Chris Mead Chris Mead i(A75762 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 1 y separately published work icon Wondrous Strange : Seven Brief Thoughts on New Plays Chris Mead , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2022 24504829 2022 multi chapter work criticism

'WONDROUS STRANGE by dramaturg, director, and long-lime literary manager Chris Mead is a high-wire musing on what makes great plays. For anyone who is into theatre of any kind, read on …

'From Aristotle’s Poetics to Suzan-Lori Parks’ ‘bad math’ to the neurochemistry of storytelling, WONDROUS STRANGE takes the reader on a satisfyingly meandering journey through seven ‘thoughts’ on theatrical storytelling. Combining autobiography, practice and theory, Chris Mead has written a wondrous book for anyone who has ever grappled with what it means to tell a story on stage, one that both comprehensively elucidates the key schools of dramaturgical thought while celebrating their disruption and transformation.—ANCHULI FELICIA KING

'Mead’s wide-ranging, deeply researched and erudite book makes it clear that there are no simple formulas to follow if you want to write a great play. It takes talent and great perceptive power, but finally the process is so mysteriously complex as to make it ‘wondrous strange’.—DAVID WILLIAMSON

'Chris Mead—theatre-geek extraordinaire—shines a magnifying glass on this wondrous and strange medium of ours with this deep exploration of theatre at a cellular level throughout the ages. More than a brain dump, this is a carefully considered and finely crafted love poem to theatre that practitioners and theatre lovers from all walks of life can dive into and swim around in.—ANDREA JAMES

'Chris Mead promises ‘… vertigo, whiplash, forking paths and some thin ice ahead: but there is also insight and wonder’. He delivers each element superbly. His seven thoughts are provocative, insightful, wondrous, yes, and at times I felt the ice crack beneath me. This is not a manual, a how-to book to write plays … I’ve been writing plays for a long lime and I learned heaps but most importantly, I was reminded of how marvellous a play can be: full of wonder and as strange as can be.—PATRICIA CORNELIUS' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon What Is an Australian Play? Have We Failed Our Ethnic Writers? Chris Mead , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2008 Z1516892 2008 single work criticism 'Australia has a dynamic collection of stories and cultures - yet how many make it to our nation's stages? Is today's new work really reflecting our cultural diversity? Do we wait too long for writers to walk through our doors? Have we as an industry failed our playwrights and our audiences? How have other countries responded to the challenge of reflecting diversity? Dramaturg and director Chris Mead examines the way the UK handles the issue, reviews the national scene, asks some tough questions about institutional racism, colonial, national and community theatre, and proposes some exciting new ways to develop a more dynamic theatre culture.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 Playwriting Australia : A Very Brief History Chris Mead , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , May no. 169 2007; (p. 19)
1 A Bridge from Sport to Art Chris Mead , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Run Rabbit Run! 2004; (p. ix-xvii)
Mead describes the process of bringing Run Rabbit Run to production, particularly the strengths, potential weaknesses and difficulties in developing and staging verbatim theatre.
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