David Williamson | |
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 Williamson in 1972 | |
| Born | David Keith Williamson 24 February 1942 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Theatre, film, television |
| Website | |
| www | |
David Keith Williamson AO (born 24 February 1942) is an Australian playwright. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.
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David Williamson was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on 24 February 1942, and was brought up in Bairnsdale. He initially studied mechanical engineering at the University of Melbourne from 1960, but left and graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1965. His early forays into the theatre were as an actor and writer of skits for the Engineers' Revue at Melbourne University's Union Theatre at lunchtime during the early 1960s, and as a satirical sketch writer for Monash University student reviews and the Emerald Hill Theatre Company.
After a brief stint as design engineer for GM Holden, Williamson became a lecturer in mechanical engineering and thermodynamics at Swinburne University of Technology (then Swinburne Technical College) in 1966 while studying social psychology as a postgraduate part-time at the University of Melbourne. He completed a Master of Arts in Psychology in 1970, and then completed further postgraduate research in social psychology. Williamson later lectured in social psychology at Swinburne, where he remained until 1972.
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Williamson first turned to writing and performing in plays in 1967 with La Mama Theatre Company and the Pram Factory, and rose to prominence in the early 1970s, with works such as Don's Party (later turned into a 1976 film), a comic drama set during the 1969 federal election; and The Removalists (1971). He also collaborated on the screenplays for Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Williamson's work as a playwright focuses on themes of politics, loyalty and family in contemporary urban Australia, particularly in two of its major cities, Melbourne and Sydney.
Major stage works include The Club , The Department , Travelling North , The Perfectionist , Emerald City , Money and Friends and Brilliant Lies .
Recent work has included Dead White Males , a satirical approach to postmodernism and university ethics; Up for Grabs , which starred Madonna in its London premiere; and the Jack Manning Trilogy (Face To Face, Conversation, Charitable Intent) which take as their format community conferencing, a new form of restorative justice, in which Williamson became interested in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In recent years he has alternated work between larger stages (including Soul Mates, Amigos and Influence – all premiered with the Sydney Theatre Company) and smaller ones (including the Manning trilogy, Flatfoot and Operator, which premiered at the Ensemble Theatre).
In 2005, he announced his retirement from main-stage productions, although he has continued to write new plays for the mainstage, many produced with the Ensemble Theatre. He had a serious health problem, cardiac arrhythmia, which had required frequent hospitalisation. An operation resolved this issue, but then in 2009 he had a mild stroke, from which he recovered fully. [1]
Williamson was instrumental in the founding of the Noosa Long Weekend Festival, a cultural festival in Noosa, Queensland, where he lives.
In August 2006 Cate Molloy, former Australian Labor Party member of the Queensland Parliament for Noosa, announced that Williamson would be her campaign manager as she sought to recontest her seat as an Independent.
In 2007, Lotte's Gift , a one-woman show starring Karin Schaupp, which traced a journey through Schaupp's own life as well as those of her mother and grandmother (the Lotte of the title), was produced.
In 2021, his memoir, Home Truths, was published by HarperCollins. Reviewing the book for The Sydney Morning Herald , Peter Craven wrote "He comes across as a likeable, flawed fellow with no more blindness than people of lesser talent". [2]
Williamson is married to Kristin Williamson (sister of independent filmmaker Chris Löfvén) who have homes in Sydney and on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. They have five adult children and 11 grandchildren. [1]
His son, Rory Williamson, and his stepson, Felix Williamson, are both actors. Rory starred as Stork in the 2001 revival of The Coming of Stork at the Stables Theatre in Sydney, produced by Felix's company, the Bare Naked Theatre Company.[ citation needed ]
The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001. [5] In 2005, Williamson received the JC Williamson Award, the LPA's highest honour, for their life's work in live performance. [6]
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Himself | JC Williamson Award | awarded |
The Removalists is a play written by Australian playwright David Williamson in 1971. The main issues the play addresses are violence, specifically domestic violence, and the abuse of power and authority. The story is supposed to be a microcosm of 1970s Australian society.
