You will have received a leaflet in the April issue of Australasian Drama Studies Journal, inviting you to contribute a tax-deductible $120 towards publication, in return for which your name will appear in the book as a subscriber and supporter. You will also receive a complimentary hardback to express our gratitude. A copy is on the ADSA website. The link is http://www.adsa.edu.au/publications/EmpireAct-Lflet-Full.pdf

Currency House is a voluntary organisation and for ten years we have been publishing scholarly works of cultural history in this way, including Rob Jordan’s Convict Theatres of Early Australia, Harry Heseltine’s A Leader of His Craft: Theatre Reviews by H.G. Kippax; Jill Stubington’s Singing the Land and Kath Leahy’s Lords and Larrikins: The Actor’s Role in the Making of Australia. 

With these works we steadily seek to enlarge Australia’s view of our history. As Melissa Bellanta recently wrote in Theatre Research International, ‘One of the most valuable aspects of Leahy’s work is that it demonstrates the significance of theatre for Australian culture writ large. There is still a reluctance to recognise this among non-theatre historians and publishers in Australia and my big hope for Lords and Larrikins is that its value will be recognised outside theatrical circles as well as within them.’

That is our aim for The Empire Actors and for Veronica Kelly. But we urgently need your support. To those who have subscribed, grateful thanks. Your receipt is in the mail.