LEADERSHIP FORUM: CREATING CHANGE

The Australian Women Directors Alliance Leadership Forum: Creating Change will be held in Melbourne on the evening of

Friday September 10 and all day Saturday September 11

The Australian Women Directors Alliance has been active since mid last year, raising public awareness for women theatre directors.

This event will be a positive and energetic conference that looks at new models of practice and alternate structures and methods of work.

We will be having speakers from all over Australia to come join us - keep posted for details on who they are!

This Forum on Creating Change is designed to be a one and half day event, for female directors and anyone interested in inspiring change in the arts.

Places in the forum are, however, limited as the focus will be on interactive discussion. Application to attend is through an expression of interest process.

Regional funding is available via RAV quick response grants.

Please fill in the expression of interest below.

All written submissions and the results of the day will collated and distributed to participants and contributors after the Forum. If you are unable to attend the forum but would like to receive this documentation, please indicate your interest on the form.

CLICK HERE TO FILL IN EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

APHIDS' OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG AND EMERGING ARTISTS

APPLICATIONS CLOSE SOON FOR APHIDS' EXCITING RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG AND EMERGING ARTISTS WORKING WITH THE MOVING IMAGE.

Applications for this residency in Castlemaine are now open. This is a quick response residency round. Applications due 5pm, 4 August, 2010

Aphids (based in Melbourne), Punctum (based in Castlemaine) and Castlemaine State Festival are joining forces to assist 2 young and emerging Australian artists working with the moving image (video/ animation / film/ machinima/ expanded cinema and more) to undertake unique professional and creative development hosted by Punctum at its Incubator space.

REMOTE SENSE will see a period of invention and intervention within Castlemaine’s metallurgic landscape, and conversation with the local film community, with potential outcomes generated through the mentorship potentially leading to exhibition and screenings as part of the Castlemaine State Festival.

Mentoring and Residency Dates:
The mentorship period falls between September 30 – November 20, 2010

For more details about the mentors, host, eligibility and how to apply, visit http://www.facebook.com/l/bd393vZjxtYnZYQPeCqnzVGnSwA;www.aphids.net

Incubator Residency | Vitalstatistix | South Australia

Applications are now open for the 2011 Incubator residency program at Vitalstatistix.
Submissions are invited from directors, devisors, performers, designers, new media artists, playwrights and creative teams to develop new performance, installation or hybrid arts work. Based at Waterside, Port Adelaide, Vitals’ large and flexible space, Incubator residencies provide a highly sought after opportunity for creative development in a supportive producing environment.

INCUBATOR residents have opportunities to feature in Vitals’ future programming and in 2011 they will be hosting two residencies over the year.
Applications are welcome from artists across Australia.

A copy of the application form & guidelines are available on the Vitalstatistix website - www.vitalstatistix.com.au

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE 31 AUGUST, 2010.

UpRiver | Incbator Residency for development of New Australian Performance Work

Riverland Youth Theatre (RYT) has a wonderful gift of space in our venue to share with artists in South Australia and from interstate. The recently upgraded Renmark Institute is a comfortable and versatile rehearsal and performance space.

A new partnership with Australian Landscape Trust has given RYT access to a range of accommodation options at Calperum Station, a 250,000 hectare former leasehold sheep property with frontage on the River Murray and, further north, an expanse of mallee country. The Riverland offers an inspiring environment conducive for creative dreams to take shape.

UpRiver provides groups of artists with in-kind accommodation and workshop space towards the development of new performance works. Residencies of one to four weeks will be open to young, emerging and experienced independent artists across all art-forms.

Through this residential program RYT will bring creative teams of writers, actors, directors, designers, dancers and other performing artists to the Riverland during the creative development stages of arts projects. In receipt visiting artists will be asked to share their skills with young people and the community in a gift-back workshop arrangement.

Please contact RYT’s Artistic Director Julie Waddington for more information and application forms.
ryt.org.au
P 08 8586 3437
F 08 8586 3475
E julie@ryt.org.au
PO Box 100 Renmark 5341
54 Ral Ral Ave

Art Start Grants | Australia Council | Fertiliser for Budding Artists

ArtStart Grants
www.stonnington.vic.gov.au
Australia Council for the Arts- Information Session

FERTILISER FOR BUDDING ARTISTS AND MORE
Tuesday 25 May 2010, 6-8pm
Old Council Chambers,
Trades Hall, Carlton

FREE

Come find out if ArtStart is for you.
ArtStart is a new grant initiative helping budding artists move from studying their atform to earning an income from it.

This info session is a great chance for you to:
· hear from successful ArtStart recipients about how they are using ArtStart to fertilise their careers.
· ask questions and find out what activities ArtStart could fund.
· find out other ways the Australia Council can support you and your art.

Old Council Chambers
Level 1, Trades Hall
Corner Lygon & Victoria Streets, Carlton VIC 3053
(entry off Lygon Street)

RSVP: Melissa Habjan, ArtStart Administration Officer,
on 02 9215 9162 or at m.habjan@australiacouncil.gov.au

2010 ArtStart Grant information
Closing date: 4 October 2010
Applications available online from 23 August 2010

www.artstartgrant.com.au

Arts Funding Forum | Arts Victoria e news | May 2010

We are pleased to invite you to an upcoming arts funding forum hosted by the Australia Council for the Arts in partnership with Arts Victoria. The forum will provide an overview of the ways that Arts Victoria and the Australia Council for the Arts can support your organisation or your work.

