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Robyn Archer Robyn Archer i(A20703 works by) (birth name: Robyn Smith)
Born: Established: 1948 Adelaide, South Australia, ;
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 That Good Old Double Standard Robyn Archer , 2022 single work lyric/song
— Appears in: The First Australian Women’s Song Book 2022;
1 Sweet Solitary Blues Robyn Archer , 2022 single work lyric/song
— Appears in: The First Australian Women’s Song Book 2022;
1 Suburban Sonnet Robyn Archer , 2022 single work lyric/song
— Appears in: The First Australian Women’s Song Book 2022;
1 y separately published work icon Surviving the Pandemic : Robyn Archer on Living in the Time of Covid-19 Robyn Archer , Peter Rose (presenter), 2020 20181015 2020 single work podcast essay

'Peter Rose – before introducing this week’s ABR Podcast guest – updates readers on ABR’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Australia Council’s inexplicable decision not to fund ABR in 2021–24.

'Then Robyn Archer – renowned performer and ABR Laureate – currently hunkering down in Melbourne, reflects on how people are surviving and what Australia might look like when it emerges from this crisis.' (Introduction)

1 Behind the Scene : Uncovering the Unspoken Robyn Archer , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 69 2020; (p. 91-96)
'In the middle of the twentieth century. most Australian actors who wished to consider themselves 'legitimate' would still have considered the acquisition of a quasi-British accent an essential ingredient for success—here at home, and as part and parcel of the passport to a career in British stage and film. Chips Rafferty was an exception, and his distinctly Australian argot ensured his roles were limited to Australian characters. Commonwealth ties were still strong back then, and despite the fact of postwar European immigration, which brought so many workers to labour on 'nation-building' projects, Australia's cultural ties were still very much with Britain. The program of the first Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1960 was overwhelmingly British. Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll had been produced in Melbourne in 1955 — and though both were writing earlier, David Williamson's plays only took hold in the 1970s, and those of Jack Davis in the 1980s. It was yet another decade before other Australian voices started to be taken seriously. And as the voices of First Nations people grew louder, so we also started to hear and sec the stories of those who had come from Europe, then Asia-Pacific, India and what's still referred to colonially as the Middle East. ' (Introduction)
 
1 'I Spoke to Many People and Listened' : On Living in a Time of Covid-19 Robyn Archer , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 421 2020; (p. 11-13)

'Closeted but not isolated, everyone will have a story, so there’s nothing special here. But the common difference is clear. When it’s about Brexit or Trump there, it’s us to them; when it’s bushfires here, it’s them to us. We have been globally entwined for decades, but the economic and political truths are mostly covert. It’s taken Covid-19 to put us all overtly at the same risk at the same time.' (Introduction)

1 So Dry a Homeland : A Thirst for Life Quenched, a New Thirst for Answers Robyn Archer , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 55 2017; (p. 11-18)
'There are still some hot summer nights when I can tool around Adelaide with the windows down and feel like a teenager on the hunt. It’s 30 degrees at eight in the evening, and down at the beach people are queuing for ice-cream. Henley Square’s pumpin’ and hoons are chuggin’ the strip.' (Introduction)
1 Arts Highlights of the Year Robyn Archer , Ben Brooker , Tim Byrne , Lee Christofis , Alison Croggon , Brett Dean , Ian Dickson , Julie Ewington , Morag Fraser , Andrew Fuhrmann , Colin Golvan , Fiona Gruber , Patrick McCaughey , Brian McFarlane , Primrose Potter , John Rickard , Peter Rose , Dina Ross , Michael Shmith , Doug Wallen , Terri-Ann White , Kim Williams , Jake Wilson , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 376 2015; (p. 36-42)
'To highlight Australian Book Review's arts coverage and to celebrate some of the year's memorable concerts, operas, films, ballets, plays, and exhibitions, we invited a group of critics and arts professionals to nominate their favourites – and to nominate one production they are looking forward to in 2016. (We indicate which works were reviewed in Arts Update.)' (36)
1 Kindness by Numbers : Why Funding the Arts Is a Good Thing Robyn Archer , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 376 2015; (p. 33-35)
'Robyn Archer debated Peter Singer during the 2015 Melbourne Writers Festival; their topic was 'Is Funding the Arts Doing Good?'. This is an edited version of her paper.'
1 5 y separately published work icon Detritus : Addressing Culture and the Arts Robyn Archer , Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2010 Z1703128 2010 selected work prose

