Dr Amy Gladys McGrath OAM

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Contributor Dr Amy Gladys McGrath OAM
Other Names Amy Cumpston
Gender Female
Functions Administrator, Librettist, Playwright, Producer
Notes Amy McGrath (nee Cumpston) has had a very versatile career as an author – writing poetry, plays, musicals, epic novels and books on electoral politics and certain proteins and sugars in food. Amy McGrath was attracted to the art of poetry by friends at university, then set out to learn the craft by writing eighty sonnets. Tempted into writing burlesque comic TV scripts for eminent actor, John Bluthal, in early television, she acquired a taste for play writing which brought her into an association with the theatre at a time when drama was undergoing a revolution in the way plays were being staged. A live-in seminar at the University of New England, organised by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust, led her to found two showcase theatres for new dramatic work. One was the Mews Theatre, seating 60, for play readings in an old coach house in the family backyard in Centennial Park, Sydney. The other was the Australian Theatre, seating 160, in Coronation Hall, Lennox St. Newtown, for public performance. In the 1970’s the Australian Theatre provided flexible staging where many newcomers – actors, directors and writers – could develop their skills including Amy McGrath. http://www.amymcgrath.com.au/about.htm
Related Contributors
Events

Playwright

Librettist

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

Producer

Francis Yin - Designer, Director

Les Addicott - Reciter

Ray Ainsworth - Director

Arnold Butcher - Composer

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

Wayne Cornell - Actor

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

David Freeman - Director

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

Patricia Moylan - Assistant Director

Aarne Neeme - Director

  • The Fatal Island, Independent Theatre (1939-1977), North Sydney, NSW, 8 August 1971

Helen Pritchett - Actor

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

John Warnock - Reciter

Fiona Williams - Actor

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

Australia Council for the Arts

  • The Crusade, The Australian Theatre, Newtown, NSW, 18 February 1975

The Australian Playwrights' Theatre Company

The Independent Theatre

  • The Fatal Island, Independent Theatre (1939-1977), North Sydney, NSW, 8 August 1971
Resources
Works
Data Set AusStage
Contributor Identifier 227605