What kind of government of an island with more history, story-tellers and artists per square foot takes funding from its only professional theatre company? It’s a mystery.
Meridy Eastman – actor & author
I met Charles Parkinson at the Australia 2020 summit and was duly impressed with his passionate vision and articulate knowledge of what it would take to initiate the theatre company. I found his approach ambitious without any frivolity, which convinced me that indeed, if funded properly it could certainly flourish.
Kristy Edmunds Artistic Director Melbourne International Arts Festival 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008
“The theater is the only institution in the world which has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive.”
John Steinbeck (Ok so Steinbeck didn’t actually say this about TTC but he might as well have! Thanks to Brenna Hobson at Belvoir Street for the quote))
Charles Parkinson’s Tasmanian Theatre Company is a long overdue re-introduction of professional theatre into Tasmania, which as both a performer and consumer of theatre, I recognise as an important cultural and social landmark in Tasmania’s theatrical history.
Hugh Jackman
We have award winning writers in Tasmania. We have exported numerous talented actors from Errol Flynn to Genevieve Picot and most of all we have the ideal film set in the diversity of our natural scenery. Lets use it and show it off to the rest of the world. We keep speaking of tourism as our growth industry so lets put ourselves on the map, instead of tourists beating tracks to Pride and Prejudice country and Heartbeat country and Pie in the Sky towns in England, or if you look closer to home – Ramsay Street in Melbourne – let us draw them here with the interest local productions could generate.
Lara Giddings – maiden speech 8th May, 1996
So he can do it. He just needs enough money to do it well.
We at MTC – artists and administrators, directors and designers, ex-Tasmanians and others –believe that Tasmania deserves a theatre company.
Ann Tonks, General Manager, Melbourne Theatre Company
Paul Grabowsky, Artistic Director, Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts
Chris Mead, Artistic Director, Playwriting Australia
Political Cartoonist Graeme Dazeley comes out of retirement in support of TTC
Best regards ………. Geoff Logan
Claudia Karvan
3 Responses to “Quotes, Comments and Feedback”
This is/was a company with vision and a future – it deserves continued support.
What a short-sighted decision to AGAIN cut the funding of a burgeoning adult theatre company (the ONLY professional adult theatre company in the state!) just when it is starting to hit its straps. As a Tasmanian theatre artist living in Victoria (with dreams of returning to work in my home state) this is simply embarrassing – it just appears to confirm the backward, naive, immature reputation Tasmania has on the mainland.
Comment by Barry Kay on 05/09/2011 at 2:56 pm
The Tasmanian Theatre Company has consistently brought original, innovative, beautifully-crafted, meaningful and moving theatre to audiences around Tasmania. The company supports local writers, performers and technicians and always strives to shine a light on issues, ideas and stories which would otherwise remain unearthed. It is immensely saddening, disappointing and frustrating to know that the future of this company is now under threat.
Jane Christie-Johnston
Comment by Jane on 07/09/2011 at 11:21 am
What a disgrace! To lose our professional theatre company would be a crime. Theatre may not be the economic lifeblood of our state, but its contribution to keeping the creative pulse of the community beatiing cannot be denied. The record of the Tasmanian Theatre Company over the past year is surely testament to the invigoration of theatrical pursuits which TTC has been responsible for. The Festival of New Tasmanian Theatre is one example. Last night I saw In the Still of the Night, a wonderful show by Allison Farrow. I cannot praise it enough. If I had not seen it, I would have been a culturally poorer person. Artists need to have outlets for their creativity.
We need you, TTC!
Kind regards from Merlene Abbott,
Tasmanian correspondent, Stage Whispers
Comment by Merlene Abbott on 06/10/2011 at 10:07 am
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