Invitation

Arts Funding Forum

Date: Friday 28 May 2010
Time: 3-5pm
Venue: National Gallery of Victoria - Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne.

Please RSVP by Tuesday 25th

Please feel free to pass this invitation on to your networks. RSVPs are essential. Please register via www.australiacouncil.gov.au/forums

MEDIA RELEASE - Melbourne Workers Theatre | May 4 2010

Melbourne Workers Theatre takes on new direction and a new board
After 23 years of making socially relevant theatre, the Melbourne Workers Theatre has re-imagined its commitment to providing compelling and thought-provoking work.
The new season will herald in a new vision, a new board, a new creative producer and new works.

“We will continue our loyalty to producing fearless theatre through the new direction of documentary theatre, addressing up-to-the-minute topics of our times,” said the Workers’ Theatre new Creative Producer, Gorkem Acaroglu.

Ms Acaroglu has already forged a solid reputation in the style of socially relevant documentary theatre in both Sydney and Melbourne with works such as her acclaimed “The Habib Show”.
About her new role at the helm, she said,“ The Melbourne Workers Theatre continues its long tradition of employing female directors in artistic leadership roles and spearheading diversity of perspectives on the Australian stage”.

The new board brings together a wealth of experience and expertise in a range of fields, reflecting the company’s fresh direction. At the AGM on the 19th April the following new members were appointed:

Sue Nattrass AO has a distinguished career as one of Australia's most experienced and high profile arts managers including roles as the Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Adelaide Arts Festival.

Lidia Bufalino is the Strategic Programs Director of Ernst and Young and specialises in strategic marketing.

David Vadiveloo is a documentary filmmaker and human rights lawyer. Mr Vadiveloo has received the Australian Human Rights Award for Individual Community Achievement for his work with Indigenous youth.

Professor Ghassan Hage is the Future Generation Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory at the University of Melbourne. Prof. Hage was awarded the NSW Premier’s literary prize and award (Community Relations) for the book Against Paranoid Nationalism.

Lena Cirillo appointed as the new Chair has lead the culture of focussed, productive and creative arts organisations over the past fifteen years including Polyglot Theatre, the Lygon Street Festa and Arts Project Australia. Ms Cirillo is currently working for Make-A-Wish in Fundraising and Development. “As the new Chair, I am passionate about leading such a diverse and committed new board. The depth and breadth of our collective experience and ideas is a wonderful asset to the Workers’ Theatre. We look forward to working with our Creative Producer Gorkem Acaroglu; who we know will deliver a very exciting season of fearless documentary theatre never seen before.” said Ms Cirillo.

For more information contact info@melbourneworkerstheatre.com or 9326 6667

Interview with playwright Amelia Roper

"Moving up to a broader stage" by Robin Usher, The Age, Wednesday 28th April, 2010

Roper's focus is on cross-racial casting and making Australian plays more relevant, but there is a passing reference to male directors and it is certainly an interesting article.

Sustainable Time

How time is managed is a key factor in the implementation of structural change. The term 'sustainability' need not only refer to energy consumption. It may also refer to professional work practice.

The MPAB companies and other peak bodies in the performing arts sector have been slow to question or even wonder about the shape of a career in Australian theatre - how this fluctuates over a week, a month or years. Meanwhile, the rest of the community is engaged with ideas about leading a balanced life, allowing time for family, community volunteering and other activities that lie outside the work sphere.

The chasm between the small-medium sector and the MPAB will never be breached as long as there are two modes of time/work management in place. Artists in the small-medium sector are accustomed to holding down part time jobs in the education sector for example, as it is impossible to sustain oneself financially through project work. Yet when we are given the opportunity to work within the MPAB sector, we are expected to be available for long working hours, to the exclusion of other commitments and activities, for the sake of an eight- week contract. The full-time leadership roles of associate director or artistic director are predicated on this model of 'giving over' to work, a 19thc belief in the intrinsic value of hard work. If one questions the value of working an 80-100 hour week, one risks being considered (oh horror!) a 'hobbyist'.

The management of the resource of time has consequences for women directors who are also parents. When one is a parent, one has responsibility not only for one's own timetable, but also the timetable of a child, which may not intersect with a 9-6pm-and-beyond working day. Of course women are not always the primary carers of their children, but they often are, and the reasons for this are cultural, emotional, structural and need to be addressed by MPAB companies if they intend to redress the gender imbalance in key creative roles. If we choose to have children, attend their school working bees, or volunteer in local environment groups, surely that makes us more resilient, connected practitioners, in touch with the world and her dreams? What kind of artists do we become when we grind away our time in rarefied 19thc arts sweatshops?

The time is ripe to make room in the MPAB world for the skills and varied experienced of many different kinds of practitioners, not only for the mono-focused, ‘unencumbered,’ driven white male.

A solution to fit the problem

In any change, the solution is the same size as the problem. For example, as we become more aware of global warming and diminishing oil reserves, we may convince ourselves that changing light bulbs, recycling and driving smaller cars is enough to solve the problem. This puts us in a state called 'cognitive dissonance', where we are half awake, believing we have been given the answer, yet knowing it is not really a solution for the problem.

