AustLit

'This article adapts Doreen Massey's concept of space as a simultaneity and multiplicity of social relationships 'stretched out' over time, as a lens through which to consider the rapid emergence of a regional theatre sector during the 1890s mining boom on Western Australia's 'default frontier' Eastern Goldfields. In effect, we argue that while the locational surface of Eastern Goldfields theatre production was intensely local in its geographic and cultural specificities, it was also inalienably and reflexively affiliated with metropolitan centres of theatre production and consumption elsewhere in colonial Australia and the wider Anglopshere. We analyse the historical record of turn-of-the-twentieth-century Eastern Goldfields theatre performances to instantiate elements of 'chaos', by which Massey means 'happenstance juxtapositions' of cause and effect in theatre production within and beyond the region. At the same time, we argue that 'chaos' others itself as 'convergence', as local interests sought to consolidate regional control of the 'spatial ordering' of Goldfields theatre production and consumption.' (Publication abstract)

'On 12 May 1960, writes John Clark, 'Robert Quentin's remarkable production of Marc Connelly's The Green Pastures put NIDA on the theatrical map'. It was, indeed, NIDA's first public performance - the commonly cited Our Town was performed in-house in 1959, and the well-regarded repertory season of Hay Fever and Love's Labour's Lost made up the first graduation shows in October 1960, Despite the importance that Clark ascribes to it in his 2003 history of NIDA (quoted above), The Green Pastures is conspicuously absent from almost all institutional histories, and even for Clark it merits only this one sentence.' (Abstract introduction)

'This article reflects on the performance texts that I have written and dramaturged with Ranters Theatre over a twenty-two-year period, covering three phases of work, each of which engages everydayness as part of its methodology. A key focus is textual dramaturgy, how the text is constructed, critiqued and dramaturged in order to create a finished performance text of play. Comparison is drawn with other contemporary theatre practitioners in Melbourne and overseas who also engage the everyday as a central component of their raison d'etre.' (Abstract introduction)

'This article examines the implications that the new cultural competencies and literacies associated with participatory and popular cultures might hold for dramaturgy in terms of characterisation, creating a sense of space-time, and the artist's role in society. Our analysis focuses on Alex Vickery-Howe's new Australian play Out of the Ordinary (2016), situating it in the context of his earlier explorations of alternative dramaturgies, Once Upon a Midnight (2008) and Molly's Shoes (2011). Drawing structurally on the ways crossover and fusion have developed new cultural expression and reached new audiences in music and film, we investigate the creative potential that comics, manga, anime and related fan cultures might hold for dramaturgy. Our goal is to explore the thinking that underlies crossover and fusion as artistic practices requiring a kind of creative bilingualism - in our case, a mastery of the cultural competencies and literacies associated with cross- and multi-modal creative expression. We suggest that such creative bilingualism has been a continuing element in culture since the rise of melodrama, reminding us that expressive turns towards mystery, magic, intense spiritual experiences, etc, could, in fact, underscore social engagement. (Publication abstract)

'Each year, Adelaide hosts a range of diverse sporting and cultural events - headlined by the Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Fringe, and WOMADelaide - in Mad March'. When the 2012 open-air opening night concert of the Adelaide Festival by Ennio Morricone was disrupted by the nearby Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar Race, this concentration of events led to an unprecedented contest over Adelaide's urban space. This clash between cultural and sporting fans was indicative of what geographer Don Mitchell calls a 'culture war' that exposes a conflict with the place-making narratives of Adelaide as the capital of the 'Festival State'. In this article, I read the events, debates and discourses surrounding Adelaide's festivals in 2012 for how local cultural identities and priorities were staged, contested and renegotiated within the public sphere. I argue - drawing on theoretical concepts borrowed from cultural geography - that the cultural clash between V8s and violins was a competition between two groups exercising what David Harvey terms their 'right to the city' and 'power over the processes of urbanization' through their choice of leisure activity. This controversy calls into question South Australia's ongoing status as the nation's premier Festival State and provides a case sturdy through which to examine the role of ubiquitous arts festivals in place promotion and their impact on local culture.' (Publication abstract)