See how the leaf people run – nominated for an AWGIE
Wow, so when the Australian Writers’ Guild nominates your play for an AWGIE Award, they don’t email you in advance to let you know the good news. You read about it in the members’ newsletter. So I wasn’t expecting to read the 46th AWGIE announcements and see my lil ol’ play about Hmong people nominated, as I hadn’t had any warning. As it is, my radio play – broadcast in August 2012 – has been nominated for a Original Radio Play AWGIE Award. There is some fancy do in Melbourne in October to announce who wins. How neat. I am terrible and insecure amongst the company of fancy writers at fancy venues, so I may avoid the red carpet in favour of the wooden floors of my cosy new-ish rental home.
There were two nominations in the Original Radio Play category. Maybe there weren’t many entries? I don’t mean to talk myself down but now that the ABC no longer has a radio drama unit, the radio play may be close to extinction and may be a dwindling category. The ABC was historically the main producer of professional radio drama in Australia. Or perhaps as more artists (who then join the AWG) create audio theatre projects, the radio category might adapt.
The email announcing the AWGIE nominations prefaced the announcements but noting writers from America who are visible and equal to the usual creatives we associate with American TV and film: the directors, the actors. One writer is Vince Galligan. It hasn’t been since David Simon’s ‘The Wire’ that I have felt so gripped by a TV show such as ‘Breaking Bad’. The final season is being currently being doled out in painfully slow weekly serves. Monday nights is now the ‘go download Breaking Bad from American web comrades’ night. It is not completely about watching human car crashes in slow motion, but I do have an unsettled feeling as each scene unfolds. Turn away from the tragedy, I think. And I keep watching. Because it is so fascinating, and it is so epic, most especially when the settings are quotidian and domestic.
Eight more episodes, I’m told. And then it’s over. I can feel relieved, but I’ll be grieving.