Joanna Murray-Smith (born 17 April 1962) is a

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

-based Australian playwright, screenwriter, novelist, librettist and newspaper columnist.

Life and career

Murray-Smith was born in

Mount Eliza, Victoria Mount Eliza is a seaside suburb on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Mount Eliza recorded a ...

; her father was the literary editor and academic

Stephen Murray-Smith Stephen Murray-Smith AM (9 September 1922 – 31 July 1988) was an Australian writer, editor and educator. Early life and education Murray-Smith's father ran a lucrative business shipping Australian horses to India for the armed forces. It ena ...

(1922–1988). Her uncle was the actor

John Bluthal John Bluthal (born Isaac Bluthal; 12 August 1929 – 15 November 2018) was a Polish-born Australian actor and comedian, noted for his six-decade career internationally in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He started his career ...

. She attended

Toorak College Toorak College is an Independent school, independent, inter-denominational, boarding school, boarding and day school for girls, grades 5 - 12 and is co-educational, boys and girls, from pre-school through grade four. The school is located on the M ...

and graduated with a BA (Hons) from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. On a

Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...

Scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

in 1995, Murray-Smith attended the writing program at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, New York. In 2003, she took a

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work. The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...

in Italy. She is married to Raymond Gill and has two sons and one daughter. In 2000 she was awarded a Commonwealth Medal for Services to Playwriting and in 2012 she was made a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Notable productions

Many of Murray-Smith's plays have been performed around the world. '' Honour'' has been produced in more than three dozen countries, including productions on Broadway and at the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

in London. ''Honour'' was created in 1995 when Murray-Smith was studying in the writing program at Columbia University in New York. There, the play's first public appearance was in a reading with Meryl Streep, Sam Waterston and Kyra Sedgwick. The play was then performed at the

Belasco Theatre The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York Ci ...

on Broadway in 1998 with Jane Alexander,

Robert Foxworth Robert Heath Foxworth (born November 1, 1941) is an American film, stage, and television actor. Early life Foxworth was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Erna Beth (née Seamman), a writer, and John Howard Foxworth, a roofing contractor. He at ...

Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. Having studied acting at Juilliard School (1986-1990), she became known for her complex and multilayered performances on stage and screen. She has received various accolades, ...

and Enid Graham; it earned

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

nominations for Alexander and Graham. It was performed at London's Royal National Theatre with Eileen Atkins who won best actress in the

Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

s for the role. Its West End performance took place at Wyndham's Theatre in 2006 with Diana Rigg, Martin Jarvis and Natascha McElhone. The play was remounted in London in 2018 at the Park Theatre starring Henry Goodman and Imogen Stubbs in the lead roles. ''Ridge's Lovers'' was performed in New York under the direction of Brian Leahy Doyle. ''Honour'', ''Nightfall'', ''Rapture'', ''Ninety'', ''Fury'' and ''Day One, a Hotel, Evening'' have all had staged readings or productions at the annual New York Stage and Film Festival at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

. ''Scenes from a Marriage'' was performed in January 2008 at the

Belgrade Theatre The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building. Background Coventry was the fastest growing city in ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

, directed by

Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas f ...

, with Iain Glen and Imogen Stubbs. Nunn recast the production for its West End season at the St James Theatre in 2013; Olivia Williams and Mark Bazeley played the warring couple. The adaptation was produced in Australia at Queensland Theatre in 2017 starring

Marta Dusseldorp Marta Dusseldorp (born 1 February 1973) is an Australian stage, film and theatre actress. Her television credits include ''BlackJack'', ''Crownies'' (and its spin-off '' Janet King''), ''Jack Irish'' and '' A Place to Call Home''. Early life an ...

and her husband Ben Winspear. '' The Female of the Species'', based on events in the life of Germaine Greer, opened in the West End at the

Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each ...

in July 2008, directed by Roger Michell and starring Eileen Atkins. A Broadway production, originally planned for 2008 with Annette Bening was postponed. It was nominated for Best New Comedy in the 2009 Olivier Awards. In February and March 2010, the play was staged at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles with David Arquette and Bening.

