.

We should support these disciplines because they give us pleasure, knowledge, meaning, and inspiration.

No other pay-off is required.

I wonder what Carr would have said about Henson if he had been the Arts Minister?

And the passion continues with the announcement that my dear colleague James Waites has finally sorted out his relationship with the inconsistent Australian Stage Online and set up his own blog. Nothing like going out on your own. Good one James.

In fact, my dream is coming true and the Sydney Cultural Blogosphere is expanding, as one by one more people join the fold. Kevin Jackson, a teacher at NIDA has also recently started a review website which always proffers some interesting perspectives on shows around the city.

Another welcome arrival to the Sydney blog scene is the arrival of Esoteric Rabbit from Melbourne. Even though he is presently juggling the time pressures of his new and fabulous job opportunity at The Australian, I am told that the more important work of blogging will resume in the not too distant future.

And the theatre companies are really engaging with us, appreciating that we are providing a legitimate alternative to the mainstream media. In fact, after nearly two years of running this blog I am reliably informed that it is generating nearly the same amount of hits the arts web pages at the SMH receive. Which is frankly probably not that difficult.

But there is something afoot in Sydney and I am not sure what it is.

Just last night, I attended a cultural forum put on by Clover Moore's independent team who are running in this weekend's Local Government elections. John Wardle, who is on her ticket and is the man responsible for the brilliant Raise the Bar campaign gave a great introductory speech to the forum which was held in an 'illegal' place of public entertainment in Surry Hills.

Moore responded with an excellent and considered speech that appeared to be mostly ad-lib, showing that cultural policy is now at the forefront of the City of Sydney. (Read: we are sick of being jealous of Melbourne).

But the highlight of the night was a speech by local artist and arts organiser Jess Cook who had a fabulous ten minute rant about what the arts mean to her in Sydney. I am going to try and get the text of the speech because I wish I had recorded it and uploaded it onto here. Her message was clear - stop importing and start supporting. 

What a great attitude. Something is definitely happening here. 

  

 

Blogger feed problems

I am not sure what is going on, but i have become aware that the blogger feed to this blog is not working. If anyone can offer suggestions as to why this is happening please let me know.

The only thing that I can recommend is to use the feedburner subscription box on the right hand side which is pretty good and updates you via email whenever a post is updated.

All the information is private and confidential if you are concerned about that sort of thing. You can also switch it off at the click of a button.

Apologies.

Marvellous

Those Art Life blog people. Bloody marvellous. They have posted a "photo of a ball of dividing cells from the moment a zygote implanted itself on a uterus wall".

Hetty Johnston, Andrew Bolt and Kevin Rudd eat your heart out.

Art Life goes on, "although the zygote in question is currently still too young to understand the full ramifications of this decision, we feel that by exploiting these eight cells we will dignify a debate that for too long has been dominated by hysterical sections of the media clamouring for 'controversy'."

And so it goes.

CLICK HERE.

Yang blogs it

An exciting bit of information just came past my desk with the news that performance artist and photographer William Yang has joined the great army of bloggers as he documents his way around his latest tour to the United States.

So far there is one entry from Friday, where he takes you from the reaction of ex-pats in Maryland to a showing of Shadows to receiving a parking ticket in Washington DC.

For fans of William's work, you can hear the tone of the text he uses in performance through his blog entries. It is a beautiful insight into what could be the subject of future performances.

(And another hint to my esteemed friends at Fairfax - or The Australian even - maybe this could be a good blogging idea to bring your arts blogs out of the doldrums... get people like William and any other Australian artist to start contributing whenever they are on a special tour internationally.

You can blog that.)

While the cat's away, huh?!

Well, haven't you all been having a whale of a time while I've been away. Very nicely thank you very much. Well, bad news. He's back!

Can I recommend that you all go and investigate the South Coast and Southern Highlands of this beautiful state. The beaches are so clean, the water is so warm, the bushland is slowly rolling itself over into autumn colours, the crowds are non-existent and the sunsets and thunder storms take your breath away (especially when it's washed down by a glass of wine and a piece of cheese from some obscure little town).

To tell you the truth, I was absolutely ecstatic to come back to see so much activity on the blog. If only I could generate that type of response while I was actually blogging... Says a lot about what I am doing! (Or not doing as the case may be).

What's clear is that the coverage of the flagship theatre company of NSW on SAJ is deemed by you lot as too much. Ok - fair point indeed. I do try and cover everything in the independent sector however - whether it be the newest show at the stables to the latest underground arts festivals.

It was also good to get some diverse opinions on Kate Gaul's Twelfth Night. The night before I left on my little holiday I actually spoke to a number of people who shared the view of Marcellous who was not as 'enthusiastic' about the production as I was. He is certainly not alone. Some of the comments about Twelfth Night did smell of people who posted with a vested interest, but that's one of the freedoms of a blog I suppose. For your interest, my full-text review is now up.

The flagship theatre company debate got even more dirty and one anonymous comment made the interesting observation that "at least one good thing about the author of this blog being away is that we don't have to keep reading about the Sydney Theatre Company. It's almost like it was before he started this thing: invisible." This was followed by another anonymous comment that it is "somewhat childish" for this blog "to proudly display in the SAJ masthead a critical comment from the STC general manager, and then write sycophantic pieces about the incoming duo".

In my defence, I would say that I have actually never defended the appointment of the 'incoming duo' and their appointment as AD's of the STC. In fact, if you read all of things I have written, I have pretty much avoided commenting on it as I am reserving my judgement on the creative aspect of their positions until we get some evidence. What I have done recently is highlight the financial problems that the STC has and illustrated a clear correlation between that and their appointment. It doesn't take Einstein to see that the appointment is first and foremost a financial decision, not creative.