'Due to significant demand, UWA Publishing has gathered together a selection of Robyn Archer's most memorable keynote speeches and memorial lectures from the past seven years. Key addresses include: Garma Opening Keynote: Garma Festival, Gulkala, North East Arnhem Land; Keynote Address: Arts, Culture, Tourism Better Business Blitz, Perth; Materials for Life: The Enduring Value of Biography, The National Biography Award Annual Lecture 2006; Reflecting Identity: The Inevitable Role of Culture, Menzies Lecture, South Range Theatre, King's College London; Keynote Address: Raise Your Voice, Fourth National Public Galleries Summit, Townsville; Unconditional Love: Industry that Pays, and Art that Doesn't, The Wal Cherry Lecture, Flinders University.

These words were written to be 'performed' and as such Robyn regards them as Detritus, that which remains of the act of public speaking. Grappling with the matters of how artists live and work, and what we do with this work in the wider cultural sphere, this collection of Robyn's speeches is designed to entertain and provoke.' Source: www.newsouthbooks.com.au (Sighted 20/04/2011)

1 3 Architektin Robyn Archer , 2008 single work drama The story of Vienna's first female German architect , Margrete Schutte Lihotsky.
1 Materials for Life : The Enduring Value of Biography Robyn Archer , 2006 single work essay
— Appears in: AtMichell , July vol. 2 no. 2 2006; (p. 12-13)
This is an edited extract of Robyn Archer's national Biography Award address given at the State Library of NSW on 16 March 2006.
1 2 y separately published work icon The Myth of the Mainstream : Politics and Performing Arts in Australia Today Robyn Archer , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2005 Z1194157 2005 single work criticism

In a passionate personal/political statement, Australia's most celebrated festival director and cabaret artist accuses Australia and its political leaders of selling out its arts to populism. 'A prejudice against the intellectual, a preference for pure entertainment, the adherence to 'in or out', 'black or white' -- these are some of the consequences of falling for the myth of the mainstream.' Archer urges her readers to be curious, to question and debate. 'If the myth goes unchallenged, the spirit of art will continue to be marginalised. Those who believe we can afford that loss in the morass of mistakes and short-term thinking that make life on this earth increasingly pleasurable for the few and tortured for the many, those people need the power of art far more than they know.'

(Source: Currency House website, http://www.currencyhouse.org.au/pages/pp_issue_04.html)

1 Ten Days Through the Mill Robyn Archer , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Australian , 21 March 2003; (p. 24)
Robyn Archer responds to anti-logging campaigners targeting Tasmania's arts festival.
1 My Diary : Robyn Archer Robyn Archer , Claire Halliday , 2002 single work diary
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 6 October 2002; (p. 2)
1 1 y separately published work icon Island no. 85 Autumn Robyn Archer (editor), Z819850 2001 periodical issue
1 Just 50 Words Robyn Archer , 1999 single work short story
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 2 January 1999; (p. 6)
1 y separately published work icon A Weimar Cabaret Robyn Archer , Michael Morley , 1996 (Manuscript version)x400094 Z849994 1996 single work musical theatre
1 The Menstruation Blues : Chorus i "I got the menstruation, the menstruation blues,", Robyn Archer , 1995 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Oxford Book of Australian Women's Verse 1995; (p. 196)
1 The Big Picture Robyn Archer , 1994 single work poetry
— Appears in: Hope and Fear : An Anthology of South Australian Women's Writing, 1894-1994 1994; (p. 411)
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