MTC Rejects Claims by Wesley Enoch Ahead of Parsons Lecture

Wesley Enoch’s Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture at Belvoir on Sunday September 8, 2013, has already stirred up controversy in Melbourne before it is delivered, as evidenced in the following media release from the MTC.

Melbourne Theatre Company is extremely disappointed by QTC Artistic Director Wesley Enoch’s comments quoted in today’s Age newspaper (December 7), accusing the Company of immorally refusing to pay artists in its landmark NEON Festival of Independent Theatre.

MTC rejects Enoch’s claims which he will further outline in tomorrow’s Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture.

As reported in today’s Age newspaper, there are a number of assertions in Enoch’s lecture that relate to the NEON program that are fundamentally incorrect.

The NEON Festival is a unique programme that brought five independent theatre companies to a wider audience, giving them 100% of the Box Office takings of $121,000 and data acquisition to help build their long term audience development.

The NEON Festival cost MTC approximately $254,000 for cash (including an upfront payment of $7,500 to each of the companies) and $202,000 for in-kind support and additionally provided production, technical, venue, marketing and PR assistance to each company.

MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy said ‘NEON was deliberately set up so that the artists involved were free to present whatever they pleased and that every Box Office dollar would go directly to these independent companies. We wanted to support the authentic expression of astonishing art being created by Melbourne’s independent theatre scene, rather than just present five smaller scale MTC productions.’

Executive Director Virginia Lovett said ‘Wesley Enoch ill-informed comments and media stunts do not add to the debate. They divide. Wesley at no stage approached MTC to discuss or understand the NEON model, its long-term structure or the positive impact it has had on artists in the Victorian community.’