As Eunice Hanger became more involved and passionate in the drama field, she often reviewed the development of Australian drama and playwrights. Most of her articles reflected her concerns in the identity of Australian drama which was significantly shaped by works that were heavily influenced by Ray Lawler’s famous Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1960).
Due to the popular favour of The Doll, the Australian Elizabethan Trust began to run competitions and only selected plays that shares similar patterns, neglecting many other well-written plays, which further limited the identity of Australian drama, upsetting Hanger ("Lamed Albatross"). This drove many less conventional writers back to Little Theatres, which has always been encouraging Australian drama and writers to improve their techniques, with the expectation that their creation may have the capacity to induce proficient entrepreneurs to take the play further (Hanger, "Australian Drama Now" 76). As a result of this, she began to collect well-written but unrealised manuscripts. Thanks to her, there is a collection of over 2000 manuscripts that are currently preserved in the Fryer Library. In the process of collecting these manuscripts, she has also accurately identified a few playwrights who later became successful and earned international recognition. This includes playwrights such as: Patrick White, David Ireland and Ray Mathew.
Hanger also emphasised the importance of stage settings in a play. She criticised the repetitiveness of settings being used in many dramas, which has further limited the identity of Australian drama and also described some settings as being "sordid" (Hanger, "Some contemporary realistic plays for Little Theatres"). She mentioned that a good setting is vital in providing the direction for the characters and will help the audience better recognise the characters (Hanger, "Place in Australian Plays"). She also claimed that the juxtapositioning in a play is essential to provide meaning yet theatrically entertaining. Hence, she was impressed that the settings used in Patrick White's The Ham Funeral and the Season at Sarasaparilla has managed to achieve a "timeless quality or sense of universal significance" (Hanger, "The Setting in Patrick White’s Two Plays: Unlocalized in the Ham Funeral, Australian in Season at Sarsaparilla" 653).
Hanger also criticised the poor development of theatres in Queensland, in particular for Little Theatres that had not managed to get hold of their own theatre. Many of the rented halls were not designed specifically for theatrical production, hence not fully equipped and not sound proofed and not fully equipped, which disturbed the process of the production ("Theatre in Queensland" 120).
Since Hanger was an English teacher and lecturer, her articles also highlights her desire in preserving language in theatre. Her interest and criticisms in linguistic aspects in theatre, such as phonetics ("Fair Dinkum, That’s Real Cute" 40) and the association of meaning with words (“Address to Gympie High School speech night"). Furthermore, she was highly inspired by the works of Shakespeare which prompted her into writing her thesis entitled Prose in Shakespeare, when she was pursuing her Masters in 1940.
During her later life, Hanger was engaged in the mentorship of various playwrights. As a result of these relationships, Hanger would often become engaged in further publication or editorial of works. Hanger took particular interest in one-act plays and was involved in several publication, including 6 One-Act Plays and Drama for High Schools. Furthermore, 2D and Other Plays was compiled after Hanger’s death in order to commemorate the works that she has done (Sykes and Tarling). Hanger’s mentorship of various Australian playwrights is particularly evident in the correspondence that she made with other authors regarding the publication of their one-act plays, specifically in the instances of editing and audience response (Hanger Correspondence, Box 1).
As a well-established playwright, Hanger was often involved in the publication and criticism of various Australian dramatic literature. Her involvement in the University of Queensland Press (UQP) is well documented, and the press helped publish many of her better known works. The emergence of the University of Queensland Press in 1948 as a major literary and academic publisher was a significant element to the production and preservation of Australian dramatic literature in the post-war years (Hatherelle 26).
Hanger discusses at length the state of publishing houses in regards to dramatic Australian literature with fellow author Irene Summy. Hanger had stated that ‘Australian’s don’t like to read about themselves’ and as a consequence, the failure to promote Australian literature meant that Australian drama had great difficulty in becoming published (Hanger Correspondence, Box 1).
Previously, much of the publication of Australian literature and plays came about through grants for Australian drama. Hanger often contended that the pre-written works often had difficulty gaining publicity and, as a result - publication, because The Council of Arts had created grants to commission only new Australian Plays.
Hanger was aware of the nature of publication and was determined that her role as publisher should operate to make curb a decline in the publication of good Australian dramatic literature that was not formed to the specificities of the Council of Arts. She consequently became very active in publishing a specific type of work - previously unpublished works of Australian dramatic literature that she deemed an authentic representation of dramatic writing during post-war period (Hanger Correspondence, Box 1).
To read more about her editorial works and publications, click here.
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