I imagine that the 'sycophantic' piece anonymous refers to is my defence of Blanchett as head of Kevin Rudd's 2020. It should be pointed out that 2020 is not affiliated with the STC in any way. It should also be pointed out that I am the only commentator who has defended the appointment after a gaggle of commentators from Fairfax and News Ltd questioned not only her intelligence but said that it was a consolation prize after not winning an Oscar. Sounds like it's more a case of the usual commentators having a crack at the arts. Talk about the usual sycophantic suspects.

But the point has been taken about the extent of coverage. If it's invisibility you want, it's invisibility you shall receive.

Which brings me to something that will be going down this week. After Arts NSW delivered its funding announcements after the Minister signed off on them four months late this year, many individuals mid-way through their projects and small-to-medium organisations are absolutely pissed off at the decisions.

It seems as though the cuts by our state government are now having a real impact on the sector. The big institutions have been pretty much protected but many of the smaller players now find themselves with huge cuts.

To make matters worse, the small to medium sector players all went off to Adelaide this week to attend the Performing Arts Market. It was here that they got to mingle with the oh-so-happy arts workers in the other states who are still riding on substantially better funding. Apparently the smiles from ear to ear of the Victorians arriving in Adelaide added a fair amount of salt to the wound.

The Herald is sniffing around and should publish something by the end of this week. By which time the lobbying will begin. I will post more as it comes to hand, but I want to emphasise that this needs an all-industry reaction. This state government stinks to high heaven.

Image: Fitzroy Falls, NSW

The sphere of influence grows...

Over the last few months some theatre and arts related websites have emerged from the garden bed and are offering some interesting perspectives on the industry.

The first one I have become aware of is The Australian's Lynden Barber who has set up the blog site Eyes Wired Open. He describes himself as a "freelance journalist specialising in film and music, a feature film script-assessor and an occasional film studies lecturer".

I knew Lynden a couple of years ago as my boss when he was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Film Festival.

His site has become a bit of a hive of activity, as he debates with the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) about the standard of script writing in Australia. There is his initial article in The Australian where he posits that "the industry suffers from deep-rooted cultural problems that consistently militate against the possibility of compelling scripts emerging at regular intervals".

This got up the nose of the AWG who penned together a response in the same paper's op-ed pages placing the blame at the feet of directors uninterested in producing another persons script and a lack of money.

A great debate that I think that the theatre industry desperately needs to have as well.

I have also become aware of a new blog by ex-SMH theatre reviewer James Waites. It is my understanding that he is quite a man of principle who got pushed out from the Herald after giving Les Miserables a bad review. Sound familiar?

It's an interesting site, but terribly hard to navigate and it lacks a good comments section that gives blogs some life.

There is also a pop-culture and arts site run by FBI Radio's Matt Levinson. I stumbled across it the other day and it is an interesting read that captures the heart of the inner city youf culture of music and creativity.

Since the creation of FBI Radio in inner city Redfern, Sydney has experienced a renaissance in the local music and arts scene. This station has gradually fixed itself as a central point where all the latest news of good local music and arts is broadcast.

They have heaps of arts programmes and have funky young reviewers out and about to see what's going on in the city. We are finally creating a good community feel that Melbourne has had for oh-so-long.

Yes... this year is going to be exciting I feel. Don't be left behind.

Blogging Weird

I apologise to all for the sudden disappearance of blog items, including the recent one on Kookaburra.

I don't know quite what happened but when I went in there this morning, about a dozen items had disappeared.

I have also suddenly stopped receiving notifications whenever a comment is made.... so it's all very strange and I am trying to find out what's happening.

The independent voice

For anyone that needs any reason to see why blogs are important, you need not look any further than Burma.

While twiddle thumbs like myself are just blogging away about an arts scene in a small frontier like Sydney, there is some major events going down in a country not far from here.

Protests by monks and the local population are now in their tenth consecutive day. Initially the protests started in mid-August and were against the military dictatorship putting up the price of fuel. This has quickly turned into a pro-democracy rally when the monks joined the protests in the middle of last week. The sighting of Aung Sung Suu Kyi at one of the meetings has fueled many to continue the demonstrations.

The Age reported last night that "international concern over the situation rose sharply after witnesses and diplomats in Burma's biggest city Rangoon said four people were killed and 100 injured today as security forces fired on protesters, and used tear-gas and baton charges to disperse the crowds."

But such is the threat of the independent voice through blogs, the military junta have blocked access to blogger from anywhere inside Burma. Thankfully through the work of major dissenters, the word is still spilling out with comrades in nearby Bangkok and other western nations. I think the junta might find that trying to suppress independent voices might be like trying to cover a sieve.

Alison Croggon provides a poignant parallel with the fight of apartheid, explaining that a South African journalist once explained to her that "when stories were suppressed by the authorities, they began to leave the front page blank. This, he told me, became a resistance in itself, a sign of censorship. In the end, the regime banned blank front pages."

So despite the censorship, the new media will ensure that the news will get out and as the protests now go into their eleventh day the violence is sure to continue.

If you want to keep on top of what's happening in Burma, there are a number of good independent sources around:

- The Burma Blog by Richard Bacon
Richard is acting as a voice for someone in Burma who is writing a diary about what is happening there on a domestic level.

- The Dathana Blog of Nyein Chan Yar
Nyein is on the ground in Rangoon is providing some pretty phenomenal photo essays about the daily protests. He is unable to post from Burma, but is using a friend outside to upload. He also has a good list of other local blogs that are all mainly in Burmese.

- Ko Htike's Prosaic Collection
This is an extremely interesting blog written, from what I can gather, by someone that works in the Emergency section of the main hospital in Rangoon. Most of it is in Burmese but again, the photo's speak a thousand words.

- Justice and Injustice Blog
This is a blog in Burmese, but the photographs are a compelling enough reason to have a look.

There are other sources for news and updates including the Asian Human Rights Commission and MMedWatch.

Pressure must be put on the UN and the Security Council to do something about this. George W Bush yesterday announced further economics sanctions against the country. It is interesting to note that the Australian Government does not support this tactic.

