The Playwrights Database
JENNY KEMP
(1949 - )Nationality: Australian
email: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: n/a
Writer/Director: Playbox Theatre & National Tour: Still Angela, Playbox Theatre, Adelaide Festival & Canberra Theatre: the Black Sequin Dress. Gasworks: Remember. Spoleto Fest & Belvoir St: Call of the Wild. anthill: Goodnight Sweet Dreams. the Pram Factory & Fest. of Australian Drama S.a: Sheila alone & Jealousy. La Mama: the Point isn't to Tell You, Malthouse Theatre: Woman-Bomb. Playbox Theatre: Rapture, Nightfall. Other Theatre: MTC: the Collection, Molly Sweeny, the Last Yankee, I Can't Remember anything, Family Running for Mr Whippy, the Game of Love and Chance, the Island. STCSA: Big and Little. the Mill & athenaeum 2: Medea, Pram Factory: Peer Gynt, antony and Cleopatra, the Performance Space & anthill: Things Calypso Wanted Wanted to Say (version 1). VCA & RUSDeN - Directed: Gems, Strauss, Turgenev, Fassbinder, Racine, T. Williams, Chekhov, Mamet, Strindberg. Workshops & teaching: Lecturer in Post Graduate Studies in Direction at the V.C.A. Writing workshops frequently given throughout Australia. . attended Australian National Playwrights Conference 2006 as a writer/director. awards: Greenroom award for Best Direction 1997 Molly Sweeny, Greenroom award for Outstanding Creative Collaboration in Dance 1999 Delirium. Greenroom award for Best Direction in Dance with H.Herbertson & T.Patrick 1996 Descansos, Kenneth Meyer Medallion for the Performing Arts 1997. Australia Council Theatre Fellowship 2000-2001, Honorary Research associate, in the School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies. Monash University 2001-2002 Nominations & Shortlists: Greenroom nomination for Direction 1999 Nightfall. Black Sequin Dress short-listed for NSW Premier's Literary award 1996. Still Angela short-listed for Queensland & NSW Premier's Literary awards 2003. Works Published Plays: Still Angela (2002), the Black Sequin Dress (1996), Remember (1997), Call of the Wild (1999). Videos: Contemporary Arts Media: Shifting and Sliding: the feminine psyche in performance (2004), Still Angela (2003). Website: www.blacksequin.com. Currently working on a new Black Sequin Production for 2008 KITTeN on the edge.
Research: https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/3373
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below is a list of Jenny Kemp's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Black Sequin Dress, The Call Of the Wild Goodnight Sweet Dreams Jealousy or The Affair Kitten Madeleine Point Isn't To Tell You, The Remember Sheila Alone Still Angela White Hotel, TheBlack Sequin Dress, The
Synopsis:
a woman in a black sequin dress leaves the children for the evening and goes to a nightclub. the play begins. the woman arrives at the nightclub. She walks accross the shiny floor. In a moment of indecision she glances back, and slips and falls. the waiter helps her up, walks her to a table and gets her a drink. the premise that any ordinary action has extraordinary resonances is explored. the nightclub becomes the underworld and falling synionomous with her psychic state. We watch as memory, desire, dream, fantasy and myth serve to animate the descent into the underworld and her subsequent ascent.
Notes:
as you walk down the street or into A nightclub, you see the (real) world) but feel Aware of An inner world. most of my work has given focus to the relationship between this often disjunctive relationship, to the way we creatively negotiate And navigate these worlds in order to survive more fully within the contemporary world.
1st Produced:
Scott Theatre, Adelaide, SA
05 Mar 1996
Organisations:
Adelaide Festival, Playbox Theatre and Black Sequin Productions.
