7-ON PLAYWRIGHTS: Hilary Bell

Monday 10 March 2008

Hilary Bell

Hilary Bell writes for stage, radio, screen and music theatre. Plays include Wolf Lullaby (Atlantic, Steppenwolf, Griffin Theatre), Fortune, The Falls (Griffin), The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch (Vitalstatistix; The University of the South in Tennessee), Shot While Dancing (shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award), Memmie Le Blanc (Vitalstatistix, Deckchair), Open-Cut (WAAPA), The Mysteries: Genesis (Sydney Theatre Company) with Lally Katz, Angela’s Kitchen (Griffin) with Paul Capsis and Julian Meyrick, The White Divers of Broome (Black Swan / Perth International Arts Festival), The Splinter for STC, Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me for the National Theatre’s Connections Programme, and Mrs President, composed by Victoria Bond and produced by Anchorage Opera. As well as opera, she has written libretti for musicals (The Wedding Song, comp. Douglas Stephen Rae, dir. Jim Sharman), song cycles (Talk Show, comp. Elena Katz-Chernin, for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir), and for Phillip Johnston’s score to Murnau’s silent film Faust, premiered at the New York Film Festival and performed internationally. She recently collaborated with illustrator Antonia Pesenti on the best-selling children's / art book, Alphabetical Sydney, published by NewSouth Books.

Her work has been developed through the Australian National Playwrights' Conference, 1994 & 2006, the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights' Conference USA, 1997 & 1999, and the Russian Playwrights' Conference, 1997.

In 2014: Do Good And You Will Be Happy, a musical with composer Phillip Johnston, showcased by Merrigong; an adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull for STCSA in March, with another production by Black Swan in August; and a production of Wolf Lullaby in August at the New Theatre, Sydney.

Hilary is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, NIDA, and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. She was the 2003-04 Tennessee Williams Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of the South in Tennessee. Hilary also works as a mentor and dramaturge, and as a playwriting teacher.

Hilary is represented by RGM Artists
PO Box 128, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel. 612 9281 3911

Hilary's plays can be purchased via Currency Press (Fortune, Wolf Lullaby, Angela's Kitchen, Short Circuits); The Australian Script Centre (The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch, Conversations With Jesus, Memmie Le Blanc, The Falls, The Seven Needs); Bloomsbury (National Theatre Connections 2012); NewSouth Books (Alphabetical Sydney); Federation Press (No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames) and by direct email for everything else: Email Hilary Bell.

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

Patrick White Fellowship, 2013

Inscription Finalist, 2013

Inscription Award for 'Memmie Le Blanc' 2007

Tennessee Williams Fellowship, University of the South, Tennessee, USA 2003-2004

Music Theatre AWGIE (Australian Writers Guild) ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch’ 2003

Bug’n’Bub Award for ‘The Falls’, UA 2001

ASK Theatre Projects Writers Retreat, USA 2000

Susan Smith Blackburn Award finalist, 1999

Hegebrook Writers’ Colony, USA1998

Juilliard Playwright Fellow, USA 1997 and 1998

LeCompte du Nouy Award, USA 997 and 1998

Eric Kocher Award, USA 1997

Jill Blewett Playwrights' Award, 1996

Aurealis Award for Young Adult Fiction, 1996

Philip Parsons Memorial Young Playwrights’ Award, 1994

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About 7-ON

7-ON Playwrights was established in 2005 by Donna Abela, Catherine Zimdahl, Ned Manning, Noëlle Janaczewska, Vanessa Bates, Verity Laughton and Hilary Bell. Seven minds that don’t think alike but are simpatico in this—our belief in the transformative properties of our artform and its place in Australian culture. With over 200 plays between us, our work has been produced on stages across Australia. Internationally, we have been produced in Botswana, the US, the UK, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, France, Canada, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. We have over 40 awards between us including: 14 Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, 4 Griffin Playwriting Awards, 3 Premiers’ Literary Awards, 4 Inscription Awards, an Adelaide Critics’ Circle Prize, a Phillip Parsons Young Playwright’s Award, a Wyndham Campbell Prize, a Centenary Medal, a Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellowship, and a Human Rights Award for Drama. As 7-ON we advocate for playwrights, initiate performance and publishing projects, and support and celebrate each other’s work. We create projects that are best served by a multitude of voices. These have included The Seven Needs (Griffin, 2007), Thus Spake Zarathustra (Wollongong University, 2008), Long Shadows (STC workshop, 2009), Platonic (Hothouse development, 2013), We Are The Ghosts Of The Future (Rocks Discovery Museum, 2015), and various works under the banner of Old Texts Revisited (ABC Radio, 2009), I Contain Multitudes (Novemberism Playwriting Festival, 2011) and No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames (MayDay! Playwrights’ Festival, 2013) which presented a selection of monologues from our anthology of the same name published by the Federation Press in 2012. We are also included in Currency Press’ anthology of short plays Short Circuit (2009).