Contains six plays. ENUFF by John Harding is a frightening and funny play about an Australian future where black patience has run out. A violent uprising is planned for Reconciliation Day -- will retribution or forgiveness prevail? I DON'T WANNA PLAY HOUSE by Tammy Anderson is the moving story of her childhood. A truly remarkable account of the triumph of the human spirit. BELONGING by Tracey Rigney recounts the taunts and temptations of a school girl, and her personal struggle to remain true to her culture, and herself. CASTING DOUBTS by Maryanne Sam is a funny, and at times heart-wrenching, play about an actors' casting agency with more colour charts than a paint shop, and the problems that Indigenous actors face. CROWFIRE by Jadah Milroy is the story of a young, urban Indigenous Australian woman, and a man from a desert community lured into the city. The moving story of a search for identity and the need for reconciliation. CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD by Richard J Frankland is a poetic and savage play that takes you into the aching sorrow of deaths in custody.
Author Biography:
Tammy Anderson was born in Tasmania and now lives in Melbourne. An actor/writer, she is also a qualified hair and make-up artist. She is a graduate of the Swinburne University Indigenous Performing Arts course. She then received a scholarship to the John Bolton Theatre School, graduating in 1997. Her theatre work includes numerous creative development workshops for Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative, Playbox and Melbourne Workers Theatre. She appeared in the world premiere of Stolen, and toured nationally and internationally with the play. I Don't Wanna Play House premiered at Playbox in 2001 and has since toured to regional Victoria, Victoria University, Sydney and Tasmania. Anderson has been actively involved with Ilbijerri with the aim of developing Indigenous theatre, has worked as an arts worker at the Footscray Arts Centre and is currently teaching at Swinburne University. RICHARD FRANKLAND is one of Australia's most highly awarded singer/songwriters, authors and film makers and an Indigenous rights activist. He is an Aboriginal Australian of Gunditjmara origin from Victoria. In 1993 Frankland co-wrote and directed his first documentary with John Foss entitled Songlines. Since then Frankland has written, directed and produced a wide range of video, documentary and film projects including the award winning Who Killed Malcolm Smith, No Way To Forget, After Mabo, Harry's War and Stone Bros. Richard has also written for and performed on stage. He wrote and directed the award-winning play Conversations with the Dead and his stage show An Evening with Richard Frankland was performed at the Sydney Opera House. His latest play, The Brady Bunch, debuted at La Mama in 2012 and he is currently working on Voices for the Malthouse Theatre. Frankland founded the Mirimbiak Nations Aboriginal Corporation and was instrumental in forming Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTAR) to represent traditional owners in lodging Native Title claims as well as the Your Voice political party after the abolition of ATSIC.
JOHN HARDING has been a ministerial adviser for the Victorian Department of Aboriginal Affairs; Senior Project Officer for the Aboriginal Education Department; National Aboriginal Employment Co-ordinator for the Australian Film Commission; Assistant Director for the 1989 National Black Playwrights' Conference; Artistic Director of the 1996 Nambundah Festival; and a founding member of the Ilbijerri Aboriginal Theatre Company in Melbourne. His radio credits include Land Rights, Rally and Blackman and Sobbin. For television his credits include Lift Off, Blackout, The Masters, and the indigenous current affairs program, ICAM.
JADAH MILROY, a Victorian College of the Arts and Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts graduate, is a proud Palku woman, who works as an artistic director, actor, playwright, dramaturge, animateur, director, tutor and event coordinator. Milroy has produced a series of short stories for Radio National's Awaye program and published articles in magazines Ignite and Spark. Her plays include Jidja, musical drama The Promise, cross discipline Journey to Adolescence, The Sand Crab, Touch the Air and Crow Fire. Crow Fire was shortlisted for the Malcolm Robertson Prize 2002, the Kate Challis Raka Award 2002 and the NSW Premier's Literary Award 2003. Milroy is an International Ensemble Member of 'Full Circle' Native Performance Company in Vancouver, Canada and is an experienced ensemble trainer in theatremaking. She has been worked widely as co-devisor, animateur and dramaturge and is undergoing professional development and research into Aboriginal methodology of performance and dramaturgy with Canadian companies Takwakin and Full Circle.
TRACEY RIGNEY, of the Wotjobaluk and Ngarrindjeri peoples, grew up in western Victoria. She has acted in A Redgum. A Rock. A Duck. at Melbourne University Drama Festival and the film Dancing in the Dust. She studied Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne. Belonging was workshopped at the ANPC Conference and the inaugural Victorian Indigenous Playwrights' Conference.
MARYANNE SAM, a founding member of Ilbijerri (an Indigenous performing arts cooperative), has worked in numerous capacities, including Administrator, Production Manager, Director, Project Coordinator and Executive Board Member. Her acting credits include Miracles (Playbox), Magpie, Up The Ladder, Hanoi/Melbourne and Last Drinks (Melbourne Workers Theatre); Blood Sister (The Tide); and Opa—A Sexual Odyssey (OPA Productions). Her writing includes Oh My God I'm Black, devised with Irine Vela and Patricia Cornelius (MWT), and a national Handbook on the issues of Family Violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. Sam continues her work in the Arts and as a playwright.
