The Playwrights Database
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Behold the Gay Marsupial
Synopsis:
an early work about a defrocked priest rediscovering Australia after years in Africa. Ripe for re-working.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Boom Boom!
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
part of Short + Sweet Festival, Sydney 2010
1st Produced:
Nida Parade Playhouse, Sydney
16 Feb 2010
Organisations:
Cheapside Productions
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Buckley's
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
entertainment with music and politics
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
Script in the Hanger Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland, Australia. http://www.Austlit.edu.au, http://www.Austlit.edu.au >>>,
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Cheapside
Synopsis:
Multi-award winning and widely-produced play about the murky goings-on of spies and playwrights in the Elizabethan theatre. Strong contemporary flavour in style and language. Features William Shakespeare, Robert Green and an Australian Cut-Purse. Robert Greene lives in a noisy, bustling underworld of spies, crooks and punks, fending off the debt collectors and arch-rivals, Marlowe and Shakespeare. a play bursting with life and humour, CHeaPSIDe provides a fascinating account of the lot of professional playwright - and suggests that it may not have changed much over the last four hundred years.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Melbourne Theatre Company, Athemaeum
02 Jun 1984
Organisations:
Nimrod Theatre Company
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 1985
Music:
-
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Genre:
2 act (also radio play) Comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Cut & Running
Synopsis:
In the summer of 1929, arthur Sinclair, last of the great Australian silent film makers arrives in Wagga Wagga to shoot the story of bushranger Dan Rafferty - and uncovers a hornet's nest of dark secrets!
Notes:
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Genre:
2 act Comedy
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dance Canary
Synopsis:
Three old jazz musicians get together with a punk drummer and Czechoslovakian saxophonist for a come-back gig in a hospital for the mentally handicapped. Funny, moving, provocative.
Notes:
ideally Able to perform together As A band, but can be faked.
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dickinson
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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1978
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Booksellers:
Genre:
Stage play 2 acts
Parts:
Male: 10 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
Script in the Hanger Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland, Australia. http://www.Austlit.edu.au, http://www.Austlit.edu.au >>>,
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Dirty Books
Synopsis:
James Joyce and D H Lawrence
Notes:
Written by David Allen and Barry Oakley
1st Produced:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Don't Listen To Gougher
Synopsis:
the early days of South Australia presented in the Brechtian manner.
Notes:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Community Play
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 4 Other: doubling
Further Reference:
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Down Down At Dingley Dell
Synopsis:
a fantasy/farce set in nineteenth century Australia bringing together Lola Montez, Charles Dickens' son, the poet adam Lindsay Gordon and George Selth Coppin, the Father of antipodean theatre.
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Radio Play One act
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Florrie
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
the life And times of A fictional Australian Music Hall Artiste. With songs And dances. (Written for the Drama Department At Newcastle University. Won the city prize for best production of the year).
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Organisations:
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Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Forests Of the Night
Synopsis:
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Notes:
a young female journalist goes looking for the legendary Tasmanian Tiger with A drunken Irish Academic, while her mother, A wealthy business woman, schemes to exploit the wilderness that is the Tiger's habitat. Adventure, conflict, humour And A touch of
1st Produced:
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Genre:
2 acts T.I.e. Community Youth audience
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Glorious Things
Synopsis:
In Victorian england, two Australian confidence tricksters, one black, one white, seduce - as they think - a respectable woman into a life of crime. Years later she has her revenge. Not quite as simple a piece as it may sound.
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Victorian pastiche MeloDrama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Gone With Hardy
Synopsis:
the story of Stan Laurel before he became the partner of Oliver Hardy, telling of his stormy relationship with an Australian dancer called Kate. This much produced worldwide play features Jock.
Notes:
book And lyrics by David Allen; music by Terence Clark
1st Produced:
Melbourne Theatre Company
21 Sep 1978
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Theatre Australia 3,4:39-44 and 3,5:35-39 (1978)
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
vaudevillian biography
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: pianist
Further Reference:
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In the Doghouse
Synopsis:
a new and updated version of the infamous "lost" Elizabethan play, "the Isle Of Dogs". the play that almost strangled english Drama at birth, turned a virgin into a raging Queen and her privy councillors into dedicated spiophobes. This play is part epic theatre, part road movie and part stand-up comedy routine; a sixteenth century romp in contemporary underclothes with authorship variously attributed to Thomas Nashe, Benjamin Jonson, William Shakespeare and arthur Prickshafte. arthur who. . .? You may well ask. . .
