Stuart Hoar

Last updated

Stuart Hoar
Born1957
New Plymouth, New Zealand
Occupationplaywright
Alma mater University of Auckland
Genretheatre, libretti, radio plays

Stuart Hoar (born 1957) is a New Zealand playwright, teacher, novelist, radio dramatist and librettist. [1]

Contents

Biography

Hoar was born in New Plymouth and educated at James Cook High School, Manurewa, and the University of Auckland. He worked in the film industry as a sound recordist.

In 1986, his first play, Squatter, was chosen for Playmarket's National Playwrights Workshop, was produced at Mercury Theatre in 1987, and published in 1988. [2] [1] Influenced by Brecht, Squatter explored the dismantling of New Zealand's large land holdings by the Liberal government of the 1890s. It was determinedly non-naturalistic, using placards, direct audience address, and anachronism to subvert the idea of a "historical drama"; Hoar stated that he was "determined to annoy people". [1] [3] His next play, Exile (1990), satirised founding figures of New Zealand literature. [3]

The following year, Hoar was Writer in Residence at Mercury Theatre and received a Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. [2] In 1993, Hoar received the Robert Burns Fellowship, and during his residence in Dunedin he wrote Not So Poor (produced at the Allen Hall Theatre), based on Mary Isabella Lee's autobiography, [4] and Yo Banfa, about Rewi Alley's time in China, as well as a radio play and research for his novel Hard Light. [5] From 1997 to 2000 he lived in England, during which time Hard Light was published. [1]

While living in Menton as the 2007 Katherine Mansfield fellow, Hoar wrote Pasefika, inspired by the work of the French artist Charles Méryon who had lived in the then French colony of Akaroa in the 1840s. [6] His 2013 musical, The Great Art War, was written with composer Philip Norman and is set in 1950; the plot concerns a dispute between the Christchurch City Council and the Christchurch Art Gallery over the purchase of a Frances Hodgkins painting. [1] Three of his most popular plays have been biopics of New Zealanders, in a relatively naturalistic style: Rutherford (2000), about the scientist Ernest Rutherford, Bright Star (1995), about the astronomer Beatrice Tinsley, and The Face Maker (2002), about the plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe. [1] His most recent play, Rendered, produced by the Auckland Theatre Company in 2018, deals with New Zealand's involvement in the politics of the Middle East. [7]

Since the age of 24, Hoar has written over 30 radio plays which have been broadcast internationally. [8] He has taught playwriting at Canterbury and Auckland universities, and currently works for Playmarket as their script advisor, and is a lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University. [1] [9]

Plays

Screenplays

Libretti

Novels

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Kightley</span> Samoan-New Zealand actor and writer

Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley is a Samoan-New Zealander actor, television presenter, writer, journalist, director, and comedian. He acted in and co-wrote the successful 2006 film Sione's Wedding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Globe Theatre, Dunedin</span> Theatre and theatre company in Dunedin, New Zealand

Globe Theatre is a theatre located in Dunedin, New Zealand, and the amateur theatre company that runs it. The theatre was built in 1961 by Patric and Rosalie Carey as an extension of their house. The building to which it is attached, at 104 London Street, was designed by architect William Mason as his own house and built in 1864. Ralph Hotere designed both sets and costumes for the theatre productions. The foyer area was also used for exhibitions, notably the Waterfall paintings of Colin McCahon, paintings by Michael Smither, and pots by Barry Brickell, Len Castle, and Doreen Blumhardt.

Mervyn Garfield Thompson was a New Zealand playwright and theatre director. He was one of the founders of Court Theatre in Christchurch, an artistic director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington and writer in residence at the University of Canterbury. His theatrical writing championed the downtrodden and featured a revival and refinement of the genre of songspiel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Mason</span> New Zealand playwright

Bruce Edward George Mason was a significant playwright in New Zealand who wrote 34 plays and influenced the cultural landscape of the country through his contribution to theatre. In 1980, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, one of the most important playwrighting accolades in New Zealand, is named in his honour. Mason was also an actor, critic, and fiction writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Rodger</span> New Zealand playwright

Victor John Rodger is a New Zealand journalist, actor and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. Rodger's play Sons won acclaim at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards (1998) and received the Best New Writer and Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play awards. In 2001, he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Other plays include Ranterstantrum (2002) and My Name is Gary Cooper (2007), produced and staged by Auckland Theatre Company and starred a Samoan cast including Robbie Magasiva, Anapela Polataivao, Goretti Chadwick and Kiwi actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiona Samuel</span> New Zealand writer, actor and director

Fiona Samuel is a New Zealand writer, actor and director who was born in Scotland. Samuel's award-winning career spans theatre, film, radio and television. She graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1980 with a Diploma in Acting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Randerson</span> New Zealand writer, director, and performer

Joanna Ruth Randerson is a New Zealand writer, director and performer. She is the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions, a Wellington-based theatre production company.

