‘Shift’ - a play about contemporary life in the Hunter Valley (working title)
A two year project the purpose of which is to write and produce a play connected to the lives of the people of the Hunter, in particular those who work and live in the Singleton and Muswellbrook local government areas.
The project will engage professional artists to work with the community through the process of research, script development, production and final public presentation. The format has been designed to enable individuals to be mentored and to actively participate in all stages of the writing and production of the play. The resulting play (title unknown) will be performed for the public potentially at a variety of venues throughout the region.
The project started with the engagement of playwright PP Cranney March 2010
“I have spent most of my professional writing life working to create theatre and publications that express the concerns, aspiration, the character and the spirit of many diverse communities all over Australia,” says Pat. His projects have been varied the common thread being that they have resulted from engagement with people about issues that are heart-felt. In 2000 he won an AWGIE award for
HOME produced by
Shopfront Theatre for Young People it was constructed as a multi-stranded piece weaving separate, unrelated stories together to give a complex exploration of the theme of belonging (or not) from the point of view of young people.
Home was published in November 2009 in an anthology by Currency Press. Closer to home, some may remember the closure of the Newcastle Steelworks. Pat was involved in developing a book
Tailing Out, which documented the history of the closure from the workers’ point of view. Working with a theatre company stories were adapted from the book into physical theatre performance, which had seasons in Newcastle and Wollongong. His efforts have been acclaimed through the receipt of numerous national and local awards, in 2001 he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services in Australian society in writing for the stage. Suffice to say we are very happy to have him coming to work with us in this region.
To meet the man, see www.currency.com.au/October
First Residency
Pat spent 2 weeks in and around Muswellbrook and Singleton, in April. During this time he interviewed people who either work shift work or are impacted by those who do. This included nurses, police, miners, truck drivers, the partners of all of these, their children and the occassional pet. He also ran workshops at the two libraries and St Catherine's in Singelton and Muswellbrook High School. He has collected an enormous amount of information and has gone away sift through it and start writing.
Second Residency
Pat will return on August 23 for another week in the area. He will be brining some ideas to test out on the public. He will again be asking people for their input, but this time in response to what he has been working on and the ideas that have developed. Public readings/workshops will take place at a number of different locations yet to be finalised.
Anyone wishing to be involved in any way please do not hesitate to contact Arts Upper Hunter 02 4992 1033.
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