Alex Broun
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Broun, Alex |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Australian activist and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 16, 1965 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sydney, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Alex Broun (born in Sydney, Australia on March 16, 1965) Alex Broun has enjoyed considerable success in theatre, TV and film as a writer, actor and director and worked extensively as an activist for refugee rights with the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC). [1]
As a writer he has had many plays performed in the USA, South Africa, England and Australia. [2]
Among his performed plays are The Jacaranda Tree [3], The Critic, The Prince of Brunswick East, Vicious Streaks [4], Blind City, Pick Ups, Desire, Scenes From An Affair, Just Once [5] and Potential for Violence.
One of the world’s leading ten minute playwrights, in recent years he has had over 30 ten minute plays produced in over 100 productions in Australia, the UK, the USA and Singapore. His work has been performed at the Edinburgh Festival and Brighton Festivals. [6]
Pick Ups was nominated for the Vita Award for Best New Play in South Africa in 1998 [7] and Just Once, written with his sister Charlotte Broun, won the Sydney Theatre Company’s Young Playwright’s Scheme in 1985 and was workshopped at the Australian National Playwright’s Conference the same year.
Blind City was performed as part of Two Up ! at The Darlinghurst Theatre as part of the 2003 Sydney Festival. Three of his plays - Pick Ups, Desire, Scenes From An Affair – were performed as a trilogy under the title "Fast Love" in Cape Town, South Africa in 2000.
The Jacaranda Tree was shortlisted in the 2004 Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award, received an Honourable Mention in the Virtual Theatre Project’s International Play Competition of 2004 [8] and was workshopped as a part of Theatrelab 2005.
The Prince of Brunswick East was shortlisted in the 2005 Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award. [9]
His play "Half a person – my life as told by The Smiths" – a one man show based on the music of The Smiths – was produced by Fly-on-the-wall Theatre (Directed by Robert Chuter, starring David Foster) at FEAST in Adelaide in 2006 and at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney in September 2007. [10]
He received funding from the Australian Film Commission to write a script based on the sinking of the Siev X in October 2001 when 353 asylum seekers lost their lives. [11]
This was the second time he had received funding from the AFC following his fifty-minute feature "Clean Time" which received Script Development funding.
He co-produced "Refugitive", a one man play by Iranian refugee, actor and playwright Shahin Shafaei about his experiences in the Curtin Detention Centre which toured nationally. In 2004, he acted as Convenor for Artists Against Howard, a group of artists across Australia who joined together to work with Not Happy John and try to oust Australian Prime Minister John Howard from his Federal seat of Bennelong in Sydney's north.
In 2007 he organised the "Your Shout Forums" across Australia for the Shadow Arts Minister Peter Garrett, and co-ordinated the ALP's Federal Arts' Launch for the 2007 Federal Election at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta, Sydney. [12]
Alex is the Artistic Co-ordinator of Short and Sweet International, the largest ten minute play festival in the world.
From 2004 to 2006 he was the Artistic co-ordinator of Sydney Short & Sweet, from 2005 to the present he is the Artistic co-ordinator of Melbourne Short & Sweet. [13] In 2007, he was the Artistic Director of the inaugural Singapore Short & Sweet.
As an actor his appearances include The Cowra Breakout (Directed by Philip Noyce), Neighbours, Home and Away, A Country Practice and the films Watch the Shadows Dance (aka Night Zone) with Nicole Kidman, The Place at the Coast (Directed by George Ogilvie), Breaking Loose and The Boy Who Had Everything. [14]
As a director, he directed Woomera by Josh Wakely [15] and Purgatory Down Under (both at The Old Fitzroy Theatre in Sydney) and was Assistant Director to George Ogilvie on Proof by David Auburn at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2003 and The Man with Five Children at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2001. He also assisted Ogilvie on Norma at Opera Australia in 2004.
He was Assistant Director to Wayne Harrison on Alone It Stands by John Breen in Australia and New Zealand in 2002 and 2003.
Away from the theatre from 1995 to 2000, Alex worked as the Media Manager for the South Africa Rugby Football Union and served as Springbok Media Liaison from 1997 to 2000 under coach Nick Mallett.
In 2001, Alex acted as Media Liaison for the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia. He also served as the Media Manager for the Melbourne Rebels in 2007 in the shortlived Australian Rugby Championship (ARC).