Lynda Chanwai-Earle is a New Zealand writer and radio producer. Her written work includes plays, poems and film scripts. The play Ka Shue – Letters Home in 1996 is semi-autobiographical and is significant in New Zealand literature as the first authentically New Zealand–Chinese play for mainstream audiences.

Robert Lord was the first New Zealand professional playwright. He was one of the first New Zealand playwrights to have plays produced abroad since Merton Hodge in the 1930s.

Joseph Musaphia is a New Zealand writer and actor who was born in London.

Jean Betts is a New Zealand playwright, actor and director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Johnson (author)</span> New Zealand author

Stephanie Patricia Johnson is a poet, playwright, and short story writer from New Zealand. She lives in Auckland with her husband, film editor Tim Woodhouse, although she lived in Australia for much of her twenties. Many of her books have been published there, and her non-fiction book West Island, about New Zealanders in Australia, is partly autobiographical.

Albert Alexander Amahou Belz is a New Zealand actor, writer and lecturer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whiti Hereaka</span> New Zealand writer (born 1978)

Whiti Hereaka is a New Zealand playwright, novelist and screenwriter and a barrister and solicitor. She has held a number of writing residencies and appeared at literary festivals in New Zealand and overseas, and several of her books and plays have been shortlisted for or won awards. In 2022 her book Kurangaituku won the prize for fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and Bugs won an Honour Award in the 2014 New Zealand Post Awards for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Emily Tess Duncan is a New Zealand playwright. She is co-founder of Prospect Park Productions, an organisation aiming “to create and produce original New Zealand theatre and collaborative projects that reach into other art forms." Duncan held the 2019 Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She lives in Dunedin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circa Theatre</span> Wellington theatre company

Circa Theatre is a professional theatre company in Wellington, New Zealand, that was established in 1976. They present a number of plays each year in their two auditoriums, and have a unique partnership and funding model with incoming shows underpinned with a cooperative principle.

The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award is an annual award that recognises the work of an outstanding emerging New Zealand playwright. The winner is decided by the votes of a panel of leading New Zealand artistic directors and script advisors.

Catherine Patricia Downes is a New Zealand theatre director, actor, dramaturg and playwright. Of Māori descent, she affiliates to Ngāi Tahu. Downes wrote a one-woman play The Case of Katherine Mansfield, which she has performed more than 1000 times in six countries over twenty years. She has been the artistic director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch and the director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington. She lives on Waiheke Island and works as a freelance actor, director and playwright.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Forster, Michelanne; Plumb, Vivienne (2013). Twenty New Zealand Playwrights. Wellington: Playmarket. ISBN   9780908607471.
  2. 1 2 "Spotlight Stuart Hoar". Playmarket News Issue 22. Spring 1999.
  3. 1 2 Stringer, Jenny, ed. (1996). The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780192122711.
  4. ↑ Warrington, Lisa; Finigan, Alison (2014). Allen Hall: 100 Years | 100+ voices. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. p. 137. ISBN   9780473297374.
  5. ↑ "Stuart Hoar". Nourishing the Roots: an exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  6. ↑ Circa Theatre (10 March 2014). "Pasefika: "You have to live here, you have to be one of us, to get it."". Circa Theatre Blog. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  7. ↑ Simei-Barton, Paul (24 September 2018). "Theatre review: Rendered". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  8. ↑ Edmond, Murray (22 October 2014). "Plays and Playwrights". Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Massey University. "Stuart Hoar - Lecturer". www.massey.ac.nz. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  10. ↑ "Giltrap Audi season of Rendered". Auckland Theatre Company . Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  11. ↑ Smith, Charmian (19 October 1995). "Opera not too grand for Otago composers". Otago Daily Times. p. 26.
  12. ↑ "Quartet". SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  13. ↑ Manson, Bess (16 March 2004). "Thoroughly fraught about". Dominion Post. p. A12.
  14. ↑ "Stuart Hoar". www.playmarket.org.nz. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  15. ↑ "Fellows". Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  16. ↑ "Pasefika". Scoop Independent News. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.