Getting it right at the drama desk

By Rhonda Dredge

The Malthouse has launched a new Engine Room program to give writers, directors and audiences insight into the process behind the scenes at the theatre.

Mark Pritchard, the new works manager, wants to get a conversation going about craft.

Usually the audience sees a play in terms of the story but there’s a lot more going on.

“Audiences don’t have the language to talk about plays in other ways,” Mark said, but as the one responsible for getting Malthouse texts into shape he’s keen to broaden their horizons.

“I’ve started thinking about plays as hypotheses,” he wrote in an essay in the Engine Room. “A writer proposes a theory of action, and the performers and creative team work together to test and refine this theory in real space and time.”

“The approach might be completely fantastical, or clinical, or some other approach altogether to demonstrate some dynamic relationship between forces in the fiction.”

Other directors and playwrights have also been commissioned to write essays about their own ways of working which have been posted on the Malthouse website.

“These are conversations we have all the time about how work is made but they’re invisible,” Mark said.

Resident director Bridget Balodis, in an essay Leading on New Work, confides how much the mood of the director dictates the outcome of a rehearsal, be it “wacky and loose” or “laser-focussed”.

When she was doing a play about a teen witch she got everyone doing horoscopes. “Some of it felt silly. Some of it felt true. That was the fine line we needed … to make the play work.”

She also said that a first impression of a new play provided a valuable insight because the audience would only see it once.

The essays were aimed at artists, Mark said. “It’s an insider’s conversation” but one that he hopes will educate audiences as well. “When they hear about how the thing came about they’ll appreciate it better,” he suggested.

He makes a distinction between a director’s comments and an in-depth articulation of how much work goes into getting a production up and running. Most shows take a couple of years.

“The journey of making a play starts with a concept. We commission and develop. It’s just an idea. It might be a proposal. Then we talk about how it might sit in this building.”

Many punters think of theatres as venues whereas the Malthouse is a production company that gets plays relevant to Melbourne up from scratch.

“What stories would suit Melbourne?” is the question they focus on even if they do use a few buzz words such as “process” and “innovation”.

“We’re seeing work in rehearsal. What you’re doing is interesting and articulate. Can you put that down on paper? It gives them the confidence to talk in detail,” Mark said.

While he added these were not COVID responses, they did reflect an inward gaze at the way the company worked. “This is a whole new framework for us,” he said.

Even the marketing manager Davey Simmons said it was important that they weren’t just known by the outdoor stage.

“We’re here to work with artists as part of the cultural scene,” he said, announcing that the company had just launched an innovation prize calling for playwrights to send in a sample and a proposal.

Now that’s putting your money where your mouth is! •

Caption: New works manager Mark Pritchard at his desk in the Drama Department.