Michelanne Forster (born 26 April 1953) is a New Zealand playwright and scriptwriter who was born in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, USA. Her writing career began in the 1980s at

Television New Zealand , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solom ...

where she worked on the popular pre-school program '' Play School''. Her plays have been performed both nationally and internationally and are often based on historical accounts. In 2011 Forster was the writer-in-residence at the Michael King Writer's Centre.

Education

Forster graduated from the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

with a Bachelor of Arts and also holds a Diploma in Teaching from the Auckland Secondary Teachers College. In 2014 she completed her honours in Drama through the University of Auckland.

Plays

*Always My Sister *Don't Mention Casablanca *Tic Tac (with Paul Barrett) *The Great Storm of 1868 *My Heart is Bathed in Blood *This Other Eden *The Rosenberg Sisters *Larnach – Castle of Lies *Songs My mother Taught Me (Music by Felicity Williams) *Daughters of Heaven *A Dream Romance (Musical)

Plays for children

*Sapai and the Yam Snatchers (with Leilani Unasa) *The Butcher and The Bear of kirstyn *The Secret of Dongting Lake *In the Deep End *Mean Jean the Pirate Queen *The Bungling Burglars (music by Felicity Williams) *Rodney Rat and the Sneaky WeaselGang *Rivals and Idols *Arabella and the Amazing Wardrobe *Musical Beasts

Awards

* 2011 Writer-in-Residence Michael King Writer's Centre, University of Auckland * 1997 Best Radio New Zealand Drama, ''The Rosenberg Sisters'' * 1996 Best Radio New Zealand Drama, ''Larnach – Castle of Lies'' * 1994 Buckland Memorial Award for Literature, ''Daughters of Heaven'' * 1993 Writer-in-Residence University of Canterbury

Publications

*Daughters of Heaven (Polish translation) in Dwa Oceany (Agencja Dramatu i Treatru ADiT, 2013) *When Its Over: New Zealanders Talk about Their Experiences of Separation and Divorce (Penguin, 1998) *The Rosenberg Sisters in Playlunch: Five Short New Zealand Plays (Otago University Press, 1996) *Daughters of Heaven (Otago University Press, 1992) *Rodney Rat and the Space Creatures (Hodder and Stoughton, 1989) *Rodney Rat and the Sneaky Weasel Gang (Hodder and Stoughton, 1985) *The Four-Legged Prince (Hodder and Stoughton, 1985) *Rodney Rat and the Sunken Treasure (Hodder and Stoughton, 1983)

References

1953 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights New Zealand women dramatists and playwrights University of Auckland alumni 20th-century New Zealand women writers 21st-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights 21st-century New Zealand women writers {{NewZealand-writer-stub