The rush to solve the problem of inequality of opportunity for women directors in the Australian theatre workplace has lead to a flurry of events and initiatives in the past five months: the 'Where are the Women' forum held at Belvoir Street in late 2009 might be seen as one of these knee-jerk solutions. Despite the fact that this event was hosted by Belvoir Street, there has been no real desire for systemic change within this company. A transparent process for the selection of the new Associate Director at Belvoir Street is one way that this example of 'cognitive dissonance' could have been addressed. However, Belvoir Street has chosen a new Associate Director without an open process that could have provided the opportunity for female directors to apply for this position. Like changing the light bulbs, or driving an electric car, hosting forums and announcing initiatives for women directors within a particular age bracket does not address the underlying systemic problem.

If the MPAB companies truly wish to find a solution that is the same size as the problem, then the federal Equal Opportunity legislation may be a good place to start. Accountability, transparency and a willingness to engage with change and to consider new structures are the ways in which the MPAB companies might build a bridge between their own practice and the small to medium sector. If there is courage and energy for change, then we could create an industry where inclusion, resilience and social relevance are the pillars that support an excellent national theatre.

Jane Woollard

Artistic Director

Here Theatre

Some Observatons

by Melanie Beddie, Jane Woollard and Lucy Freeman | Wednesday December 16 2009 |

Regarding the need fo Equal Opportunity in Theatre Companies which are funded through the Australia Council ‘s Major Performing Arts Board (MPAB) .

The benefits of successful Equal Opportunity within the workplace are well documented and proven (see for instance the most recent submission from the Human Rights Commission to the Rudd Government). Women directors are neither a minority group nor should they to be considered as constantly “emerging”. We cannot solve this problem whilst we continue to marginalise and trivialise the work of women theatre artists.

In our opinion a MPAB company which is unable to source, employ and collaborate with women in key creative roles in not functioning in a healthy and productive way. Nor are it’s current employees being given the opportunity to work with as wide a pool as possible of artists nor develop artistic relationships across the broadest range of practice .

MPAB companies have a narrow perception about what an artistic leader is, and as such the majority of work in these companies is shared amongst a small pool of directors who have experience working within a narrow band of similar venues with similar budgets. Work on large-scale productions in the CCD sector, in fringe or unconventional venues, in touring productions or in the education sector, needs to be seen as professionally relevant to MPAB company expectations.

The mechanism for how directors get their initial ‘break’ in the MPAB companies needs to become clearer. Once working within these companies, young directors can receive MPAB development funding to increase and strengthen their careers toward positions of greater responsibility. At present the beneficiaries of this in-house training model are overwhelmingly men between the age of 20-30. Thus it is possible to survey the Australian theatre landscape and ask the question ‘Where are the women?’ because they are invisible and not recipients of career guidance or promotion, what the Artistic Director of Malthouse Theatre has called ‘big opportunities.’

We believe women must be considered core business of any company and not relegated to special and occasional funding programs. This ‘add-on’ version of equality has been tried before and has not changed the culture of the companies into which the women were placed. Rather it has meant that as soon as the funding program ceased so did the inclusion of women.

The MPAB companies’ lack of accountability to EO legislation has created a ‘bottleneck’ in career pathways for women directors. The situation in the small to medium sector is entirely different .Subsidised by State and Federal project funding it has stringent criteria regarding EO and cultural diversity which all applicants must address in their proposals.

When a company begins to commit its core funding and programming to female creatives it will take the issue seriously enough to effect permanent change.

Equal Opportunity policies which are thrust upon unwilling organisations have been shown to be ineffective. Instead a willingness to engage with change and an enthusiasm for the opportunities for learning and expansion which arise from a more diverse workplace are the key to success in this area.

Equal Opportunity implementation here and overseas tells us that the proven road to success is twofold. There must firstly be consultation with all stakeholders in the area .Secondly an essential element towards creating change in an organisation is that the genuine desire for a transformation must come from the highest level of management and in this case this would refer to Boards, General Managers and Artistic Directors.

So now some Proposals:

Due to their extensive research and personal experience female directors (and other creatives) are a vital resource when developing policies regarding the placement, development and mentoring of women within larger organisations and as such it would be to the advantage of the companies to consult these artists.

We propose each company appoint an EO officer and that staff and the Board are given training in the area of EO and diversity

We propose that each MPAB company needs to develop its own unique Strategic Plan which reflects the specific interests and conditions of that company.

The Strategic Plan should set real and achievable targets for the coming year, three years and eight years etc.This provides a series of benchmarks by which that company and stakeholders can then measure its progress. We believe that any additional funding should be attached to demonstrated and long term Strategic Plans and the success of these programmes measured and assessed.

Companies need to be required to report to their own Boards and also to MPAB about the continuing success of their EO Policy

The Australia Council and MPAB need to take an active and ongoing role in supporting and monitoring EO in funded companies. We ask that the Australia Council create programs that assist companies to reach and then maintain their EO targets.

Most importantly in addition to developing a Strategic Plan towards the development and advancement of women within the organisation, the companies need to interrogate the existing company structure and culture and to assess whether these are working well for the encouragement of women into the organisation . It may be necessary to instigate corporate change in order to lead to more equal employment of both women and men within these MPAB companies.

Where are the Men?

by A.G. Bierce | The New Era | Sunday 13th December 2009

The Australia Council and Arts Victoria have announced two initiatives to assist male directors in the development of their careers. Australia Council spokesman Jonathan Squirrel said today that the Minister, Katherine Willingham, has been concerned for some time about the lack of opportunities for male directors in Major Performing Arts Board companies. “The question has to be asked: ‘Where are the Men?’ said Squirrel. “We had no idea that there was a problem until the Australian Men Directors Alliance brought it to our attention.”

