La Mama - 40 years on, and no more funding

Please read this! http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/2006/11/la-mama-funding-and-freedom-of-speech.html All theatre people in Melbourne, please try to find a way to make your voice heard. La Mama is a fantastic institution of fringe theatre, and we Melburnites should not be loosing it to bottom-line politicians. My first memories of my love for theatre was in La Mama, and indeed, some of my first professional roles were working in and for this venue. Playwrights, actors, directors and techies alike have started in La Mama. It is not only part of Melbourne's history (with the beginnings of agitprop theatre in the 60s and 70s), but helped raise up some of our most famous playwrights - David Williamson the most notable of them all. I am shocked to hear that such a place, that has no money anyway, whose floorboards are so old a tiptoe squeaks them, who are overrun by play submissions (so much so, I still have not received any info on plays I submitted three years ago), who are run by three people, who offer free space and marketing to artists, can be considered a waste of tax money. Yes, let's spend it on more important things. Like buying defence helicopters. Yes, we need more ways of killing other people... Sorry, ignore my rant, and just read the above link.