It would be a huge tragedy if this round of protests ends up being ignored by just like Darfur has been ignored. Or indeed if it mirrors the events of 1988 when soldiers killed an estimated 3,000 people.

Images:

Top - from http://dathana.blogspot.com/

Bottom - Asian Human Rights Commission

Blog is such an ugly word...

Arts Journo is living it up in Melbourne for a couple of days, sniffing around the theatre's and meeting up with the marvellous Melbourne bloggers.

Last night I was the hand bag of Theatre Notes, who treated me to an excellent dinner and an intriguing show at the North Melbourne Town Hall. There we ran into Chris Boyd, who kindly looked after me post show, dropping me off back into the city so I could catch a tram to my sticks in St Kilda.

In the meantime I thought I might point you all to an article Agence France Press (AFP) put out. One of their staffers in Sydney interviewed me about the state of blogging here and how the establishment are dealing with the theatre blogs.

Where do I start? In Sydney, I don't think they have the faintest idea what this theatre blog business is about and are very unsure of how to handle it. It's a very difficult concept that doesn't fit nicely into the newspaper/radio/tv pigeon hole and at the moment they are mostly observing it from an arms distance until it all becomes a little clearer.

From what I can see in Melbourne, there is a greater willingness to engage with the theatre bloggers (with the notable exception of one particular theatre company). There is more of a willingness to engage with debate as opposed to shutting it down, and there is more of a willingness to not see reviews as a means to an end for publicity purposes. The review in Melbourne is more of a discussion than it is in Sydney.

The AFP article, which was commissioned out of London has found that theatres in the UK have started the trend to get bloggers into preview performances to start the word of mouth on shows. They wanted some follow up research on the impact of theatre blogs in France, the US and Australia.

The technology section of The Age picked up the story – so assuming most of you are like me and don’t EVER read the technology section of a newspaper, here is the text.


You the reviewer: bloggers the new critics in theatre land

Want to book tickets for the latest thing in theatre, but the reviews are not out in your regular paper? Or perhaps you don't trust the reviewers.

No longer a problem. From Broadway to the West End, and from Tokyo's Ginza district to Sydney's Walsh Bay, theatres worldwide open their doors early to the public for the preview nights used by directors to fine tune performances.

And a growing army of the theatregoers attending the previews are turning amateur critics.

They are publishing blogs with personal reviews that come out days, or even weeks, before the newspaper reviews appear after the official opening night. It is turning the traditional place of the professional review on its head.

Certainly, theatre critics are not as all powerful as they once were.

"Critics alone, especially in the UK, cannot make or a break a play," says Kevin Wallace, producer of the "Lord of the Rings" musical currently running in the West End. "And a single critic hasn't had that power in over 30 years."

Nowadays, ever more people are turning to the internet when deciding whether or not to buy tickets to a play.

"It is true that the blogosphere is beginning to infiltrate theatregoers opinions," The Guardian newspaper's veteran theatre reviewer Michael Billington tells AFP.

This trend first came to widespread attention in Britain earlier this year when theatregoer reviews of the Royal Shakespeare Company's "King Lear" at Stratford appeared online many weeks before those of the professional critics.

Leading lady Frances Barber had hurt her knee, postponing the official press night for eight weeks.

"This was quite a difficult situation," recalls Billington. "I really had to close my eyes to all the gossip. As a critic, you have to focus on your own reaction."

The same phenomenon happened with this year's much anticipated musical version of "The Lord of the Rings."

As a highly technical production, it had a long preview run, at well over a month. And while the official reviewers had to wait until opening night to publish their opinions, bloggers came out with their own version.

This did not escape the attention of Wallace, who says that theatre blogs have become a reality the industry has to deal with.

"Now, I expect reviews to appear on the internet after the first preview night. I have actually seen people review a show during the interval. The blogs are the first surge of information that goes out to the market place, and you have to embrace it."

According to Terri Paddock, editorial director of popular theatrical magazine and website What's on Stage, some theatres pay a lot of attention to the blogs during previews, seeing them as a more genuine audience reaction than the professional reviews, and fine tune performances as a result.

"People in the industry watch these postings very closely during previews," she tells AFP.

In the case of Lord of the The Rings, Paddock went with a group of around 300 theatregoers to a preview night.

"The shows like that we go early because they know we have very theatre-savvy people with us and they like to get our opinions. At LOTR, we even had post-show talks with producers," she says.

Wallace admits paying attention to the online reviews during the LOTR preview period.

While he's not interested in just one individual's taste, "if the same observations are made by a large number of people during previews, it's like a form of market research," he explains.

"And if you see a pattern emerge, you do take that into account. You'd be foolish not to."

Avid blogger Katie Spain, who blogs at seatwave.com, thinks the reason for the attention is that bloggers, as ordinary members of the viewing public, are more likely to reflect the audience experience. And this gives their views real value, particularly in the run-up to the official opening.

"A lot of people will now look at reviews by the audience rather than those of well-known reviewers because they do come out earlier and they tend to be written a bit more on their level, without any hard-core theatre jargon," she tells AFP.

But while the producers, and some audience members, are happy to take the audience reaction from the blogs, some do still defend the role of the seasoned, professional critic.

"The difference between a professional and an amateur reviewer is that a critics review has a certain amount of authority to it and it has box office influence," says The Guardian's Billington.

For him, first night reviews are eagerly awaited by producers and managers of production.

"Newspapers are still read in Britain, and the printed reviews of LOTR were given a lot of attention," he states. "They were mostly negative. This will have an effect on the box office."

But things are changing, he admits. The role of the reviewer "is not quite as unchallenged as it once was" and "the balance of power will change" further.

Paddock, from What's on Stage argues that blog and newspaper reviews can complement each other.

"In this internet age, people go online to see what like-minded people think. On the other hand, newspapers employ professional critics with a wealth of expertise and knowledge.