However, Randall Smith, of the AMDA, said that the matter had been raised at least three times in the past 25 years. “There was the ‘Men in Theatre’ report commissioned by the OZCO in 1982, and none of the recommendations from that report have been put in place. A group of male directors wrote a letter to the MTC board asking them to address the gender imbalance in their programming in 1996 and 2003. The Board wrote back stating that they had no obligation to acknowledge EO legislation. I don’t know how they can sleep at night. I have been a respected practitioner for almost 25 years and I am sick of seeing young women directors getting all these fabulous opportunities within the MPAB companies while my career remains at a standstill.”

When asked to respond, Peter Terry, General Manager of the Melbourne Theatre Company said: “The MTC is not in the habit of employing directors at entry level into the industry. Unfortunately the work of these male directors has not come to our attention as we hire on merit alone. To work at the MTC a director must have directed at a comparable venue such as Belvoir Street, one of the larger theatres at Malthouse or the Etihad Stadium.”

Anthony Fullerton, secretary of AMDA laughs at this suggestion. “We remain at ‘entry level’ because we can’t get a foot in the door at any of these venues. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle.”

Peter Terry believes the new funding scheme will help men directors in the development of their careers. “The MTC does not have extra funding to support and develop the careers of men. We only have enough resources to do the 12 productions we are committed to each year. We are delighted that Arts Victoria and the Australia Council will provide us with additional funds for a men’s mentoring scheme.” Artistic Director of the MTC Guinevere Jones declared: “I reserve my right to hire on artistic merit – quotas lead to mediocrity – as artistic director I have to go on merit and excellence rather than some 1970s idea of fairness.”

Geoffrey Roberts, spokesman for Arts Victoria, says the new mentoring program – ‘MenCan2’ - will be an exciting opportunity for men directors to develop their professional skills, with a focus on collaborative processes, the effective use of modest resources and communication. “The MenCan2 program will be a step on the way to redressing the imbalance. Of course men make good directors, they just haven’t had the opportunities to develop the skills required for work within these companies. Perhaps women are more confident in their proposals and are more adept at pitching something that they know the MPAB companies will go for. It is our hope that ‘MenCan2’ will equip emerging men directors with the skills to go on and possibly even work in the MPAB arena,” said Roberts.

The Australia Council has created ‘MENtoring’, which also offers development funding for young men directors. The MenCan2 and MENtoring programs will support placements within each MPAB theatre company. The mentee must be in the first five years of their practise after graduating from WAPA, VCA or NIDA. “Arts Victoria and OZCO are funding these exciting new initiatives with a combined amount of $47 500,” said Squirrel. “The mentees will attend rehearsals of productions within the companies, across a range of styles and scale of work. The experience will build and strengthen their practise, so that they better understand how these companies function, and are more confident in making an approach.”

Anthony Fullerton is sceptical about the new program. “How much?$47 500? That won’t go far amongst nine mentees. They have probably spent double that on ‘branding’ these two schemes. And what will the mentees be doing? Watching rehearsal? I don’t think I would learn anything from watching Guinevere at work. And it doesn’t actually provide any opportunities for mid-career men directors. We’ve already been written off.”

Peter Terry defends the new program. “There is a second tier of funding already being discussed at MPA board level. If the company feels their mentee is worth developing further, then a trip to the Royal Court to observe rehearsal methods will be offered. We are determined to get this right.”

Justine Gregory, Artistic Director of Malthouse, was unavailable for comment.

EO Policy change at MTC: AWDA's letter to the VC & the VC's reply

As you may know, the Melbourne Theatre Company has recently been asked, by the University of Melbourne, to appoint an Equal Opportunity Officer and Equal Opportunity Committee. They have also agreed that in future, all Associate Director positions will be advertised.

Prior to this change (and can we be so brazen as to say, a precursor to it?), Australian Women Directors Alliance wrote to the University of Melbourne's Vice-Chancellor, Glyn Davis, outlining concerns that as a department of the University of Melbourne, the Melbourne Theatre Company was failing to follow the Equal Opportunity Policy as required by the university.

Below is that letter and Mr Davis' response.



14th October 2009

Glyn Davis
Vice Chancellor
The Office of the Vice-Chancellor
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010


Dear Sir,

We write on behalf of the members of AWDA, a group of theatre practitioners incorporating sixty or more female directors and theatre makers. We range from emerging artists, in their first five years of practice, through to experienced and highly regarded directors in their third and fourth decade of practice. The alliance grew out of the Australia Council’s Australian Theatre Forum in March 2009 and our purpose is to offer professional development and networking opportunities for female theatre practitioners and to work in areas of advocacy for our members.

We have recently tried to engage in an open and genuine conversation with the Melbourne Theatre Company over what we see as a crisis in career opportunities for female theatre directors at that company. We wrote a letter to the Board (see attached) in which we did a number of things:

-We provided the Board with some statistics about declining opportunities for women over the last five years at the MTC

-We queried the success of their implementation of the University of Melbourne’s Equal Opportunity Policy

-We offered to begin a dialogue with the company in helping to address the problem of the lack of women employed in the company in key creative positions.

-We asked the MTC to take positive steps and adopt a leadership role given its position as a successful State Theatre Company

-We acknowledged the opportunities, which do already exist for women in the MTC Education Department and asked that these positions be considered as part of a pathway towards directing jobs with greater responsibility.

-We sought to understand how key creative positions are allocated in the company. Whether these positions are advertised for instance.

