DARING DOG MONOLOGUES
12 – 21 September
SIX DEGREES AT A HOT MELBOURNE MARKET
12th – 23rd November
Submissions for our Season 2019 closed on 30th April, and we are pleased to announce the selected works in each category. They are as follows:
Daring Dog Monologues
It’s Not Funny – Maree Collie
Since – Elizabeth Dias
Jitterbug – Brooke Fairley
Desperate and Dirty at Twilight – Heather Forbes
Comet’s Tale – Michael Olsen
I Am Ublet – Bruce Shearer
Six Degrees at a HOT Melbourne Market
Wormholes – Alison Knight
Arriving Today – Michael Olsen
The Future of Organics – Louise Hopewell
Clothes are just protective coatings – Bruce Shearer
SELECTION REPORTS
Daring Dog Monologues
Thank you to all the writers who submitted works for the 2019 Melbourne Writers’ Theatre season Daring Dog Monologues. We received an encouraging number of scripts with a variety of responses to the creative prompt and I have been happily immersed in these imaginings as I made my selection.
This process involved an initial reading of all works submitted, from which I compiled a shortlist of fourteen pieces. These were then reread a number of times as stand-alone monologues, and also considered in relation to each other as a collection for performance. The primary criterion for inclusion in the shortlist was the theatrical possibility inherent in the work; the extent to which the writer was able to engage dramatically with the narrative and ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ this to an audience in an active text. Whilst there was some evocative writing amongst the submissions, I felt that a number of these pieces were better suited to the short story form, and others more filmic than stage-ready. That said, the scope of this year’s entries was expansive; monologues wrestled with themes of betrayal and loss, love and yearning, aging, death, homelessness, refugees and addiction. I found humour and pathos in equal measure.
Congratulations to the writers whose work has been selected and my encouragement to all who may have missed out. Continue to write for the stage, to bring your unique voice to the conversation, to speak for the marginalised and disenfranchised among us, and to entertain audiences with drama. There is great power in art and nothing beats the immediacy of live theatre.
Elizabeth Walley
Resident Director
Melbourne Writers’ Theatre
Six Degrees at a HOT Melbourne Market
It was a privilege to read all of the scripts that were submitted for this year’s Six Degrees at a HOT Melbourne Market, and I would like to thank and congratulate everyone who submitted a piece for consideration.
The standard of entries was consistently high, but the four that have been selected all captured a strong sense of place (The Queen Victoria Market in past, present or future), combined with well-developed characters and theatrical action. Some of the selected pieces will still require editing, and I would like to urge all writers who submitted to keep searching for theatrical ways of showing ideas, actions or emotions, rather than telling these. I hope that everyone who submitted this year will be encouraged to keep writing, developing their ideas, and sharing their unique voices.
Adele Shelley
Selector
Co-Director, Six Degrees in Melbourne 2018
Tickets for both of these Season 2019 shows
will be available via this website soon!
We look forward to seeing all MWT members
at these original, MWT-made theatrical productions.