Alex Broun

Alex Broun
Born	Alexander Alan Hercules Broun (1965-03-16) 16 March 1965 Sydney, Australia
Occupation	10-minute playwright, Writer, Director, Journalist, Workshop facilitator, Festival Director
Years active	1979–present

Born in Sydney, Australia on 16 March 1965, Alex Broun is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and Rugby journalist who has worked extensively with Short+Sweet, the world's largest ten-minute theatre festival. Often referred to as "the Shakespeare of short plays"^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] he is the world’s most performed ten-minute playwright, with over 100 ten-minute plays produced in over 1500 productions in more than 40 countries around the world and his plays have been translated into many languages.^[6] In 2008 he launched his website www.alexbroun.com^[7] which is now one of the world's most popular websites for ten-minute plays.

Theatre History

In his early years Broun trained at the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney, Australia, acting in plays alongside Nicole Kidman. His work has been performed at the Sydney Festival, Edinburgh Festival and Brighton Festival.^[8] Among his performed plays are The Jacaranda Tree,^[9] The Critic, "The Prince of Brunswick East, Vicious Streaks,^[10] Blind City, Pick Ups, Desire, Scenes From An Affair, Just Once^[11] and Potential for Violence.

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.

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 (director), starring David Foster) at FEAST in Adelaide in 2006 and at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney in September 2007.^[12] The play was then re-mounted by Fly-on-the-Wall Theatre at Chapel off Chapel in Melbourne, Australia starring Mark Taylor in May 2010.^[13] It then returned for an encore season at the same venue in August the same year before being performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012,^[14] directed by Donald Pulford and performed by Joseph Murray. In 2014 this production transferred to the Kings Head Theatre in London.^[15] Broun is currently working on a companion November Spawned a Monster to open on 30 October 2014 by SITCO in association with Fly-On-The-Wall Theatre at the Old Fitzroy Hotel Theatre in Sydney, Australia, starring James Wright and directed by Robert Chuter.^[16]

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.

As a director, he directed Woomera by Josh Wakely^[17] 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 by Nick Enright 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.

In mid-2008 the Federal Minister for the Arts, Peter Garrett, launched www.alexbroun.com – one of the world's first free access script websites, where actors, directors and theatre companies around the world can download and produce – free of charge – Broun's plays. As at September 2012 the website had accumulated over 10 million hits and was rated number 2 in the world on Google for "ten-minute plays".

PFV (Potential for Violence) was included in the Premiere Season of 4 one act plays by the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai PCYC Theatre Co., in November 2010^[18] Alex attended opening night and announced that this was the best production ever of his play REFERENCE REQUIRED

Together, we are Anna, a ten-minute play about anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare was published in the Mumbai Mirror in August 2010.^[19]

10,000 beers,^[20] a full length play, opened at Darlinghurst Theatre, In September 2011, directed by Lee Lewis with Gus Murray, Matt Zeremes, Andrew William Steele and Anthony Taufa. The play was then remounted by The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights & Turquoise Theatre in association with PICA as part of Fringeworld in Perth in February 2014.^[21]

In October 2013 he wrote and co-directed Oneness-Voice without form ,^[22] the extraordinary life of Swami Vivekananda, at the Playhouse of the Sydney Opera House^[23] before touring to BMAC in Brisbane.

In 2014 Truth beauty and a picture of you, a musical written with Tim Freedman premiered at the Hayes Theatre Company in Sydney, Australia ^[24]'. Disappointed at the Sydney critics' response to the show Broun wrote a controversial and widely read response on The Australian website. ^[25]

The article led to the mainstream media largely snubbing his next work, November Spawned a Monster, the companion piece to Half a person – my life as told by The Smiths, at The Old Fitzroy Hotel in Sydney in November that year, directed by Robert Chuter (director) and starring James Wright.^[26]

Despite this November Spawned a Monster was nominated by The Glugs for the TAFFY DAVIES MEMORIAL AWARD FOR MOST OUTSTANDING INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION of 2014 in Sydney.

Film History

Broun 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.^[27] 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 has also written and directed several community health videos for Dr Smita Shah: Running Short^[28] for the Triple A Asthma Awareness programme and Ryan's Goal^[29] for SALSA - Students as Life Style Activists initiative.

