tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post3288083182362215843..comments2024-02-18T19:36:43.844+11:00Comments on theatre notes: Signs of the timesAlison Croggonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-12655760547608507422009-06-27T09:22:15.772+10:002009-06-27T09:22:15.772+10:00Sorry for taking a while to get to this but Jana i...Sorry for taking a while to get to this but Jana is correct in picking me up on the use of the term "central planning". She's right. It was a clumsy use of phrase. <br /><br />I was attempting to make a distinction between the arts as something highly centralised and "administered" and "managed" by government (the build an arts centre and pay to staff it approachUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13260776979009698221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-25738911596542971382009-06-15T09:52:09.597+10:002009-06-15T09:52:09.597+10:00Boy, I should so not post things late at night aft...Boy, I should so not post things late at night after a day's hard work (unlikely to be macrame, I've never been very interested in string). My comprehension skills are certainly at zero. What's your problem, Anon(s)? Jana and I are good friends, good enough to have some fun arguments, and I know she's too smart and bright to bother with anonymous snark.<br /><br />EP, there has Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-46933257626269493842009-06-14T23:41:20.927+10:002009-06-14T23:41:20.927+10:00Last time I checked, I could go see three or four ...Last time I checked, I could go see three or four shows at the theatre compared to one opera ticket, which is why I've yet to go to the opera. Well, that's not entirely true - I did go to the Opera For Peasants (ie, Opera in the Domain), but that was free, so it doesn't count. But as TT says, I think it will be interesting to see if there's any flow on effect from the lack of Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-62792423564375998832009-06-14T22:22:21.822+10:002009-06-14T22:22:21.822+10:00Thanks Anon, you're probably right, on reflect...Thanks Anon, you're probably right, on reflection. Though there was a comment about Jana in the same tone that I deleted, which seemed gratuitous and a bit nasty. It would be better for conversation, on the whole, if people argued rather than did drive-by shoots...Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-17570661484180834122009-06-14T19:54:46.465+10:002009-06-14T19:54:46.465+10:00I don't think Anonymous is bagging KTTP.
He ...I don't think Anonymous is bagging KTTP. <br />He means the Taylor-Keene thing gets a tick from you, whereas Jana gets a big boo.<br /><br />So maybe it's Jana incognito...<br />In any case, I would ignore them and get back to your macrame.<br /><br />ToodlesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-6211553604452212062009-06-14T19:23:23.261+10:002009-06-14T19:23:23.261+10:00very early days, I drank a flavoured milk for dinn...very early days, I drank a flavoured milk for dinner and spoke to a person at interval who was leaving because their bum was sore because they only got a cushion and not a proper theatre seat and I saw two hobos so out there beyond the edge of safety, beyond any safe place, two performers so out there in a space without nets that it completely shook my world...to see the risks being taken. An Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-20198200275929091072009-06-13T21:47:21.227+10:002009-06-13T21:47:21.227+10:00Thanks for that illuminating blart, Anon. I assume...Thanks for that illuminating blart, Anon. I assume you saw the work of Paul English, Greg Stone, Dan Spielman, Chloe Armstrong, Jane Bayly, Malcolm Robertson, Patricia Kennedy, Helen Morse, Rob Menzies, Anni Finsterer et al with the KTTP, and were among the people clambering up to the rafters at the warehouse in the early days. Or maybe not, eh?Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-64035402546864123492009-06-13T21:19:18.342+10:002009-06-13T21:19:18.342+10:00keene taylor theatre project in fitzroy warehouse:...keene taylor theatre project in fitzroy warehouse: PASSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-37195222229690139772009-06-13T14:00:51.041+10:002009-06-13T14:00:51.041+10:00I can't help but wonder and hope if those who ...I can't help but wonder and hope if those who regularly patronize higher end (dollar mark wise) arts events might not tighten their belts by going to see lower cost, independent theatre...we shall see.. I will be interested to see what attendance is like at both the Melbourne Int. Arts Festival and Melbourne Fringe Festival this