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1 1 y separately published work icon Criticism, Performance and the Need for Conversation Alison Croggon , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2019 18275953 2019 single work criticism

'In this paper Alison Croggon, one of Australia’s most insightful cultural critics, looks back from the days when the daily broadsheet newspapers were unrivalled in authority, to the collapse of the print media and opening of a free market for digital public opinion. The dramatic downsizing of the Fairfax empire’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age hit arts journalism badly and coincided with the rise of arts-oriented websites across Australia. Croggon sees the demise of the old criticism as a loss of power and received wisdom but also an opportunity to engage artists, critics and audiences in conversations of global collaboration and reference. With this breakdown of institutional criticism, which, she says, had latterly focussed on art as a commodity, came the opportunity rethink our assumptions about what critical responses to art might be. It has offered a chance to open the door to new ways of thinking, a way of enriching both the communities around art and the process of making art itself.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Changing Landscape of Australian Documentary Tom Zubrycki , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2019 17346135 2019 single work criticism 'Documentaries matter now more than ever. Documentary storytelling is a vital way to explore our world and who we are as a nation. In this they are as much an art form as about real life 'and that's sufficient reason for them to have a strong cultural imperative. But in this evolving digital era, a new landscape has emerged. Much has changed: new storytelling tools, a new global base 'but with reduced government funding and increased fragmentation of the distribution sector. The once self reliant TV broadcast industry has re structured around ratings and perceived audience taste.
'So it is outside the broadcast sector that we must look for ambition and innovation. We are now at that historical moment of transition from an outdated broadcast model to a digital future of many platforms. The systems created by the Internet will be the future. But they cannot survive without government regulation. Currently they have no local content obligations. These global companies must engage with Australian originated projects right from the start. Zubrycki calls for similar content regulation to that of the commercial broadcasters. 'It's not going to happen any other way', he insists. 'Quotas are not just necessary, they are essential.'' (Publication summary)
 
1 1 y separately published work icon Cultural Justice & the Right to Thrive Scott Rankin , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2018 18497019 2018 single work criticism 'What are cultural rights and why do we need them? In the author’s words, ‘Everyone, everywhere has a right to thrive.’ It is an issue of justice, an essential service like education, health. Culture is not benign, he says. It is a powerful narrative contagion which binds us together. We need to pay attention to it and be vigilant, not for the few but the whole. Because if we don’t it can be used against certain sections of our society, demonising them or rendering their story invisible and citizens vulnerable. In Australia we pride ourselves on our cultural diversity but have little self-knowledge. This paper draws from Rankin’s 26 years’ experience living with Big hART, a regional performance company and digital content producer based in Burnie, ‘the poorest electorate in Australia’, that uses the arts and performance to stimulate social development and better cultural understanding. He reflects on the lessons learnt from their successes and failures; and places their body of work in an international context of alternative company practice.' (Publication summary)
1 y separately published work icon The Jobbing Actor : Rules of Engagement. Lex Marinos , Redfern : Currency House , 2017 12366453 2017 single work autobiography

"How to define the jobbing actor? Not the handful who find fame and fortune and power. The ones that audiences pay to see […] the vast majority of actors, the ones that struggle to stay employed. The ones for whom acting is, variously, a hobby, a job, a career, a vocation. It calls to you and you’re compelled to follow."

In this, another of Platform Papers’ The Professionals, actor Lex Marinos shares the excitement of his initiation into the arts boom of the 1970s, the extraordinary demands his work has made on his body, mind and family; and his reflections on a life well lived. Marinos is a graduate of the University of NSW and from 1972 was one of the actors that established Sydney’s New Wave. He quickly became a regular in TV comedy on ABC and SBS, As an Australian-born Greek he played undefined ‘ethnic’ stereotypes until in 1980 he was cast as Bruno, an Italian-Australian, in the TV comedy Kingswood Country (1980-84) and won the fight to use his Australian accent. He was director of the multicultural festival Carnivale 1996- 99; and executive producer of the Yeperenye Festival in Alice Springs for the Centenary of Federation. Between 2006–14 he worked as an actor with Big hArt touring regional festivals.

Marinos kept the jobs going in comedy, as a sports commentator, TV and festival director, ethnic affairs and community advisor, and host of multicultural celebrations. A lasting record of his talent is his acclaimed role as Manolis in the ABC TV series The Slap (2011). In 1994 he received the OAM for services to the performing arts.' (Publication Summary)

1 y separately published work icon Missing in Action : The ABC and Australia's Screen Culture Kim Dalton , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2017 11553448 2017 single work criticism

'Kim Dalton, OAM, is a long-respected broadcast and public policy professional, who as CEO of the Australian Film Commission from 1999 overhauled its development programs and led the policy debate around Australian content on television. As Director of ABCTV (2006–13), he moved the corporation into the digital era, and now looks critically at the present state of the ABC and broadcasting. Over the last sixty years, he writes, Australia had developed an effective public policy framework that strategically connected Australian broadcasters, screen content and an independent creative and production sector to produce it. 

