Your views: on Liberal tensions, housing and theatre
Today, readers comment on a conservative Liberal Party rebellion against moderate social policies, housing demand and the stage.
Commenting on the story: The Conservative Correction: ‘Egregious’ social policy blamed for Libs’ Pentecostal resurgence
So when has a person’s religious leanings or convictions been an appropriate target for media comments? In Australia?
If people choose to listen or to vote for a person for whatever reason, that has totally zero to do with public comment. – Michael Adams
Commenting on the story: Interstate buyers snapping up SA houses
So apparently, despite the exodus from Victoria during COVID, we only gained 98 additional bodies in SA. Yet in recent articles the Government and the housing industry bodies claim we need to build thousands of new homes – 12,000 at least in Buckland Park. Either there are thousands of homeless in SA or the maths doesn’t add up.
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Methinks building new houses is about giving jobs to construction workers and making money for developers, not about servicing housing shortages. – Peter Macdonald
Commenting on the story: It should be called ‘the theatre of love’
Three cheers to Samela Harris, longstanding champion of The Theatre of Love. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
May I just add another dimension to that? All praise to the courageous teachers and parents in our schools who perform miracles and make wonderful theatrical things happen year after year for the young people who will be next to carry the torch of that love.
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This is often in the face of ignorance or outright antagonism from the STEM-stunned bureaucrats and bean-counters who only have half a brain (the left side), little imagination, even less sense of awe and wonder, and no appreciation of the singular importance of arts activity as an expression of intelligence and humanness.
It’s not hard to find teachers who give up weekends and evenings to rehearse students in Drama course performances and extra-curricular productions who are cut no slack by their leaders and still expected to do a full quota of yard duties, even though their lunchtimes are committed to rehearsing (my apologies to the enlightened bosses who do look after their staff).
The guardians of education and the arts in the Festival State seem to be have been on a concerted campaign over the past few decades to “rationalise” the arts out of existence. Remember when the universities and colleges of advanced education all had flowering Drama faculties led by brilliant lecturers? So many of the current heroes of our professional and amateur stages and our schools came through those courses and brought that expertise to the wider community. Now we’ll be lucky to hang on to The Drama Centre, while ACArts struggles to run its Drama course in the face of government changes to TAFE funding.
As Samela has reminded us, SA has a great tradition in the Theatre of Love which continues to shine in the present day. But history is only that, and there are no guarantees for the future.
Proper respect, appreciation and support for the contributions that our educational institutions make at all levels to the arts in general and theatre in particular will go a long way towards ensuring that future “Samelas” will be able to write similarly in the future. – Harry Dewar
I fully agree with Samela. I have seen some brilliant productions by community-based companies and was for 40 years actively involved, first with the Guild, then the Q (remember them?), then for both Blackwood Players and Unseen Theatre Company.
In the past 10 years, I have helped FOH with the Bakehouse and have seen many fine productions there. Starc and Jon Hartog’s group stand out. But the amateur Unseen Theatre Company enters enthusiastically into its productions with many fine performances.
Another thing: theatre, professional or amateur, is much more than the people on stage – there are the directors, the set, costume, lighting and sound designers, the costume makers, the stage hands, the operators and the people front of house.
Anyone who has experienced the interval refreshments of the Kangaroo Island Players during one of their outstanding productions will understand the commitment of the community. Hint: don’t eat first! – Neil Waller
