By Al McCall
BRISBANE — The Satire Workshop has been making headway. Originally foundered as a pilot project to disseminate and promote political satire throughout Australia, the workshop has met with a ready response, as much overseas as locally.
Already, subscriptions to Graffito — the workshop's e-mail bulletin — have been accumulating at a steady rate. It is expected that the mailing list will reach 500 by the end of the year. As the network grows and contacts broaden it is hoped that the workshop will be able to function as a clearing house for a wide range of satirical material.
The internationalisation of its work has surprised the workshop's coordinator, Dave Riley.
"When we began", he told Green Left Weekly "we thought we'd be starting from scratch and would have to rely totally on our own resources to come up with material. Nevertheless, we've found that while good satire is being written it is not being circulated. Finding it, and it finding us (despite the size of the world) has been the major success of the last few months."
While there are no firm plans as yet for a printed version of Graffito, the workshop is keen to expand its activities and establish a theatre group.
"We'll keep Graffito going — expand its subscription base and increase its frequency — while we launch this new venture", Riley said.
"We've even got a name for it — one we pinched from an outfit in Prague: the New World Order Theatre. Now we're recruiting. It's as simple as that."
Simple as that?
"We don't expect any major problem obtaining material to perform", he said. "What we need are actors — would be, run-of-the-mill, amateurs with enthusiasm and the desire to campaign around issues like those covered in Green Left. We'll take racism, greenhouse gases, land rights, whatever, and turn them into routines and short plays to be performed in a wide range of public venues. We're not interested in main stage theatre. This is going to be rough and ready, clowning stuff where commitment and politics are the main thing."
Riley likens the New World Order Theatre to a band that does gigs. "Except we won't just be singing and making music. It will be closer to cabaret, but we hope we won't need amplification and cumbersome electronics in order to perform. Commedia dell Arte is the traditional form. We'll just adapt it to our needs."
The New World Order Theatre is looking for people who live in south-east Queensland to join. No experience is necessary. And the reward, says Riley, is a new world of our own choosing.
You can contact the New World Order Theatre on (07) 3266 4281, e-mail: dhell@ozemail.com.au or write to PO Box 1247, Fortitude Valley 4006.