Cirrus@Austlit

'This article is in four parts. First, I discuss the emerging worldwide phenomenon of commercial cinema screenings of live stage performances. Second, I chart some attempts by Australia's major performing arts organisations to do likewise. Third, I examine more closely one simultaneous satellite relay screening to nine regional cities: a performance of a Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) production of Tom Wright's Black Diggers, directed by Wesley Enoch, on Wednesday 8 October 2014. Finally, I attempt some brief thoughts on where this new area of work could be heading.' (Publication abstract)

'Sumner Locke Elliott is remembered in Australia primarily for his novels and their popular screen adaptations. He is also known for his play 'Rusty Bugles' first produced in 1948. In the USA, he is know for his television writing. In spite of Locke Elliott's immense achievements as a writer who successfully wrote in so many genres and quickly adapted his craft to the rapidly expanding medium of television, there is little scholarship about his contribution to drama on stage, radio or television, with the exception of commentary on Rusty Bugles. Moreover the network in which he worked from 1934 until 1948 has also suffered critical neglect.' (Publication summary)

'Between 1943 and 1960, Australian playwright Oriel Gray had more than fourteen theatre scripts produced in almost every capital city of Australia. She was arguably the first playwright-in-residence in Australia's history and one of only a few Australian playwrights to make her living from her work. She wrote numerous radio plays for 2KY in the 1940s and many more for the then Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in the 1950s. She was well respected and well reviewed. She won many playwriting awards, including the Wagga Wagga play competition prize in 1946 for My Life Is My Affair, the J.C. Williamson Guild competition prize in 1960 for Burst of Summer and the 1955 Playwrights Advisory Board's (PAB) prize for the best Australian play with her script The 'Torrents'.' (Publication abstract)