Any notes?

Rough drafts and works in progress. Since the 1980s, La Mama’s Explorations series has been giving artists a space to play.

Words by Thomas Calafiore

Photos courtesy of La Mama and by Darren Gill.

If you found yourself walking down Drummond Street on a cold winter’s night, you may have passed a crowd huddled on a corner. A post-show crowd is not uncommon in Melbourne. In fact, it’s one of the city’s defining images. But linger a while near this one, and you might find something slightly different. You’ll hear curious phrases like, ‘any notes?’, ‘still early,’ ‘rewrites’ and most importantly, ‘a work in progress.’ This crowd has just stepped out of one of La Mama’s 52 shows in their Explorations series. A season for new, untested and in-development stage shows.

I had a chance to speak to Myf Powell, Pathways and Partnerships Manager at La Mama, and Coordinator for this year’s Explorations, about Explorations’ impact on the Australian theatre community.

Play

In Explorations, artists are given three nights to perform, develop and explore a work. It’s an all-too-rare opportunity that, as Myf describes, ‘takes the pressure off artists to have a perfect product, to be able to take risks, to mess up, to really experiment.’

‘For artists, it’s fantastic because they get to really play. They get to really experiment and make mistakes. During their three nights, they can perform the work in really different ways … they can actually shift it quite a lot. And we don't dictate to them how they do that. They get the space and we support them in that exploration.’

And by the sound of it, the opportunity to ‘play’ is something that Melbourne desperately craves. According to Myf, Explorations receives hundreds of applications each year—from creatives at all levels of experience.

‘We’ll get artists that are sort of at the early stages of their career … people who are still studying or recent graduates. But we also get returning artists who are incredibly experienced and respected artists who have new work that they need to test out in front of audiences … So it’s not just about people at the start of their career, it's all the way through artists' careers that they can come into the Explorations season with a piece of work and really experiment and explore with that.’

Works range from performers still holding scripts, to ones much further along with elaborate sets and scores. The inherent vulnerability that comes with a work-in-progress gives Explorations a distinctive feeling of community and togetherness. The stage is intimate, and much of the audience teems with fellow artists. People linger for hours after a show, networking, mingling, and even giving feedback (which is strongly encouraged!).

An audience at an Explorations show is invited to join in this communal endeavor, to share in the intimacy of unfinished work and to ‘play.’ This collaborative nature means the way that audiences (and maybe even you!) engage with a work fundamentally changes.

And even if you aren’t one for giving criticism, who doesn’t want to take a peek behind the curtain?

‘You’re actually seeing the [artists’] process ... it might start off as this, and … maybe two or three years later, see the developed product. And it's just like, wow. What an incredible journey that work has been on … you actually get a greater appreciation of what artists do.’

Now more than ever

La Mama Theatre is a cornerstone of Melbourne’s independent arts scene. Since 1967, it has provided an accessible and encouraging space for new, developing and seasoned theatre-makers. Explorations has been running since the 80’s, but with increasing budget-cuts to the arts in recent years, it has become an even more valuable opportunity for creatives.

La Mama’s website describes Explorations as ‘now more vital than ever’. Myf explains, ‘I think what makes it really important now, is that there are so few opportunities for theatre makers to get new work up and running.’ Theatres and artists across Melbourne continue to suffer commercially, with patronage and funding opportunities still dwindling compared to pre-COVID numbers. However, through initiatives like Explorations, theatre-makers are able to escape these financial burdens and create freely.

‘Most places, you have to pay money to hire a venue as an artist. And in the city of Melbourne, for a one-week season, that could be about anywhere between five to ten thousand dollars. You've got to hire a space, pay for front of house staff, for technical staff.’

‘We supply all of that. So [the artists] don't have to pay us any money whatsoever. Then we give them a stage manager. We do all the box office for them. We do all the front of house. It saves them an enormous amount of money, but also gives them a platform to say, “I've been in La Mama Explorations here's a heap of feedback that we received.” And because it's been going for so long, it carries weight in the industry. It helps them to then make a case to get money to be able to put on a production on as well.’

Explorations runs from June to August every year, and has become a vital part of so many emerging artists’ development. According to Myf, this season of Explorations has been a huge success. For $20 a show (which as Myf points out, ‘in Carlton, that’s a sandwich!’), you can support your local starving artist, and maybe be a small part of the next big show.