‘Staged Lives’

An evening with David Williamson, Michael Gow and Will Eno

The Queensland State Library, Queensland Theatre Company and Playlab presented an evening with three successful writers.  They provided advice on how they write scripts.  It was a good informative evening, well run and presented in a pleasant auditorium at the state library.  The M.C. was excellent and well prepared.  She covered what the evening was about and kept things on track and moving along.

The playwrights covered the development of their characters, personal satisfaction or not with a script progressing to the point of discarding them or returning to them sometimes years later.  Will Eno indicated one had taken him seven years to accept.  David Williamson said that if a script were not confronting him by a third of the way through, the audience would not be with it either so he would dump it.

The fact that all three said that their play’s characters were frequently based on people that they knew or had met intrigued me as I have not consciously been doing this and it has caused me to re read some scripts and re think the draft that I am now working on.  David Williamson said that he had used his own mother 12 times as the basis of a character in plays to the point that she cringed behind her program at each premier wondering if she might see herself again.  Both David Williamson and Michael Gow said that they had been sued by people who recognised themselves in a script that they had written.  David Williamson did not end up in court and eventually became friends again with the man concerned.  Michael Gow did end up in court sued by woman who claimed he had used a story involving her that she had told him.  He won the case because the story she told him had been told to a number of other people and was therefore in the ‘public domain’ and able to be used.  The woman has never spoken to him again.   Will Eno did not say if he had ever been sued but did agree that often his characters were based on people he had met, knew, or worked with.  His current play Thom Pain (based on nothing) at the Billy Brown Theatre QTC is a one-person play, which he created as an alternative to other one-person plays that he had seen.  The play sets out to say that you are not alone at least not while you have an audience.  This is a major part of the lead character’s feelings in my play ‘The Final Act’.  ‘Willis’ in an isolation prison cell facing a death sentence.  He has survived two years by continuing to feel that his audience is there with him applauding him on.  David Williamson also has a new play ‘Summer Time’ in this years QTC program.  There was discussion on personally directing their own script and how to get along with a director of their script and the leading actors in the plays.  Will Eno said how happy he was with Jason Klarwein as the actor and Joh Halpin the director of ‘Thom Pain’ at the QTC.  They had presented the script as he saw it, which is not always achieved.

The discussion evening continued with questions from the audience all of which were pertinent and interesting, both the questions and the replies

Drinks and finger food were served in another nice area of the State Library, with the three writers circulating amongst us and continuing their advice and opinions.  It was a very informative evening, which I am glad I was able to attend.  The evening was followed up with a survey email to all participants covering our thoughts on its content, how worthwhile we thought it had been to us personally and interestingly, how much we would be prepared to pay to attend future presentations.  This evening was actually free.  Frank Rotherham 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

TUESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2009

As the Theatre will be managing the Zamia soon, it is essential that nominations for next year’s committee be received before the meeting. We are therefore calling now for nominations to the TMLT committee. Details are seen in the next column.

The Meeting will be at 7:30 pm at 10 Alpine Terrace, Mt Tamborine on Tuesday 1 September 2009, and a map to show you how to get there is below.  Parking is on the lawn immediately in front of the house.  Access to the lawn is fairly narrow, so please do not block the entrance.  Drive in down towards the end and turn to face the entrance.  We are expecting a pretty good turn out so please do not be late as there is much to get through.

Annual membership fees are now due.

To assist you in your payment you can now directly debit your account and deposit directly into the theatre ’ s account at the National Bank 084 835 account number 02838 7331. This can be done through the internet if that is how you normally pay your bills.  Please make sure that you fill in your remitter name so we can send you a receipt.
Or send a cheque or cash to The Treasurer, at P.O. Box 44, Eagle Heights. Qld 4271.

$15 plus $5 for a partner or $12 concession.

We are trying to create an active database which will be a record of what each member is interested in doing, so it is essential that all members, old and new complete the new Membership Form which can be found on this page, and return it with your subscription to The Treasurer.