2009
Alex Buzo Memorial Lecture
presented
by University of Sydney’s premiere public lecture
series
ALANA VALENTINE: Captivated by Reality
Introduced
by Emma Buzo, Founder and Director of The Alex Buzo
Company
Monday
August 10 2009 @ 6.30pm, Seymour Centre, Sydney. Bookings
and details
here
“The
job of the artist is not to speak the truth,” says one of
the characters in Aaron Sorkin's award-winning The West
Wing. “The job of the artist is to captivate you for
however long they have asked for your attention. If we
stumble upon truth we got lucky.”
Stories
drawn from 'real life' are appearing in every contemporary
form - from dance to drama, to performance hybrids and
main-stage community presentations - the verbatim form has
reinvigorated global debate about both the shape and
content of theatre, its relevance in the 21st Century and
the ways in which to approach its assessment as an art
form. A new generation of theatre makers are emerging who
want the theatre to continue to unnerve and engage in a
debate with its society, whether that be nationally or
globally, and for whom mere form experiments are
insufficient to the enormity of the challenges facing our
futures. In this, the second Alex Buzo Memorial Lecture,
playwright Alana Valentine examines how she continues to
want to captivate her audiences with voices drawn from the
world around us, challenging old assumptions, rejecting
received wisdom, interrogating classical myths and
questioning contemporary values. Drawing examples from her
numerous interview-based works such as "Run Rabbit Run" and
"Parramatta Girls" (Both on the NSW drama syllabus 2010-12)
and
"Shafana and Aunt
Sarrinah"
which will be playing in the Seymour Centre to coincide
with this lecture, this will be a fascinating provocation
about the artistic process of combining artifice with
authenticity.
