Christopher Mead, the current Literary Manager for the Sydney Theatre Company, has been appointed as the inaugural Artistic Director of PlayWriting Australia. The new national organisation was established in December to support the development of great new Australian writing for performance.
The new body will pool together the resources of the Australian National Playwrights‚ Centre (ANPC) and Playworks into one body and will be responsible for the development, advocacy and diversity of Australian drama and to facilitate a national conversation about writing in performance.
PlayWriting Australia is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts with additional support from ArtsNSW. The organisations first task will be to reinvigorate the National Conference which will take place in Canberra in July.
Michael Gow, chair of PlayWriting Australia and Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company, said Mead's experience as STC's Literary Manager and as past curator of the ANPC conference meant that "he has an acute understanding of the problems that playwrights face in every state and territory of Australia."
"I'm thrilled to be given the opportunity to respond to the many challenges of promoting new Australian writing for the theatre," Christopher Mead said. "Having worked for companies large and small and having started a company that produces only new Australian work I feel that I am well-placed to get cracking on this important work".
Christopher Mead believes that "we have great stories in Australia, real and imagined. We have extraordinary theatrical intelligence at work and this new organisation will bridge the gap between ambition and execution, between writer and company, between the text, the body and the stage."
"PlayWriting Australia will celebrate, advocate, agitate and develop our rich and always growing culture of writing for live performance while improving and maintaining artistic quality, raising awareness, and increasing access to new playwriting."
Christopher Mead's previous experiences also include work as Literary Manager of Company B Belvoir, Festival Director of the International Festival of Young Playwrights as well as completing a study of international and national theatre companies in the advocacy of playwriting. He is due to start in his new position on January 31st.
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PlayWriting Australia appoints Artistic Director
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