The Poppy Seed Theatre Festival Is Ready To Harvest Fresh New Talent

As funding for the arts has become dangerously scarce in Australia, Philip Hayden, director of the Poppy Seed Theatre Festival in Melbourne, is looking to give emerging artists a leg up.

Entering its second year, this boutique festival provides four hand-picked projects with a stage and support, including financial, logistical, artistic and marketing backing. "We're taking even more responsibility away from the producers of the shows and putting it on us, so that they can really focus on making the best art or theatrical production possible," explains Hayden, who is himself a veteran actor, boasting gigs with major Australian companies amongst his credits, as well as appearances on the West End, TV and in feature films.

The reward is invaluable, particularly for independent theatre groups that are just starting out with young participants and untried concepts. The Poppy Seed Festival in 2016 will feature a rich variety of productions. Four acts have been chosen from around 50 applicants, by the Festival's artistic panel. "We've got really experienced people and we've got people that are recent graduates in this festival," Hayden shares.  

The City of Melbourne, a major sponsor of the Festival's successful inaugural year, has been joined this year by a number of corporate businesses providing creative services, media partnerships and design assistance. "We've pooled the resources so that we can go and make deals on the behalf of the four shows. We've made deals with marketing firms and publicists, but it's also about coming together and using the fact that we're a community, to bargain."

"If their production is half as funny, lively and energetic as their live pitch, then it's going to be brilliant."

The projects selected for this year's festival are hugely diverse not only in content but also in the range of experience and the ages of the performers involved. Blessed from lauded indie company, Attic Erratic, is the only traditionally scripted work out of this year's crop of shows and portrays a brutal love story that asks the question: "Where does love end in the face of much larger responsibilities?"

The other three are all devised pieces. A female trio, Three Birds Theatre, will perform LadyCake, described by Hayden as a "...beautiful, daring, bold and funny" story born out of the 'rock star' mythology of Marie Antoinette. 

As part of the application process, a live pitch is required. What's Yours is Mine from the young and "blissfully unconventional" company, Hotel Now, gave a "hilarious" live pitch which sold their performance to the panel. "If their production is half as funny, lively and energetic as their live pitch, then it's going to be brilliant", exalts Hayden. "I could not stop giggling!" 

The final production take an interesting turn. Simply titled F., the troupe, Riot Stage, use a combination of anonymous online surveys, candid conversations and gutsy improvisation to discuss topics ranging through sex, fetishes and porn-desensitised teenagers in a post-internet world. Hayden says their live pitch was "really funny and extremely touching but also really bold and confronting. Not confronting in that it's lewd or rude, but just like, 'so that is what people are doing now!'" 

Utilising corporate sponsors to promote local theatre is something that Hayden is passionate about and Poppy Seed is one of only a couple of organisations that have embraced this model of fundraising. "It's a bold claim but I think we're maybe one of two organisations left that do this for artists and I can see that it might become even more rare, just because of what has happened in the funding landscape."

Despite the great support of the City of Melbourne, it's the issue of federal funding for the arts that dismays Hayden and the arts community as a whole. It is expensive for a company to promote themselves. How many ideas have been sparked but never reach their full potential due to a lack of funds? Hayden indicates he would be "impressed and pleased if similar operations sprung up in other places", as we discuss the challenge of creating this organisation from scratch four years ago. 

When asked about touring or performing the Poppy Seed Festival around Australia, Hayden gushes. "Totally! Absolutely! We've had that conversation. We'd love to do that. Once you've got the work made and rehearsed, it's really sensible for it to have another life outside of its initial season." For now, Philip Hayden and the Poppy Seed Festival are concentrating on developing their grassroots in Melbourne, to ensure it not only provides a great platform for independent theatre but also "...helps artists survive in the industry".