Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 30 July, I, along with hundreds of school students, packed Parramatta's Riverside Theatre to watch the Martin-Lysicrates Prize. It was a real moment for me. I felt quite emotional as the lights dimmed and the students in the audience got excited. Their sense of excitement and anticipation was palpable. For many in the audience, this was perhaps the first time that they had ever seen live theatre in action. We were all there thanks to the efforts of John and Patricia Azarias. They set up the Lysicrates Foundation to provide access to theatre for all, not just an elite few.

The idea behind the Martin-Lysicrates Prize was that three Australian playwrights would be invited to show the first act of their play and then the audience would be invited to choose the play that they liked the most. It was a wonderful combination of theatre and democracy in action. The audience cheered. They laughed, cried and stamped their feet, and it was so wonderful to join them in this wonderful event.