In April, thanks to donations to our Australian Cultural Fund campaign, a group of diverse artists will sit down with Millicent Armstrong’s forgotten 4 act drama, “Fire”. We will read, respond, discuss and debate the play’s potential for a contemporary production.

We are very grateful to all those who donated to the ACF campaign. We can only do this work because of your support.

#makingculturehappen

The artists involved are: Dianna Nixon (from Music Theatre Projects, who has been working on Armstrong’s plays over the last 8 years), Maria Shevtsova (professor of theatre and author, her books include the acclaimed “Rediscovering Stanislavsky”), Jenny Bell (Breadalbane-based farmer and visual artist, who completed a Canberra Theatre Centre residency with Dianna in 2023, and with whom we hope to create a contemporary multimedia work “Flood”), Martin Thomas (production designer, who has relocated to the ACT after spending the last 7 years in the design team at Glyndebourne Opera), and Stephen Carlton (multi award-winning Queensland-based playwright and academic whose works have been extensively performed).

We are being hosted by The Street, the ACT region’s premier production house and driver of professional practice in this region, focussed on the development of new work, and in the development of artist’s unique voices and creative practices.

Out of this dramaturgical work will come an updated version of the “Fire” script which will be read at an event being held on 4th May at Millicent Armstrong’s old property north of Gunning. The actors for that reading will be Caroline Simone O’Brien, Zsuzsi Soboslay, Dianna Nixon, Craig Alexander, and Christopher Samuel Carroll.

We look forward to feedback from those who will attend that invitation-only event.