Wendy Richardson

Wendy Richardson, OAM (born 1933) is one of Australia's most popular playwrights, best known as the author of "Windy Gully". Richardson describes herself as "story-teller to the tribe".

Biography

Wendy was born in Singleton in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, on 21 December, 1933. In 1967 she moved to the small mining town of Mount Kembla in the Illawarra District, where she raised three children, working as a primary school teacher. In 1985 she commenced studying English Literature at the University of Wollongong, where she was to gain a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Wendy, as she is known to all, is very active in the local community, working with disabled and disadvantaged youth, assisting those in need, teaching Sunday School and participating in historical and literary events.

Windy Gully

It was while studying that Wendy wrote her first play, "Windy Gully", which was commissioned and performed by the "Theatre South Company", directed by Des Davis, in 1987.

The subject of "Windy Gully" is the mine disaster which took place at Mt Kembla on 31 July 1902, in which 96 men and boys lost their lives. Every family who lived in the village lost a relative. In many families, fathers and sons died. The bodies were buried in Wollongong Cemetery, Mt Kembla Cemetery and in an unmarked communal grave near a cricket field in Windy Gully. The anniversary of the disaster is commemorated annually with a church service, parade and Mining Festival.

"Windy Gully" proved very popular, going on interstate tour of mining towns and being performed at the New Theatre in Sydney in 1989. There was a return season at Theatre South in 2000.

This was followed by "Slacky Flat" written in 1988, which toured the South Eastern Region of New South Wales and was performed at the Regional Theatre Festival in Penrith.

uccess

Wendy went on to write many more plays and monologues, all performed but many not published. Des Davis writes in the foreword to "Three Illawarra Plays"- "The reason for the remarkable popularity of her work, I believe, is her use of familiar occasions, minor crises and rituals of ordinary lives set against a background of community and national crises, even disaster. The plays celebrate the resilience, the humour in adversity and quiet courage of her 'ordinary people', especially her strong female characters." The backgrounds include World War II, in the case of "Lights out, Nellie Martin" and the Depression in "Slacky Flat". "The Last Voyage of the Gracie Anne" looks at community issues within the local fishing industry. "... That Christmas of '75." is a backyard farce set against the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the Governor-General. John Senczuk writes of "...the overwhelming positive reception of the plays ...as positive and 'life-affirming'".

Wendy's skills as a dramatist have been greatly appreciated by Theatre South, not only because of their "box office magic", but also because Wendy knows how to write for a small group of players and is particularly skilled at monologue. Des Davis writes of Richardson's plays "They are, moreover, constantly innovative in structure, style, and in the use of other theatrical and literary devices." Unfortunately Theatre South, for whom so many of Wendy's plays were written closed in 2003. [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~olav/group.html]

Wendy writes of herself "I'm a teller of tales. I weave them out of what I hear and observe - some of them are true. ...I write about ordinary women who never consider themselves courageous or outstanding and who have led such extraordinary lives." Des Davis writes "She is more popular in the Illawarra than David Williamson "and" Shakespeare."

Awards

Wendy was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Award in 1989 and was awarded an Australian Arts Council Literary Fellowship in 1990. In 2005 Wendy was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her services to the Arts and to the Community, and in 2006 she was honoured in the Illawarra Australia Day Awards for her contribution to the Arts. Her plays have also been produced by the Riverina Theatre Company and heard on ABC Radio. She was made a lifetime member of Theatre South and the South Coast Writers' Centre.

Performed Works

For Theatre South-
* "Windy Gully" (1987)
* "Slacky Flat" (1988)
* "On the Coal" (1988)
* "Lights Out, Nellie Martin" (1990)
* "The Last Voyage of the Gracie Anne" (1993)
* "...That Christmas of '75" (1995)
* "Vida" (1996)
* "Alma and Ivy, Molly and Merle" (1997)
* "The Season of Emily Jane" (1999)
* "This Other Eden" (2001) "The Season of Emily Jane" and "This Other Eden" are two parts of a trilogy.
* "Soft Target" (2002)

* "Horse Shoe Bend" (1992) - for Maitland Repertory Society
* "Alma" (1993) - for Sydney Festival and Carnivale
* "Under the House" (1993)- for the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong.
* "Valerie Paterson - Where can She Live?" (1995)- for The Illawarra Christian Performing Arts Company
* "The Year 2000- Coming, Ready or Not" (1999) - for Community Group Recreation Illawarra
* "The script for the re-enactment of the landing of the "Tom Thumb" at Towradgi" - for the Wollongong City Council Heritage Committee.
* "The soundscape for the Bulli Miner's cottage".
* "Four Kembla Women, a monologue" - for the launch of Heritage Week in the Illawarra, (2006)

Published Works

* "Windy Gully," Currency Press, 1989, ISBN
* "Three Illawarra Plays," Five Islands Press, 1997, ISBN 1-875604-55-3

References

* Wendy Richardson, "Three Illawarra Plays," Five Islands Press, 1997, ISBN 1-875604-55-3 (for biographical notes and quotations)
* Stuart Piggin and Henry Lee, "The Mount Kembla Disaster", Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992 (for details of Mt Kembla disaster)

See also

* Mining in Australia
* Order of Australia

External links

* [http://www.mtkembla.org.au Mt Kembla Mining Heritage Committee]
* [http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/library/localinfo/mtkembla/history.html Mt Kembla History]
* [http://users.1earth.net/~scwc South Coast Writers Centre]
* [http://www.ramin.com.au/online/newtheatre/ New Theatre] (Sydney)