Tommy Murphy (Australian playwright)
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Tommy Murphy (born 1979) is an award-winning Australian playwright, and has also written for television. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Director's course). He was born in Queanbeyan, in New South Wales, Australia. The seventh of eight children in an Irish Catholic family, Murphy says that he grew up "in an arena of constant performance and mimicry". His plays are known for their humour and buoyant theatricality.
He was a resident writer at Griffin Theatre Company 2004-06, for which he wrote Strangers in Between and Holding the Man. Both plays are published by Currency Press, in one volume. Strangers in Between won the national 2006 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Best Play, and Holding the Man won the same Award in 2007. Murphy is the youngest recipient of the award, and the only playwright to win in successive years.
Murphy's commissioned play for Cranbrook School Sydney, called Precipice, had its premiere production at NIDA's Parade Playhouse on May 3 2007.
Murphy sits on the Board of Directors of the Australian Theatre for Young People and World Interplay, and is the recipient of a Centenary of Federation Medal.
In 2007, Tommy Murphy had the title of Honorary Associate conferred by the Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney.
His plays include:
- Saturn's Return. Sydney Theatre Company, August 2008.
- Holding the Man (adapted from Timothy Conigrave's memoir). Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney Opera House, Company B, Brisbane Powerhouse, and Melbourne Theatre Company. New productions are scheduled for San Francisco and Auckland.
- Strangers in Between. Griffin Theatre Company. 2008 tour.
- Kinderspiel, co-written with Manuel Schobel. A co-production between the Australian Theatre for Young People and Theater an der Parkaue, Berlin, for the 2002 Sydney Festival at the Sydney Opera House.
- Troy's House at the Australian Theatre for Young People, SUDS, the Old Fitzroy and Melbourne's La Mama.
- Bendy.
- The Massacre at Paris, adapted from Christopher Marlowe.
- Try Hard
- 360 Positions in a One Night Stand for the 2001 Sydney Festival (contributor).
- For God, Queen and Country.
- Precipice commissioned by Cranbrook School.
[edit] Awards
- Winner, $15,000 2007 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Best Play - Holding the Man
- Winner, $15,000 2006 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Best Play - Strangers in Between
- Winner, 2007 Australian Writers' Guild Award (AWGIE), Best Play - Holding the Man
- Winner, 2007 Aussietheatre.com Online Awards, Best New Play, Holding the Man
- Winner, 2007 Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award
- Nomination, 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Play - Holding the Man
- Nomination, Best New Australian Work, 2007 Sydney Theatre Awards - Holding the Man
- Nomination, Best Play, 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards - Holding the Man
- Nomination, Best New Australian Work, 2006 Sydney Theatre Awards - Strangers in Between
- Nomination, 2006 Australian Writers' Guild Award (AWGIE) for Best Play - Strangers in Between
- Winner, Sydney Theatre Company Young Playwright's Award - For God, Queen & Country.
- Winner, ACT Young Playwright's Award - For God, Queen and Country