Remembering Dorothy
book launch
book launch
Join us on August 25, 2:15-4:45 pm
Dorothy Hewett: premier Australian playwright and poet.
From 1946, Dorothy's ballads and her articles supported progressive causes that are now at the forefront of our political life: Indigenous recognition, environmental degradation and gender equality. From 1971, she changed theatre with her unique Australian adaptation of Epic Theatre and her powerful female roles. In her last years in the Blue Mountains, she inspired dozens of young women to adopt writing as their life goal.
For the centenary of Dorothy Hewett’s birth, 38 eminent Australians have come together to provide their recollections of Dorothy Hewett at home, in public and working in the theatre. This is the first book-length biographical work on Dorothy Hewett and her writing.
Read about Dorothy's writing genius, her early struggles and her eccentric life in Perth, Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Tickets are at cost, $20, and you may purchase books at the event or online. Attendance is strictly limited to 80 by the venue, and people are bringing friends, so tickets are limited on a first come first serve basis and it's wise to purchase early.
Location
RoseyRavelston Bookshop,
1 Badgery Cres Lawson NSW
1 Badgery Cres Lawson NSW
MAD HATTER'S TEA PARTY
$20 per person
$20 per person
August 25, 2024,
2:15 PM - 4:45 PM
2:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Program
2:00 PM
Preliminaries/ Steel City Sue
Mary Moody introduces Sue Morley performing her songs
Guests check registration, buy raffle tickets
Guests check registration, buy raffle tickets
2:25 PM
Suzie van Opdorp
Acknowledgement of country on behalf of Blue Mts City Council, welcoming Mary Moody as MC and speaker
2:30PM
Mary Moody
Why Dorothy Hewett became an activist. Her contribution: CPA and Workers' Star, Pilbara stockman's strike and Indigenous cause, Realist Writers, Miners Strike, Weevils in the Flour, Bobbin Up, Environment, Feminism.
2:40 PM
Joe Flood and Marilla North
Genesis and structure of the Book. Dorothy as a writer and mother, contribution to poetry, plays and music.
2:50 PM
Scene from The Chapel Perilous
Robyn Whittaker, Patrick Angel, Stephen Penn, David Slingsby, Aubrey Mellor
3:05 PM
David Brooks
Professor Brooks will introduce the poetry of Dorothy Hewett and launch the book
3:15 PM
Lowell Tarling
Several poems
3:20 PM
John Blay
Dorothy Hewett and the Umbi Gumbi project
3:30 PM
Directing Dorothy
Discussion by Aarne Neeme and Ross McGregor on directing a Hewett play with dramaturg May Brit Akerholt
3:50 PM
Questions on Book
Mary Moody will field and direct audience questions on the Book
4:00 PM
Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Best Hat, raffles. Steel City Sue finale
5:00 PM
Event concludes
Speakers
Suzie van Opdorp
SUZIE VAN OPDORP is Councillor for the Upper Blue Mountains. She has run the Women's Health Centre for many years, and acts against family violence while supporting refugees, Indigenous and environmental programmes,
David Brooks
DAVID BROOKS is an eminent poet, novelist, short-fiction writer and essayist, and is one of Australia’s most eminent intellectuals as a poet, philosopher and a committed vegan and animal advocacy campaigner. He taught the graduate creative writing course at the University of Sydney, and he has been an editor of three poetry journals. He has won or been shortlisted for most major Australian poetry prizes.
Mary Moody
MARY MOODY, author, journalist and speaker, was a long-time presenter on Gardening Australia. She leads cultural, botanical and gourmet walking tours in the Himalayas, Mongolia, Morocco and France. She has written more than 40 gardening books and five memoirs.
Su Morley
STEEL CITY SU, Su Morley, a singer, fiddle player and songwriter from Newcastle, has just recorded her second album in West Virginia. It includes her new version of Dorothy Hewett’s classic “Weevils in the Flour”, renamed “Where I grew to make a stand”.
