Alana Valentine

Alana Valentine (born 1961) is an Australian playwright, dramatist, librettist and director working in theatre, film, opera and television.

Early life and education

Alana Valentine was born in 1961.[1]

She holds a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney (2000).[2]

Career

Valentine first worked with Vicki Gordon Music Productions to create the First Nations show Barefoot Divas, Walk a Mile in My Shoes. The work premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2012, toured North America in 2014 and was staged at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2015.

In 2016 Gordon commissioned Valentine and Ursula Yovich to co-write the First Nations rock musical Barbara and the Camp Dogs. This premiered at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in December 2017, and toured the country in 2019.

In 2022 Valentine was commissioned by Neil Armfield to co-write the libretto with Christos Tsiolkas for a modern oratorio about the 1972 murder of George Duncan in Adelaide. With music composed by Joseph Twist, it was performed as Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan to critical acclaim at the 2022 Adelaide Festival.[3][4][5]

Valentine has collaborated as a co-writer and dramaturg with Aboriginal director and choreographer Stephen Page on many productions for Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Recognition and awards

Valentine was the 2021 co-recipient of the UTS Chancellor's Award for excellence in recognition of her accomplished work and the consistent excellence of her dramatic output. She has been awarded four Australian Writers Guild awards. She received a Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Run Rabbit Run (2004). She has been a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship as well as an international fellowship from London's Globe Theatre. She has also received a Centenary Medal for her work on the Centenary of Federation; a Cultural Leadership Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts; and a Literature Fund Fellowship. and . She holds a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney (2000).[2]

Awards include:

  • 2007 Nomination for 2007 Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work and Best Play for Parramatta Girls[6][7]
  • 2004 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Drama Script
  • 2003 NSW Writer's Fellowship
  • 2002 Rodney Seaborn Playwright's Award[8]
  • 2002 International Writing Fellowship at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London
  • 2016 Head Full of Love play [Queensland Theatre production] PAC Australia Drovers Award for Tour of the Year
  • 2018 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, shortlisted for Barbara and the Camp Dogs (with Ursula Yovich)[9]
  • 2019: Best Original Score and Best Musical, Helpmann Awards; four Green Room Awards (2020) for Best Writing, Best Music Composition, Best Production and Best Performance, for Barbara and the Camp Dogs

Works

Plays
  • Swimming The Globe (1996). A play about the parallel paths of two teen-age swimmers from different parts of the world who both strive to compete in the Olympics. It was first performed at the Mission Theatre in Newcastle, NSW, on 21 August 1996. It was commissioned by Freewheels Theatre Company, with the two girls played by Louise Chapman as Igorina and Kathryn Hume as Stace.[10][11] It was also published as a performing arts book in 1999 by Currency Press.[12]
  • The Conjurers (1997)
  • Run Rabbit Run (2004) about the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a rugby league club, staged at the Belvoir Theatre in 2004[13]
  • Covenant (2006)
  • Parramatta girls (2007) about the Girls Training School, Parramatta. Produced at the Belvoir St Theatre. The play is on the HSC Drama syllabus in New South Wales.[2] It is written as "a dramatisation of interviews with a number of women who served time in Australia’s most notorious girls detention centre".[14]
  • Singing the lonely heart' is a one-act play is loosely based on the life of Carson McCullers. It was published together with Ozone in 2008.[15]
  • Ozone, a surreal fantasy
  • Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah: Soft Revolution (2010)[16] The play, performed at the Seymour Centre Sydney, 6–29 August 2009, is about "how Islamic women think and feel about" wearing the hijab.[17] It was "commissioned by The Alex Buzo Company to 'respond' to Alex Buzo's play Norm and Ahmed"[18][19][20]
  • MP (2011)[21][22]
  • Dead Man Brake (2013), about the Waterfall rail accident. Produced by Merrigong Theatre Company.
  • Barbara and the Camp Dogs (2017), co-written with Ursula Yovich. Produced by Belvoir.
  • The Sugar House (2018), generational play set in a CSR warehouse in Pyrmont. Produced by Belvoir.
  • Wayside Bride (2021) Produced by Belvoir (2022-04-02 to 2022-05-29).[23]
  • Wudjang: not the past (2022) Bangarra Dance Theatre
  • Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan (2022) Adelaide Festival, State Opera South Australia

Books
  • Bowerbird - the Art of Making Theatre Drawn from Life[24]

References
  1. "Valentine, Alana (1961-)", Trove, 2008, retrieved 17 July 2019
  2. "Alana Valentine - Radio & Museums". www.alanavalentine.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  3. "Five Questions for Joseph Twist". Limelight. 20 February 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  4. "Watershed: 'We always return to the river and we always return to Duncan'". InDaily. 11 January 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  5. "Murder of George Duncan, which led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality, to be retold in Adelaide Festival debut show". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  6. Westwood, Matthew (1 July 2008). Strong list contends for Helpmanns, The Australian
  7. Alana Valentine - Biography Archived 21 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, RGM Artist Group, Retrieved March 2012
  8. "The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award" (PDF). Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation. 20 January 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  9. Perkins, Cathy (Summer 2019). "Excellence in Literature and History". SL Magazine. 12 (4): 52–55.
  10. "Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online - Citations-S - Swimming The Globe-1m2f". www.heniford.net. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  11. "Swimming The Globe at Gazelle". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  12. Valentine, Alana (16 August 1999). Swimming the globe. Currency Press. OCLC 43871709.
  13. "Bunny boiler". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 January 2004. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  14. "Riverside launches 2012 Education Program - News". 17 February 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  15. Valentine, Alana; Martin, John Henry; Seary, Bob (16 August 2018). Singing the lonely heart and Ozone. Snowy Owl Press. OCLC 271752243.
  16. Valentine, Alana (16 August 2018). Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah: soft revolution. Currency Press. OCLC 659505613.
  17. "Veiled women". Radio National. 9 August 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  18. "Norm and Ahmed & Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah - The Alex Buzo Company". Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  19. "Daily Telegraph 10 August 2009". Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  20. (4 August 2009). Holding a mirror to an Australian classic, Sydney Morning Herald
  21. Chilver, Trevar Alan (2 October 2011). MP | The Street Theatre, Australian Stage
  22. Cormack, Bridget (13 September 2011). Interviews with MPs inform state of play, The Australian
  23. "WAYSIDE BRIDE". Belvoir St Theatre. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  24. Valentine, Alana; Chamberlain-Creighton, Lindy (2017), Dear Lindy : a nation responds to the loss of Azaria, Foreword by Lindy Chamberlain, National Library of Australia, ISBN 978-0-642-27901-9
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