Abstract: Research Background The Holidays (script) is a playwriting project (FOR 190402) in the field of Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (FOR 190404) an instance of research led by creative practice centered around research problems which grapple with challenges of innovating in both content and form in the professional theatre contexts 1 how to write a script for an intermedial performance that will develop and present themes significant to young people and their families for the mainstage. 2 how to innovate formally using principles of Composed Theatre in a mainstage context. Research Contribution Situated at the familiar holiday environment of the beach, this text for a visual theatre production combines live performers, projection, audience involvement and music in a script for a first person family narrative told by a pre-adolescent. The creative practice, refined across 14 drafts of the (80 page, 13, 000 word) work included writing the story as a 20,000 word novel, consultation and research around thematic concerns, interaction with dramaturgs, play-readings, and the generation of paratext designed to frame the work for the reader. The writing required by the work was complex and required compositional and musicalized approaches to playwriting practice. According to Rebstock and Roesner, creatives working in the mode of Composed Theatre approach the theatrical stage and its means of expression as musical material. They treat voice, gesture, movement, light, sound, image, design, and other features of theatrical production according to musical principles and compositional techniques and apply musical thinking to the performance as a whole (2012, 9). Elements of experimentation and innovation included several moments of direct audience involvement, with a focus on design, sound and symbol, as well as an actively intermedial stance at key plot points, shaping the script as a score for intermedial performance involving interlaced and evolving patterns of symbol, action, light, vision, music and sound. Research Significance A proposal for this work was a finalist in the 2016 Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award. Selection as a finalist for the 2018-19 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award, an initiative which “intends to develop new works that are an artistic response to, or reflection of, ‘Australian Society’ and expose audiences to this work” (QPDA 2020) entailed a further period of funded creative development on the script with a team of leading Queensland theatre artists, towards a public staged reading alongside the other finalists. It was selected by a panel of industry leaders as the winner of the award, the only one of its kind which guarantees a full production. “David Megarrity’s The Holidays is a disarming meditation on mortality and father son relationships. It’s a delicious combination of high-tech ambition and low-fi theatricality. David’s unique imagination and command of all of the elements of storytelling will create a deeply affecting sensory experience for audiences when we bring it to the stage.” Sam Strong (Artistic Director, Queensland Theatre 2015-9) It was published by Playlab Theatre November 2020 (ISBN: 978 1 922424 08 2) to coincide with the opening night performance of its production.
Publication Year: 2020
Publication Date: 2020-11-19
Language: en
Type: article
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