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MYTHS Theres a problem here. A performanceis given, then gone. All the back a piece of theatre had becomes a memory in someones mind. Maybe

a costume or two survive, if theyre not cut up for something else. Bit of a set gets recycled, or a property re -used. But mostly what endures are the

scripts, and commentators got to them. The temporality of the art form makes an archaeology of the theatre difficult. John Romeril. What is a myth?

A myth is a cultures way of thinking about something, a way of conceptualising or understanding it, says John Fiske. Roland Barthes says Myth is

depolitcised speech COLONIAL A play was given aboard the convict transport Scarborough as it neared Sydney on 2 January, 1788 (three weeks before

arrival) Convicts were involved in most early theatrical performances in Australia. First play performed The Recruiting Officer, in 1789 Illustrates George

Farquhar's 1706 play 'The Recruiting Officer'. Farquhar (1677 or 1678 1707) First play performed on Australian soil, 4 June 1789 with a cast of 11

convicts and some soldiers in honour of King George IIIs birthday.Written in 1706 by George Farquhar, an Irishman, the Restoration Comedy follows

the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury where they have come to

recruit soldiers for the army. Convict theatre continues till 1820s, transportation ceases 1840s. 1796 first theatre built. Sidaways Theater, built by

Robert Sidaway, an ex-convict (see his name on the playbill). Bans were put on theatres because clergymen (and others) saw them as dens of iniquity,

full of thieves and prostitutes. Robberies occurred while patrons were at the theatre. Sidaways Theatre closed sometime between 1804-1808 (probably

partly in response to Rum. EURO SETTLEMENT 19thc Revising History From Deadwood to...Declan Greene and Ash Flanders in The Sovereign Wife ... In

this show, they say, they are retelling Australian history the way it should be told (Arts Hub) Ash Flanders shines in The Sovereign Wife and he is an Arts

Academy graduate A Queer company, with a capital Q. It's a production rich in camp detail, with extensive cross-racial and cross-gender casting, queer

antics and a surprisingly acid critique of the Australian ethos. As an exploration of the cultural cringe and a sly celebration of the pioneer genre this is

highly recommended. (Time Out) The Sovereign Wife, a Queer theatre at MTC, Neon Festival. INDEPENDENT theatre company Sisters Grimm delivers a

bizarre, irreverent and furiously entertaining show in The Sovereign Wife. Declan Greene's production, set on the 19th century Ballarat goldfields, looks

like a Victorian melodrama colliding with a 21st century drag show, and its great strength is that it never takes itself seriously. Pop culture and savvy

understanding of the significance of historical stories, there are dances, songs and (naturally) a rave sequence. Gender, race and age are completely

fluid. There are girls in fake beards and men in frocks. A Chinaman is played by a white guy, a black man by an Asian woman, a white woman by a black

man. Cultural stereotypes are appropriated, then blurred and jumbled into a risible mess that mocks the very concept of stereotyping.... underscoring it

is a fiercely intelligent interrogation of the Australian identity. ... Identity is presented as a muddled construct and the symbolic connection to the

national psyche is clear. Censorship Laws discourage local content. In Britain, all scripts had to be verified by the lord chamberlain before their

presentation on stage (this law was not rescinded until the 1960s). Similarly, in the colonies authorities given permission for works to be staged. Even

though during the late 1830s managers deliberately ignored the rule against local authors, it was easier to produce something that had already been

passed by the censor than risk new material. Then in 1840s Edward Deas, the NSW Colonial secretary relaxed censorship again, as long as oaths were

removed. Censorship of the theatre. This censorship led also to many local plays being set in far away places such as Ruritania or in historical sevngs.Any form of radical thought or comment on social issues was camouflaged by these remotes sevngs which were as far away as possible fro the realities

of the colony (Williams, 20). FILM, RADIO VAUDEVILLEVariety theatre made a key contribution to Australian popular culture between the 1850s and

late 1920s. Peaking in the years after 1916, when the First World War forced the major variety organisations to rely more on local talent, the industry

not only increased its overall professional ranks, but also established possibly the first ever locally-created theatrical genre the Australian revusical.

With its performers constantly moving around the country via a network of established circuits, the industry was uniquely placed to transmit and

respond to everyday issues of concern and interest, much as the television industry does today. Many of its performers became national celebrities.

Some, like Nat Phillips and Roy Rene (Stiffy and Mo), George Wallace and Jim Gerald, became legends during their careers. trolling black face minstrels

had performed at fairs and races in the 1820s and 30s, but the first recorded performance of this style also occurred at the Royal Victoria, in 1838 in

Sydney when Mr J. H. S. Lee first introduced t he Jim Crowe (and African- American tap and shuffle style dance) minstrel style of entertainment,

himself performing on the bones. Minstrelsy takes on an Australian flavour while maintaining the American form. Australian Musical pastimes - In the

1860s theatrical managers took the lead from British Music Halls and continued to promote popular Musical Burlettas (amusing parodies of well-known

contemporary dramas) and Extravaganzas (less satire and more pure entertainment with plot coming from fairy tale or mythology). Minstrel Shows

feature strongly in Australia. In the 1880s new minstrel halls were opened in Melbourne (Victoria Hall, the Gaiety) and Sydney (The Alhambra, Academy

of Music, Victoria Hall, the Gaiety) and Brisbane (The Gaiety). Pantomimes merged with Extravaganzas and borrowed music from anywhere. Australian

circuit develops - The term vaudeville not commonly used in Australia till the turn of the century though in 1854 a series of vaudevilles was presentedat the Criterion in Melbourne theatre. In 1893 Harry Rickards opened his Tivoli Theatre it was known as The Tivoli Minstrel and Specialty Company. By