'Yet today the ABC operates outside this framework. Using its status as a statutory authority to eschew transparency, accountability and engagement with public policy objectives, the ABC now pursues an internal agenda and its own priorities. Governance is lacking; new measures are needed to return the ABC to its chartered place as a contributor to Australia’s screen culture.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Restless Giant : Changing Cultural Values in Regional Australia Lindy Hume , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2017 11142730 2017 single work criticism

'Looking back at the conclusions of Lyndon Terracini’s Platform Paper in 2007, A Regional State of Mind, Lindy Hume finds a restless giant. Through towns and communities she traces the rise of a more assertive, even radical ambition. a rebellious counter-urban movement ready to make a profound impact on the national culture.

'As an artist living in regional Australia, she finds it an ideal place to develop new performance work, and argues that more flow and greater integration between the regional and metropolitan arts ecosystems could, over time, reshape Australia’s cultural identity.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Designer : Decorator or Dramaturg? Stephen Curtis , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2016 11143042 2016 single work criticism

'The stage designer’s role is both within and without a performance company, a unique observer of the work in creation and a welcome problem solver, multi-tasker, the possessor of the ‘design solution’ when things don’t go as planned, writes Stephen Curtis. The designer’s collaborative role could be a model to others.

'He chooses three stage productions to give a picture of his work methods including the much acclaimed The Secret River (play by Andrew Bovell based on the novel by Kate Grenville), and concludes that today’s designers are redefining their role and reshaping their careers through specialisation and focus on form over content as a way of exploring and understanding the work they interpret.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon After the Creative Industries : Why We Need a Cultural Economy Justin O'Connor , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2016 11142899 2016 single work criticism

'In the 1990s, the ‘creative industries’ was a new concept aimed at mobilising the energies of culture in support of a new kind of economy: entrepreneurial, multicultural, youthful and digitally savvy ‘Culture’ moved to the top table of policy-making, and a revolution in Higher Education was proclaimed, with ‘creativity’ a central resource. Yet, only twenty years later the Australian Government has launched an innovation program in which culture and the cultural industries are nowhere to be seen.

'This Platform Paper charts the rise and fall of the concept in Australia, and argues that while undoubtedly a victim of its own hubristic rhetoric, its rapid disappearance leaves a hole in policy-making that those in the cultural sector ignore at their peril. Justin O’Connor outlines what a new agenda for the cultural economy might look like, ‘after’ the Creative Industries.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Arts and the Common Good Katharine Brisbane , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2015 8542406 2015 single work criticism

'What is art? What is culture? And what value do we place upon it today? Katharine Brisbane looks back on our changing culture and the way public subsidy since 1968 has built massive opportunities for our artists, performers and those who have built an industry around them. She also traces the divisions that have grown between the community and the arts sector, and the moral divide between art and commerce. She concludes that the promised pursuit of excellence has been fulfilled and exhausted; and proposes a way to salvage its achievements by throwing open our major institutions to public investment and private enterprise, releasing creativity into new directions and reconsidering how we might together build an inclusive cultural environment.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Time Is Ripe for the Great Australian Musical John Senczuk , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2015 8542268 2015 single work criticism

'Australian audiences have an unquenchable thirst to musical theatre. It is big show business. But as another revival of Les Mis or Wicked flows back to the originators and investors abroad, the local, indigenous musical is virtually extinct. Here we have no shortage of start-ups, and composers and performers of world calibre; but rarely are they given the opportunity to develop a large-scale work. What we need is a proactive, sustainable national funding and development program that will support that talent right through to a commercial market readiness . With that backing, writes John Senczuk, we could conquer the world.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Education and the Arts : Creativity in the Promised New Order Meg Upton , Naomi Edwards , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2014 8542346 2014 single work criticism

'As the National Curriculum gears up to offer fresh opportunities to teachers and students, our arts institutions are considering what a national arts curriculum will mean for them. Arts and education strategists Naomi Edwards and Meg Upton have been studying the new landscape and urge a radical rethink of arts companiesa education programs and their purpose. At present they are largely aimed at performing required works and increasing audiences. The opportunity is there to reposition their company at the centre of innovation and social value by placing the participation of young people at the core of their business.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Not at a Cinema Near You : Australia's Film Distribution Problem Lauren Carroll Harris , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2013 6858135 2013 single work criticism

'Lauren Carroll Harris' treatise on the state of distribution in Australia for locally produced feature films is a timely and provocative analysis of the existing structures and a powerful argument for adjustment and change in this post digital world.