yearThoughtful Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03243461930900984148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-25869032404032943842009-06-12T15:04:03.523+10:002009-06-12T15:04:03.523+10:00Perfectly fine to ramble here, especially as it...Perfectly fine to ramble here, especially as it's so interesting. I guess that when I think of "commercial art", the last thing I think of is opera, which is totally impossible to do without subsidy - very expensive and short seasons that make it all but impossible to make money back. I read once that Phillip Glass carried a debt of thousands of dollars for years after the worldwideAlison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-55572198354157638602009-06-12T14:53:36.502+10:002009-06-12T14:53:36.502+10:00"Though don't the commercial mass appeal ...<i>"Though don't the commercial mass appeal arts tend to do well in recessions? The listick factor ... "</i> - I would agree with this, although I hadn't heard of the lipstick factor (which made for an interesting time on Google looking it up!) However, I wouldn't class opera as "commercial mass appeal" though (I mean, if it was, and mass-appeal is supposedly Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-74269293038833873722009-06-12T13:54:26.607+10:002009-06-12T13:54:26.607+10:00Australia's always done spectacularly good poo...Australia's always done spectacularly good poor theatre. (Add in the Keene/Taylor Theatre Project there, who started - and did most of their best work - in the Brotherhood of St Lawrence warehouse in Fitzroy in 1997/8 and for the first few productions had a budget of zero). But it's a problem when that's all it's possible to do, or when this kind of aggressively indie theatre is Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-83229001367905220262009-06-12T13:42:13.066+10:002009-06-12T13:42:13.066+10:00Um. I think various sides of this argument imply (...Um. I think various sides of this argument imply (slightly) that artists were actually living above the poverty line due to better funding in recent years. I think the City of Melb cuts, for instance, will simply mean less people receiving an already disappointing amount (don't misunderstand the double negative there - I'm not saying more people will receive a healthy sum, obv). 'Born Dancin'https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526760383290674186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-14251350343166046382009-06-12T13:20:19.117+10:002009-06-12T13:20:19.117+10:00Good analysis Ms C. Unfortunately I think it is go...Good analysis Ms C. Unfortunately I think it is going to get worse, due in no small part to two dominant characteristics of Australian culture. <br /><br />Firstly, we have never been huge on arts philanthropy here (with some notable exceptions) - compared to Europe and the US, we are much more reliant on combinations of grants and box office to make the books balance, boosted by corporate Lolonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-38559578910986892922009-06-12T09:18:10.747+10:002009-06-12T09:18:10.747+10:00Thanks for that, Ms Town Planner. Indepedence is c...Thanks for that, Ms Town Planner. Indepedence is certainly not to be spat at, although you can get very tired of poverty. <br /><br />Epistmysics, art is - according to some people, anyway - the faculty which drove civilisation and the evolution of human consciousness. Commercial art is a function of capitalistic society. Though don't the commercial mass appeal arts tend to do well in Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-46834860594927497422009-06-11T20:09:57.056+10:002009-06-11T20:09:57.056+10:00For me, the "arts" is like weight loss -...For me, the "arts" is like weight loss - you lose fat from the last place you put it on. And the arts are (and I'm making extremely broad and unqualified assumptions here) the last part of a civilisation to develop - art such as commercial theatres, anyway. So once society is rich enough, it puts on commercial art, and as soon as the budget starts to drop, it's the first thingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7202906.post-32317542225257225482009-06-11T20:09:20.599+10:002009-06-11T20:09:20.599+10:00Marcus Westbury writes many smart things, but in t...Marcus Westbury writes many smart things, but in this particular article conflates things laterally and somewhat wrongly. From what I know, the re-residentialisation of the CBD and the laneways were both City of Melbourne projects, the very definition of central planning.<br /><br />On the other hand, the Australian experience is that central planning goes out the window in times of economic boomJanahttp://www.guerrillasemiotics.comnoreply@blogger.com