Page 3737 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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National Festival of Australian Theatre
MS ELLIS: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for the Arts. Minister, I had the pleasure of participating in the opening ceremony of the National Festival of Australian Theatre last week.
Mr Moore: And you opened it very well, too.
MS ELLIS: I ask the Minister: How successful has the 1993 National Festival of Australian Theatre been in attracting national and local attention to the ACT? Is the festival being supported by the Canberra community?
MR WOOD: Yes, Mr Moore is correct. Ms Ellis opened it very well.
Mr Humphries: You were not there. How would you know?
MR WOOD: I regret that I was not able to be there because I was in Melbourne at a ministerial meeting. I had some anxieties about the outcome and it was essential that I be there. I have had very good reports.
Mr Kaine: The next time you want somebody to open something for you, I will do it, Bill.
MR WOOD: Thank you for your offer, Mr Kaine. I will find something for you. I will have some pleasure, Mr Kaine, in finding something for you. Madam Speaker, it is not easy for the ACT to get national coverage on any good news coming out of here. If there is a bit of rubbish, a bit of nonsense, some of our non-Labor members getting up to some antics, it will get coverage; but for good news it is a little more difficult. On this occasion there has been some national coverage of what is a very fine event. I hope that in the next week or so they catch up a little more with it.
As to the attendances, they have been good. I think Emma next week is booked out. Some of the performances of Sadness I think you would be very hard-pressed to get into. If members have seen some of these productions I am sure that they will agree that they are truly outstanding. This is probably the best of the events we have had, and I recognise that it goes back some years. I think this has been the best, certainly in terms of performance. In Canberra we like to think we are fairly culturally inclined, but that does not mean that it is easy to get people out to Australian theatre. If you get something with a well-known name, something that is thought to be popular, it is easier to get crowds.
The people are turning out to this event and, as evidence of that, even such a cultural philistine as Dr John Hewson turned up. That may be some sort of achievement. It is popular. Obviously, we looked for a success culturally, and that is clearly happening. We also looked for a success at the box office, because we want to continue to fund it and we want as much support as we can get from the people of Canberra, and that appears to be happening.
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