Former arts minister George Brandis is not remembered with fondness by many in the arts community. Cutting more than $100 million from the Australia Council budget and diverting funds to a controversial National Program for Excellence in the Arts heralded a dark period for the culture sector.
More than 60 arts organisations were defunded, including the Sydney-based physical theatre company Legs on the Wall, Melbourne's venerable literary magazine Meanjin, and the Wangaratta Jazz Festival.
![We'd forgotten how to protest: Ross Mueller with actor Justin Smith.](/web/20170131042412im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/4/9/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu22xg.png/1485832983618.jpg)
But without Brandis' actions one playwright at least wouldn't have a play premiering in Griffin Theatre's 2017 season. That playwright is Ross Mueller, his play is A Strategic Plan and its setting, characters and plot are directly inspired by Mueller's observations and experiences during the fractious debate over arts funding, as well as of office politics generally.
The play is set in the office of a small, not-for-profit arts company dedicated to promoting music for young people in regional areas.
Justin Smith leads the cast as Andrew, former rock musician and now CEO of STACCATO. Andrew has a bold vision to secure its future. Unfortunately, he's pretty much on his own in that regard.
"It's about that moment when what you do in the arts industry becomes more about survival than about art," Mueller explains. "During the period when Brandis decided to cut Australia Council funding in half yet double the bureaucratic demands for justification as to what you are doing, a lot of us had to reflect pretty hard on why we were in the industry rather than what we were making. When the money disappears the why is all that matters."
Like many of his peers, Mueller, whose plays include the Sydney Theatre Company produced Concussion (2009) and Zebra (2011), protested the cuts, attending rallies and meetings.
"I remember one particular protest rally at the Malthouse [in Melbourne]," he says. "About 500 people showed up and that's a lot for a small industry. The feeling was that the big companies had been insulated from the cuts and for everyone else, it was back to square one. How were we supposed to make a living?
"There has never been much surety in this business anyway, but to be on the end of a ministerial decision without any consultation was shocking."
Mueller was also struck by the atmosphere at the meeting. Something had changed since he was a university student in the 1980s.
"It was like we'd forgotten how to protest. Social media has made protest more intimate and personal," Mueller believes. "People put something on their Facebook page as a protest. This was a situation where people had gathered in a public space and only then realised that no one had brought a megaphone for the speeches.
"People were catching up with friends and talking about the issue rather than having a debate about how change could be effected."
A Strategic Plan is a comic look at the arts in an office space. When artists share a workplace with administrators, the results are "pretty hilarious," Mueller says. "They are both working towards something valuable in the end, but they have completely different responsibilities. One person is trying to inspire, another is making sure the health and safety boxes have all been ticked."
Anyone who has ever worked in an office will appreciate the dynamics of A Strategic Plan, says Mueller.
"I think it's accessible to everyone. A lot of the weirdest and most absurd things in the play are actually the stuff that is the most real and the most true. That is often the way with comedy. We respond best to the things we can place ourselves in. And I know what goes on in offices. I've been there."
A Strategic Plan opens at Griffin Theatre on Thursday.