Maxwell Irvine Gillies AM is an Australian actor and a founding member of the 1970s experimental theatre company, the Australian Performing Group.
Emerald City is a 1988 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Michael Jenkins, based on the 1987 play of the same name by David Williamson. Much of the play's dialogue is retained though discussion of off-stage characters is usually replaced with their appearance, and a more conventionally cinematic level and speed of dialogue is maintained. Also, the younger daughter Hannah is omitted.
Noel Hodda is an Australian actor, writer, dramaturge, director and teacher.
James David Sharman is an Australian director and writer for film and stage with more than 70 productions to his credit. He is renowned in Australia for his work as a theatre director since the 1960s, and is best known internationally as the director of the 1973 theatrical hit The Rocky Horror Show, its film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and the film's follow-up, Shock Treatment (1981).
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.
Robyn Anne Nevin is an Australian actress, director, and stage producer, recognised with the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards and the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards for her outstanding contributions to Australian theatre performance art. Former head of both the Queensland Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company, she has directed more than 30 productions and acted in more than 80 plays, collaborating with internationally renowned artists, including Richard Wherrett, Simon Phillips, Geoffrey Rush, Julie Andrews, Aubrey Mellor, Jennifer Flowers, Cate Blanchett and Lee Lewis.
Paul Denny is an Australian stage, television, and film actor.
Maxwell John Phipps was an Australian actor, known for a number of roles in theatre, films and television during the 1960s until the end of the 1990s.
Noel Ferrier AM was an Australian television personality, comedian, stage and film actor, raconteur, and theatrical producer. He had an extensive theatre career which spanned over fifty years.
Andrew Bovell is an Australian writer for theatre, film and television.
Stork is a 1971 Australian comedy film directed by Tim Burstall. Stork is based on the play The Coming of Stork by David Williamson. Bruce Spence and Jacki Weaver make their feature film debuts in Stork, being honoured at the 1972 Australian Film Institute Awards, where they shared the acting prize. Stork won the prize for best narrative feature and Tim Burstall won for best direction. Stork was one of the first ocker comedies. Stork was the first commercial success of the Australian cinema revival called the Australian New Wave.
Jill Jolliffe was an Australian journalist and author who reported on East Timor since 1975. She was the author of Finding Santana and Balibo.
Travelling North is a 1987 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Leo McKern, Julia Blake, Graham Kennedy and Henri Szeps. Based on an original 1979 play of the same name by David Williamson, it is one of Williamson's favourite movies based on his works. The act of "travelling north" as used in the title, in the context of the southern hemisphere in which the film and its original play are set, denotes transitioning from the colder, business-dominated southern regions of the Australian continent to the notionally more relaxed and warmer subtropical or tropical northern regions such as northern New South Wales and ultimately, far north Queensland.
Karin Schaupp is a German-born Australian classical guitarist. She has won APRA Music Awards and ARIA Music Awards.
The Department is a 1974 play by David Williamson about political intrigue at a university department. It was based on Williamson's time as a lecturer at Swinburne Tech.
Flatfoot is a 2003 comedic play by David Williamson about the Roman playwright Plautus. It is one of Williamson's few plays not to be set in contemporary Australia and was written as a vehicle for actor Drew Forsythe. It is a play-within-a-play, featuring Plautus' play The Swaggering Soldier.
Allan Zavod was an Australian pianist, composer, jazz musician and occasional conductor whose career was mainly in America.
The 23rd Australian Film Institute Awards were held at the Regent Theatre, in Sydney, New South Wales on 16 September 1981. Presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), the awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, documentary and short film productions of 1981. The ceremony was televised in Australia on ABC for the third year running, with John Bluthal presiding over the event.
George Whaley was an Australian actor, director and writer, known for his work across theatre and film.
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