What we do

The engine of every story is change. It is this quality that makes stories such powerful agents of change. Stories are the best tool we have for understanding what it feels like to be someone else. They shape how we understand the world and our ability to change it. They make, prop up, and bring down systems. Playwrights tell stories that enable us to safely have the most difficult conversations.

Stories are the glue that can make us unstuck.

We believe that a recognition of the ancient sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is necessary for a full expression of Australia’s nationhood. We believe that it’s critical that full opportunities be created for all people to encounter, engage with and be transformed by that story. We support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural resurgence and self-determination as part of the shaping of our national narrative, and as an example to the world.

Diversity is a fact (the numbers), inclusion is a behaviour (we invite you to the table) but belonging is a feeling (I’m at the table and I’m being heard  ). We believe it’s our responsibility to create an environment where people can feel safe to bring their authentic and unique selves to what we do. That involves having an awareness of how the table is built – through our governance, staffing, and the way we create programs.

If someone feels they belong, they’ll feel OK about speaking the craziest, best idea ever.

We want organisations to feel they belong, just as much as individuals. We know that we’ll achieve more if we partner well – enhancing the agency of organisations that have cultural expertise and growing the capacity of organisations that have limited resources, especially the small-to-medium and independent sector. To partner is to be more fully in the world, and we need to be in the world to change it.

We believe that the greatest risk is to take no risk. It is only through risking to go too far that we can discover how far we can truly go. We feel OK about being lost in the right direction.

Brecht noted that “from the start it has been the theatre’s business to entertain people… it needs no other passport than fun”. We believe that the idea that creativity flows from playfulness, long held close in good rehearsal rooms, should flow into all we do and how we celebrate.

We act with integrity and honesty even when no one is looking. We are transparent, and accountable for all outcomes, good or bad.

This means being responsible and responsive to the world we live in. With the world in flux, new voices, especially under-represented voices, need to be identified, nurtured and elevated. If we don’t do this, we will be starved.

This means giving positive change the best chance. We need to develop plays, from both new and experienced playwrights, that are not only of the times, but shape the times. If we don’t do this, we will fall into numbing habit.

This means moving plays from blueprint to organism. Plays we help develop aren’t truly alive until they are staged. We need to work in practical partnership with producing organisations, often through co-investment. If we don’t do this, the stories are lost.

This means publishing and licensing Australian plays and being loud about their value. There are growing markets in the professional theatre, community theatre and education sectors around Australia and the world. Expanding, curating and promoting our definitive digital catalogue of more than 2,700 Australian plays is critical for the potency and sustainability of playwrights’ careers and of Australian storytelling. If we don’t do this, we restrain our stories.

This means engaging with the demands of financial and organisational health and culture, of the climate and ecological emergency, and of emerging global challenges. If we don’t do this, we can’t fulfil our purpose.