Image: Strictly Ballroom
Funds should be diverted from the Australia Council for a new Australian Music Theatre Foundation, to develop marketable Australian musicals, argues John Senczuk in a new Platform Paper from Currency House.
Location, location, location. The first three rules of real estate might very well hold the key to the future of music theatre in this country. The recently appointed artistic director of the Perth International Arts Festival, Wendy Martin—one of three Australians to hold the post in its history—has reported that one of the things that attracted her to the position was the geographic location of Perth: ‘Perth is in the centre of the world between Asia and the rest of Australia.’ Its position in the ‘most populous and economically dynamic time zone in the world’ was crucial to her big-picture vision and her programming choices for 2016-19.
Western Australia: the gateway for musicals in Australasia. I envisage that an Australian Music Theatre Foundation supported by both federal and state facilitate an artistic and industrial precinct, that offers a range of production services to national and international producers of large-scale music theatre projects, to present Australian premieres of musicals. It could be Adelaide, or Brisbane, or Canberra, but Perth’s size, location and its isolation are persuasive. Perth, with a number of already established service providers, offers the option with the greatest potential.
The precinct would operate commercially and entice both international and national producers to use the facility to plan, build, rehearse and perform productions intended for national tour. John Frost and his producing partners, for example, might have found more viable economic options than he had by mounting the premiere of Dr Zhivago in Perth—one being the chance to rehearse the work on the set and in a theatre that would present the show to the public for the first time.
The Perth Solution should not be thought of as an out-of-town try-out, but as an opportunity to use local audiences to build major productions in an informed, critical but isolated and controlled environment.
Crucial to the project would be the exclusive use of the Perth Theatre Trust’s 1,200 seat Edwardian theatre, His Majesty’s. It is the only theatre of that early twentieth-century period still in operation in Australia and one of only two remaining His Majesty’s Theatres in the world…
The location of Perth provides a range of other incentives.
- Perth is home to one of the country’s finest theatrical construction firms that already undertakes major national set building, props construction and scenic art commissions, including for Opera Australia. They can provide all necessary builds, including new technologies.
- WAAPA is an internationally recognised theatrical training institution. Many of its music theatre alumni are starring in the range of musicals presented across the country. The institution also produces graduates in stage and production management and could be a lighting, sound and technical resource.
- Local audiences are familiar and loyal to music theatre and are able to provide three- to four-month residencies for major touring productions. Perth would deliver a significant business structure with which to mount premieres in an economically competitive and supportive environment.
- The city’s proximity to the Asian market makes the location commercially strategic. Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul share the same time zone with Western Australia.
- Perth, His Majesty’s Theatre and the precinct initiative would offer producers the unique opportunity to rehearse on the stage for the duration of the rehearsal period and to premiere their work in a rigorous creative and critical environment. This provides a unique opportunity to develop, rehearse and play its first significant season before moving to Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne. The economic savings of a precinct under one roof is significant:
Polished productions, with a two to three month commercial run in Perth, could open in major east coast or Asian venues confidently, with less critical and financial exposure and risk.
• Music preparation including individual vocal coaching, ensemble coaching, orchestral rehearsals could be provided through liaison with expertise at WAAPA and other local professionals. Perth already boasts a number of highly regarded ‘scratch-orchestras’, embracing an enormous number of gifted musicians who would be available for the range of productions employed.
• National marketing and PR strategies can be negotiated locally for national campaigns.
• Because of Perth’s strategic location, WA Tourism could open each production to major markets in Malaysia, China, the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, as well as India and South Africa. Such exposure could also attract significant project investment.
The total would not only enable the Perth Theatre Trust to fulfil their social charter but generate substantial income and energy to the whole arts sector and its audience. Income generated might also contribute to the annual funding allocation of the AMTF.
In much the same way as Fox Studios operates in Sydney, this music theatre precinct initiative would offer the producer a one-stop facility in a very competitive national environment. The value to Perth in terms of bringing companies to Western Australia would be enormous: income generation for accommodation, tourist care and food outlets; the opportunity for international arts tourism strategies; it would give a small, isolated theatrical ecology a significant national focus to enhance WAAPA’s already high profile; it would bring employment opportunities to a range of stage artisans and other arts workers and administrators; and enable the people of Western Australia to participate in, and be witness to, the growth of powerful new arts industry in way they are uniquely equipped to do.
This is an edited extract from the new Platform Paper from Currency House, The Time is Ripe for the Great Australian Musical, by John Senczuk, now available on www.currencyhouse.org.au