John Blay
JOHN BLAY, writer and naturalist, sculptor and photographer, has long-standing connections with Australia’s south-east coast and has written extensively about its nature and its people. He has been the Bundian Way Project Officer for Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council. He was a long-time friend of the Hewett/Lilley/Flood family and they spent several months of the year from 1975 at his property Umbi Gumbi on the NSW south coast.
Aarne Neeme
AARNE NEEME was head of drama at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, resident director for the Octagon Theatre at the University of WA, and artistic director for other Perth theatres. He directed episodes of a number of popular TV series. He was the first director of the Dorothy Hewett plays The Chapel Perilous, Catspaw and The Rising of Pete Marsh and directed several more of her plays
Aubrey Mellor
AUBREY MELLOR has served as the artistic director at NIDA and at many other major theatre companies in both Sydney and Melbourne. He has been a drama teacher, producer and director across the Asia Pacific Region, and was Dean of the Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore for 15 years. He has taught and directed Dorothy Hewett’s work since the late 1960s. He directed The Man from Mukinupin in 1989, and commissioned and directed Nowhere in 2001.
Lowell Tarling
LOWELL TARLING, wordsmith, painter and archivist, lives in the Blue Mountains. He paints, teaches and writes, with a dozen books to his credit.
Ross McGregor
ROSS McGREGOR began as a television producer, but turned to stage direction. From 1972 he produced shows in Wagga and Sydney, before joining Canberra Repertory as resident director. He directed Dorothy Hewett’s opera extravaganza Joan in 1975.
May-Brit Akerholt
MAY-BRIT AKERHOLT is a translator and production dramaturg. She has been Lecturer in Drama at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA); Resident Dramaturg at Sydney Theatre Company; Artistic Director of the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre and the National Playwrights’ Conference.
Marilla North
MARILLA NORTH is a biographer and cultural historian working in Post-Colonial Literature and Australian women’s literary history. She has published many articles, chapters, papers and biographical entries on 20th Century Australian women. She has been a Director or CEO of several agencies in both government and private industry. She was a friend of Dorothy's from the 1980s and organised many events on her behalf.
Joe Flood
JOE FLOOD was a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO. He was one of the founders of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. He founded the Global Urban Observatory at UN-Habitat in Nairobi, subsequently consulting around the world on housing policy. He is Dorothy Hewett’s eldest son.
Book Contributors
Literary
Robert Adamson, John Blay, David Brooks, Andrew Burke, Nick Hasluck, Dorothy Hewett, Tony Hughes-D’Aeth. Stephen Knight, Julian Meyrick, Omar Musa. Roslyn McFarland, Marilla North, Jasna Novaković, Nick Parsons, Glen Phillips,
Norman Talbot
Theatre
Gillian Arrighi, Graeme Blundell, Maggie Dence, Rodney Fisher, John Gaden, Aarne Neeme, Aubrey Mellor, Christine Mahoney, Lex Marinos, Ross McGregor, Sally McKenzie, Helen Musa, Ian Robinson, Geraldine Turner, Alan Wilson.
Music
Robyn Archer, Ralph Tyrrell, Bob Fagan, Joe Flood
Family
Lesley Dougan, Adele Flood
EDITORS Joe Flood and Marilla North
Robert Adamson, John Blay, David Brooks, Andrew Burke, Nick Hasluck, Dorothy Hewett, Tony Hughes-D’Aeth. Stephen Knight, Julian Meyrick, Omar Musa. Roslyn McFarland, Marilla North, Jasna Novaković, Nick Parsons, Glen Phillips,
Norman Talbot
Theatre
Gillian Arrighi, Graeme Blundell, Maggie Dence, Rodney Fisher, John Gaden, Aarne Neeme, Aubrey Mellor, Christine Mahoney, Lex Marinos, Ross McGregor, Sally McKenzie, Helen Musa, Ian Robinson, Geraldine Turner, Alan Wilson.
Music
Robyn Archer, Ralph Tyrrell, Bob Fagan, Joe Flood
Family
Lesley Dougan, Adele Flood
EDITORS Joe Flood and Marilla North