"So yes, you are influenced by bloggers and amateur reviewers early on, but the reviews by professionals can then cement your original opinion."

The Othello Debate Still Rages

I have to pull my head in and apologise to Bell Shakespeare. It was Chris Boyd from The Morning After that pointed out something to me... "Tell me Nicholas," he said, "was the M word used in a photo caption or a headline? Or on any other page of the Tele that day?! Then you're fair game! (Heh!)"

And there it was, sitting all pretty under the photo accompanying the review - Masterful. I didn't even see it there. Gulp.

I still don't think its very cool to use it, but, what can I say? It was there. So, apologies to Bell.

But aside from this, Othello has generated some marvellous theatre blogging over these last few weeks, with the Othello debate still raging.

It all started with Theatre Notes' review and then follow up article about 'Black Face' acting. Then the Sydney Morning Herald ran, not one but two stories centred around an essay by STC Director Lee Lewis about the limitations in ethnically diverse casting. The marvellously passionate Mink Tails then takes up the baton with a plea for sanity.

Then the reviews for Othello come out in Sydney generating even more debate about the casting of Wayne Blair as Othello, which then attracted some absolutely superb debates within the comment boxes.

Then we have Chris Boyd with the insight to run one of the comments from this blog as a posting, which has driven the debate to even more marvellous avenue. If you haven't read it, check it out here.

And then the debate about blogs, the media and arts journalism is still simmering away beautifully with this post in Theatre Notes.

This is what theatre debate is!


Image: Prompt Communications

The Future of Journalism & the Arts

Print journalism worldwide is heading down the drain and there is pretty much bugger all we can do about it. In every mainstream news outlet in the US, the UK and here in Australia the death knell is ringing and it's getting louder and louder and louder. And what section of the newspaper will probably feel the initial brunt of this? One guess.

If you haven't discovered The Monthly magazine, I advise you to pop down to your friendly, local newsagency and pick up a copy. This month's issue (June) is still as insightful and relishing as ever, most particularly for an article, War of Words, that ex-Sydney Morning Herald editor Eric Beecher has penned.

He begins the article with this very real summation; "It would be difficult to overstate the serious media’s anxiety about the future of quality journalism. This anxiety stems from an old dilemma – is journalism a public trust or a business? – overlaid on a new dilemma: that as the internet matures into a successful commercial medium, the funding model for quality commercial journalism is collapsing. This is no longer simply a debate about the role of press barons like Rupert Murdoch. It is now about whether the owners of quality commercial journalism – predominantly the owners of the world’s major newspapers – are prepared to accept lower profits and diminished share prices in order to continue funding costly but important journalism. There can only be one conclusion: in your dreams.”

To clarify his statement, consider these US newspaper sales figures he quotes; "Industry profitability - the profit earned from every dollar of revenue - has fallen from 22.6% in 2002 to 17.8% in 2006. Newspapers' share of media advertising has declined from 24.9% in 1990 to 15.8% in 2006... And the picture is even worse when it comes to younger readers: only 35% of 18-34 year-old Americans read a daily newspaper last year. The figure was more than 70& in the early 1990's."

The arts desk of the Sydney Morning Herald are feeling this global pinch. Beecher points out that "at Fairfax Media, historically the home of Australia's best commercial journalism, the mood is grim. Journalists at its flagship newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, recently launched industrial action over the company's decision to cut 35 jobs following two earlier rounds of editorial redundancies".

The situation is not just felt at the Sydney Morning Herald, but all the major dailies around the country. They now find themselves in the position whereby once an arts journalist goes, they are not replaced. The SMH arts desk journalists Clare Morgan, Richard Jinman, Bryce Hallet, Angela Bennie and Valerie Lawson must be feeling the strain. Is it any wonder that so much content filling the arts pages is now book reviews from academics and freelance writers, press release articles and feature stories pulled straight from The Guardian, The Times or The New York Times?

But what will happen when even those respected newspapers can't provide quality arts content to the SMH? What will the SMH do then? It is not an unfathomable prospect. Just this week, Lyn Gardner, reviewer for The Guardian, explained how reviews were being 'squeezed' and 'now I seldom get to write more than 300 words'.

Beecher goes on to quote New York investment banker and former NY Times reporter Steven Rattner who is "considering new models for the news business. He proposes not-for-profit status for journalism." Rattner states that "instead of having billionaire moguls as proprietors, we could try to turn them into philanthropists who found non-profit organisations to buy and operate their local papers."

This is an extraordinary situation that will become desperate for arts journalists and arts interested readers across the country. We have already seen the beginning of a down grading in quality and it is going to get worse. It is going to be more 'entertainment' focused, more 'celebrity' focused and the arts pages as they are presently known will very likely evaporate.

Newspapers within ten years will barely exist in print editions and will have to exist without relying on the volume of advertising or classified revenue that they once did. Costs will be cut, arts articles will be even further diluted and readers will turn to the alternative's - blogs, independent websites and other online sources. Which they are already doing.

Sydney's online presence is presently not a good example, but this shift is occurring in a major scale very close to home. In Melbourne we really have an extraordinary situation opening up with its organic and now prolific online arts journalism and criticism coverage. Not only is there Alison Croggon's Theatre Notes, but we also have Chris Boyd from the Herald Sun blogging away, as well as Matthew Clayfield's excellent Esoteric Rabbit, Matt Scholten, Melbourne Film Blog, Mink Tails, Richard Watts... the list goes on and they are all listed here. This is not to mention the independent arts websites, Aussie Theatre, Australian Stage and my sometime employer ArtsHub.

But can pages such as this or any other blog or independent site guarantee the quality and quantity that the mainstream could once be proud of and without the finances? With the proliferation of blogs, will we get to the point of critical mass and a saturation of opinion? George Hunka of Superfluities has already expressed a disatisfaction with the present blog roll of arts sites saying "online theatre criticism is becoming just as fragmented and prone to simplistic reductionism as that in the mainstream media."

