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Catherine Ryan

CATHERINE RYAN

  
Nationality:    Australian
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Catherine Ryan has been working as a writer, Dramaturg, director, community Theatre maker, producer and performer for over ten years, for stage, radio and documentary film. She lives in Dja Dja Wurrung country (Central Victoria), just outside a town with a name, but no shop, pub or tennis court (there is, however, a gorgeous river, wedgetailed eagles and a public phone box). She has a BA in Drama and Sociology from La Trobe University (1993) and a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Animateuring from the Victorian College of the Arts (Hons - 1996). She headed bush in 2000, starting Castlemaines Barking Owl Theatre with three other artists, and now continues to create professional productions and community generated pieces. Her work has been a finalist in the Patrick White Award (twice), the ANPC New Dramatists Award, and the Perishable Theatre International Womens Playwrighting Competition. In 2006 Catherine was a Melbourne Theatre Company Affiliate Writer, and the National Regional Winner of the Theatrelab Australian Voices Award.

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

         Ambidexterity         Copybook No.6         Cut         Getting Away From It All         Getting Away From It All - monologue         Gravity         Precipice

Ambidexterity

Synopsis:
Using the metaphor of her ambidexterity, this almost-monologue is Mother's attempt to control her unravelling world. Daughter confides to Mother of Father's abuse. Father, when challenged by Mother, denies it. For a woman whose life has been built on the maintenance of successful and happy appearances, those conflicting "truths", her notions of love and loyalty, place her in an untenable position. Using hyper-real design elements, the play reveals a very real woman coming to the awareness of the devastating impossibility of her situation. Ambidexterity is Mother's desperate, poignant, and often black-comic act of speaking herself to survival. And paradoxically, to the articulation of the destruction of life as she knew it.

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http://australianplays.org/   -

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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:
40 mins Black Comedy/Hyper-reality

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Copybook No.6

Synopsis:
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Notes:
short listed for the 2011 Griffin Award.

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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:
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Parts:
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Further Reference:
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Cut

Cut
Over three years, Australia's new writing theatre, Griffin theatre Company, presented fourteen unique short plays across its mainstage season. Seen for one night only, the fates, Seasons and the Seven Needs were three play cycles provoked by the classical mythology of man's inescapable destiny, the seasonal patterns and Maslow's Pyramid of Human Needs. Now , this eclectic and fascinating collection of ten minute plays by some of the country's most established and emerging playwrights becomes Short Circuit.

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1st Produced:

Organisations:
Griffin Theatre Company

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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:
Ten Min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Getting Away From It All

Synopsis:
Sandra has landed in the middle of a street. Just her and her suitcase. And there she makes her home, an increasingly elaborate camp. the neighbours, although apparently ignoring her, are well aware of her presence. But only the Lollipop Woman makes contact, and slowly they develop a connection that reveals both their stories. Through surreal imagery, black humour, deep pain, and a gentle relationship, Getting Away From It All evokes the experiences of those who escape the tyranny of fear. It explores the complex relationship between public and private space, between what we choose to show and what we choose to see. In particular it tells a story of the seemingly endless cycle of family violence. But it also offers hope for possible change

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

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:
75 min Heightened reality, surreal and absurd

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Getting Away From It All - monologue

Synopsis:
A suitcase falls from the sky. Lands bang in the middle of the street. the woman who emerges to make it her public/private home throws out a challenge to all who watch her. Where are we safe? How are we to survive? What do we choose to show? To see? To do? It's a surreal yet hopeful story about a world that's always watching

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

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:
25 min Heightened reality, surreal and absurd

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Gravity

Synopsis:
A dreamlike, poetic play that explores the inner emotional turmoil of a woman dealing with her daughter's attempted suicide. At the point of having to switch off her child's life support, this high-flying mother is confronted by unravelling memories, past and present choices, guilt, confusion and grief. How does a parent care for a child, pursue a career, function as a member of both family and community? the contemporary form of the play, which shifts between poetry, memory and pop culture, engages its audience, challenging them to ask "Is she really an astronaut? Is she dreaming? Is she having a breakdown? And how long has she been like this?"

Notes:
Gravity was shortlisted for the 2002 Patrick White Award.

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

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:
Surreal Drama with touches of tragicomedy 60 mins

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Precipice

Synopsis:
Mel is a 40-year-old single working mother, struggling but strong, trying to maintain family, job and herself in a harsh world. Al is older, a compulsive reader of Death Notices, and obsessive attender of the funerals of strangers. their lives converge at Mels funeral. 'Precipice' is an evocation of the state of being suggested by the plays title. Suspension, balanced right on the edge, hovering, held in the moment before inevitable change. 'Precipice' is sparse and poetic, fragmented yet often lyrical - a journey into the mind, the imagination, and the desperate, abiding importance of compassion and love.

Notes:
Winner of the 2009 George Fairfax Memorial Award; Winner of the 2009 Inscription/theatrelab Script Development Award

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

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:
60 min Non-naturalistic, poetic

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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