For some reason – new years’ resolutions of participation, involvement, or just plain “I have to do something or else I might shoot my own foot off” boredom, we at Exhibitionist have in the last few weeks come in for a carpet-bombing of submission requests. Not, mind you, from companies wanting to hock their wares, but from writers wanting to see their work in print.
And it takes us back to that auspicious day that we of Uninhibited first trepidatiously submitted a review to BMA, back in the salad days of 2001.
Oh, it was a glorious time! Pre-9/11, pre-GFC, pre-climate change according to Tony Abbott… the world was innocent, and so was Uninhibited. Back then, we were but a babe in playland, a chubby 19-year-old typing with fat fingers a review of a play performed by the then uber-fringe, uber-emerging company, Bohemian Productions.
The play was called The Mischief Sense, and was penned by some upstart rapscallion called David Finnigan. It was a crime caper, a bit Guy Ritchie-ish (back in the good old days before it became apparent that Guy Ritchie is what we like to call a “plonker” or, more often, a “douche”), and was being produced at the Currong Theatre at Gorman House.*
We submitted our review, and soon afterwards were welcomed into the bosom of BMA. We attended our first musical festival as a VIP, bumping into Brendan Cowell in line for the portaloos at Homebake. For years we wrote CD reviews and interviewed shooting stars of the 1988 Australian music scene, such as Steve Kilbey and Tim Finn. And every so often we’d sneak in an article about a local theatre show. And in the blink of an eye, it seemed, it was 2006 and BMA introduced Theatre Column.
Meanwhile, other media outlets were contracting. Magazines shut down. Newspapers changed their focus from local to global. Editors moved. Local artists hustled to get elusive editorial copy. And with Exhibitionist, BMA again opened its ever-loving arms.
Bless.
Now, to unearth the buried point of this lengthy ramble down memory lane: that first review, the review that set us on the whirlwind course to editorial superstardom**, was never published. But the basic impetus that set us writing that review – the need to engage with the arts, and with our peers, in a direct (and public) way – was, in the end, worth it.
Even if, as we often used to say, it ends up wrapping your fish and chips, the review is a powerful thing. It can lead us down an unfamiliar path and guide us to a new place. It’s a map. And for Uninhibited, it’s been a hell of a journey.
NAOMI MILTHORPE
exhibitionist@bmamag.com
*If you don’t know where the Currong Theatre is, it’s because several years ago it was invaded by the dames of the Embroiderer’s Guild. Bitches.
** Or rather, on course to frantically typing on a twelve-year old PC, for a column that should have been in seven days ago…
