“There is little chance you’re going to be discovered sitting in your lounge room!”
Alex Broun is a popular playwright and screenwriter. One of the world’s leading ten minute playwrights, Alex has had over 60 ten minute plays produced in nearly 400 productions all over the world from the USA to China.
He has also had over 20 full length plays produced across the globe as well as having five short screenplays filmed during the last two years. He has also twice received funding from the Australian Film Commission and was a winner of the Inscription Script awards in 2009 for his screenplay of The Jacaranda Tree. Alex’s goal is to have 100 different ten minute plays produced across the world.
Alex Broun talks to Rohit Revo.
We are seeing relatively less percentage of ethnic artists and only a handful of plays related to ethnic communities. This is quite a paradox given that we live in such a well established multicultural society. What are your thoughts about this.
You are absolutely right on this and it is disappointing considering how multi-cultural our society is.
How do we address the above situation?
We need writers from ethnic communities to write the plays first so organizations like Short+Sweet can produce them. We receive very few plays from ethnic writers every year and we need more. Probably the only Indian writer we received plays from last year was Uma Kali-Shakti, who is wonderfully talented Fijian-Indian actor, writer and director. And we also had an Indian director – Sadashivam Rao. But we need more plays from Ethnic writers.
That’s why it’s a great reason to come to my playwrighting course. Then you can learn about how to write a ten minute play that can then go on to be produced at Short+Sweet and other theatre festivals around the globe. Local Ethnic Communities can also form their own theatre companies and present work but again it all start with someone writing the play first.
So I guess the answer in how we address that problem is – come to my playwrighting course!
Some of the ethnic communities have a very rich cultural heritage and rich in arts and culture. They seem to get a bit lost in finding their way here? Do you agree?
Yes I do. But again we need people to stage the work. And it needs to come from the community. If anyone wanted to approach us and Short+Sweet to present a work drawing on the rich cultural heritage of India we would be delighted to have it. Someone just needs to come up with the production and we will very happily stage it. But it needs to come from the community.
People are welcome to come to the playwrighting workshop and suggest any ideas they have.
What do you intend to achieve in your proposed playwright training session when you will have students from the Australian Indian community.
I will be focusing on the fundamental aspects of writing a ten minute play – Character, Story, Dialogue, Dramatic Tension/Humour and Theatricality. The main aim of the workshop is to inspire people to write a ten minute play and then inform them with the tools to do it.
What is your advice to budding artists who are trying to get a foothold or are just stepping in this industry?
Begin now. Join a theatre group, write a play, take an acting class – get involved. Do my playwrighting course. If you want to be involved in the industry then get involved at whatever level you can. There’s very little chance you’re going to be discovered sitting in your lounge room. Get out and do something and who knows what might happen.
What are your plans for the next 1 to 2 years when it comes to theatre.
Myself personally I’ll be running my playwrighting workshops and also continuing to make my plays available on my website – www.alexbroun.com – where you can read, download and even perform my work for free. If you are interested in reading some ten minute plays – that’s a good place to start.
As for Short+Sweet we’ll be building up to our tenth anniversary – Short+Sweet Sydney 2011 – which will be a fantastic festival. So come along to the playwrighting course, write a play and who knows – your play might be performed at Short+Sweet Sydney 2011. If you never try – you’ll never know!
Abhinay School of Performing Arts and Alex Broun to deliver play-writing workshop
Abhinay School of Performing Arts Inc., a charity organisation, has announced its latest big event – a writers workshop to be presented by world-renowned playwright, Alex Broun, at the Hurstville Entertainment Centre on Sunday 6 June.
Abhinay, which in Hindi means an ‘expression’, currently run classes on drama, many Indian dance forms including Bollywood , vocal and instrumental music. Established in 2009, Abhinay aims to promote art and culture. Alex Broun, a patron of Abhinay School of Performing Arts Inc., will conduct a three-hour script-writing workshop at the Hurstville Entertainment Centre on Sunday 6 June.
“Hurstville is a vibrant area, rich in creativity and I’m looking forward to working with local writers from a wide cross-section of backgrounds to develop their ideas and stories in to great 10-minute plays that may go on to be performed at Short+Sweet and other 10-minute play festivals around the world,” says Alex Broun, who is the Artistic Director of Short+Sweet Theatre (the largest 10-minute play festival in the world).
In announcing this exciting event Abhinay School of Performing Arts Inc. President, Aishveryaa Nidhi said, “I am very excited to announce a workshop with Alex, this will create opportunities for our local community writers, directors and actors to polish their skills and get ready to participate in festivals like Short+Sweet. I would personally like to encourage young generation to come forward and learn from the best in the industry.”
Aishveryaa Nidhi is the first and only Indian actress to be nominated for ‘Best Actress Award’ in 2009 in David Sharpe’s ‘Mandragora’. ‘Mandragora’ also got two more nominations, David Sharpe for ‘Alex Broun new talent of the year award’ and ‘Mandragora’ for ‘Best Drama Script’.
Abhinay Event Coordinator Sam Almaliki said, “This is really a great opportunity for local writers and the local community at large and we are pleased to be able to put this workshop together with the support of Alex. This will be an insightful and dynamic workshop, certainly an opportunity not to be missed.”
For more information visit www.abhinay.com.au or contact Aish on 0488200222
One Trackback
[...] possibility of, writer's block … One city, two brothers « buy children's books online Alex broun, multicultural society, ethnic communities, indians in … The outer alliance » outer alliance spotlight #36: brandon bell Rome: my interpretation of 2 short [...]