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Noel Hodda

NOEL HODDA

  (1954 - )
Nationality:    Australian
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Noel Hodda is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic art (NIDA), Sydney, Australia. He has worked extensively in Theatre, film, television and radio and is an ex-Board Member and Honorary Life Member of the Griffin Theatre Co. Sydney. Plays produced across the country include the Secret House, Half Safe, Photographs, On the Public Record and Never a Moment's Peace. He has written episodes of the aBC medical Drama GP and numerous training and corporate films. His play Later was invited to be workshopped at the 2004 Banff playRites Colony in Canada where it received universal praise from the selection committee. as an actor he has worked with the Sydney, Queensland, Griffin, Marian Street, Riverina, Q and Railway Street Theatre Companies, the ensemble Theatre, the State Theatre Co. of S.A. and others as well as National and International tours and multiple television and film appearances. He also teaches acting and is an assessor for Page To Stage, a young playwright's program.

Research:    http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/476

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

         Across The Water         Half Safe         Later         Never A Moment's Peace         Of Cabbages And Kings         On the Public Record         Photographs         Secret House, The
Across The Water

Synopsis:
Glen is an Australian photographer whose present world is collapsing. In the past, his mother Cath is in her favourite solitary place questioning her future. In that then unknown future Ken, Glen's war veteran father, lives alone save for the sparrows he is now at war with. He is visited regularly by his pregnant daughter Sissy, the only member of the family still living in their hometown in the Australian countryside. Theirs is a feisty relationship, full of the habits and old scars of the past and the resentments and regrets of the present. When the older Ken unexpectedly and uncharacteristically disappears, Sissy, who is experiencing marital problems herself, calls a reluctant Glen back to the family home. Unwillingly thrust together the two set out to find the man they each have a different relationship with. Finding him creates as many problems as it solves, forcing them to confront the past, a past we share in as the younger Ken and Cath meet post-war, court, marry and begin the journey of their life together simultaneous with the children from their future dealing with the fall-out of the relationship. The past, the present and the possibilities of the future collide in this elegiac story of age, loss, love and the search for some kind of redemption.

Notes:
aka Later

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:
80 min drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Half Safe

Synopsis:
KEN and LES, two older men, are fishing in the middle of a man-made lake on a hot afternoon. They are both crusty characters, carrying their history with them. It is a week since the funeral of EDIE, Les's wife. Ken's wife, CATH, has died some time before. All is well until the outboard motor refuses to start and the men are becalmed, trapped in the middle of the lake. Talk turns to argument, argument leads to blame and blame leads to attack as they chop away at the fabric of their lives. Throughout all this the world under their boat - the flooded valley, the drowned homes and lost children - continues to play on Ken's mind. Nothing can be done and the men are forced to spend the night on the lake. During this night Ken is confronted by his past - his dead son and wife. Salvation arrives in the form of a helicopter but this also is part of his nightmare. He wakes to a cold pre-dawn and the hope of a morning wind that will carry them into shore and safety. This hope comes too late for Les, who has died in the night. Ken is left alone with his dead companion as the dawn sun rises across a distant peak and the promised wind begins to arrive. He cries openly and with great release, his face turned towards the rising sun and the future.

Notes:
Half Safe is a discrete companion play to The Secret House. The interval is optional.

1st Produced:
Riverina Playhouse, Wagga Wagga, Nsw     15 Sep 1990

Organisations:
Riverina Theatre Company

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:
75 min drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  + 1x Female, 1 x Male Recorded voices

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/90378

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Later

Synopsis:
an old man heads towards redemption and eternity

Notes:
This is a work in progress. it is the third part of 'the Lake Cycle'. Parts 1 And 2 Are 'the Secret House' And 'Half Safe'

1st Produced:
-     2003

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Never A Moment's Peace

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Of Cabbages And Kings

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On the Public Record

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Photographs

Synopsis:
a young couple move through adolescence into adulthood and family in the shadow of pre and post WW2

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Wagga Wagga     1992

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:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Secret House, The

Synopsis:
Glen, accompanied by his sister Sissy, returns to the family home on the outskirts of town occupied by their Father Ken and mother Cath. All is not well. The family re-unites, bound by ritual humour and ceremony. It is Glen's birthday but no-one seems to be celebrating despite the cake on the table and the cups of tea and glasses of whisky that follow. When they all turn in for the night the play begins an exploration of the past. In a series of time-fractured scenes we meet Patrick, Glen's identical twin brother, and witness the antagonism and resentment that lies beneath the surface in this seemingly benign family environment. The family prepares for a funeral and we discover that it is Patrick's. We witness Glen return home a year before for the funeral of his twin brother to be met by a family in denial and inarticulate in the face of overwhelming grief felt at the fact that this brother committed suicide. We share the nightmare of autopsy, the emptiness of despair and the lost and confused hope and humanity of those left behind. The dawn comes - the morning after the opening scene of the night before - to reveal Cath ordering and re-ordering her memories and mementos. The secrets of the house have been revealed overnight as the family slept. The juxtaposed anniversary of birthday and death prompts re-evaluation by some and creates a space for hope and change. Although dealing with death and grief, The Secret House is cut through with a sharp layer of humour as the family lives their lives together, falling back on old stories and customs to keep their world alive.

Notes:
Half Safe is a discrete companion play to The Secret House. The interval is optional.

1st Produced:
Stables Theatre, Darlinghurst, Nsw     06 Sep 1987

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Sydney : Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Company Melbourne, 1989   

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:
85 min drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/313

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