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Joseph Harper

JOSEPH HARPER

  
Nationality:    New Zealander
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Playmarket Inc  

"I am Joseph Harper. I am a playwright and comedian from Christchurch, New Zealand. My work is primarily concerned with autobiography, abstraction, connection, contact and isolation, naive humanist ideals, zen, and some vain attempt to distill the feeling of being and having been alive. I work primarily in Theatre and stand-up comedy and currently live in Auckland, New Zealand. My interests include: cycling, amateur astronomy, swimming, vegetarianism, humanism, time travel, and some sports. "

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

         Atlas /Mountains /Dead Butterflies         Bikes IVe Owned Versus Girls IVe Fallen In Love With         Boy And the Bicycle, The         Do You Love Me?         Honey         I Am A Cat

Atlas /Mountains /Dead Butterflies

Synopsis:
And the taps go drip, drip, drip . . . Rhys and Phoebe live together at 10 Stencil Terrace, where their tap is dripping. Rhys wants to do something. Phoebe doesn't. Together and apart, they're shaken into action/inaction as Atlas buckles under the weight of the world. Truths are uncovered from behind the mysterious shadows. the brilliant mind of Joseph Harper creates a masterpiece where an apocalyptic warning becomes a story involving premonitions and thrown boxes. Activists, statues, plumbers, and hundreds of millions of dead butterflies fall into our lives as we wait for it to snow, and the taps go drip, drip, drip.
- http://www.theatreindc.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington    26 Jul 2013

Organisations:
Young & Hungry

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:
theatre of the absurd 50 min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bikes IVe Owned Versus Girls IVe Fallen In Love With

Synopsis:
a show about irrational relationships with bicycles, and misanthropy. Highly idiosyncratic 2011 Billy T award Nominee, Joseph Harper, has written an autobiographical show to examine his personal experiences with girls and bicycles. the show touches on cyclic-eroticism, adolescent sexuality, severe depression, Chinamans Hill, and Sarah Ulmer. In spite of the at times dangerous' subject matter, Harper refuses to let his show veer into unpleasant and unwanted, offensive waters; it remains meditative, honest and analytical throughout.
- www.theatreview.org.nz

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Tararua Tramping Club, Mt Victoria, Wellington, NZ    06 May 2011

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:
60 min comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Boy And the Bicycle, The

Synopsis:
the show is about my mental illness, says Harper. a set of abstractions and parables trying to express what my depression is and why it is and what has been and is to be done. That sounds really narcissistic and self-indulgent, but I don't think it's that kind of show. I think a lot of people feel like this, even if they only feel it a little bit. and it's a confusing thing and sometimes it goes away, but it was there and they know it. and knowing that this thing is, can make you feel pretty uneasy. and I think it's good to talk about this stuff or to think about it because maybe it changes how you see this thing in yourself or in other people. and that doing that (looking at this bit of us) is hard sometimes. But it's also helpful and can make you feel good, or like you're a part of everything. or at least not alone, y'know. this show features: big black dogs, adolescent misanthropy, outsider cello soundscapes, Sir edmund Hillary, post-spectacle lighting', and a talking bicycle. it's a pretty subjective kind of thing, but intentionally so. expressionist or something. it's a black comedy. or a philosophical tragi-comedy or something.
- www.theatreview.org.nz

Notes:
Joseph Harper wrote this play last year As his graduation piece while studying playwrighting At Unitec, under Gary Henderson. the play was the inaugral winner of Playmarket New Zealand's Playwrights B4 25 competition.

1st Produced:
NZWine Cellar, St Kevins arcade (K Rd), Auckland    12 Oct 2011

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Do You Love Me?

Synopsis:
Joseph Harper's interesting Do You Love Me? has Lara Fischel-Chisolm at first seeming to play a sort of theatrical ode to her parents. a most convincing spunky young 18-year old emo-punk type girl with a typical teenage air of self-satisfied smugness, she describes her formative years as a tumultuous ride involving every parent's nightmares of drugs, sex and debauchery. also typical of teens, her main agenda appears to be to prove her parents wrong no matter what, and given their unconditional love for her the only way she can achieve that is apparently to be as entirely unlovable as she can.
- Nik Smythe, www.theatreview.org.nz

Notes:
part of the Monster Monologues

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:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Honey

Synopsis:
Honey never goes off. they found honey in egypt, in the pyramids, in a pot or something, and they tried it and it was still really delicious and good. This play is about love and is about the universe and the mouse/cheese dynamic and will contain earnestness and stories and singing and flesh and shitty lyricism and honesty and almost certainly some kissing. It's about love.
- www.theatreview.org.nz

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Freds, 46 Frederick Street, Wellington    16 Feb 2012

Organisations:
NZ Fringe Festival 2012

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Am A Cat

Synopsis:
Rota fortunae as told by a cat. The 2002 and 2014 General Elections and an overall examination of the comfort found in circles.

Notes:
Created by Joseph Harper and Chris Stratton

1st Produced:
The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland    19 Feb 2015

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:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/production.php?id=4355

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