Lorae Parry
Lorae Ann Parry MNZM is a New Zealand playwright and actor.[1]
Lorae Parry  | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1955 Sydney, Australia  | 
| Education | Diploma in Acting, Toi Whakaari, New Zealand Drama School, MA in Scriptwriting, Victoria University of Wellington | 
| Known for | playwriting, performance | 
| Notable work | Eugenia, 1996 | 
| Style | Parry's plays often explore sexuality, gender, and class systems. | 
Biography and education
    
She was born in 1955 in Sydney, Australia and in 1970 moved to New Zealand. Parry has two qualifications, a Diploma in Acting from Toi Whakaari, the national New Zealand Drama School in 1976,[2][3] and a Master in Scriptwriting from Victoria University of Wellington.

Career
    
A noted feminist playwright, Parry's plays often explore sexuality, gender, and class systems.[4] Her first plays, Strip, and Frontwomen, used a combination of realism and humor to promote empowerment of women and more acceptance of lesbianism.[5] The play Frontwomen was a breakthrough in history when it was the first lesbian play performed in New Zealand.[3] However, her most influential play, Eugenia, was published in 1996 and explored the nature of sexuality and gender, as well as challenging social traditions around females.[5] Eugenia is noted for its mixing of the magical and supernatural with the true historical figure Eugene Falleni, an Italian-Australian transgender man convicted of the 1917 murder of his first wife.[6] Parry constantly focuses on empowering women through theatre and through her plays, she focuses on the importance of women's lives.[7] She continues to be active in women's issues through play publishing and theatre.[5]
Parry is a performer including being part of the Crows Feet Dance Collective, a dance company for women with a lowest age limit of 40 years.[8][9] She is known for her stage impersonation of former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark.[10]
Plays
    
- (1986) Strip 
Season of Scarlet and Gold at Circa Theatre in 2016 - (1992) Digger & Nudger Try Harder, co-written by Carmel McGlone
 - (1993) Frontwomen[11]
 - (1994) Cracks[12]
 - (1996) Eugenia[13]
 - (2002) Vagabonds[14]
 - (2003) The Truth About Loven, co-written by Pinky Agnew
 - (2006) The Candidates, co-written Pinky Agnew
 - (2008) Kate & Mrs Jones
 - (2010) Bloomsbury Women & The Wild Colonial Girl[15]
 - (2010) Sex Drive, co-written by Pinky Agnew
 - (2014) Destination Beehive, co-written by Pinky Agnew
 - (2016) Scarlet & Gold
 
Film
    
- (1988) Send a Gorilla as Sender of revenge gram
 
Honours and awards
    
- 1994 – Awarded Stout Fellowship, Victoria University of Wellington
 - 1995 – The Reader's Digest PEN Stout Research Centre Fellowship
 - 1998 – Writer in Residence, Victoria University of Wellington.[16] Parry was the first female playwright to achieve this award.
 - 2004 – Appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the performing arts, in the 2004 New Year Honours[17]
 
References
    
- Forster, Michelanne; Plumb, Vivienne (2013). Twenty New Zealand Playwrights. Wellington: Playmarket. ISBN 9780908607471.
 - "Graduate". www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
 -  Routledge international encyclopedia of queer culture. Gerstner, David A., 1963-. London: Routledge. 2006. ISBN 9780415306515. OCLC 62475216.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - "Lorae, Parry". New Zealand Book Council. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
 - Carnegie, David (1 January 2005), "Parry, Lorae", The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198601746.001.0001, ISBN 9780198601746, retrieved 8 October 2019
 - Edmond, Murray (2004). "How gothic is s/he? Three New Zealand dramas". Australasian Drama Studies. 44: 113–129, 149. ProQuest 763426985.
 - "Parry, Lorae". Read NZ. January 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
 - "Crows Feets Dance - C is for Climate Change". DANZ. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
 - "The Witch Project". The Big Idea. 25 February 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
 - "WRITING WELLINGTON: TWENTY YEARS OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY WRITING FELLOWS". NZETC. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
 - Parry, Lorae (1993). Frontwomen. Wellington, N.Z.: Women's Play Press. p. 71. ISBN 0473021714.
 - Parry, Lorae (1994). Cracks. Wellington, N.Z.: Women's Play Press. p. 76. ISBN 0473021714.
 - parry, Lorae (1996). Eugenia. Wellington, [N.Z.]: Victoria University Press. p. 86. ISBN 0864733046.
 - Parry, Lorae (2002). Vagabonds. Wellington [N.Z.]: Victoria University Press in association with Women's Play Press. p. 92. ISBN 0864734352.
 - Parry, Lorae (2010). Bloomsbury women & the wild colonial girl. Wellington, N.Z.: Women's Play Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780958231015.
 - Birch, Dinah; Drable, Margaret (2009). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. New York: Oxford University. ISBN 9780192806871.
 - "New Year honours list 2004". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2003. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
 
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