Charles Isherwood Charles Isherwood (born 1964/65) is an American theater critic. Education Isherwood is a graduate of Stanford University. Career Isherwood wrote for '' Backstage West'' in Los Angeles. In 1993, he joined the staff of ''Variety'', where he was pr ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote about this production: "''The Female of the Species'' is not just antifeminist. In its depiction of women as variously pompous, deluded, self-obsessed, hypocritical, sexually obsequious or just plain crazy, it comes closer to being antifemale." ''Switzerland'' was commissioned by the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles but by arrangement with the Sydney Theatre Company artistic directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett had its world premiere production at the Sydney Theatre Company starring Sarah Peirse as Patricia Highsmith in 2014. A new production of ''Switzerland'' was produced at the Geffen Theatre in 2015 directed by Mark Brokaw and starred Laura Linney in the Highsmith role. The play was also produced at the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Queensland Theatre Company, the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Black Swan Theatre, Perth. It has been produced in numerous productions in Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. In 2019 it played an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

season at

59E59 Theaters 59E59 Theaters is a curated rental venue located in New York City that consists of three theater spaces or stages. It shows both off-Broadway (in Theater A) and off-off-Broadway plays (in Theaters B and C). The complex is owned and operated by ...

in New York City. Its UK premiere was in 2018 at the Theatre Royal, Bath, starring Phyllis Logan as Highsmith. The production moved to the West End in November 2018 at the Ambassadors Theatre. Murray-Smith's 2010 one-woman play written for Bernadette Robinson, ''Songs for Nobodies'', opened immediately after ''Switzerland'' at the same theatre in January 2019 and marked Robinson's West End debut. The show was nominated for an Olivier award. ''Songs for Nobodies'' has toured Australian cities starring Robinson three times since its 2010 premiere production. The play's first production featuring another performer in the role was in New Zealand in 2017 and 2018 when Ali Harper performed the play. Its US premiere at Milwaukee Rep in 2018 starred Bethany Thomas who will perform the role at the Northlight Theatre in Chicago in May 2020. Murray-Smith made her directorial debut when

Queensland Theatre Queensland Theatre, formerly the Queensland Theatre Company and Royal Queensland Theatre Company, is a professional theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. It regularly performs in its own Bille Browne Theatre and the Queensland Performi ...

produced her 2019 comedy ''L'Appartement''.

Works

The plays and novels of Murray-Smith have been translated and performed widely around the world.Fourteen of the plays have been published by Currency Press (Australia) and others have been published by Nick Hern Books (UK) and Dramatist Play Service (US). According to the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

, Murray-Smith and

Daniel Keene Daniel Keene (born 1955) is an Australian playwright whose work has been performed throughout the world. Career Keene's plays have been performed in Australia, France, Poland and the United States. Many of his plays have been published in Fr ...

account for half of all foreign productions of Australian plays. However, Murray-Smith feels that within Australia, and especially at the

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in The Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Thea ...

, her work and that of other Australian writers, e.g., David Williamson's, is insufficiently supported.

Plays

*''Angry Young Penguins'', 1987 (Church Theatre, Melbourne) (see also: Ern Malley) *''Atlanta'', 1990 (

Playbox Theatre Company Playbox Theatre Company is a theatre company for children and young people based in Warwick. Playbox provide training for children and young people aged 3-25 in various different areas, including theatre training, musical theatre, circus, voice ...

, Melbourne) *''Love Child'', 1993 (Playbox Theatre Company) *''Ridge's Lovers'', 1993 ( La Mama, Melbourne) *''Flame'', 1994 (

Griffin Theatre Company Griffin Theatre Company is an Australian theatre specialising in new works, based in Sydney. Founded in 1979, it is the resident theatre company at the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross. the artistic director is Declan Green. Artistic direct ...

, Sydney) *'' Honour'', 1995 (Playbox Theatre Company) *''Redemption'', 1997 (Playbox Theatre Company) *''Nightfall'', 1999 (Playbox Theatre Company) *''Rapture'', 2002 (Playbox Theatre Company) *'' Bombshells'', 2001 ( Melbourne Theatre Company, written for Caroline O'Connor) *'' The Female of the Species'', 2006 (Melbourne Theatre Company) *''Ninety'', 2008 (Melbourne Theatre Company) *''Scenes from a Marriage'', 2008 (based on the 1973 Bergman film) (Belgrade Theatre Coventry) *''Rockabye'', 2009 (Melbourne Theatre Company) *''Songs for Nobodies'', 2010 (Melbourne Theatre Company, written for Bernadette Robinson) *''The Gift'', 2011 (Melbourne Theatre Company) *''Day One, a Hotel, Evening'', 2011 (

Red Stitch Actors Theatre Red Stitch Actors Theatre is an ensemble theatre company based in Melbourne, Australia. Established in 2001 and with its first season in 2002, Red Stitch has presented over 100 contemporary plays. These include works from international playwrig ...

