• Alana Valentine
• ABC Fora

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07 September 2009More than any other artform, theatre preserves and recycles "classic" works. While there is certainly a place for this, does it come at the cost of new voices? Delivering the 2009 Alex Buzo Memorial Lecture, playwright Alana Valentine looks at ways that theatre can respond to a changing world. "Verbatim theatre", where playwrights take real people's stories told with their actual words, is bringing documentary techniques into the theatre. Valentine draws inspiration for her own work from the world around her, writing Australian stories of working class people who are passionate, articulate and interesting.

Alana Valentine is a critically successful Australian playwright. She has received a number of accolades for her work, including a nomination for the Helpmann Award, the Queensland Premier's Award for Best Drama script, an international writer's fellowship at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London and a Churchill Fellowship. Her stage plays include Run Rabbit Run, about South Sydney's League Club's fight for survival and Parramatta Girls, the story of the Parramatta Girls Training School, both of which had successful seasons at Company B Belvoir Street and are now on the NSW drama syllabus 2010-12. Her most recent play, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, a look at Muslim Australian women and the significance of the traditional Muslim headscarf, was commissioned as a contemporary companion piece to Alex Buzo's classic Norm and Ahmed. She has written a number of short films and authored and produced 15 original works for radio broadcast. She has also created multi-media installations for the Museum of Sydney and received a centenary medal for her work on the Centenary of Federation.