Flashpoint: New Writing for Theatre at the State Library

The State Library of Victoria and fortyfivedownstairspresent Flashpoint – a unique program of public script readings from the winning plays of  The R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards 2010.

The plays represent a cross-section of work from the most exciting Victorian playwrights, both established and emerging, and all winners of the 2010 Awards.

Excerpts from plays will be followed by a discussion with the playwrights led by Mary Lou Jelbart, director, fortyfivedownstairs.  This process gives the audience the rare opportunity to participate in the process of developing new theatre.

The featured plays are:

A Kind of Fabulous Hatred  by Barry Dickins
It is the night of the poet Syliva Plath’s suicide – and the night of the worst storm ever recorded in Great Britain. Is it cowardly to abandon her babies, or will it be wonderful to finally be dead and suffer no more? The poet waits for her cue, and the storm provides it.
Director Laurence Strangio Actor Caroline Lee

The Boy Out of the Country  by Felix Nobis
Written in verse, this play embraces the Australian ballad tradition while telling a contemporary story of the tensions of rural Australia.

Three Magpies Perched in a Tree  by Glen Shea
A high-pressure and poetic journey, by turns shocking and hilarious, into the mind of a contemporary Aboriginal man.
Director Julian Meyrick Associate Director Judith Sears

Flashpoint: new writing for theatre
Tuesday 26th July at 7.30–9pm.
Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library of Victoria
Entry 3, La Trobe St, Melbourne
Bookings:
Ph: 03 8664 7099 | Email bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Free Entry
slv.vic.gov.au/flashpoint

Fortyfivedownstairswill present two full length readings in December:  

Pompeii, LA by Declan Greene (Thursday 1 December)

Ward B by Xenia Hanusiak (Thursday 2 December)

All works showcased in Flashpoint have received support through The R.E. Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards which foster Victoria’s theatre industry by providing support to Victorian-based writers to develop play scripts. The annual Awards are an initiative of The R.E. Ross Trust and are administered by the State Library of Victoria.

The R. E. Ross Trust is a perpetual charitable Trust established in Victoria in 1970 by the will of the late Roy Everard Ross.  Since its inception, The R. E. Ross Trust has distributed over 80 million dollars in grants for charitable purposes in Victoria

For further Awards details see www.slv.vic.gov.au/ross