Detail, ‘Betty wants a cowboy outfit for Christmas’. Poster by Chips Mackinolty
May Day in Darwin
The NT is the only place in Australia where Mayday is celebrated as a public holiday.
Writer, THE DARWIN REBELLION, 1987
Commissioned by the NT Trades and Labour Council to research and write, ‘The Darwin Rebellion: A Tropical Melodrama’ for an historical re-enactment as part of Mayday celebrations.
Funded by the ABA and the Australia Council.
Writer, narrator's text FREEING THE FUTURE, 1989
NT Trades & Labour Council, Darwin Mayday event.
Writer, MAYDAY: STRONG WITH THE WOMEN
1990
Artistic Director, Robyn Archer.
The Boss puppet by Omar Puma
The Poster- Designed by Todd Williams, featuring the Wife, Jenny Vuletic with a coolamon of his heavy book and his maps on her head, wearing his academic gown over the wife’s nightie …
THE INGKATA’S WIFE
Programme cover: Todd Williams. Centralian land and Mpwarnte Dreaming design by Wenten Rubuntja .
1990/2000
A two act play for two women and four men including an Indigenous male dancer.
Epic drama set in Central Australia about the guardianship of sacred Arrernte objects collected by anthroplogist and linguist, TGH Strehlow. Focused on the role of Strehlow’s second wife, Kathleen who "inherited" them.
Performed at Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs and The Playhouse, DPAC, Darwin 1990.
The catalyst for the reworking was new material about the British writer Bruce Chatwin. His book, ‘The Songlines’ is inspired by the work of T.G.H. Strehlow, the Ingkata of my play. I had alluded to Chatwin in the first version of the play, but the release of a biography and memoirs revealed the extent of his relationship with the Ingkata's wife; he demanded inclusion as a major new character.
Reading by the Australian National Playwrights Conference, Adelaide Festival 2000, under the title, ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’ with Billie Brown as The Ingkata.
YARN SPINNING
1991
Judging panel on the world championship yarn spinning competition. Held at the Hotel Darwin where Frank Hardy was defending his masters title.
CLAIM: A Land Claim Opera
1991
An incomplete work from an ambitious plan to write an opera about the Finnis River Land Claim - which featured the Kungarakan people and their advocate, the novelist Xavier Herbert and his equal in the courtroom the anthropologist, W H Stanner. Considered the mapping of the Darwin area by surveyor Goyder.
Proposal won the inaugural Sydney Theatre Co. Epic Theatre quest and scored a workshop with STC - participating actors were Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxborough and Rachel Maza, directed by STC dramaturg, by Michael Gow.
MAGNETIC NORTH
1992
Another incomplete work from an ambitious site specific theatre restaurant show envisaged for The Hotel Darwin to recreate a cruise ship visiting Darwin just prior to WWII . It was to feature a tropical cabaret, resident nabobs and a a local Japanese photographer. Received developmental funding from the NT Arts Dept.
Other Writing -
not mine - about the Territory that mentions mine
In Search of the ‘Never-Never’
Mickey Dewar, 1997
Lilypad of the Arafura
Tony Clifton - The Monthly, December 2005
Staging the North: Finding, Imagining and Performing an Australian Deep North
Stephen Carleton, 2008
Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy
Sophie Cunningham, 2014
Darwin
Tess Lea, 2014