Writing Writing

Two years ago I went to Hong Kong to give a talk. I may even have told you at the time. In fact I did. Anyway, I gave a talk there which I later buffed up and puffed out and sent them and it's now been published in this:

• 甄拔濤 (編)。(2015) 《躍動的交鋒：閱讀新文本》。香港：國際演藝評論家協會(香港)分會及前進進戲劇工作坊。

Okay, here's a reference in English in case your Cantonese isn't as awesome as mine.

• Rebellato, Dan. "Writing Writing: British Playwriting in the Twenty-First Century." A Leaping Battle: Reading New Writing. Ed. Yan, Pat To. Hong Kong: International Association of Theatre Critics & On and On Theatre Workshop, 2015. 128-78. Print.

Mine is actually the only English-language contribution in the book. As it's for a Hong Kong readership, it begins with a survey of waves of British playwriting since the second world war. I then talk about British playwriting in the twenty-first century, which I suggest has not been characterised by a single movement. Instead I talk about some trends across the last fifteen years: Big Plays, Small Plays, Collaborative Writing, Verbatim, and Playing with Authorship.

This last section is probably the most original part of it. It builds on the argument in my article for Vicky Angelaki's book but tries to get under the skin of the peculiar nature of the performance text, something neither/nor both/and performance event and literary text.

Anyway, I'm not sure how you'll ever get to read it so alas my extraordinary powerful insights will, for now, only work their magic on the theatre communities of Kowloon. Maybe I'll scan it and put it up here after a decent interval

PS. My Cantonese is not awesome. It is non-existent..