Project
Blending fact and fiction — new perspectives on well-known plays. A take on theatre we don't get nearly enough. Celebrated voices honoring, dissecting, and elevating classics through today's lens.
Talent / Audience
Talent: 17 Of Australia's finest playwrights.
Audience: Students, teachers, theatre lovers.
Timeline / Budget
2 rounds over 2 years / $40k via grants I secured.
Vision
• Worked with playwrights to reframe legacy treasure via potent, visceral and personal responses.
• Helping to preserve classics while making them more accessible to wider audiences.
• Educational and entertaining, 1st and foremost.
• Helping students and teachers benefit from a fresh perspective on timeless stories — sharpening critical thinking skills at the same time.
My Role: Founder And CEO
Greenlit, In The Can, Wrapped & Reported...
I conceived of the idea and secured 2 rounds of grant funding from the Australian Copyright Council. I was the project manager and editor for both rounds. Getting some of our country's greatest writers paid what they deserve.
Secured grants from the Copyright Agency Limited over two years, which funded all writers' fees, designer's fees, and a sizeable portion of production costs.
Commissioned some of the most renowned and respected playwrights in Australia to write responses to classic plays, offering insights and personal reflections on the work of their peers.
Edited all responses in the series, working with playwrights to ensure their work was the most potent and visceral that it could be, whilst also being accessible and pertinent to the target market.
Commissioned Australian designer (Miranda Costa) to create cover art for all responses and the series overall.
I Wanted (Even) More From Our Classics
As if we don't ask enough of the canon already...
I'm happy to meet halfway, of course. More than, if the idea's good enough. And writers on writers is intriguing, however you cut it. Which is why I knew the best project management approach was to offer as much stakeholder autonomy as possible. Plus easy access to whatever they needed to make magic. Ironing out kinks wherever they buckled. From A - B - Z and beyond. Always in service of the work, but with plenty of awe and magic in the mix for kicks.
Magicians on Magicians
Each playwright stared down the barrel of the past — seventeen reflections on the same old pieces. Infused with surprise and delight. In ways only magicians can muster.
Who else would you as to connect veins between past and present than 17 of Ausralia's greatest writers? Each of them humanising well worn tales for the umpteenth time. To the delight of many that can remember when these tales changed their life's trajectory. Helping them breathe. Or laugh again. To trust and love. To be loved in return. And so it will be for those yet to come, and these 17 responses will be there to offer insight and reflections that shine a full spectrum of light upon these living, breathing legends, also known as classics.
Beyond Fiction
I've been telling stories (and helping others do the same) for as long as I can remember. Once you understand the architecture of our shared stories, you speak a universal language. It connects and inspires across cultures, which is how I know storytelling isn't just fiction.
Non-fiction changes minds, too. Opening neural pathways that were invisible before. And these responses are a form of storytelling in their own right. Layering the originals with a topography that can only ever found between crossovers in understanding.
Extra Magic
Download all the titles in the series here. They're free of charge and available in PDF format, so you can read them anywhere, anytime.
Credits
Main image: 'Masque Romain Antique—Museo Pio-Clementino'
Photographer: Cortile Ottagono
Cover art by Miranda Costa
© Currency Press, 2016
