y separately published work icon Collection #7 : 27 New Plays from the Australian Script Centre anthology   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Collection #7 : 27 New Plays from the Australian Script Centre
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The twenty-seven plays on this CD have been selected by our National Reading Group as representing some of the best in contemporary Australian scriptwriting. Many of them have either won or been short-listed for major prizes, and they cover a wide range of themes and styles, from documentary theatre to seditious comedy and apocalyptic drama. Some of the playwrights are well-established, others are emerging writers whose work shows exciting potential. (Source: CD ROM)

Notes

  • CD contains the twenty-seven featured scripts in Collection #7: 27 New Scripts From The Australian Script Centre full text in read-only PDF format.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,:Australian Script Centre , 2008 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Australian Gothic, Mary Rachel Brown , single work drama (p. 4)
Before I Get Old, Chris Edmund , single work drama humour
'Set in England in the 1950s and 60s, we follow the often comic fortunes of a group of kids - from the chaos of primary school to the uniformity of secondary school, sexual awakening and the trials and tribulations of adolescence. The austerity of post-war Britain gives way to the freedoms and problems of the 'Swinging Sixties' as the kids and their parents face a changing world and values. Written with the assistance of an Edith Cowan University research grant, and the contribution of WAAPA acting students.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website)
 (p. 5)
Concerto For Humans and Semtex, Simon Luckhurst , single work drama
We now live in an age where every whispered discussion is a potential invitation to terrorism. In 'Concerto for Humans and Semtex' we hear four simultaneous conversations. One will lead to something dire. Which do you listen to? This play examines our fears and reactions to the War on Terror, and explores some of the inconsistencies revealed when we fight against an emotion rather than a nation. (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 6 pages)
The Call, Patricia Cornelius , single work drama

'Funny, disturbing and bittersweet, The Call is an enthralling drama about a young man looking to escape a suburban life.

Gary stares into the eyes of a chook. After laying twenty thousand eggs and spending an entire life inside a tiny cage, she's facing the chop.

Gary has had a confined life too - most of it spent looking for girls, stealing cars and wagging school. Now it's become a succession of dull, dirty and dangerous jobs.

But Gary yearns for something that can make sense of life for him - give it meaning. He hears the call. One that roars inside him. A call of the wild, a call to arms, a call to prayer, a call of adventure...' (Publisher's blurb)

 (p. 7)
Colder, Lachlan Philpott , single work drama
'A young boy is separated from his mother and goes missing in Disneyland. Adrift in the artificial world of giant mice and noisy parades, nobody can account for what happened in the seven frantic hours before he's found. Years later his life seems normal, stable, happy. But something about that day haunts him. Something about that day remains unresolved. And then, he disappears again ...'(Source: Australian Script Centre website)
 (p. 7)
Crystal, Caleb Lewis , single work drama
'Crystal follows six young kids as an other-worldly storm descends on their neighbourhood, threatening to break their homes and tear apart their families. Crystal adopts elements of magic realism and suburban ennui to explore divorce and its effects upon families and children in an altogether unique and utterly theatrical form.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 9)
Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue, Version 1.0 , single work drama

'Deeply Offensive and Utterly Untrue' is based on the report of the 2006 'Inquiry into certain Australian companies in relation to the UN Oil-For-Food Programme' commonly referred to as the 'Cole Inquiry'. The Inquiry investigated 'whether decisions, actions, conduct or payments by Australian companies mentioned in the Volcker Inquiry into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme breached any [Australian] Federal, State or Territory law'.

 (p. 10)
Dirty Women, Elizabeth Bennett , single work drama
'Louise Bayle sees herself as a sculptor with a hideous piece of public art to live down. The art establishment, however, insists on remembering her only as a painter from the 1970s and a member of the group called the Dirty Women. But that was thirty years ago, and for Louise painting is as dead and gone as the other two original Dirty Women: Vi and Sarah. Now someone has started to revive Louise's 1970s career. The dead and gone, it seems, are still capable of making a mess. On the market, her old paintings are suddenly bringing in big money. Louise is desperate to make one last sculpture, but all she has is a daughter who wants to catalogue her, a shed the Council wants to evict her from, and a graffiti-writer friend who thinks he's the only one ever to fight the filthy capitalists by making art for nothing.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 11)
Enemy Material, Simon Froehling , single work drama
'A mock marriage is supposed to allow Imad to escape the discrimination in his country. His lover, his alibi-wife and his advocate discuss the details in Imad's absence. To lie accurately, they have to align their stories about him - and yet they keep contradicting themselves. Imad turns into a blind spot, into a stranger whose life is diametrically opposed to the liberal and casual world of his friends, and who eludes definitions.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 13)
The Eyes of Marege, Julie Janson , single work drama

'The sights and sounds of Indigenous Australia and Indonesia are brought to life in a unique fusion of high-powered physical theatre, music, song and dance. This show tells the extraordinary story of a young Indigenous man's journey to Makassar at the turn of the 20th Century.'