, Melbourne) *''True Minds'', 2013 (Melbourne Theatre Company) *''Fury'', 2013 (

) *'' Hedda Gabler'', 2013 (adaptation of Ibsen play,

tate Theatre Company of South Australia Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

*''Switzerland'', 2014 (Sydney Theatre Company) *''Pennsylvania Avenue'', 2014 (Melbourne Theatre Company, written for Bernadette Robinson) * ''American Song'', 2016 (Milwaukee Rep) *''Three Little Words'', 2017 (Melbourne Theatre Company) * ''Fury (Revised''), 2018 *''L'Appartement'', 2019 (

) * ''Berlin'', 2021 (Melbourne Theatre Company) * ''Rio Sombrio'', 2022 (National Theatre of Portugal/ Teatro Nacional D. Maria II)

Novels

*''Truce'', 1994 *''Judgement Rock'', 2002 *''Sunnyside'', 2005

Other

*''The Poems of Ern Malley'' (ed) 1988, *'' Georgia'', 1988 (film) *''

Cassidy Cassidy may refer to: Personal names * Cassidy (given name) * Cassidy (surname) People * Cassidy (musician) (born 1979), lead singer of Antigone Rising * Cassidy (rapper) (born 1982), American rapper * DJ Cassidy (born 1981), New York DJ * Jame ...

'', 1989 (for

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

, after the novel by

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels '' The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were publ ...

) *"Mimi Goes to the Analyst" in '' Six Pack'', 1992 (for SBS TV) *"Greed" in '' Seven Deadly Sins'', 1993 (for ABC Television) *Lyrics to a song cycle about

Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party. Holt was born in S ...

, music by Paul Grabowsky *''

Janus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; la, Ianvs ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janu ...

'': episodes "Fit to Plead", "An Unnatural Act", "A Prima Facie Case", 1995 (for ABC Television) *

Libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

to the opera ''

Love in the Age of Therapy ''Love in the Age of Therapy'' is an opera composed by Paul Grabowsky with a libretto by Joanna Murray-Smith. It premiered in October 2002 for OzOpera at the Playhouse, Victorian Arts Centre as part of the Melbourne Festival. It also played a sea ...

'', 2002 (by Paul Grabowsky for

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of ...

, Melbourne Festival and

Sydney Festival Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney that runs for three weeks every January, since it was established in 1977. The festival program features in excess of 100 events from local and international artists an ...

) *Libretto to '' The Divorce'', 2015 (by

Elena Kats-Chernin Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is a Soviet-born Australian pianist and composer, best known for her ballet ''Wild Swans''. Early life and career Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent (now the capital of independent Uzbek ...

, for ABC Television) *'' Palm Beach'', 2019 (film, co-written with director Rachel Ward)

Awards

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsib ...

Award nomination in 1989 for the screenplay to ''Georgia'' (shared with Ben Lewin, Bob Weis). *Braille Book of the Year for ''Judgement Rock'' *

Victorian Premier's Literary Award The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary p ...

: Southbank Pacific Prize for Drama for ''Honour'' in 1996 *Victorian Premier's Literary Award: Louis Esson Prize for Drama for ''Rapture'' in 2003 *Winner 2004 Fringe First Award,

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

for ''Bombshells'' * International Dublin Literary Award nomination in 2004 for ''Judgement Rock'' *Winner 2005 London Theatregoers Choice Award for ''Bombshells'' *Final list of twelve of the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

in 2006 for ''Sunnyside'' *Co-winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards (Play Award) 2012 for ''The Gift'' *Inaugural Winner 2016 of Mona Brand Award, awarded by the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

in recognition of "an outstanding Australian woman writing for the stage or screen". *Lifetime Achievement Award 2019, University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts"Recipients of the 2019 Arts Alumni Awards announced"
The University of Melbourne, 16 May 2019

References

External links

Profile
at Currency Press
''What I Wrote – Joanna Murray-Smith'' – Teacher's Notes
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray-Smith, Joanna 1962 births Living people University of Melbourne alumni Australian women dramatists and playwrights Australian screenwriters 20th-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian novelists Australian women novelists Australian television writers Australian opera librettists Women opera librettists Writers from Victoria (Australia) 21st-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian women writers Australian women television writers People from Mount Eliza, Victoria