'Her reflections on a distribution led industry potentially replacing a production development led industry need to be seriously debated given our recent change of government and new management and key personnel at Screen Australia.' (Anthony I. Ginnane, Producer)

1 1 y separately published work icon Whatever Happened to the STC Actors Company? James Waites , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2010 Z1681903 2010 single work criticism
1 3 y separately published work icon The Empire Actors : Stars of Australasian Costume Drama 1890s-1920s Veronica Kelly , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2009 Z1744685 2009 single work criticism 'In the decades from Federation to the 1920s live entertainment was an integral part of the Imperial world and performers were the first generation of truly global marketeers.In epic tales of royal splendours and Napoleonic conquests, of heroic gladiators and Christian sacrifice, of musketeers and courtesans, hussars and doomed princesses, Arab houris and Oriental mandarins, international stage celebrities transported Australian audiences into identification with the older, more powerful civilizations from which they had come. These stars travelled the world in style, carrying messages of trade, fashion, tourism, modernism and the privilege of being a member of the British Empire.' Source: Book jacket.
1 4 y separately published work icon Lords and Larrikins : The Actor's Role in the Making of Australia Kath Leahy , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2009 Z1645312 2009 single work criticism 'This radical new account of the male performer in public life reveals for the first time his central importance to Australian society and character. From our first Hamlet, to Laurence Olivier's lordly post-war tour, the aspiring middle-classes turned to actors to each them public behaviour and political opinion. From the first moment in 1830 when little Barnett Levey was denied access to his own stage, class has been the divide between high art and low comedy. Imperial Shakespeare was the principal weapon in this war, drawing in patrons, politicians and critics, while in the vaudeville houses comedians like Roy Rene upheld the right to a working-class Australia. Then, in 1970, just as public funding fuelled again the rise of a high-art culture, a bevy of buffoons led a new assault to subvert it. Kath Leahy asks some penetrating questions about why the cultural cringe lasted so long, and why, even today, we still call for control of the public artist.' (From the publisher's website.)
1 y separately published work icon A Sustainable Arts Sector: What Will It Take? Cathy Hunt , Phyllida Shaw , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2008 Z1483138 2008 single work criticism
1 2 y separately published work icon Singing The Land: The Power of Performance in Aboriginal Life Jill Stubington , Redfern : Currency House , 2007 Z1467378 2007 single work criticism 'For the Indigenous people of Australia, songs and dances, have encoded their history and religion, their social organisation, and their connectedness to the land for 60,000 years. As research assistant to the eminent musicologist Alice Moyle, and later on her own behalf, Jill Stubington spent many years between 1960 and 1980 in remote regions of Australia learning to listen to this music, to understand its complexity, its central role in identity, social cohesion, celebration and the resolution of family conflict. From 1960 new sound and film equipment widened the opportunities for recording; and soon the guitar and recorded popular music began to intermingle with the traditional styles. It became a matter of urgency to use the new technology to preserve the old culture. In three sections the book details the diverse culture, its musical instruments and practice; and provides listening guides to the available CDs and notations.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 5 y separately published work icon Cross-Racial Casting : Changing the Faces of Australian Theatre Lee Lewis , Sydney : Currency House , 2007 Z1402702 2007 single work criticism

'Mainstream theatre in Australia is very white. Too white. Why are we falling behind the rest of the theatrical world in seeing complex diverse casts onstage in our major theatre companies? When you ask this question of theatre practitioners, an awful discourse of blame begins: agents blame casting directors, drama schools blame 'the industry', everyone blames artistic directors. Talking about racism in Australia is difficult in the climate of indignant denial. Our vocabulary and strategies for discussing it publicly have become inadequate. ' (Publisher's blurb)

1 1 y separately published work icon A Regional State of Mind: Making Art Outside Metropolitan Australia Lyndon Terracini , Redfern : Currency House , 2007 Z1359800 2007 single work criticism 'This essay explores the role of culture, art and community in our lives. It also examines the making of Australian theatre...It also examines the structural composition of artistic management...' - from the author's Introduction.
1 y separately published work icon Satire - or Sedition? The Threat to National Insecurity Jonathan Biggins , Strawberry Hills : Currency House , 2006 Z1328589 2006 single work criticism This essay is about the role of theatrical satire in contemporary Australia. More specifically, it recounts the history of the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf Revue. - from the Foreword
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