Source: Sydney Opera House website, http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com
Sighted: 24/09/2007

 (p. 14)
The Kursk, Sasha Janowicz , single work drama
'The Kursk is based on the events surrounding the sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine that resulted in the deaths of all 118 Russian submariners aboard. Using real testimonies and documentary materials, The Kursk follows the submariners' final moments on board, the rescuers' urgent mission and the relatives' desperate vigil on shore.' Source: /www.metroarts.com.au (Sighted 16/08/2008).
 (p. 14)
The Lightkeeper, Verity Laughton , single work drama
'Jack Power, an ex-seaman, is a lightkeeper at an unnamed lighthouse on the south-east coast (the 'shipwreck coast') of South Australia. The play covers his midnight-to-dawn watch on a stormy night with a struggling ship in the near distance. Jack revisits the major events of his turbulent life and, in particular, his love for and loss of the widow, Agnes Mary Taylor and her six-year-old son, Henry.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 16)
Marmalade and Egg, Melissa Cantwell , single work drama humour
'Married to a chicken farmer, and now a faded beauty queen, Marmalade wishes she'd crossed her legs during her reign as Miss Sweet Potato '79. Taking command of her only child's wedding, Marmalade is compelled to sabotage her own plans in a desperate bid to become the centre of attention. Events begin to unravel when her daughter Egg's fiance, a sexy American fighter pilot, jets onto the scene.' Source: www.perththeatre.com.au/ (Sighted 01/03/2007).
 (p. 17)
Memmie Le Blanc, Hilary Bell , single work drama (p. 18)
Mrs Petrov's Shoe, Noëlle Janaczewska , single work drama
'In the afternoon of 19 April, 1954 Evdokia Petrov, wife of a recently defected Soviet spy, was dragged, weeping and with one foot bare, across the tarmac at Sydney's Mascot Airport to be sent back to the USSR. Forty years later, in 1994, Helen Demidenko released The Hand That Signed the Paper about her experience growing up a Ukrainian Australian, to widespread critical acclaim - before being unmasked as not quite the person she claimed to be. The play revisits both of these startling events and explores Cold War Australia fears of Russian spies and 'Reds under every Bed'. Source: http://www.theprogram.net.au/giveawaysSub.asp?id=682&state_id= (Sighted 21/04/06).
 (p. 19)
Nailed, Caleb Lewis , single work drama (p. 20)
Plaything, Simon Dodd , single work drama humour
''Plaything' is a comedy that focuses on five characters who inadvertently are trapped on a stage with an audience observing them. The main characters, HE and SHE, have no recollection of who they are or why they are here, yet feel the pressure and obligation to perform for the audience. They are joined by OTHER MAN, who shares their lack of identity and purpose, but not their concern, and soon dies in curious circumstances.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 21)
Precipice, Tommy Murphy , single work drama
'Four thirteen-year-old boys dare each other to jump from a cliff into the harbour. One can't do it. He remains on stage summoning the courage to leap as scenes from the future reveal the characters at various stages of adolescence. Then one of the boys on the cliff reveals a secret power. Like the audience, Yusuf can see the future. Initially his premonitions are fun, and aim to reassure the boy who can't jump. Then a darker premonition is exposed as one of the boys' futures goes blank. How will Yusuf use this knowledge? Will anyone listen?' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 22)
Ruby's Last Dollar, Reg Cribb , single work drama
'Ruby Constance has a past as rich as her dreams of the future. As she sits at her favourite poker machine, 'The Dancing Lady', with only one coin to her name, her life swirls around her in a cavalcade of memories. Memories that tell the history of Australia's post-war past, and tantalise us like the $50,000 jackpot that hangs over Ruby's head, but is oh so far out of her reach.

Ruby's pokie becomes her friend, her confidante and her confessor. As we trawl through the scattered remnants of her life, we see a little orphan girl from Sydney drag herself out of the gutter to become a bona fide Tivoli star, only to find herself back on the streets again and eventually in a suburban RSL, lost amongst a sea of pokies.

This is the story of a survivor, a woman who would risk everything to ensure a better life for her granddaughter, but who has only one thing left to gamble with - her precious, lucky coin. If she puts this coin in the slot, will she win the jackpot, or will she lose all that is left of her?'. (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 23)
A Solitary Choice, Sheila Duncan , single work drama humour
'Ruth is married with a six-year-old son, but has had an affair with a musician from the Andes. She discovers she is pregnant and must make a choice. Will she have her beloved 'black-eyed girl', or will she be too afraid? A one-woman play about the real social and economic pressures a woman must face when considering an unwanted pregnancy.' (Source: Australian Script Centre website).
 (p. 25)
VIEW ENTIRE CONTENTS ( works)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Untitled Glen R Johns , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Lowdown , April vol. 31 no. 2 2009; (p. 32)
— Review of Collection #7 : 27 New Plays from the Australian Script Centre 2008 anthology drama
Untitled Glen R Johns , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Lowdown , April vol. 31 no. 2 2009; (p. 32)
— Review of Collection #7 : 27 New Plays from the Australian Script Centre 2008 anthology drama
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (1)
Last amended 10 Jun 2009 14:54:25
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