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times touches on this proliferation in an article re-produced in the Herald last week.

"When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a mobile phone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload video on YouTube, everyone is filmmaker. When everyone is a publisher, paparazzo or filmmaker, everyone else is a public figure. We're all public figures now."

It's all very well for us to be public figures now at the whim of blogs but who will have time to do quality research and articles and who will pay for them? It won't be Uncle Rupert, or the shareholders at Fairfax. Why would they when they can get quick, easy and cheap content from international news outlets?

At present the arts blogs that exist generally provide a wonderful alternative to sit beside the mainstream outlets that has arisen out of a dissatisfaction with the diversity and quality of their content. But where will that reference point go to when that mainstream starts to disappear. Do we need some sort of self-devised regulatory system? Or is the future with publically funded media? Even the ABC is now boggled eyed at how they should move ahead with their online content.

I attended a small panel last weekend at PACT Youth Theatre in Sydney's inner west. Tessa Needham from Australian Stage, Briyoni Treesize from Reeltime and Eliza Sarlos from fbi Radio were in discussion with Tiek-Kim Pok about criticism in today's society. It was a discussion that would never have happened five years ago... young online commentators throwing ideas around about the role of critics and the impact of their new voices within it.

Unfortunately, they didn't really get their hands dirty and part of me thinks this comes from a certain naivety. I don't think people realise the position that the online commentators are presently in and how quickly the whole state of affairs is going to alter. Quality content will soon be reliant on independent commentators and online sources, squeezing out and diluting the mainstream as it loses revenue.

There is a public demand for quality content but the boundaries are shifting with who can provide this quality within the print and online medium. It's all very well to have the blogs, but how can we maintain (even advance) the quality and the sophistication? Where will it all end up? Will this revolution end up being for display purposes only?

Image: safecom.org.au

Almost as bad as the Green Room...

I know, I know and I apologise to all. The lack of content this week is ringing in the ears of many as hypocrisy given my comments about the Sydney Morning Herald blog, The Green Room...

Arts Journalist has been flat out since the beginning of this week and will post a recap over this coming weekend.

From a quick glance, it appears that I have already missed so much in the world of blog and the world of theatre blog. Alison Croggon at Theatre Notes, since she finished her novel, has gone head first into some wonderful posts that have generated some wonderful comment debate, namely one about 'crrrritics'.

We also have the Art Life do some more crrrritic damage and Mink Tails gives an excellent analysis of how the Sydney and Melbourne Arts Hearts beat. For the Slovenio-files, Crke provides a nice outline of the next Borsnikovo Srecanje festival in Maribor, Slovenia.

You may have noticed that I have started reviewing for The Daily Telegraph in Sydney. Funny thing is, that when they edit the copy they take out all the juicy bits... I will have to develop a small plan of attack on that.

You'll see more of that battle in the coming weeks.


Image: Slovenia National Theatre, Maribor

The Art Life

For anyone that missed last Tuesday night's inaugural episode of The Art Life (ABC TV 10pm), make sure you catch it when the second episode comes around tomorrow evening.

It's a beautiful breath of fresh air. Here you have Mr Andrew Frost, blogger extraordinaire, who has for the last three or four years thrown down the gauntlet to poncey mainstream arts critics by hammering away at a site that is breaking down big barriers between audiences and artists.

Frost disarmingly looks like a rugby player. In fact, if you put a backdrop of green grass, some cheerleaders and a cheering crowd you would be convinced that this man is a footy commentator.

But it's all part of the method. It's bringing art to the people in a clear and accessible way that doesn't dumb down and is dripping in a Clive James-esque dry humour. Central to his method, however, is how he uses social relevance to explain complicated modes and expressions of contemporary art.

If you want a taste of how he presents his show, check out The Art Life Blog (if you haven't already). It gives you a good idea of where he comes from and if you dig around just a little, you will find some beautiful commentary on his argy bargy with the mainstream critics.

Here's hoping that the ABC take the series from a measly three episodes to a year long series and beyond.

Image: aerialphotgraphy.ca

Silencing Dissent

Last night I managed to squeeze into a packed session at the Sydney Writers' Festival featuring a discussion with David Marr, Clive Hamilton & Sarah Maddison on the issue of dissent being silenced under the governance of John Howard & even longer.

The event was used to launch a collection of essays "analysing the tactics used by the Howard government to silence independent experts and commentators as well as public servants and organisations".

In a packed Sydney Dance Company studio four hundred of the converted gathered to hear about the systematic decay of public political debate within Australia. The event was, for the most part, an extremely thought provoking discussion that considered issues such as the centralisation of power, character assassination of anyone with informed contrary opinions, the fear of the media in vocalising dissent and the policing of public servants by the AFP (known as the Leak Squad).

What is always interesting in Australia is the level of public debate we have even within such an open forum such as the one last night. The first person to ask a question from the floor was from a representative of the East Timor Association. I have seen this man attend numerous events, asking usually inappropriate questions that generally don't relate to the issue at hand. But the way he was silenced by the panel and the audience was, to say the least, ironic.

This is one of the main problems in this country which is coupled next to that of silencing of dissent. Here is a man, who was talking about some shocking examples of enforced silencing of communities and he doesn't have a forum to talk about his concerns. What's he going to do? To be perfectly honest, I think he should start a blog.

It is interesting to consider what the effect of political silence is having on the other sections of our community. Is the silencing of dissent leaking into other forums of debate? Or is it, as my companion suggested, the other way around? Is there a total lack of dissent within our society that makes the smothering of debate politically so easy?

Take for instance the result of people throwing around dissenting views within the performing arts community and the ways that cultural institutions have reacted. Why is there so little debate and discussion within the arts? Is there a growing centralisation of power within our community? Is the arts media fearful of those same institutions? How often does character assassination occur when someone begins debate?

