06.06.19
Thank you to everyone who has seen Prima Facie and embraced the play. Sheridan Harbridge is wowing Sydney with her extraordinary performance of Suzie Miller’s writing. It’s a tough role, but the response she is getting from the audience each night is making it possible, so thank you. A lot of actors don’t read reviews until the play is over—isn’t she going to have a lovely pile to stick in her scrap book! There are currently just a handful of tickets left (to the Wednesday 19 June matinee) but don’t worry if you’ve missed out on tickets to the Griffin run: it is traveling to Canberra Theatre Centre and to Riverside Theatres in Parramatta.
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Prima Facie won the Griffin Award. But last Sunday afternoon we all gathered inside the Stables to listen to segments of this year’s shortlisted plays, and to find out that Mark Rogers’s play Superheroes is the winner of the 2019 Griffin Award. Thank you to all the playwrights who sent us their new plays. We loved reading them all. You have provoked huge conversations about the state of the country and the national imagination. Reading all that work is like getting to see a huge literary portrait of who we are right now—it is a real privilege.
I wish Griffin had the resources to invest in the development of more of these plays, because there are so many stories that need to make it onto our stages, and I know playwrights can’t keep writing without support. Support from bodies like the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund’s sponsorship of the Griffin Award. Without their belief in writers and their investment, we would not be able to run the Griffin Award, which has been going for 22 years now, would you believe! Catherine Zimdahl won the first award with her play Clark in Sarajevo, which is a beautiful play.
Thank you to all the people who have already contributed to our End of Financial Year fundraising campaign. We hope you like the slightly silly videos we made with some of the gorgeous Griffin actors. There may not be an appropriate Helpmann Award category for Caroline Brazier as the bear, but there is a special place in Griffin heaven for her. All the actors donated their precious time, and together with all of your donations we will (cross fingers) raise enough financial love to keep the great plays coming. Thank you for all your support.
See you in the foyer. And remember—it’s warm up in the theatre!
Love,
Lee
Lee Lewis
Artistic Director
