We are pleased to announce Nicky Peelgrane as the Library Creative Writing Fellow for 2019. For her project, Nicky will be writing a play inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and papers held in the Fryer Library. Her mentor is the prize winning author and playwright David Burton.
The Library Creative Writing Fellowship is an amazing opportunity offered with the generous support of the Australian Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and library donors.
About Nicky
Nicky is a teacher, actor and playwright.
She has been writing plays for around 10 years. Her first play, Whatever Gets You Through The Night, emerged from her experiences as a new mother. She has also co-written a widely used drama textbook.
Nicky teaches drama to students of all ages and has recently lent her vocal talent to two episodes of the hit podcast, The Teacher’s Pet.
Nicky holds a Bacehlor of Arts in Theatre and English from The University of Queensland (UQ). She also earned a Graduate Diploma in Education from Queensland University of Technology.
Inspiration and Fryer collections
As a basis for her project, Nicky will be using the Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe collections (F3329) and the papers of playwright, actor and director Paul Sherman (UQFL428).
Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe
Nicky’s interest in the Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe started at an early age.
Being involved in a Grin and Tonic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a high school student in Oakey, a town 160 kilometres west of Brisbane, was ‘empowering,’ says Nicky.
The experience of a professional theatre troupe visiting you ‘out in the sticks makes you feel valued’. The experience changed her life and put her on the path that has led her to Fryer Library and the Creative Writing Fellowship.
Shakespeare
Nicky first saw The Tempest, which has partly inspired the project, at La Boite Theatre, in Brisbane in 1990 when she was an undergraduate student at UQ.
The themes in the play are, in Nicky’s words, ‘juicy’. The idea of having to learn to be resourceful in a new place is particularly relevant to the actors of a touring theatre troupe like Grin and Tonic.
One of the questions that Nicky hopes to answer with the project is: are the actors the magicians, like Prospero, or the fools, like Trinculo?
A project update from Nicky (Jan 2019)
‘It’s a little more than a month since I was awarded the Creative Writing Fellowship and I’ve hit the ground running! I shall be writing a verbatim play, working title Prospero’s Dukedom, using the Grin and Tonic collection and Paul Sherman’s papers, as well as Shakespeare’s The Tempest as inspiration. In addition to using the Fryer collections, since I will be using the words of others, I will be conducting interviews with actors about their experiences touring shows throughout Queensland.
I began with interviewing Bryan Nason who began Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe 50 years ago, and Kellie Lazarus and her husband Jason Klarwein who took over the reins of Grin and Tonic in 2010 when Bryan retired. During the interview, they suggested organising a reading of Shakespeare’s The Tempest so that we might record our dialogue as well as our conversations about interpretation and meaning.
With Bryan and Kellie’s help, I contacted actors and even roped my husband in to read a role! It was a really fun evening reading and discussing Shakespeare and The Tempest. Our dialogue was rich, the parts beautifully read, with a collective expertise in interpreting and performing Shakespeare that spans many decades.’
Interested in knowing more?
If you’re interested in Nicky’s project and forthcoming play, you can visit our blog for updates.
The Library Creative Writing Fellowship
The Creative Writing Fellowship provides an emerging Australian author like Nicky with the opportunity to develop a new work of creative writing, drawing on the special collections of the Fryer Library as inspiration for a novel, play, collection of short stories, a book of poems, novella or associated creative work.
The Fellowship is offered with the generous support of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and library donors. An additional $90,000 in funding from the Cultural Fund, announced in late 2018, will enable us to continue to offer this fellowship in future years.