Through my discovery of the 1968 almanac of the performing arts a month or so ago, it would appear that debate and discussion about the direction of the arts was much healthier forty years ago. Open and robust debate about the role of critics, the direction and placement of Australia's performing arts in relation to cultural influences and geography and debates about the future of arts training methods.

The wonderful forums that are now being created through the internet has welcomed in an exciting period for a whole host of social movements and this new network has created an immediacy of debate, whether it is in the arts or otherwise. That is what I was really furious about when I attended that forum at the Australia Council. Yesterday's people are having a silencing effect and we can include the mainstream media in that group.

Internet discussion is gaining a momentum that is ever so gradually bringing debate to all levels of our community. But are we ready for it and do we know what to do with it? Are we prepared to take the beginnings of this debate and discussion to another level - that is, to turn debate and discussion into constructive answers for the future of our industries? To be able to engage with a diverse tree of opinion and publicly debate them without the fear of not getting that acting/directing/commission job? To allow open criticism and not get bogged down into the personal argy bargy so commonplace within the world of the Andrew Bolt's and Piers Akerman's of this world?

I know we are a small community but surely it's big enough now to set an example, similar to what we had forty years ago, for others within our society. It really is time to get arts debate going, and it is my hope that this blog will, even in the smallest way, help in pushing that along. As the Guardian website describes on its blog header - get amongst the fray.

My goodness... Look at their grass!

The last three weeks have been, to say the least, hectic. Consequently, I have been only sporadically updating Arts Journalist, much to furious emails.

The disgrace of this is that I have been flat out when there has been a fantastic debate raging between London, New York and Melbourne about the role of critics. It has been a fantastic tussle, and as you all probably know, started when Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre gave critics a spray in The Times calling them 'dead white males'.

It appears that he was quite aggrieved at the state of criticism in the UK, particularly by, you guessed it, older white men. In particular, he felt that they were being a disservice to the industry particularly towards female directors.

This little article took off like Errol Flynn, flew smack into the side Michael Billington at the Guardian, which then ricocheted off Lyn Gardner also at the Guardian. The tremors spread through the net and the theatre blogs all jumped in the pond together with George Hunka in the US having a splash, swiftly followed by Andrew Field jumping in while Alison Croggon stood on the side clapping her hands in glee and egging them all on! Encore Magazine got amongst the fray as well and then David Eldgridge and finally the UK's Telegraph jumped in and sprayed a bit of water.

It has been marvellous. Then to top it all off, Michael Billington recalls a carpark encounter with Hytner, where they air their opinions once again.

On this side of the fence, I can only salivate at the mouth that these types of empassioned responses happen at all. This has got to be one of the most beautiful examples of how the Internet has pressed forward theatrical discussion, where blogs and opinion pieces blend together creating a symphonic debate that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

I am going to get parochial with Alison Croggon and point my bloggy finger at the Sydney Morning Herald and say, 'where are you?!' They are barely able to update their blog, which has now been gathering dust for two months now and the silence of the industry and the critics in Sydney has been deafening.

One could suggest that maybe mainstream criticism in Sydney is not a problem. That is certainly true in the sense that there is essentially only two newspapers that provide criticism and therefore it makes the debate null and void, but there are increasingly worrying things happening down at Darling Park, particularly online.

It now appears that the broadsheet Sydney Morning Herald is gradually doing less and less independent theatre and performance reviews while generally maintaining constant coverage of the institutional offerings with their larger budgets. What the Sydney Morning Herald online then does, to appear a lot more comprehensive than they actually are, is use the reviews of Jason Blake in the sister Sunday paper, The Sun Herald on their website. This is the equivalent of the Guardian using The Observer's reviews as their own.

No, the debate about gender and age in criticism hasn't even entered Sydney.

Is it any wonder?



Image: myopera.com

Yesterday's People

If last night's SAMAG forum about critics is any measure, there is something deeply wrong with arts debate in this country.

The event was excruciating.

I publicised the event on my blog, excited about the up-coming debates, this one at the Australia Council for the Arts and another separate debate as part of the Sydney Writers Festival in May.

I took the opportunity in my entry to question why there were no (current) critics on the panel, a fair enough query considering that we were talking about the role of the critic. I believe, and still do, that it was one of many gaping holes in last night's event.

The forum had four members on the panel: Deborah Jones, a former Arts Editor at The Australian and now an Executive Editor at Rupert Murdoch's flagship Australian newspaper; Merran Doyle, a theatre publicist for the Ensemble Theatre & Glen Street Theatre; theatre producer and tourer Marguerite Pepper; and Michael Reid, an art market analyst.

The event was branded with the below description:

What is the role of today’s critic? What are their responsibilities to the public, artists, producers and to the art form?
Arguably more art criticism is written and spoken today than ever before. With the global expansion of the art world, increased literacy and public involvement in the arts and the abundance of glossy catalogues, popular magazines and websites, it might seem that anyone can fancy themselves a critic.
In a dense environment of opinion are some critics more relevant than others? How do the professionals stack up against the bloggers?
Are there external factors shaping the view of the critic? Are they influenced by professional relationships, a media release, ideas and opinions of others?
These questions will be hotly debated at SAMAG’s April Seminar.

Hardly any of these questions were dealt with and those that were, were merely given a cursory glance.

And they were certainly not hotly debated.

Granted, the event started off very well. It was clear that I got under someone's collar after criticising the gaping hole on the panel. Marguerite Pepper used that opportunity to throw a great quote at my feet from David Adams in the New Welsh Review. It's an excellent piece.

And that started off the debate nicely. Marguerite was on the front foot and throwing ideas around the room - What is the role of the critic in the post-modernist age? The role of theatre and criticism as 'national conscience'? What is 'good criticism'? What is the connection between practice, identity and criticism?