1909 Rickards was known as The King of Vaudeville (Waterhouse, 119) . The First Radio Broadcast During the evening of 23 November 1923 people

across Sydney gathered eagerly in their homes around pieces of wondrous new technology to hear the first radio broadcast in Australia. At precisely 8

oclock they tuned in to hear the St Andrews Choir with s oloists Misses Deering and Druitt, and Messrs Saunders, Pick and Thorp. The ensemble

performed 'Lecygne (The Swan), from Camille Saint-Saens Carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals). AUS VOICE & RED WITCHES Lavish

spectacle of 1890s bush melodrama challenged by growing audiences for cinema, government taxes and Depression. Beginnings of literary modern

drama (influenced by Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, nb. Stanislavsky opens the Moscow Art and Popular theatre) results in quest for authentic voices of

everyday people and smaller more intimate art theatre audiences. Australian Literary dramas of the 1920s didnt find audiences beyond amateur

circles although they were important as a stepping-stone. Theatre moved from Bush melodrama to Bush Realism, to socialist realism and domestic

drama (specially on radio). By the 1920s the bush legend of the 1890s (re- mythologies in the 1950s by writers and historians, and again in the 1970s by

filmmakers and advertiser) was well entrenched. The scenic spectacle of the grand melodrama of the late nineteenth century had already, ironically,

become tangled up with the new notions of realism. A desire for authentic Australian setting became part of this otherwise highly artificial and

conventional form (John McCallum, 6). The radio became the main form for arts and entertainment. POST WAR Australia had been opened to the world

during WW2 and some artists had responded boldly and with originality. For eg: Modernism from Europe translated to Australian experience during the

war. Social changes in the time of prosperity 1947-61. Population boom sends people out of the city centre to the suburbs, factories move too (risingbirth rate and immigration) City centers rebuilt in high-rise glass and steel. Rate of home ownership increased from 53 % in 1947 to 70% by 1961.

Fourfold increase of married women in the workforce between 1947-1961. More social changes 1947-61 Car ownership enables cities to sprawl. Growth

of supermarkets nuclearfamily is the major economic unit. Growth of consumer oriented households (wife and mother seen not as provider but as

consumer) Introduction of TV (1956) increases influence of American values and advertising, Extended education and growing youth culture, Rock and

Roll. Government support for the Arts, 1954 The need for a national theatre in Australia has frequently been expressed in Meanjin, and it is indeed with

great deal of pleasure that I am able to bring before you an outline of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust [AETT] which is being established for the

encouragement, promotion and development of drama, opera and ballet in Australia. ... The ultimate aim of the Trust must be to establish a native

drama, opera and ballet which will give professional employment to Australian actors singers and dancers, and furnish opportunities for those such as

writers, composers and artists whose creative work is related to the theatre. (Nugget Coombs, in Milne, 11) Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a play

about growing up. It is about growing up and growing old and failing to grow up; and the study throws into relief not only the hopes and failures of a

dilapidated Melbourne household, but the character of a nation. (Katherine Brisbane) 1954. The Doll addresses a need for change. The old-style

Australian character represented is exhausted and in need of recuperation. Reedy River, the first Australian folk musical with music played by a small

orchestra conducted by Miles Maxwell, was first produced by the Melbourne New Theatre on 11 March 1953, directed by John Gray. Later that year the

musical was revived by the Sydney New Theatre with the orchestra replaced by The Bushwhackers. PERFORMING IN AUSTRALIA 80s 90s John Holden

identifies three layers of culture working in todays society. 1. commercial culture (in theatre, things like the big musicals which rely on box office and

merchandising) 2. funded culture which is deemed art because it is funded (anything that gets grants from the government the public pursesuch as

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the Australia Council) 3. home-made culture (fringe, independent, community, amateur theatre, for example) A political agenda: Multiculturalism

Identity and community

The 1980s funded art and community art were very inter related, partly because of government agendas relating to inclusion and multiculturism were driving

the agenda of funding bodies such as the Australia Council.

After the New Wave few people other than politicians and advertisers ever spoke again with confidence about the Australian National Character. In the

theatre, as elsewhere in the 1980s the idea that such a complex notion as Australianness could ever be summed up in a simple drama of representation came

to be seen as absurd. Difference was celebrated. The politics of personal and social identity became key determinants in the way in which new plays were

produced and read by their audiences. (McCallum, 265) The Third Wave, The 1980s was a huge expansion in alternative theatre of many kinds: massive

development in fringe theater, theatre for young people; Womens theatre, Gay and lesbian theatre, Multicultural theatre, Back to Back theatre for people of

different abilities, Regional and community theatre also thrived for some years, at least partly due to policy changes among government funding agencies,

especially the Australia Council.

the third wave was also marked by further developments in new circus and physical theatre, puppetry and visual theatre and contemporary performance, and

by some fascinating blurring of boundaries between theatre forms. Commercial mainstream theater also enjoyed a prolific period of prosperity, specially giventhe world-wide phenomenon of Cats-type blockbuster musicals. Geoffrey Milne in Theatre Australia (Unlimited),234 Doppio Theatro (1983) by Teresa Crea and

Christopher Bell produced Il Cabaret dellEmigrante (1984) followed by Un Puno di Terra (1986) and Ricordi (1989) after bringing Italian feminist author Dacia

Maraini to Australia. David Williamson the perfectionist the removalist, Michael Gow Away, Louis Nowra Cosi, golden age. Nick Enright Boy from Oz

book. Masculinity of Gays in theatre. Tap Dogs, Australian style of dance and musical. By the 80s there was a niche market for the Australian designed musical.

Audiences were into the Megamusical. Cats, Les Mis, Phantom.