As an actor his appearances include The Cowra Breakout (Directed by Phillip Noyce), alongside Kylie Minogue in 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.^[30] He also appeared in the 1988 Australian television movie, The First Kangaroos.

Awards

November Spawned a Monster, a one-man play with music, nominated by The Glugs for the TAFFY DAVIES MEMORIAL AWARD FOR MOST OUTSTANDING INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION of 2014 in Sydney.

Grace, a ten minute play, was the winner of Crash Test Drama Sydney, Australia, in August 2014

50 Guns, a ten minute play, was a finalist in Samaritan Road's GunPlay(s) 2013-2014 Competition, USA.

Afterwards, a ten minute play, was a winner of Crash Test Drama Sydney, Australia, in April 2014.

Love and other non-fatal injuries, a collection of short plays, received an Honorable Mention in the 2014 PANNDORA'S BOX New Works Festival in Long Beach, California, USA.

10,000 beers was nominated for Best Stage Play in the 2012 AWGIES (Australian Writer's Guild Awards)^[31]

somewhere between the sky and the sea won the Best Overall Production at Short+Sweet Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in 2008 and Short+Sweet Delhi in 2011. The play also won the People's Choice Award for the audience's favourite play in Short+Sweet Singapore in 2008 and won the Audience Favorite award at Diez Minutos 2014 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

an angel but in the dark was awarded Best Script at Short+Sweet Townsville 2012.

The Prince of Brunswick East was shortlisted in the 2005 Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award.^[32]

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^[33] and was workshopped as a part of Theatrelab 2005.

Pick Ups was nominated for the Vita Award for Best New Play in South Africa in 1998.^[34]

Just Once, written by 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.

Activism

Broun has worked extensively as an activist for refugee rights with the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC NSW).^[35]

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 remove Australian Prime Minister John Howard from his Federal seat of Bennelong in Sydney's north.

In 2007 Broun 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 Theatre Parramatta in Parramatta, Sydney.^[36]

In 2012 he became a National Ambassador for Welcome to Australia^[37]

Rugby History

Broun worked as the Media Manager for the South Africa Rugby Football Union and served as Springboks Media Liaison from 1997 to 2000 under coach Nick Mallett. During this time the Springboks equaled the world record for the most consecutive Test victories - 17 - from 1997 to 1998. They still share this record for Tier 1 Nations.

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 short-lived Australian Rugby Championship (ARC).

He has also worked for the Australian Rugby Union and has been employed for many years by ACP Magazines working on publications such as Inside Rugby and the Wallabies and NSW Waratahs match day programmes.

In 2011 he was the Associate Editor on the 2011 Rugby World Cup Official Match Programmes.

Short+Sweet

Alex Broun wrote and directed plays in the first Short+Sweet in Sydney in January 2002.

In January 2004, he took over as Artistic Co-ordinator of Short+Sweet Theatre Sydney, and he introduced many of the elements that have made Short+Sweet so successful - strict time-limit, limit of one play per playwright, one play per director and two plays per actor, people's choice voting and the competitive aspect of the final where plays are chosen from each week to progress to the Gala Final.

He continued as the Artistic co-ordinator of Short+Sweet Sydney until 2006 and from 2005 to the 2008 he was also the Artistic co-ordinator of Melbourne Short+Sweet.^[38] In 2007, he was the Artistic Director of the inaugural Short+Sweet Singapore.

He has also served as the Festival Director of Short+Sweet Brisbane 2009, Short+Sweet Auckland 2010, Short+Sweet Delhi 2010 and 2011, Short+Sweet Bangalore 2012, Short+Sweet Rockhampton 2010 and 2012, Short+Sweet Canberra 2012 and Short+Sweet Sydney from 2009 to 2011.

In 2010 he was also Artistic Director of the national tour of Shorter+Sweeter, the best of Shorter+Sweeter that toured Australia from April to August.

In 2013 he launched the first ever Short+Sweet Dubai.

Alex has single handedly built several other writers' careers including Kate Toon,^[39] Jane Miller, Fiona Clarke, Lisa Eismen, Miles Blackford, Mark Andrew, Sharni Page, Greg Gould and many others.