What interested me most, however, in this year's booklet is the way Company B has subtly changed the way it represents itself. Over the years Company B has used its advertising - printed words and carefully arranged images - to forcefully tell its own story and articulate a very particular definition of what makes good theatre. Indeed, in an attempt to account for its success and dominant position within the field of Australian theatre, and to maintain that position, Company B has continually represented itself as a company that benefits from a unique origin. That origin is the communal action that resulted in the purchase of the Belvoir Street building in the mid 1980's, thus saving it from demolition:
The originality and energy of Company B productions arose out of the
unique action taken to save the Nimrod Theatre building from demolition
in 1984. Rather than lose a performance space in inner city Sydney, more
than 600 arts, entertainment and media professionals formed a syndicate to
buy the building. The syndicate included nearly every successful person in
Australian show business.
[From the 2003 Company B Subscription Booklet]
This short statement has appeared in numerous Company B publications. Subscription booklets, production programmes and media releases have almost always included this statement as the opening paragraph for any public account of what Company B is and does. Indeed, the action to purchase the building has received more upfront attention than the artistic priorities that the founders of Company B originally articulated. Instead, the artistic success, and the ‘originality and energy’ of Company B, have been represented as coming from a direct community action that involved Australian show business people who were already successful in their own right. In this way, by explicitly locating its origins in the community action to purchase the Belvoir Street building, Company B has sought to position itself as the inheritor of the artistic legacy of the 'New Wave' of the 1970's.
This year, in the wake of the Belvoir Street building's renovation, the wording has changed. Company B's discourse of origin has shifted from one where it "arose out of the unique action" to one where it "sprang into being out of the unique action". 'Sprang into being' is a particularly strong phrase! The rhetoric has been ramped up, hinting perhaps that Company B leapt, fully formed, into the field of theatre to take up its rightful place. Now, too, the building's two stages are described as "artistic watering holes", a particularly resonant metaphor in a land parched by meterological (and artistic) drought. A 'watering hole' is also a distinctly Australian form of oasis too, and importantly, a naturally occurring feature of the landscape.
Given that the Sydney Theatre Company has received a boost to its status through its full-time acting ensemble 'The Actor's Company', it seems to me that Company B is now re-asserting its position in the field of Sydney theatre. Company B is representing itself as a part of the theatrical landscape. It is energetic and inevitable. It offers theatrical performance that is inspired and fed by an architectural edifice once saved via a mythically unique community action and now rejuvinated through renovation.
The originality and energy of Company B productions arose out of the
unique action taken to save the Nimrod Theatre building from demolition
in 1984. Rather than lose a performance space in inner city Sydney, more
than 600 arts, entertainment and media professionals formed a syndicate to
buy the building. The syndicate included nearly every successful person in
Australian show business.
[From the 2003 Company B Subscription Booklet]
This short statement has appeared in numerous Company B publications. Subscription booklets, production programmes and media releases have almost always included this statement as the opening paragraph for any public account of what Company B is and does. Indeed, the action to purchase the building has received more upfront attention than the artistic priorities that the founders of Company B originally articulated. Instead, the artistic success, and the ‘originality and energy’ of Company B, have been represented as coming from a direct community action that involved Australian show business people who were already successful in their own right. In this way, by explicitly locating its origins in the community action to purchase the Belvoir Street building, Company B has sought to position itself as the inheritor of the artistic legacy of the 'New Wave' of the 1970's.
This year, in the wake of the Belvoir Street building's renovation, the wording has changed. Company B's discourse of origin has shifted from one where it "arose out of the unique action" to one where it "sprang into being out of the unique action". 'Sprang into being' is a particularly strong phrase! The rhetoric has been ramped up, hinting perhaps that Company B leapt, fully formed, into the field of theatre to take up its rightful place. Now, too, the building's two stages are described as "artistic watering holes", a particularly resonant metaphor in a land parched by meterological (and artistic) drought. A 'watering hole' is also a distinctly Australian form of oasis too, and importantly, a naturally occurring feature of the landscape.
Given that the Sydney Theatre Company has received a boost to its status through its full-time acting ensemble 'The Actor's Company', it seems to me that Company B is now re-asserting its position in the field of Sydney theatre. Company B is representing itself as a part of the theatrical landscape. It is energetic and inevitable. It offers theatrical performance that is inspired and fed by an architectural edifice once saved via a mythically unique community action and now rejuvinated through renovation.
1 comment:
Ahem, yes ...
It appears that this post is a little inaccurate. The word change actually occurred in the 2006 subscription booklet. So my post is only about a year out of date!
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