I have just spent a month re-writing 3 more scripts for the Queensland Premier's Drama Award. This is a competition to provide plays for the Queensland Theatre Company, and is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to break into professional writing in Australia.
I had already re-written
'The Queenslander', and I followed this up with a major re-write of
'Heat', focussing on the two women. One is the 17 year old, pretty, working-class house-keeper in the kitchen; the other is 19 year-old sophisticated, beautiful boss's wife in the station house. The men come and go from these rooms, and from the influence of these women. I think this made the play much more focussed, and much more dramatic.
I also re-wrote two smaller scripts into plays. 'The Beach' is set in a small coastal town in Queensland.
Cathy
is tied to her boring town by her mother. She has just dumped her
faithless long-term boyfriend for sleeping with her best friend.
Upset, she drives down to her family's beach shack to re-assess her
life.
Cathy
sees Max on the side of the road in a storm and offers him a lift. An
alcoholic ex-rock star on the run from rehab, Max is burnt out and
cynical. But the beach gives him the space he needs to rediscover his
will to live. But
Cathy's ex, her best friend and her mother have their own plans for
Cathy.
'Edges' focuses on Ida, an elderly artist, living alone and in poverty. She has befriended
Harry, an aboriginal man who has struggled with isolation and
alcohol. Then a street kid, Sean, breaks into her house, and falls
for her art. Ida
feeds Sean; Sean helps Ida keep the social services at bay; and Harry
helps Sean sort out his problem at home. But
it is Sean's explosive solution to Ida's lack of artistic recognition
that nearly brings the house down.
I can only hope it makes the short-list. I find out at the end of December.