We feel that the response of the MTC Board (see attached) has been less than satisfactory as they have not chosen to engage with the issues we raised. We are also taken aback by the Board request for a list of our membership and hope that this was not intended as an act of intimidation.

The response from the Board does not seem aligned with contemporary attitudes towards equal opportunity in the workplace, although we note that your Equal Opportunity Policy offers;


"Cover for all training programs for staff with management responsibility, principles of equal opportunity and means towards its achievement”.

Additionally, the letter from the Board acknowledges that there has been no change in company policy since 2003, when this issue was last raised with them. Indeed the issue was also raised in 1993.

In their letter they define the method, if not the criteria by which employment is offered to directors. They believe that appointment of a directorial position should be merit based, decided by senior MTC personnel after viewing the work of potential directors. However they also acknowledge that gender equity for female directors is a problem occurring throughout several strata of the theatre industry, and in particular on these very stages that the work of directors is judged. We too are aware of this conundrum and hence our request to the MTC to put in place the ‘positive steps’ promised by their Equal Opportunity Policy.

We do not believe that the failure of equal opportunity in other medium-sized companies provides the MTC with an excuse to avoid employing women. Indeed it should suggest to the MTC that it can no longer rely on these other companies to train their main stage directors. Instead we suggest it may be more productive for the MTC to instigate structural changes that allow the company to have greater control over developing the kinds of directors it seeks.

We are in the main very disappointed that the Board of the MTC do not see themselves as being leaders of change in this area or having any role in promoting a culture that is inclusive of women.

We are now asking you to engage with us in a serious and respectful dialogue about how to proceed in making the MTC a genuine equal opportunity employer. We have also requested the assistance of the Australia Council, Arts Victoria and the Office of Women’s Affairs in this matter.

We would ask you to please acknowledge the receipt of this letter and also let us know a likely timeline for your considered response.

We look forward to understanding how you intend to proceed in this matter and also how we can assist you in understanding the issue from our perspective.


Yours sincerely


Melanie Beddie and Lucy Freeman

And one month later, a response:

17th November 2009

Dear Ms Beddie and Ms Freeman,

Apologies for the delay in providing this substantive reply, a result of time required to consult with various parties and secure an appropriate outcome. As you know, the University is very committed to equity and diversity in its workplace, and has established a Staff Equity and Diversity Framework 2008-2012 which is intended to guide the Equity and Diversity Plans of our faculties, divisions and departments.

Following receipt of your letter, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (University Affairs) Prof Warren Bebbington has met with the General Manager of the MTC, Anne Tonks, and as a result I am pleased to report that, at its next meeting, the Board of MTC will be asked to appoint an Equal Opportunity Officer and an Equal Opportunity Committee to take leadership of these issues at MTC. This Officer and the Committee will be charged with developing a plan for enhancing equal opportunity policies and practices aligned with the Company’s overall strategic plan. The University's Equal Opportunity Unit will arrange for the necessary staff training so that the Equity and Diversity Framework and its expectations are widely understood at MTC.

I can also report on some positive strategies to be put in place by the Board in the immediate future. The positions for Associate Directors, in the past filled without advertising, will henceforth be advertised and recruited through processes that meet best practice standards and comply with the University’s equal opportunity policies and with anti-discrimination legislation. The Company will also make an application to the Australia Council for a Young and Emerging Artists Grant to provide opportunities in 2010 to specifically develop young and emerging women Directors.

I am assured that the Company's request for a list of your members was not intended as an “act of intimidation,” but rather one intended simply to better inform the Company of women Directors available for work, in case there are those not known to them. However, I do understand the sensitivity of this issue. There may be better ways of informing MTC of women Directors who are available for engagement.

As you will have seen from our Framework (available on the university website), our goals for women's participation in employment for 2010-2012 are very broadly framed. However, I do hope the steps set out here assist in addressing your concerns.

Regards,

Glyn Davis

Women act up over directionless careers

The Australian | December 4, 2009

WHEN artistic director Neil Armfield revealed that his 2010 season for Company B Belvoir included only one female director, he generated an outcry, and a topic for this Sunday's Philip Parsons Lecture.

The Sydney theatre group is devoting its annual industry forum to a discussion about the absence of women in key creative roles in Australian theatre. It has pulled together a panel of women, none of whom is in a key decision-making position.

The Company B situation is echoed at the Melbourne Theatre Company, where Kate Cherry is the only woman directing a show, and only then because it's a buy-in from West Australia's Black Swan, of which she is artistic director.

The Sydney Theatre Company and Griffin have also overlooked women, though to a lesser degree.

Now Company B is attempting to own the debate by asking "Where Are The Women?". [READ MORE]

An Open Letter to Company B from Caleb Lewis

Published on November 24, 2009 - Augusta Supple's Blog

This afternoon I received an open letter to Company B from Caleb Lewis, one of the Shortlisted writers for the 2009 Phillip Parson’s Award, who has decided to withdraw from the competition.

I have posted the letter below.

I believe that this must have been a difficult letter to write and to send, as Lewis is, as many are, a living breathing playwright whom I am sure, wishes to be programmed on one of Sydney’s illustrious stages. The tenuous balance between the politcs of theatre and the programming of art is something I think all artists are mindful of. In fact, it is hard to feel that programming is fair and transparent when programming comes down to personal taste.
What I admire most about this debate is how the intergrity of an artist is truly measured in the risks she/he takes in voicing what she believes and what she/he knows in her heart is the right thing to do.