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Warehouse Theatre Croydon, London
1990
Organisations:
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1st Published:
-
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Jack Drum's Entertainment
Synopsis:
Part irreverent bawdy comedy, part political thriller, this play explores life on the Elizabethan stage and surmises on the mysterious events following Saturday 7th February 1601 when Shakespeare's company put on a single matinee production of Richard II - a play concerning the overthrow of a monarch. the following day Queen Elizabeth I imprisons her former favourite, the earl of essex, for leading a failed rebellion against her. the queen's fearsome agent, Frances Bacon, terrorises Shakespeare, the players and Shakespeare's 'dark lady' whilst conducting his investigation into why the players chose to put on that play and discovers they were paid a considerable bonus by the earl of essex. On the 25th essex is executed. Shortly after Will Kempe leaves London to become a writer in provincial exile, while Shakespeare and his company move their theatre away from Shoreditch, timber by timber, to establish the Globe on Bankside.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Union, Se1, London
2002
Organisations:
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1st Published:
-
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Joseph Conrad Goes Ashore
Synopsis:
a mature -aged female student who has literary fantasies attempts the seduction of a Lecturer in english with sadly farcical consequences.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
Script in the Hanger Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland, Australia. http://www.Austlit.edu.au, http://www.Austlit.edu.au >>>,
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Karen
Synopsis:
Karen can't cope with her separated parents' constant rows. She looks back to happier days.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
in One act Plays Series 2, Richmond, Vic : Heinemann educational Australia, c1982
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
young adult One act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: 1 boy 1 girl
Further Reference:
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Koala Capers
Synopsis:
a farce set in the studios of a television station in an Australian country town, featuring a giant drunken koala, a stripper and Chat Show Host with a death wish. the ending, which involves a fire, is quite bizarre.
Notes:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 4 Other: giant koala
Further Reference:
Script in the Hanger Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland, Australia. http://www.Austlit.edu.au, http://www.Austlit.edu.au >>>,
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Manila Yellow
Synopsis:
T.I.e. Community. an expose of the corruption in the Philippines under the Marcos regime as seen through the life and adventures of a street-wise Manila kid and a middle-class university student.
Notes:
awgie-winner
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: playing assorted roles
Further Reference:
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Meat
Synopsis:
Uganda under Idi armin. a political thriller that explores the involvement of the West in his rise to power. a tale of corruption and brutality.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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1979
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: Large Cast
Further Reference:
Script in the Hanger Collection, Fryer Library, University of Queensland, Australia. http://www.Austlit.edu.au, http://www.Austlit.edu.au >>>,
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Modest Expectations
Synopsis:
Charles Dickens on his last legs in Melbourne, riddled with lust, guilt and regret and encountering both fictional and real life characters he sent to Australia. Premiering the Playbox theatre Melbourne, October 1990.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Anz
02 Nov 1990
Organisations:
Playbox Theatre
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney, 1980
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Night We Blitzed the Bridge, The
Synopsis:
1942, the night Japanese submarines invaded Sydney Harbour and the night of the Great Jitter-Bug Contest on the Manly Ferry! Comedy, action and a grand suspense finale on the Harbour Bridge.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: Large Cast
Further Reference:
-
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Once A Bold Collier
Synopsis:
Set in the leitchen of the Moreton's cottage on the Hunter Valley coalfields of NSW during early months of 1929.
Notes:
restricted Availability
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Pike's Madness
Synopsis:
the adventures of an english school teacher in Australia who thinks he's Hamlet. Black comedy with a touch of the surreal.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: playing a multitude of parts
Further Reference:
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Pommies
Synopsis:
a middle aged Australian businessman remembers the long-ago summer in 1954 when, as a student, he worked in a Holiday Camp in england. Comic, traumatic, passionate, this play explores anglo-Australian encounters of the uncomfortable kind.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Croydon W'Hse, London
1988
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 act (also radio version) Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Slam, Decco, Steff & George
Synopsis:
In Australia's distant future, 15 year old Decco defends her territory against all-comers.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: for actors aged 12-16, for classroom or school performance
Further Reference:
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Southern Steel
Synopsis:
an adaptation of the Dymphna CUSAck novel set in wartime Newcastle and examining the loves and lives of a local family of battlers.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Souvenirs From the Book Lovers Library, Perth
Synopsis:
In Western Australia, in the 1920s, a young english poet and his wife confound conventional morality. Based on D.H. Lawrence's time there. a sort of sequel to Upside Down at the Bottom Of the World.
Notes:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Tina's Troopers
Synopsis:
Tina and her band of young travelling performers survive in post-nuclear Australia.
Notes:
speaking And non-speaking parts. A play for high school kids, with music
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
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1st Published:
-
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: Large Cast
Further Reference:
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Two Little Dickie Birds
Synopsis:
A pub landlady is desperate to find love
Notes:
Written by David Allen; Jonathan Clay; Mandy Hester
1st Produced:
Jack Studio Theatre, London
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Monologue play
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Upside Down At the Bottom Of the World
Synopsis:
D.H. Lawrence in Australia. the famous writer and his German wife spend six months on the New South Wales coast, brawling, squabbling and remembering england - much to the amazement of their conservative neighbours.
Notes:
Winner of 1980 Awgie for Best Play
1st Produced:
Nimrod Theatre Downstairs, Sydney
08 Aug 1979
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Heinemann educational Australia, 1981
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Virtue
Synopsis:
a university lecturer fights for his reputation against prejudice and intrigue in a narrow-minded community. Based on the 1950s "Orr" case in Tasmania.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Writers
Synopsis:
a 'behind-the-scenes' story of Harry, a successful playwright who decides he is going to make some 'real money' by writing scripts for a long running TV soap opera, 'Diamond Hill'. But no sooner has he joined the team than he discovers that all is not as straight forward as he imagines. 'Upstairs' has decided to axe Diamond Hill, and use him as a scapegoat. and then there's alice.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
-
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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