1st Published:
Sydney : Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Centre, Monash University Melbourne, 1996
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/26921
Top of PageCall Of the Wild
Synopsis:
examines the predicament faced by contemporary woman who is on the one hand, humiliated and on the other venerated. We witness the Drama of a woman trying to give order to the many diametrically opposed facets of her life in a curious mix of domestic and epic images. the woman, an ordinary housewife and mother, is constantly in motion as she moves between dealing with the banalities of her everyday world as they collide with the contradictory world of her inner fears, fantasies and desires.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Church Theatre, Hawthorn, VIC
14 Sep 1989
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "Performing the Unnameable", edited by Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman, Currency Press, Sydney, 1999
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/1950
Top of PageGoodnight Sweet Dreams
Synopsis:
Goodnight Sweet dreams explores the alternating realities of day and night. a young couple and their baby lead an ordinary surban life, but at night time their dream lives errupt, and we see that they are filled with complexities, contradictions and anything but the ordinary and ordered lives they apparently live by day.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Anthill Theatre, South Melbourne, VIC
25 Jun 1986
Organisations:
Australian Nouveau Theatre
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: 1 pupeteer
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/95632
Top of PageJealousy or The Affair
Synopsis:
Is a dialogue between two lovers about an affair. It explores the subtleties that exist between two people when they navigate this terrain. the dialogue is replayed a second time with the characters in the opposite roles
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
The Pram Factory Melbourne
1977
Organisations:
the AGP
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageKitten
Synopsis:
Kitten's husband Jonah has committed suicide. Kitten is overwhelmed with grief and guilt. She swings from depression to mania as she pieces together Jonah's research on intelligence in the animal kingdom, inspired by what she discovers she devises a bizarre plan to make a come back as a singer in order to rescue Jonah. as Manfred her lover watches over her unable to help, her excitement builds to mania, until she finally collapses. Once again Kitten is reduced to nothing. and from her hospital bed, Kitten very slowly begins to discover a new voice. She begins to sing. . .
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Beckett Theatre, Southbank, VIC
03 Oct 2008
Organisations:
Melbourne International Arts Festival
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:
Drama, Bi-Polar Soap Opera, Concert 90 min
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/76101
Top of PageMadeleine
Synopsis:
Maddy is turning 19 and her sister returns to the family home for the birthday. She finds Maddy very changed. Her world is becoming increasingly bizarre as psychic forces beyond her control take hold. She is showing signs of schizophrenia. the family begins to split apart as each tries to deal with the situation in radically different ways. Desperate to obey the demands of her inner voices, Maddy proceeds regardless, dragging the whole family towards a tragic outcome. MaDeLeINe brings the uncertain world of mental illness into presence and provides a space within which these concerns can become a reality.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Arts House North Melbourne Town Hall , North Melbourne, VIC
03 Aug 2010
Organisations:
Black Sequin 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:
Drama, Schizophrenic Tragedy 80 min
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/90637
Top of PagePoint Isn't To Tell You, The
Synopsis:
the man confronts his everyday world. He faces his aloneness inside the four walls of his room
Notes:
written by Jenny Kemp And Robert Meldrum
1st Produced:
La Mama, Carlton, VIC
Jul 1979
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/147435
Top of PageRemember
Synopsis:
a traumatic event occurs, a young woman is raped and subsequently kills her assailant. We watch both her immediate reaction and her unfolding response over a longer period. Memory, fantasy, dream, imagination and the sheer will to comprehend and heal are explored in this non- narrative performance piece. Fragmented episodes are presented in different genres and from different perspectives, each new facet making the meaning deeper and more complete
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Gasworks Main Theatre, Albert Park, VIC
27 Mar 1993
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in Australian Women's Drama: Texts and Feminisms, Currency Press, Australia, 1997
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:
Performance/Opera Piece
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: 1 woman need to be an actor/singer & 1 man needs to be an actor/singer
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/17490
Top of PageSheila Alone
Synopsis:
It is a study or observation of the rhythms of the female mind. the concern is not with story line or meaning. the woman is alone and thereby confronts her her aloneness and her loneliness.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
The Pram Factory Melbourne
1977
Organisations:
the AGP
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/124157
Top of PageStill Angela
Synopsis:
an unpredictable portrait of a contemporary Australian woman at three ages. On the cusp of her birthday, angela goes on a real and imagined journey through time: up the garden path of her childhood; into the kitchen with her lover; and onto a train that travels into the Simpson Desert. It is here that deep change can occur and she relocates herself within the wider landscape. the possibility and inevitability of change is recognised, and angela realises and celebrates her life. This evocative and innovative play may be read as a modeern fairytale, exploring the linear and cyclical nature of a woman's life.
Notes:
Still Angela was Adapted to smaller scale for A National tour of Australia in 2004. (1m 3w). Published in VIDeO by Contemporary Arts Media >>>
1st Produced:
CUB Malthouse, Southbank, VIC
06 Apr 2002
Organisations:
Playbox Theatre Company
1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney,
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/15650
Top of PageWhite Hotel, The
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
from the novel by D.M.Thomas
1st Produced:
Grant Street Theatre, Southbank, VIC
02 Jun 1983
Organisations:
Victorian College of the Arts
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:
Performance Piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: cast of 20
Further Reference:
https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/93111
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