But that lasted a total of five minutes and then the debate denigrated into cattle fodder. We got as far as discussing the role of critic as a marketing tool for publicists and how to get a critic to your event, we spent a good twenty minutes talking about how newspapers are cut up the day before print and we heard how important one of the panel was in the realm of the arts market.

We didn't even venture into the new media critic and we only briefly touched on the mediocrity of arts criticism. Blogs were mentioned twice - Alison Croggon was brought up once and an indigenous arts blog in the US was mentioned. But then we were told that if you are a critic and not paid, 'then you are an idiot' and that a blog 'probably only has an audience of 6'. We then delved into the world of maybe critics need to attend rehearsals to get a better idea of what the show is like, on the basis that new technology is changing the forms so much.

It was all so parochial. It was all so old-fashioned. It was all so yesterday.

Arts criticism is the thing that is changing so quickly and so dramatically and it is changing for the better. Suddenly mainstream critics and arts writers are being asked - What is your role? What is your relevance? And who is your audience? It is not the other way round.

But none of these questions were asked last night.

On one occasion, an intelligent question came from the floor - 'What is the difference between opinion and criticism?' His question was blown down as irrelevant, rephrased and thrown back at this poor man who had paid his $10 to get into the event.

The age of print media is quickly disappearing. Audiences, consumers, members of our community are starting to select where they get their information from, and it is increasingly being removed from the power of the print media.

If you had attended last night, you could have been forgiven for thinking that black and white ink was the only force still relevant to arts criticism. (And only if you ignored the fact that Rupert Murdoch is throwing millions of dollars at News Interactive and the online medium of interactivity, blogs, comments, reactions.)

If you look at my previous post where I quote from the 1968 book, Entertainment Arts in Australia, it showed that the level of debate then was more sophisticated, forward thinking, constructive and provoking.

The present mediocrity of opinion and the stale academic approach to arts criticism is leaving itself left behind. The critical writing you find is mostly clinical. I have argued that theatre criticism needs to shake off the dust and start looking into its relationship with the industry and the audience. Where is the passionate voice within arts criticism? I mean, seriously, can we just put a bomb under it all and get some passion going?

Last night fell into the typical trap of looking to New York as a model for the arts critic as personality/as passion/as a force. But that debate is totally irrelevant to what is happening in Australia right now. That is an American society of consumer entertainment, the quick buck and the hot dog stand. That is not how Sydney's arts community works, nor should it.

There is something deeply wrong with how arts debate travels in this community and last nights event was the perfect example. Let's not talk about the elephant in the room. Let's try and please everyone and let's be mediocre about where OUR arts are today. It's no wonder we are left with a few column inches at the back of the paper every day.

(This post owes a debt of gratitude to my companions who attended last night where a lot of the above originated from)

To be continued...

A marriage made in heaven?

Sydney Morning Herald journalists were caught a little unawares this afternoon when aussietheatre.com broke a story about the Sydney closure of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Arts Journalist understands that the the announcement broken by Troy Dodds, a local publicist and writer for aussietheatre.com, was around 48 hours before the intended announcement by producers. Diana Simmonds stagenoise.com also quickly got in on the act today.

The Herald's arts newsroom, who regularly pops into blogs and independent journalism for the latest in arts news suddenly found themselves a-fluster and without the big news that the new Australian musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert was picking up sticks and heading to Melbourne a month early of its one-year anniversary.

The article as reported in aussietheatre.com states, "Priscilla was involved in a behind the scenes battle with Miss Saigon over the right to be housed at the Lyric, with both shows having contracts with the theatre in what was building as a major internal theatrical controversy.

"Producers of both shows and officials from Star City have been locked in intense discussions over exactly which show would be playing at the Lyric come October. Miss Saigon appears to have won out, and is expected to announce a Sydney season shortly. The blockbuster show is currently enjoying a Melbourne season and is bound for Brisbane ahead of its Sydney run."

What is even more interesting is that all of these negotiations were affecting the opening dates of a new production of The Rocky Horror Show. Arts Journalist understands that this new production is to star Hedwig and the Angry Inch sensation iOTA.

aussietheatre.com reports that the "forthcoming production - scheduled to be staged at a soon to be re-named Star City Showroom - had been the unlikely victim of the battle between Priscilla and Miss Saigon, with moves underway to move one of the shows to the Showroom, which would have forced Rocky Horror out."

The effect of alternative arts websites are now starting to show themselves on the mainstream media. Let's hope that the Herald credit aussietheatre.com when they publish the story tomorrow.


UPDATE:

No, the SMH didn't credit aussietheatre.com, despite referring to its allegations that there was a tussle between the producer of Priscilla & Miss Saigon:
"McQuinn [the producer of Priscilla] denied there had been a behind-the-scenes tussle with the producers of Miss Saigon over use of the Lyric [Theatre]."
See this link for their article, one day later.


Image: (The image that everyone is using from) Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Caught in the Theatre Nets - Parts 2

One of the most wonderful things about starting a blog, is the little community that you set up through the so-called blog-o-sphere.

You will see on the right hand side of my page, a link to a few theatre based blogs that I go to. Most of them are Australian based, but there's a couple from the UK and one in the US. I owe Theatre Notes a lot of the credit for networking me in with the small community that are blogging about theatre in their respective towns.

This whole exercise has added a whole new dimension to the dialogue that has traditionally occurred within our local communities. Suddenly, the dialogue of theatre is happening in a more international framework and is opening up people that would usually keep their ideas and opinions to the dark corner of a pub out into the public sphere.

Since starting Arts Journalist, I have struggled with finding the right tone for my opinions. I am still struggling because a blog is a personal diary, a personal reflection that ones see fit to share with those that care to log in. But it I am getting closer and closer and the journey has only just begun.

It is quite different to the mass media instrument of going to print or broadcasting through the mainstream. You are your own editor and journalist and copy editor and sub editor and investigator.

The immediacy of rebuttal and comment suddenly lifts my personal thoughts and the public dialogue begins. I certainly have not reached the level of debate that I wish to see happening online, but slowly that is occurring and the community is slowly becoming aware of this new dimension to arts debate.

