Michael Gurr
Michael Gurr | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 October 1961 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 2 May 2017 |
| Education | National Theatre Drama School |
| Occupations |
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Michael Gurr (29 October 1961 – 2 May 2017) was an Australian actor, playwright, author, speech writer and screenwriter.
Early life
[edit]Gurr was born in East Malvern, in Melbourne where his father was a kidney doctor at the Alfred Hospital and his mother was a nurse. He was the second of five children.[1]
His first published work was a fictional poem at age 10, from the point of view of a paraplegic, which unintentionally earned him a donation from a Herald Sun reader.[2]
Career
[edit]Gurr studied at the National Theatre Drama School (NTDS) in St Kilda, Victoria, and while there wrote a number of short plays, which were sent to Ray Lawler, then Literary Advisor to the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC). In 1982 Gurr was invited to be Writer in Residence at the MTC and it was there that his first plays were produced.[3]
His best-known plays include Crazy Brave and Sex Diary of an Infidel.
He worked as a speechwriter for a number of years for John Brumby and Steve Bracks, both of whom became Labor Premiers of Victoria.[4][5]
He died on 2 May 2017. He is survived by his four siblings and his partner Brandon Hardie Jones.[1][6]
Bibliography
[edit]Autobiography
[edit]- Days Like These (2006)
Drama
[edit]- A Pair of Claws (1983)
- Magnetic North (1983)
- Imitation Real (1983)
- Dead to the World (1986)
- Worlds Apart (1987)
- What You Wanted (1988)
- This and That (1988)
- These Days (1988)
- The Hundred Year Ambush (1990)
- Victoria Bitter (1990)
- Sex Diary of an Infidel (1991)
- Desire Lines (1992)
- Underwear, Perfume and Crash Helmet (1994)
- Jerusalem (1996)
- Anna (1998)
- Shark Finn Soup (1998)
- Crazy Brave (2000)
- The Simple Truth (2002)
- Something to Declare (2003)
- Julia 3 (2004)
- Our Beautiful Daughter (2008)
- Mercy (2009)
- Test Pilot (2010)
Poetry
[edit]- Four Poems (1982)
Television
[edit]- WTF – With Tim Ferguson (2010)[7]
Film
[edit]- Emmett Stone (1985) – an adaption of his 1983 play of the same name. Gurr is credited as screenwriter.
- Departure (1986) – an adaptation of his radio play A Pair of Claws (1983)[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b 'Genius' playwright and speechwriter Michael Gurr dies aged 55
- ^ "Visionary Playwright of the Crazy Brave",The Age,6 June 2017, accessed 26 June 2017
- ^ Austlit – Michael Gurr
- ^ "The Premier and the playwright", The Age, 27 August 2006, accessed 25 June 2013
- ^ Biography at ABC
- ^ Michael Gurr, Days Like These, p. 3. Retrieved 18 April 2014
- ^ With Tim Ferguson – About the Show
- ^ IMDB – Departure (1986)
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1961 births
- 2017 deaths
- Australian screenwriters
- Australian gay writers
- Australian male dramatists and playwrights
- Australian male screenwriters
- 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Australian male writers
- 21st-century Australian male writers
- Australian LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
- Writers from Melbourne