A Note from Lee, 25 May

25.05.17

Hello from beautiful Brisbane. I am ensconced in the rehearsal rooms of Queensland Theatre working on Michele Lee’s play Rice. Her play won the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2016-2017, and it is a real joy to be bringing it to the stage. The playwright spotters among you may remember that Griffin first met Michele in StoryLab in 2013, a playwright development program supported by the The Girgensohn Foundation – five years later she is making her mainstage debut with Rice, first up here in Brisbane and then on the Stables stage.

While I am dissecting the complex relationship between an ‘Indian princess’ and her ‘Chinese cleaner’ (their insults, not my observations!), in Sydney you have a chance to look back and experience one of the foundation plays of Australian theatre in Patrick White’s The Ham Funeral directed by Kate Gaul. For those of you who prefer looking forward, our current development program, Griffin Studio, is having a showing of some new comedic writing on Sunday with Griffin Scratch. All while we are putting together the 2018 Season. GO you good thing, GO!

It is awesome being back in a building with Sam Strong, and there is no doubt that the legendary Queensland sunshine is warm, golden and welcome. But I am really looking forward to seeing a new play move between two cities. The conversation between Melbourne and Sydney audiences about The Homosexuals was awesome, and I can’t wait to see Brisbane and Sydney engage with Michele Lee’s observations about women, ambition, opportunity and courage. Her words have been inspiring great conversations in the rehearsal room and no doubt will continue to do so when they reach out into the world in performance.

Stay warm,
Lee