This weekend the National Play Festival kicks off in Brisbane. Under the aegis of PlayWriting Australia, the national body that has absorbed the Australian National Playwright's Centre and Playworks, artistic director Chris Mead has put together a program of showcase readings, seminars and performances that aims to get some blood moving through the blocked arteries of Australian playwriting. As he says, he is encouraging people to talk to one another - for example, working to bridge the apparent gulf between those who devise and those write. An admirable aim, and Mead has put together an interesting and diverse bouquet of talkers, with a wide range of both public and private events. Writers - and not only writers - will be watching this event with deep interest.

Meanwhile, closer to home (in my case, much closer), last weekend saw the launch of a new theatre space, the Hayloft Theatre Project, at the corner of Whitehall and Harris Streets in Footscray. It's the brainchild of Simon Stone and company, who pulled off one of the highlights of last year, a skin-tingling realisation of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. No word yet on what they will do there, but Ming has a full social report on Mink Tails, and it sounds like some soiree (I was being even older than Ming, and stayed home altogether). I am of course delighted that they've chosen to open their new venue just down the road from me, since verily the West Rocketh.