
Masterclass with Joanna Murray Smith: Total of 6 classes
Cost of total Course: $550.00
Tickets and registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/119567336121
Wednesday 7 October
Wednesday 14 October
Wednesday 21 October
Wednesday 28 October
Wednesday 4 November
Wednesday 11 November
*Each class takes place between 7-9pm AEST LIVE via ZOOM. Course outline and ZOOM setup confirmed upon registration
WRITERS MASTERCLASS

JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH
WRITER
Joanna Murray-Smith is the author of more than half of all Australian plays produced overseas, (Australia Council For The Arts). According to Variety U.S., Joanna is “the foremost female Australian playwright”.
Produced and translated all over the world in over two dozen languages, her plays have been produced throughout Europe, the United States, the UK and Asia and on Broadway, the West End and at the Royal National Theatre in London.
Joanna has guest-lectured at UCLA, the Victorian College of the Arts, the New York Stage and Film Festival at Vassar, New York and at many other institutions. Her new play, Berlin, will premiere in the 2021 Melbourne Theatre Company season and in London and Germany.

Joanna’s world renowned plays include: L’Appartement, American Song, Three Little Words (Currency 2019), Switzerland (NHB London, 2018) , True Minds (Currency 2014), Pennsylvania Avenue (Currency 2016), Fury (Currency 2014), Songs for Nobodies (Currency 2010), Day One – A Hotel – Evening (Currency 2014), The Gift (Currency 2011), Rockabye (Currency 2009), The Female of the Species (published NHB 2008), Ninety (Currency 2009), Bombshells (Currency 2004), Rapture (Currency 2002), Nightfall (Currency 1999), Redemption (Currency 1997), Flame, Love Child (Currency 1993), Atlanta (Currency 1990), Honour (Currency 1995; Dramatist’s Play Service, 1999) and Angry Young Penguins (1987). She has also adapted Hedda Gabler (for the State Theatre Company of South Australia) and Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage for Sir Trevor Nunn (Coventry/London).
The inaugural winner of the Mona Brand Award, Joanna was also the recipient of the University of Melbourne’s Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Nominated for AWGIES, AFI awards, the Susan Blackburn Prize and London’s Olivier Awards, she has won the Premier’s Literary Award three times for Honour, Rapture and The Gift. Switzerland won the Sydney Critic’s Play of the Year in 2015. Joanna was awarded a Commonwealth Medal for Services to Playwriting.
Joanna gained an Arts Degree (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and attended the Writing Program at Columbia University in New York.
Her plays have been produced and performed by many of the world’s leading companies and actors including Meryl Streep, Annette Bening, Laura Linney, Kyra Sedgwick, Dame Eileen Atkins, Corin Redgrave, Julia Blake, Imogen Stubbs and many more.

Course Duration: Every Wednesday from 7 October – 11 November
Time: 7-9pm AEST
Tickets:https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/119567336121
A small-group online masterclass in writing for performance by one of Australia’s best-known writers and an experienced teacher who encourages finding joy in creative expression.
Personal interaction and personalised feedback, in-class writing exercises, planning a personal writing project, the writing of one or more scenes and a broad examination of the key aspects of the form: character, structure, story and dialogue.
Elements Covered
- Finding the faith, building character
- Creating individual voices, understanding narrative
- The tricks of structure, self-editing
- Inspiration and how to find it, finding the courage
- The most important things to remember for a writing life
- What makes a play a play? What kind of play do I want to write
- Using your anxieties, the happiness of writing, language and “the writer’s voice”
ACA ONLINE MASTERCLASSES
LIVE VIA ZOOM
“We are excited to partner with one of Australia’s leading performing arts learning institutions, Actors Centre Australia and share the passion and experience of these outstanding directors and creative leaders’ insights and teachings. The program offers a comprehensive learning opportunity on acting through the lens of this diverse and exciting talented group of directors.” – Diana Burnett, Australian Directors Guild

Masterclass: Acting For Camera
When: 29 September – 17 November 2020
Every Thursday evening between 7-9pm AEST

Masterclass: Writing for Film and Theatre
When: 7 October – 11 November 2020
Every Wednesday evening between 7-9pm AEST