The closure of Freemantle’s Deckchair Theatre meant the loss of one of only two theatres in Australia producing exclusively new Australian work.
Deckchair’s Former Artistic Director and leading advocates from Playwrighting Australia and Stages WA say the loss presents an opportunity to fund new Australian work at other theatres. But only if the WA government commits to applying the Deckchair funding to developing original Australian work. The letter below is their argument to the State Government.
The Hon John Day MLA
Minister for Culture and the Arts
Dear Minister,
STAGES WA is the playwright’s advocacy body for Western Australia and Playwriting Australia is the national body supporting the development and careers of Australian playwrights.
We are writing to you in a joint letter regarding the closure of Deckchair Theatre Inc, and the opportunity now presented to the Department of Culture and the Arts to make meaningful and significant change to the West Australian theatre sector.
For the past few years the sector has been struggling with chronic underfunding to a number of companies, with the limited financial support spread too thin to adequately support the sector.
The closure of Deckchair Theatre is very disappointing for the WA theatre community, following its proud thirty–‐year history of telling Western Australian stories and commissioning, developing and presenting contemporary new West Australian and Australian theatre works. This change in the landscape will be most keenly felt by locally–‐ based playwrights, directors, actors, production and technical staff who will lose opportunities to be employed, build skills and experience. However, it also presents an opportunity.
The opportunity is to now support significant change in the WA theatre sector, and give the industry a genuine boost in terms of creative output and employment opportunities for WA artists. This can be achieved by ensuring that the approximately $310,000 per annum that has been forward budgeted for Deckchair Theatre over the coming triennium be committed solely to commissioning, developing and presenting contemporary Australian drama, and primarily towards West Australian stories, West Australian playwrights and West Australian artists. The current circumstances provide an opportunity for the DCA to invite tenders from organisations or groups working in WA professional theatre to propose an annual program of creating and/or presenting new Australian plays. We believe the invited organisations should include but not be limited to the Key Organisations currently supported by the DCA, some of which are operating with limited funds available for a meaningful and sustained investment in the development and production of new work.
We strongly advocate that the majority of the funds be directed to the costs of development and production of new Australian works, with as little as possible to company infrastructure and administration, ensuring the maximum benefit for the sector theatre and West Australian audiences.
The loss of Deckchair Theatre has already created a significant gap in theatre production in Western Australia and many theatre artists are already considering whether Western Australia remains a viable place to live and work. The seasons proposed by the remaining key organisations in WA present the most limited professional opportunities for WA theatre artists and especially playwrights in recent memory.
Ensuring that the funds that were to be allocated to Deckchair Theatre remain committed exclusively to support Deckchair’s core mission will ensure the continued presence of West Australian playwrights on our stages and the continued telling of West Australian stories in the national repertoire. We thank you for your serious and urgent consideration of this matter.
Signed,
Chris Bendall, Chair, Stages WA and former Artistic Director/CEO of Deckchair Theatre
Talei Howell‐Price, Director, Stages WA
Amanda Macri, General Manager, Playwrighting Australia