Is that not what so many plays through out history ask us to remember?

To thine own self be true….

And how often is it that we bite our tongues, we close our eyes, we turn our backs only later to say “I let that go, when I should have and could have said that I really believe…” As with anyone who has weighed in on the debate (annonymously or otherwise) the fear of being blacklisted is ever present.

To view the whole letter and blog click on this link: http://augustasupple.com/?p=764#more-764

MTC no "Boys' Club" according to Ann Tonks

The Age, Letters, 21/11/09

Melbourne Theatre Company is not a “boys’ club”. And I should know. I’ve been the general manager of the company for the past 15 years and proudly call myself a feminist.

This is a company that has produced 50 per cent of the female artistic directors appointed to run state theatre companies for the past 10 years; where the artistic and general management of the company is 64 per cent female; where half the permanent staff are women; where female board membership is four times higher than the Australian ASX 200 average.

There had been an attempt to paint the role of women managers in the performing arts as passive supporters of male artists at the expense of other women. I’ve spent my working life exploring and creating opportunities for women including initiating an all-women radio program (still running 25-years later) and training women in leadership in the Asia-Pacific region and in Australia. If Melbourne Theatre Company was a “boys’ club” I wouldn’t be working there. 

Ann Tonks, Pascoe Vale South

The Age, Letters, 25/11/09

In response to Anne Tonks (Letters, 21/11), the claim that the Melbourne Theatre Company has nurtured the careers of 50 per cent of female artistic directors of state theatre companies in Australia in the past 10 years amounts to the support of a pitiful total of two or three women.  This seems a cynical use of statistics to support an untenable argument. Therefore, I accept her resignation from the MTC on the grounds that it is a “boys’ club”.

Patricia Cornelius, Melbourne Workers Theatre, North Melbourne

Belvoir asks, "Where are the women?"

Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture: Where are the Women?

There has been much discussion recently about the lack of women in key creative roles in theatre and much speculation around why this is the case. Are enough female creative voices being nurtured? Do audiences notice? What could and should be done to rectify the gender imbalance in the creative landscape? ... [ READ MORE ]

Also read Jane Woollard's personal response to the question below.

Where are the women?

or

A personal response to the question posed by Belvoir Street Theatre.

or

An account of one Victorian female director's career trajectory and her observations about Australian Theatre.

by Jane B Woollard

‘He may be the country's most passionate and ambitious stage director. A self-described "obsessive theatre-maker", he says he values "art and the need for it.”’

‘His nerves are understandable. At twenty four he is the youngest director to open a main-stage production for Company B since Neil Armfield became artistic director of the company's precursor, the Nimrod Theatre, thirty years ago. He shrugs off the suggestion he could be a directorship candidate when Armfield leaves at the end of next year, but given his achievements it is not that far-fetched.’

‘He has had a meteoric career/A most impressive trajectory/He has blazed like a comet across the sky/He is an enfant terrible/a boy wonder/a wunderkind/a very impressive young man/in youthful middle age/with an energy younger than his years.’

The phallic and ejaculatory hyperbole we read about male theatre directors in the Australian press is intensely wearying. The arts journalists trip over their undies to write this stuff, hoping one day they may get to interview Kosky and his clever glasses. One reads breathless descriptions of male genius and wonders how one can transcend one’s own dull femaleness. To be a theatre director who is middle aged and female is to wear a suit made of albatrosses. In reviews the language about our work differs from that accorded to men. If our work is mentioned by the critic at all. At best we get ‘detailed’ ‘well-observed’ and (my detested favourite) ‘quirky.’ At worst female directors are hauled over the critical coals for getting in the way of an otherwise grand play – heaven forbid that the female director should leave her stylistic mark on the work. Surely we are there to be handmaidens of the script? Not, like our male counterparts, ‘auteurs’, ‘wunderkinds’ and ‘enfant terribles?’

I stood in a backyard in Queenscliff in 1986 and watched Halleys Comet make its progress across the sky. Midway through finishing my three year directing diploma at VCA, and filled with bright hopes for my future as a theatre director, I was humbly anticipating my impressive career as a theatre maker and practitioner. The 1980s were a brave new world, or perhaps being 24 years old made it seem so. There were no impediments to my vision and drive as a female artist, the glass ceiling had been dissolved, and the young men I was training with enjoyed working alongside women.

The comet was not as I expected. It was bright and slow, its movement undetectable to the naked eye. It inched across the edge of our sky in slow increments. It was a veil of light being pulled slowly across the black sky, like the trail your hand leaves when you wipe it across a rainy window pane. The Bayeux tapestry came to my mind. ‘Isti mirant stella,’ I whispered to myself. ‘There is the hairy star.’

‘I shall enter the firmament of Australian theatre in just such a way,’ I thought to myself. ‘I shall brightly lead the way, I shall make striking flowers of light in the thespian heavens.’

Twenty-three years later, my working life as a theatre director has indeed been like the progress of that distant comet, in ways I didn’t understand in 1986. My career has had a less predictable trajectory. The work trails behind me, a varied tail of light and shadow, a slow traversing of struggle and joy. But the work has been powered by the pulsing core of energy – artistic vision, knowledge, practise and skill. And by the wonderful collaborators who have made the work with me. There has been a steady flow of theatre-making, in the independent theatre, funded and unfunded, in the education sector and in community, working in the field of cultural development, transforming true tales into theatre, giving voice to those who stand on the fringes of the community, or bringing to light forgotten words from the past.

