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Caroline Wake Caroline Wake i(6040264 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Local Archive, Distant Reading : Performance Space At Cleveland Street And Carriageworks Caroline Wake , Boni Cairncross , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 76 2020; (p. 6-7) 'Founded in 1983, Sydney's Performance Space spent almost quarter of a century at 199 Cleveland Street, Redfern, before moving to Carriageworks in 2007. In doing so, it gave up being the sole occupant of a building, albeit a rather dilapidated one, for the promise of being an anchor tenant in a newly converted, post-industrial arts space. Since then, it has also had to negotiate the shift from being an anchor tenant to one of several resident companies, alongside Carriageworks' own curatorial team. This article undertakes a 'distant reading' of the dataset assembled under the auspices of AusStage, to analyse how this shift has changed Performance Space's programme, artists, audiences and aesthetics. Specifically, we identify three continuities: a deep and abiding commitment to liveness; an ongoing interest in interdisciplinary and intermedial art forms; and a home for independent dance. We also identify several differences, including: a decrease in the volume of programming and a narrowing of the types of performance and visual art on offer; a decline in the number of ensembles and a rise in live art; and a festivalisation of programming. Nonetheless, this cannot be attributed solely to the move, as the carriageworks era coincides with a period of major cuts to arts funding.' (Authors abstract)
1 Carriageworks Was in Trouble before Coronavirus - but This Crisis Could Be an Opportunity Caroline Wake , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 7 May 2020;

'This week news broke that Carriageworks – Australia’s largest contemporary multi-arts centre – had gone into voluntary administration.'
1 Australia’s Major Summer Arts Festivals : Reckoning with the Past or Retreating into It? Caroline Wake , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 19 November 2019;

'Australia invests heavily in its major festivals: A$5 million in state government funding for Sydney Festival, $7 million for Perth, and $9 million for Adelaide.'
1 Henrietta Baird’s The Weekend Proves the Enduring Power of Solo Performance Caroline Wake , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 23 January 2019;

'If this year’s Sydney Festival is any indication, the monologue is back. So far, I have seen Adam Lazarus’s Daughter, Joel Bray’s Biladurang, Omar Musa’s Since Ali Died, Tara Beagan’s Deer Woman, and now Henrietta Baird’s The Weekend.'  (Introduction) 
1 Postcard from the Edge : Tom Holloway's beyond the Neck and the Limits of Verbatim Caroline Wake , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 72 2018; (p. 100-125)

'When the New South Wales Board of Studies put Tom Holloway’s Beyond the Neck (2007) on the list of prescribed texts for the Year 12 Verbatim Theatre elective, they seemed to be wilfully ignoring the playwright’s statement that the play is not verbatim. On the one hand, the lack of vernacular speech and characters that correspond to real-life people would seem to confirm Holloway’s argument. Conversely, the play’s reliance on interviews, community consultation, bottom-up history and mode of diegetic theatricality would seem to support the Board of Studies’ decision. This article argues that this difference of opinion is due, in part, to a difference of definition: whereas Holloway conceives of verbatim as a genre, the Board of Studies sees it as a practice. To contemplate verbatim as a practice opens the way for new research across theatre, performance, dance, television and film.'  (Publication abstract)
1 My Name Is Jimi Is a Four-generation Torres Strait History on Stage Caroline Wake , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 12 January 2018;
— Review of My Name Is Jimi Dimple Bani , Jimi Bani , Jason Klarwein , 2017 single work drama

'The people and stories of the Torres Strait rarely appear on Sydney’s stages. When they do, it is often under the label of “Indigenous” — a term that conflates very different cultures and histories and erases the specificity of these islands as well as the diversity within them. There are, for a start, 15 inhabited islands that fall into five groups; residents speak two languages and several dialects; and there’s a large diaspora on the mainland.' (Introduction)
1 Barbara and the Camp Dogs Turns Pub Theatre into an Impassioned Call to Listen to Indigenous Australians Caroline Wake , 2017 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 7 December 2017;
— Review of Barbara and the Camp Dogs Ursula Yovich , Alana Valentine , 2017 single work musical theatre

'Barbara and the Camp Dogs begins the way most pub gigs do — with a sound check. The audio engineer skips onto the raised stage, tests a microphone, and then hurries back to his desk. The three members of the band stand around, casually surveying the room. Behind them a blackboard announces their name, the menu ($5 sliders), the drinks (50% off house wines and selected beer) and the happy hour (4-7pm).' (Introduction)
1 The Politics and Poetics of Listening: Attending Headphone Verbatim Theatre in Post-Cronulla Australia Caroline Wake , 2014 single work
— Appears in: Theatre Research International , July vol. 39 no. 2 2014; (p. 82-100) 'This article analyses Stories of Love & Hate, a headphone verbatim play produced in the aftermath of the Cronulla Riots in Sydney, Australia. While verbatim theatre typically invites audiences to listen therapeutically, Stories of Love & Hate enacts and enables two alternative forms of listening. First, it enacts the paradoxical mode of ‘ethical eavesdropping’; second, it enables the metatheatrical mode of ‘mediatized listening’. In doing so, the play asks spectators to reconsider whom they listen to and how. It also asks scholars to reconsider claims that verbatim theatre gives voice to those who go unheard by the media. Instead, the article argues that in the case of Stories of Love & Hate, headphone verbatim theatre enables the audience to listen to how the media listen.' (Publication abstract)
1 To Witness Mimesis : The Politics Ethics and Aesthetics of Testimonial Theatre in Through the Wire Caroline Wake , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Modern Drama , Spring vol. 56 no. 1 2013; (p. 102-125) 'This paper examines an Australian 'verbatim play' about asylum seekers, Through the Wire, in order to consider the relationship between realism and witnessing in the theatre. It argues that verbatim or testimonial theatre is better understood as a form of realism than as a form of documentary theatre, as is usually the case. Current scholarship in both theatre and trauma studies criticizes realist approaches principally on ethical grounds, without necessarily accounting for a play's political effects. Through an analysis of Through the Wire's production and reception, I suggest that, while testimonial theatre may be ethically problematic, it can also be politically efficacious, precisely because of its realist aesthetics.' (Author's abstract)
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