What has amazingly increased is the number of personal email responses I get, and an ever increasing traffic that is uniquely international. It would be true to say that most people log in from Sydney, but there is heavy traffic from Victoria and Queensland and more recently the other states in Australia. But so many regular visitors are hosted in Canada, the US, the UK, Slovenia, China and most surprisingly France & Germany.

One couldn't say that the first three months of Arts Journalist blogging haven't been contentious. But the real feedback I get is on the street. People I run into that have logged in and mentioned this, that or the other. If only I could could get them to leave their opinion, anonymous or otherwise, and get amongst the fray. But it is all new and sometimes you like to sit back and see where it heads without getting involved.

I can relate to that feeling and it has most recently occurred while I read a seven part installment by a dear friend of mine who reflected on a theatre experience he had while he was 25 and living in London. And over the course of a week, he published his reflection while a small band of us waited each day in the most eager anticipation for each installment.

It is seven chapters of beautiful writing that would make any theatre person crumble at the knees and make them remember the very earliest love and passion they have for this beautiful artform we have.

It made me take stock, and three months into my blog experiment forced me to remember the very reason I got involved with the theatre in the first place. I recalled those earliest times while studying theatre. I remembered the shows I first saw that changed my perspective. I remembered the simple and delicate beauty that theatre can bring to a society and the importance it has within our self made complications.

Have a look if you will.... the first installment starts here.... then go to the homepage and follow your nose from there...


Image: Epidaurus

Let's Bang a Few Heads Together

The Sydney Morning Herald today published the programme for this years Sydney Writers' Festival.

This is timely, considering my last couple of posts dealt with the lack of theatre industry forums.

I have had a quick look at the programme and have found a few highlights that may interest Arts Journalist readers.

The number one talk is being held on Friday June 1 at the Sydney Dance Company Studio 4 at 1.30-2.30pm - Everyone's a Critic: Has arts criticism become lost in the white noise of "arts and entertainment" journalism? Gerard Windsor, Alan Saunders, Julie Rigg, Andrew Ford and Bruce Elder - argue the importance of critical debate in forwarding cultural and intellectual life.

Other highlights I saw today, from my quick flick through the programme include:

• Jennifer Byrne is in conversation with Wah-Wah director and Withnail & I champion, Richard E Grant (Sydney Opera House)

• this city is a body - a cross disciplinary arts project that blends together the stories of migrants through theatre, dance, music & film (Hyde Park Barracks)

• The Book Thief author, Markus Zusak has a chat about novels set during the holocaust (Sydney Jewish Museum)

• UK writer Andrew O'Hagan gives an address about the power of literature through the media (Sydney Theatre)

• There's a multi-lingual performance of the work of Sufi poet Rumi (Auburn Council Gallery & Liverpool Migrant Centre)

• Internationally acclaimed Russian-French author Andrei Makine is in conversation (Sydney Theatre)

• The co-directors of the German Literature Institute give a talk about the state of German literature (Sydney Philharmonia Choir Studio)

• Blogs also get a guernsey at the festival too (hooray!) when The Monthly writer Gideon Haigh, Bille Brown and a few others talk about the contemporary memoir (The Mint)

• There's a forum on new writing from western Sydney sponsored by Powerhouse Youth Theatre (Museum of Sydney)

• Herald journo David Marr presents his Quarterly Essay on public debate in Howard's Australia (Richard Wherrett Studio) and also hosts a forum about the silencing of dissent by the Howard Government (Sydney Dance Company Studio 4)

• Eric Rasmussen talks about his new edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare (Richard Wherrett Studio)

• Currency House organises a talk about the preservation of Australian stories in the arts (Sydney Dance Company Studio 1)

• The Patrick White Playwrights' Award is announced, followed by a reading (Wharf 2 Theatre)

• The marvellous Don Watson gives a talk about his life's work (Sydney Theatre)

• There's a talk about the two newest British novels that are causing a lot of buzz (Sydney Theatre)

• Richard Flanagan, the Tasmanian author with no shortage of chutzpa has a chat with Malcolm Knox (Sydney Theatre)

• My new favourite journalist Rosemary Neill hosts a forum asking the question; are we neglecting Australian literature? (Sydney Dance Company Studio 1)

• and Chris Masters talks about the Jonestown journey (Sydney Philharmonia Choir Studio)

Sorry.

I didn't quite realise how many events I was excited about. Not surprisingly, it's only a snapshot of the whole programme which is to say the least, vast.


Image: knitsisters.com

Panel Beating Update

Just as I post the below rant about the need for forums, one of my colleagues shoots me an email and reminds me about the SAMAG forums held at the Australia Council of the Arts in Sydney.

I must admit to forgetting about these events that happen every month. I have attended them on a number of occasions and they are very good. The area where they are held though, is too corporate, too halogen lit and too formal.

But as the SAMAG website says, their forums are held for the arts industry as a whole and is primarily centred around "Directors and Managers of arts organisations"... not really around the practitioner - which would make the venue appropriate.

I should bring you to the attention of their up-and-coming forum entitled What is the role of today’s critic? on 30 April. The guest panel includes publicist Merran Doyle, producer Marguerite Pepper and art analyst Michael Reid.

The blurb says:

What are their responsibilities to the public, artists, producers and to the art form?
Arguably more art criticism is written and spoken today than ever before. With the global expansion of the art world, increased literacy and public involvement in the arts and the abundance of glossy catalogues, popular magazines and websites, it might seem that anyone can fancy themselves a critic.

In a dense environment of opinion are some critics more relevant than others? How do the professionals stack up against the bloggers?

Are there external factors shaping the view of the critic? Are they influenced by professional relationships, a media release, ideas and opinions of others?


I might head on down there and give them some blog action.

Anyone up for it?

Image: SAMAG Logo