In past years the debate about access and equal representation for female directors in Australian theatre has flared and died, flared and dimmed. I have stood by, not signing letters, not joining the groups, believing with each year that the low representation of women in these roles is an aberration, an oversight that will be rectified the next year. Surely?

But it is an inescapable fact that the statistics for female directors are getting worse. The recent release of the seasons for MTC, Belvoir Street, Malthouse Theatre and Griffin Theatre have shown it to be worse than ever, with no women directors employed in any of the 2010 seasons curated by these companies. In response to criticism and questions asked in the print media and theatre blogs, Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney is hosting a ‘Where are the Women?’ forum on 6 December in conjunction with the Phillip Parsons Young Playwright Award.

Why does all of this matter? We have in Australia legislation called the Equal Opportunity in the Workplace Act which became law in 1986. This legislation explicitly states that organisations must adhere to the principle of Equal Opportunity in employment. But the principle of Equal Opportunity rarely applies in the theatre industry. For example, the Melbourne Theatre Company, as a department of Melbourne University, is obliged to adopt this position as an Equal Opportunity employer. However, the few ongoing roles for directors that women could apply for are never advertised. In recent years the plum job of Artistic Associate at MTC has become vacant twice. On both occasions it has not been advertised and has been offered to and taken up by men. One discovers that so-and-so is now in the role, and one thinks ‘I would have liked to apply for that.’ But the opportunity never presents itself.

The MTC Board and its Artistic Director defend their right to hire on merit alone, and at their discretion. There seems to be an attitude that they should not have to be accountable to such dull and pedestrian principles as Equal Opportunity, and that to open the doors to artists other than white middle class men would create a culture of mediocrity. Funded by public monies, Major Performing Arts Board Companies have no obligation to comply with EO legislation or to account for their progress or work in regard to it. Indeed, the MTC Board has scoffed at the idea of quotas, affirmative action, and has indicated they resent being asked why it is that they rarely employ women in these key creative roles. The funding bodies who are charged to fund the major companies take a hands off approach and blithely let them go on their way, even though the said companies contravene the funding organisations’ own EO guidelines. Theatre critic Alison Croggon wrote recently that we would not want to return to a quota system. I don’t remember such a system ever being in place. And surely equality is a principle we hold dear in our society. In this debate there has been an assumption that equal opportunity equates with mediocrity. A somewhat cocky belief that if you open the door to a variety of people, namely women and people of different cultural backgrounds, then there will be a dumbing down of the work, a dilution of skill and artistic excellence.

The MTC Board declared in its recent letter to the Australian Women Directors Alliance that female directors are not employed by the company unless they have demonstrated success on the mainstream stage, working for companies that make work for audiences of 15000 – 30000, such as Belvoir Street and Malthouse Theatre. Unfortunately neither of these companies have programmed work directed by women in 2010, so it appears we female theatre directors are trapped in a vicious nineteenth century circle. Whenever I direct a project, I approach it with the full strength of my vision, skill and artistic integrity. Directing requires the same degree of artistic excellence when making work for a small audience or a stadium audience. Of course with greater financial investment the stakes go up. But one is supported through this process by the financial and administrative staff of the larger companies, by an experienced production team, and by one’s own experience managing budgets. Whether a production budget is large or small the same principles apply.

What underlies these feeble arguments about ‘mainstream,’ ‘main stage’ and handsome budgets, is a nasty sexist assumption about women and leadership. An assumption that women are too empathetic, and therefore cannot make tough decisions, can’t manage a budget, and don’t make strong directors because empathy equals weakness and indecisiveness. An empathetic heart is a strong heart. To be kind (if people wish to believe this is the sole province of women) does not preclude having nerves of steel and a canny eye.

‘Where are the women?’

I hear again the forlorn cry from Belvoir Street Theatre and I must answer it.

We are in our 30s or 40s and approaching the peak of our practice. Many of us have children, and so the fulltime jobs of Artistic Director or Associate Director are, it has to be said, difficult. Men with families perhaps make a different set of choices, perpetuating certain cherished myths about artists being ‘driven’ and that the process of making theatre is a superhuman task, above and beyond normal energy and familial commitments. Their unquestioning commitment to the unsustainable habit of overworking compromises us all. Women tend not to want 80 hour a week jobs that take them away from their children. Networking in theatre foyers over a stubby of boutique beer is not so easy for some of us. The structure of succession in Australian theatre relies on being seen, being social, and being in the right places. Female directors with families struggle to build these informal professional relationships.

In Australian theatre we are enamoured with the young, with the male, with fragmentation and society’s diseases. As a theatre maker, if you do not make work that reflects these obsessions, then you are invisible. So when Belvoir Street Theatre poses a fatuous ‘after the horse has bolted’ question like ‘Where are all the Women?’ my response is to say – ‘Fuck you! We have been here all along, making fabulous varied work that is not dressed in fishnets, whiteface, sad puppets, rear projection screens, costly perspex, 10 000 litres of water and ear-splitting sound scores. That stuff is only unexamined fashion after all – not craft, not ‘zeitgeist.’ Perhaps our Major Performing Arts Board Companies could make a consistent and focussed commitment to getting out and seeing the work of more practitioners, instead of waiting to be dazzled by the next bright young boy genius. (‘He reminds me of myself at that age.’)

