Australian Theatre After the New Wave

Policy, Subsidy and the Alternative Artist
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-90-04-33988-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 17, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 454 g

Reihe: Australian Playwrights

In Australian Theatre after the New Wave, Julian Meyrick charts the history of three ground-breaking Australian theatre companies, the Paris Theatre (1978), the Hunter Valley Theatre (1976-94) and Anthill Theatre (1980-94). In the years following the controversial dismissal of Gough Whitlam’s Labor government in 1975, these ‘alternative’ theatres struggled to survive in an increasingly adverse economic and administrative environment. Drawing on interviews and archival sources, including Australia Council fi les and correspondence, the book examines the funding structures in which the companies operated, and the impact of the main cultural policies of the period. It analyses the changing relationship between the artist and the State, the rise of a managerial ethos of ‘accountability’, and the growing dominance of government in determining the fate of the nation’s theatre. In doing so, it shows the deep historical roots of many of the problems facing Australian theatre today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Meyrick, Julian

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface. Brief History of Australian Theatre
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Note on Sources
Brief Chronology

Introduction
The Whitlam Era
Cultural Subsidy in Australia
Accounting for Australian Theatre: Different Approaches
Badiou and Truth

1 The Origins of Alternative Theatre
Alternative Theatre
Two Moments

2 The Paris Theatre 1978
The Sydney ‘Scene’
The Paris Narrative
The Paris Reviewed
The Meaning of the End

3 The Hunter Valley Theatre Company 1976–1994
Steel City
The Neeme Era
Into the 1980s with Brent McGregor
The Governmentalisation of the Arts
Last Years of the hvtc
The Group of Six
The Meaning of the End

4 Australian Nouveau Theatre 1980–85
The No. 1 Tram
In Search of a Company
ant and the Event of Artaud
Mignon’s Return
ant’s Place in the World

5 Australian Nouveau Theatre 1986–89
From Triumph to Disaster
Chekhov and Beyond: Integrating the New Wave Legacy
Loss of Funding
The Refused Artist Accepted

6 Australian Nouveau Theatre 1990–91
The Ghosts of Emerald Hill
The Company Reborn
The Funding Game

7 Australian Nouveau Theatre 1992–94
The Move to Gasworks Theatre
ant, Ruined

8 Australian Nouveau Theatre: The Meaning of the End
Internal Problems
External Problems
The Destruction of Fellowship: ant vs. Playbox
Creative Nation: Culture with the Art Left Out

Conclusion
The Logic of Culture: The Fate of the ‘New’
The Post-Whitlam Era
(No) End of an Idea

Select Bibliography
Interviewees
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Julian Meyrick, Ph.D. (2000, La Trobe), is Professor of Creative Arts at Flinders University. Director of many award-winning theatre productions, he is the author of See How It Runs, a history of Sydney’s Nimrod company, and numerous publications on Australian theatre and cultural policy.