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Issue Details: First known date: 1973... 1973 Four Australian Plays
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Notes

  • Author's Introduction: ...It is difficult to analyze my own work, and to try to find reasons why the four plays included in this volume have been, and continue to be, so successful...It has been said that I have an unusual gift for writing natural, fluent dialogue, and for being able to produce different ways of speaking for different characters....Allied with this is an equally strong reason for the success of such plays as Dark Heritage, and that is the fact that my own knowledge of theatre, and what is wanted in theatre, is sound. I have worked in every capacity...Also, it is necessary to know thoroughly the essence of a play. It is possible to create a situation, and to invent characters to go with it, but the mood, the soul of the play, must be understood by the playwright....Growing up in southwest Queensland, for me the Aboriginal situation was not just a problem, but part of my life as a child....(vii-xi).
  • Contains 'Dark Heritage', 'Dust is the Heart', 'Hang Your Clothes on Yonder Bush' and 'Legend of the Losers'.

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1973 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Dark Heritage, Barbara Stellmach , single work drama (p. 1-66)
Dust is the Heart, Barbara Stellmach , single work drama (p. 67-84)
Hang Your Clothes on Yonder Bush, Barbara Stellmach , single work drama humour (p. 85-149)
Legend of the Losers, Barbara Stellmach , single work drama (p. 151-227)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Assaying the New Drama A. A. Phillips , 1973 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Winter vol. 32 no. 2 1973; (p. 189-195) Responses : Selected Writings 1979; (p. 182-189) Contemporary Australian Drama : Perspectives Since 1955 1981; (p. 217-224)

— Review of The Third Secretary : A Play Ralph Peterson , 1972 single work drama ; A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama ; The Removalists David Williamson , 1971 single work drama ; Four Australian Plays Barbara Stellmach , 1973 selected work drama ; The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner Dorothy Hewett , 1972 single work musical theatre ; The Lucky Streak : A Play James Searle , 1966 single work drama

A. A. Phillips introduces his review of six new Australian dramas by saying: 'The quality of these plays, and others in the present burgeoning, is perhaps not the most important consideration. It matters much more that they are here and that they are satisfying audiences. Culturally in the widest sense of the word, the theatre's first importance is not as a potent vehicle of art, but as the place where a crosssection of the community has a common, and preferably a significant, experience. But so long as our theatre presented almost entirely imported material it forfeited half its power to develop our social coherence. Moreover, it fed our tendency to drowse into acceptance of a client-state mentality. It therefore matters a good deal that a sizeable slice of our common entertainment is now being presented by our own entertainers concerned with our own forms of living and igniting an eagerness of response. If their plays are also good art or penetrating social comment, so very much the better; but that is not their primary social function.' (Meanjin 32.2 (June 1973):189)

Woman Playwrights : A First Collection? Walter Stone , 1973 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 6 no. 1 1973; (p. 94)
Assaying the New Drama A. A. Phillips , 1973 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Winter vol. 32 no. 2 1973; (p. 189-195) Responses : Selected Writings 1979; (p. 182-189) Contemporary Australian Drama : Perspectives Since 1955 1981; (p. 217-224)

— Review of The Third Secretary : A Play Ralph Peterson , 1972 single work drama ; A Stretch of the Imagination Jack Hibberd , 1971 single work drama ; The Removalists David Williamson , 1971 single work drama ; Four Australian Plays Barbara Stellmach , 1973 selected work drama ; The Chapel Perilous, Or, The Perilous Adventures of Sally Banner Dorothy Hewett , 1972 single work musical theatre ; The Lucky Streak : A Play James Searle , 1966 single work drama

A. A. Phillips introduces his review of six new Australian dramas by saying: 'The quality of these plays, and others in the present burgeoning, is perhaps not the most important consideration. It matters much more that they are here and that they are satisfying audiences. Culturally in the widest sense of the word, the theatre's first importance is not as a potent vehicle of art, but as the place where a crosssection of the community has a common, and preferably a significant, experience. But so long as our theatre presented almost entirely imported material it forfeited half its power to develop our social coherence. Moreover, it fed our tendency to drowse into acceptance of a client-state mentality. It therefore matters a good deal that a sizeable slice of our common entertainment is now being presented by our own entertainers concerned with our own forms of living and igniting an eagerness of response. If their plays are also good art or penetrating social comment, so very much the better; but that is not their primary social function.' (Meanjin 32.2 (June 1973):189)

Woman Playwrights : A First Collection? Walter Stone , 1973 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 6 no. 1 1973; (p. 94)
Last amended 30 Oct 2007 13:14:19
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