The Malthouse Theatre’s mission statement declares as one of its truisms ‘Theatre is inherently and profoundly sexual.’ What the? This, more than anything else, is evidence that the smart young-ish blokes have had their hands on it for too long and I am beside myself with rage, lost opportunities and despair - that all my training and experience and vision counts for naught. Ironically, this makes me mad as an Xray Specs song.

‘Oh Bondage up yours / Oh bondage no more!' (times two)

‘Where are the women?’

Right here, working at the coalface of theatre – in education, in community, in little theatres and workplaces. We have been making a range of work that is not necessarily particular to being female, it is varied in genre and from, and it is made of different material to the garish stuff that is fashionable in Australia at the moment.

No one is speaking out for the sisters except the sisters. Our brothers in art are quite happy with their fortune. They do not wonder why we are not standing beside them, taking roles of artistic authority and leadership. They do not ask themselves why it is women who are administering, publicising, and managing men’s work. Nor do they ask ‘How did I get this big opportunity without having to go through a formal application process, in a fair competition with a variety of other directors?’

It is clear that male directors and Artistic Directors are quite content and thrilled with themselves, their genius heads held aloft and smiling, as they saunter across the glass ceiling, never once looking down to see us peering up their trouser legs. They are too absorbed in their important work of artistic leadership, and ensuring that qualified, kind- hearted clever women do not get their hands on the means of production, the resources for story telling and therefore a voice in well-resourced theatre making in Australia.

Highly inflammable

waiting to explode

neurotic tensions

risen overflowed

(Inflammable Material/ Warrior in Woolworths, Xray Specs, 1979)

Old Fashioned Sexism

3RRR SmartArts, 19/11/09

Presenter: Richard Watts

Interview with Michael Kantor

RW: It’s a strong season, the Season One of 2010, but the glaring absence – is the lack of women directors. There’s been a lot of discussion about this in the Australian theatre sector over the last few months. Not one woman director in this season..

MK: Not in this first season. In the second season – that is actually balanced quite well in fact – quite in the opposite way.

We’re very aware that it is harder for women to make headway inside major companies, and we haven’t been great at it – I’m the first to admit that.

When I came into the position my predecessor had really tried to make significant differences in that respect by having kind of grids and having kind of ‘We’re going to have 50% of female writers and 50% female directors and we’re going to have 50% indigenous and 50%’ and everything was 50%.

But the problem was that it had actually kind of limited the kind of range of work that was taking place. So I chose not to have quotas. And I think that’s right not to have quotas but we have to remain vigilant at all times and sometimes and I think it’s not just us. I think every company has kind of ….allowed a situation to develop - and it’s not a good situation – in which it is harder for women directors. And there’s no reason, there is no inherent reason why a female director can’t direct on a big stage, or that they want to do different kind of work – I just don’t believe in that. I just think it is kind of a little bit of … hard, hard sort of time for us to all.. think hard about how we’re going to make those kind of opportunities in the future. 'Cause I think it’s real, I think the issues are real.

RW: How do you think those opportunities can be created? Mentorship schemes for emerging women directors have been identified as one...

MK: Yeah. absolutely. I think it’s about opportunity. I think about ‘How did I get to direct plays?’ I was just granted fabulous opportunities very early on in my career. That is kind of - that mentoring role. I’m not sure about schemes and scholarships – all great stuff. And bursaries, we do bursaries down at Malthouse and we do try and favour, you know …sections of the industry that are not getting a leg up and so there have been a lot of female bursaries given, but ultimately I think it’s choices made by programming – whether it’s programming by committee or by artistic directors - that make sure the that opportunity is big and large because lots of small opportunities can be good but you’ve really got to be given the leg up for big opportunities, I suppose.

I think that we also - we’ve had just recently Jenny Kemp and um..Rose Myers direct for us…We have had lots of great directors. And right now up in the Tower the piece is actually directed by, principally by Halcyon..that’s sorry I’m referring to..um..

RW: Africa

MK: Africa, which is running now. So I don’t feel that bad. I don’t think our record’s disastrous, but it could be better. And I think it could be better from us, from the MTC, from STC, from Belvoir – from all the companies.

RW: It’ll be a situation I’ll be looking with interest in the coming months and years to see – because it will have to be a long term change.

MK: Yeah. I think so.

RW: We hope that it happens.

MK: I think it should happen. I mean, I do wonder whether it’s a bit of old fashioned sexism, really and I might be part of it. But – and it’s really good that it’s come up as an issue. I think it’s fabulous that articles are being written and people are being pushed on it. 'Cause that’s how change happens, really.

RW: Very much so.

MTC forced to comply with Equal Oppotunity Policy

Theatre company ends 'boys' club'

by Robin Usher | The Age | Thursday 19th November, 2009

AUSTRALIA'S oldest state theatre organisation, the Melbourne Theatre Company, has been forced to reverse its position over the limited number of women it employs in creative roles, especially directing, after criticism that it had created a boys' club environment.

The company's parent organisation, Melbourne University, intervened to insist that its practices complied with the university's equal opportunity policies and anti-discrimination legislation. An MTC board meeting tomorrow is expected to appoint both an equal opportunity officer and an EO committee to ensure the company's practices fit in with the university's staff equity policies.

This follows complaints about ''an overwhelming downturn'' in opportunities for women directors at the company in recent years by a convenor with the Australian women directors' alliance, Melanie Beddie.

She said the university's vice-chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis, had responded with written assurances that MTC practices would change, including the advertising of positions such as associate directors, which previously had been appointed unilaterally by the company's artistic director, Simon Phillips... [READ MORE]