Black Books by Blak Yak

OMG! Ok, I can't comment on everything that has been written here, but I can address a few of the issues raised. As far as adaptations go, we do them to make money. Sorry if that sounds crass and materialistic, but it's the truth. They are generally inexpensive to stage and always get the biggest audiences. Not only that, our adaptations tend to bring a wide range of people to the theatre. They come for the Black Books, the Pratchett, the Red Dwarf or Coupling, or Men Behaving Badly or Dead Poet's Society, Human Traffic or The Last Supper (all of the things we have adapted for the stage in our 13 year history) but then some of them come back for the other plays. That being said, we love doing all sorts of plays (as long as it's something most other companies won't do). Submissions are happily accepted, we want new plays, we crave new directors, we love new actors, anyone and everyone are welcome. Daniel, I have no idea who has submitted a new play to us and not heard back. I have not received anything. Who did they send it to and when? I know we had a read through earlier this year for a new work by a local author that we are very keen to stage. As for our publicity issues, all suggestions are more than welcome. We send press releases to papers, along with publicity pics. Sometimes they print them, sometimes they don't, we have no control over that. We print posters which are put up all over the metro area, we print postcards and distribute them far and wide. We post on Theatre Australia, we put info on our own site, we send material to other theatre companies (and some then place the material in their foyers for which we are eternally grateful)what more can we do? There is much, much more I could write, but Murray wants his computer back (yes that's right, my boyfriend, now you all know, hands up everyone who cares?). Let me finish this by saying that although I may sound a little defensive, I'm actually thrilled that people care enough about Blak Yak to continue writing about us, be it good or bad. For theatre to succeed in WA people need to care, they need to feel passionately about it. Come and see Black Books if you're interested. See it if you liked the show and want to see how it translates to the theatre, see it if you've never heard of the show but you like a good comedy, see it if you like watching award winning actors (Bryn Coldrick, who is playing Bernard, won the earlier mentioned certificate for comic acting at last year's Dramafest, Sherryl Spencer, who is playing Fran, won Best Actress a few years ago and Tim Edwards, playing Manny, won Best Supporting Actor) at work. Or don't, it's up to you really. Melissa Merchant