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Wendy Beckett

WENDY BECKETT

  
Nationality:    Australian
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    ANZ: beemobbs@bigpond.net.au; USA: Marta Praeger mp@bromasite.com; France: Dominique Christophe dominiquechristophe@me.com

Writer/director Wendy Beckett has written more than twenty five Theatre plays and directed more than 40. She has also written biographies, radio plays for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, books, librettos, articles of academic study and journalism. Her literary mentor was author Lawrence Durrell of the alexandria Quartet. at 22 she founded a Theatre company 'Colours Inc' in Adelaide, Australia, where she was the playwright and company director with a staff of around 50. On aBC radio she conducted interviews with some of the best minds of our time: Gore Vidal, Leonard Bernstein, Martha Graham and Paul Bowles. Her academic background includes literature, psychology and science and she has lectured in universities in the areas of Theatre, creative writing, literature and psychology. She brings all these enthusiasms to her writing. Her work and plays are collected by the Australian National Library in CanberrA. For ten years now she has been writing, directing and producing her own work. She attracts and works with eminent Australian artists and has a passion for writing and staging biographical plays. FOR the LOVe OF aLMa MaHLeR was performed at the Sydney Opera House. Her other areas if interest in playwriting range from domestic Dramas to artistic, psychological and political Dramas. Her first play performed in the usa, aNaIS NIN-ONe OF HeR LIVeS opened at the Beckett Theatre, NYC in 2006. Wendy has an ongoing commitment to direct a play a year in New York City.

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below is a list of Wendy Beckett's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Anais Nin - One Of Her Lives         Charity Case, A         Claudel         For the Love Of Alma Mahler         Hester         Modotti

Anais Nin - One Of Her Lives

Synopsis:
Set in the 1930's in Paris when many artists converged on France in the hope of finding an aesthetic life and to escape the confines of their own morals and culture, the play is a biographical story that traces the love triangle between anais Nin, Henry Miller and his wife June. We see the development of a writer who must navigate a difficult path if she is to succeed in her literary ambition. anais Nin is a writer who sought emotional intimacy with her readers yet paradoxically created mystery.

Notes:
Setting: Paris. 1930s.

1st Produced:
Beckett theatre
410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036    Aug 2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
http://australianplays.org/   -

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:
Full-Length 75 mins Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Charity Case, A

Synopsis:
a play about our most sacred of relationships - the one we all have with our mother. CHaRITY examines the triangle of birth mother, adoptive mother and dislocated child. the journey is both blessed and cursed but the outcome is unforgettable. From World War Two to the sexual revolution, morality was such that children born out of wedlock were adopted. Was this for the good of the child? adoption is usually examined from the point of view of the relinquishing or adoptive mother CHaRITY takes us into the psyche of the child. Dislocation loss and fear lead the three characters into unknown territory. the journey is mysterious, shocking, cruel and emotionally tender.

Notes:
Setting: the Suburbs - Anywhere. 1960s.

1st Produced:
Clurman theatre
410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036    Nov 2011

Organisations:
Pascal Productions

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Claudel

Synopsis:
Set is Paris in 1888 CLaUDeL is a play combining dance, classical music and narrative. Camille Claudel is a young sculptor who works as Rodin's student. Unconventional and rebellious her family have her confined to a mental institution. Regardless Claudel is to become one of the most exciting sculptors of her generation. Dance is the essential element in this beautifully choreographed landscape of art and sculpture. the music is reminiscent of Debussy. This haunting Drama of tragedy and aesthetics is a triumph of the human spirit over adversity. CLaUDeL is also available in French.

Notes:
Setting: Paris. 1884 - 1943

1st Produced:
-    -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  3 dancers

Further Reference:
-

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For the Love Of Alma Mahler

Synopsis:
FOR the LOVe OF aLMa MaHLeR is a play about composer Gustav Mahler and his wife alma. alma's name has been linked romantically with many famous men both during and after her marriage to Mahler, among them Gustav Klimt and architect Walter Gropius (of the Bauhaus). alma reluctantly came to realize that a musical career of her own would not be possible and threw herself into the role of muse. She believed her devotion to her husband's music was a commitment to history. Musical Director Ross Edwards arranged the Mahler music and composed piano music based on the early compositions of alma Mahler. Well known as an Australian composer Edward's oboe concerto was performed in New York in February 2005 with the New York Philharmonic at the Lincoln Centre. DVD/Video available of the Sydney Opera House 2005 production.

Notes:
Setting: Vienna. 1890s - 1911

1st Produced:
Sydney Opera House - The Studio, Sydney, Australia    May 2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
http://australianplays.org/   -

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  1 diva; 8 musicians

Further Reference:
-

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Hester

Synopsis:
a powerful play about Australian artist Joy Hester - a passionate, controversial woman whose life is tumultuous, an intermeshing of art, politics, love, tragedy and celebration. Joy Hester is a lone female painter among the famous male artists of the 1940's. Married to Australian artist albert Tucker and best friend to Sidney Nolan her story is set in rural Victoria at a farm house owned by benefactors John and Sunday Reed. It is here that the most talented of Australian artists were nurtured. It is the time of post-impressionism, modernism and political art. Life is intense: politics, art, war, depression and complicated love affairs ensue during the most important period in Australian art history.

Notes:
Setting: rural Australia. 1940s.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
http://australianplays.org/   -

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 95 mins Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Modotti

Synopsis:
a play set in San Francisco, Mexico and eastern bloc europe MODOTTI tells the story of photographer Tina Modotti and her life as a revolutionary. Occupying the first half of the twentieth century when politics are explosive and social and political unrest a familiar everyday occurance, Modotti takes us into one of the most exciting periods in history. In Mexico with her lover American photographer Edward Weston, Modotti finds her artistic voice. When Weston leaves Mexico for America, Modotti becomes romantically involved with a revolutionary who is gunned down outside their apartment. Modotti's newfound political awareness changes the direction of her life. She is later arrested and tried for attempting to assassinate the Mexican president and sent into exile. On a return visit, at the age of 46 she is poisoned.

Notes:
Setting: USA, Mexico, Spain. 1920s - 1942.

1st Produced:
Acorn Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, New York, Ny 10036    11 Jun 2010

Organisations:
Pascal Productions

1st Published:
http://australianplays.org/   -

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:
120 min biographical Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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