Projects
Current
The Rowan’s Story Project
The Rowan’s Story Project came out of a creative development on another play. A play that told the story of a family whose fracture, years before, had finally caught up with its members. Well, some of them. There were two stories there: the story of the broken, coercive adult relationship,…
The Dogs in the Schoolyard | Flipside Circus
I approached Flipside Circus in 2017 with an idea I had for a show for a young audience – on the difficult subject of exclusion. I translated humans into dog-children: insiders and outsiders, pack dynamics, what happens when one dog is excluded from the pack… but this work needed to…
My Father’s Wars – live theatre
From 17 year old soldiers’ letters home to podcasts, to readings and conversations, to theatre… My Father’s Wars explores two journeys – that of a young man to adulthood in a war, and the intergenerational impact of that trauma on his family. That young fella was my dad. He enlisted…
Past
The Open Door – Creative Development
“A strong theatrical work exploring contemporary challenges including sexuality and young people, domestic violence and peer gaslighting. This work thematically resonates in educational and cultural contexts and will encourage social discourse around the issues… the work has the capacity to be a significant contribution to Australian playwriting and performance culture…”…
RISK
Metro Arts 2008 | Umber Productions Set in the state forests just north of Brisbane, RISK examines the lives of young people living in towns that live ‘between’ – between the city and the bush, between Friday night and Monday morning, between olds that come and go, between teenage dreams…
Water Wars
La Boite Indie 2011 | Umber productions Water Wars is a timely and darkly funny exploration of what happens between neighbours as the drought gets longer and tougher and then gets renamed as a ‘dry’… Set just into the future – when our communities face on-going water scarcity – Water…
Gloria
A few years ago, I wrote a play with songs (Gloria) about a rock diva/chanteuse who had left her 2 year old behind in Australia and gone to Europe in the 70’s. In her 50s she returns to try to reestablish contact – but has a stroke and her mind fractures. So,…
My Father’s Wars – the podcasts
Dad fought with 26 Battalion at Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde Ridge, Passchendaele, then was gassed and sent back to England to recuperate. He returned to Belgium, then France with the Battalion and saw action all through that 1918 spring German offensive, and at Villers-Bretonneux, but came down with trench…
The Reid Thorpe Files
This is a true crime podcast. This young man was murdered in March 1944. Two Australians, a 23 year old ‘domestic’ and a 40 year old taxi-driver, were charged with his murder… One of the extraordinary things about the process of research is serendipity. The things you come across by chance…
Put Out into the Deep
An audio thriller about a group of young Australian AWAS girls who intercepted for Douglas MacArthur’s secret Intelligence organisation in Brisbane, Central Bureau. Gradually, one of them becomes convinced there’s a threat right on the doorstep – just out in the Bay – but it’s elusive… By early 1942, the…
My Father’s Wars, as I Found Them… the development of the podcasts for live performance
Okay – there’s a new thing in play: My Father’s Wars as a live theatre performance. And this current development – My Father’s Wars, as I found them… is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, and by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and by the Tivoli. My Father’s Wars began life as a series…
My Father’s Wars – the live read
The My Father’s Wars podcasts are 5 episodes (45 minutes) about the experiences of a young lieutenant on the Western Front in 1917/18 (my father) and how they impacted him, and us, later, in family life. They’re designed to be available to anyone, anywhere in the country who may have…
