The Actor as Writer with Tommy Murphy

Course Overview

Award winning playwright and screenwriter (Holding The Man), Tommy Murphy will take participants through a practical online workshop. The goal is to develop writerly skills that will benefit both acting practice and guide actors seeking to write their own screenplays and stage plays. Participants with existing writing credits, ideas for writing projects or just a curiosity about the writing process are encouraged to take part. Tommy has experience in film, TV and in theatre and will therefore explore the differences and shared craft across these mediums.

Tommy Murphy’s plays have been regularly produced internationally including a recent West End production of Stranger in Between and Italian and US productions of Holding the Man. His most recent play, Packer & Sons, broke box office records with its extended season at Belvoir this year. His awards include the WA Premier’s Award for Best Play, The Richard Burton Prize, a two-time winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Winner, three AWGIES, the Philip Parsons Prize, a Film Critics Award for best screenplay.  He was the Patrick White Fellow at the Sydney Theatre Company and the recipient of the 2020 Australia Council’s National Theatre Award. He is under commission from the Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir. His TV credits include Devil’s Playground, Fighting Season, Bloom, OffSpring and the film Holding the Man for which he was also Associate Producer. He has a TV series in development with Fremantle Media as well as adapting his play Mark Colvin’s Kidney for screen with Porchlight Pictures (producers of Animal Kingdom, The Kettering Incident).

This Masterclass is perfect for those actors with script ideas and materials looking to learn how to write and develop their work for stage and screen. 

About Tommy Murphy

He was a resident writer at Griffin Theatre Company 2004–06, for which he wrote Strangers in Between and Holding the Man. Both plays are published by Currency Press, in one volume. Strangers in Between won the national 2006 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Best Play, and Holding the Man won the same Award in 2007. Murphy is the youngest recipient of the award, and the only playwright to win in successive years.

Holding the Man had an encore season at Griffin before transferring to Sydney Opera House, Belvoir, Melbourne Theatre Company and Brisbane’s Powerhouse. It played London’s West End from 23 April to 3 July 2010. Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeremes were joined by new cast members Jane Turner and Simon Burke. David Berthold directed and Brian Thomson designed. The Trafalgar Studios season was produced by Daniel Sparrow and Mike Walsh. The play has been produced every year since its premiere with new productions in San Francisco, Auckland, Adelaide and encore productions in Brisbane and Sydney. In 2014 the play was also mounted in Los Angeles by The Australian Theatre Company with Larry Moss directing; Nate Jones, Adam J. Yeend, Cameron Daddo, and Roxanne Wilson were cast for the production.

Saturn’s Return was commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company co-artistic directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett for STC’s Wharf 2 season 2008. In 2009 it transferred to the STC main stage. Saturn’s Return is published by Currency Press.

Murphy’s award-winning play, Gwen in Purgatory, was co-produced by Belvoir and La Boite Theatre and directed by Neil Armfield in 2010. The cast for this premiere production were Nathaniel Dean, Grant Dodwell, Sue Ingleton, Melissa Jaffer and Pacharo Mzembe. This play is also published by Currency Press.

He was writer-in-residence at Belvoir 2011–2012. His adaptation of Blood Wedding was commissioned for the London 2012 Olympiad and his reworking of Peter Pan for Belvoir transferred to New York in 2013. 

After the multi-production international success of the stage play of Holding the Man, Murphy initiated the screen project. He partnered with executive producer Cameron Huang, producer Kylie Du Fresne of Goalpost Pictures, producers of The Sapphires and director Neil Armfield to see the film to fruition in 2015. It opened to strong domestic box office in Australia and is released globally via Netflix after an international cinema release. Murphy wrote the screenplay and worked as associate producer for the film.

Murphy’s screen credits include teleplays for Offspring, Spirited, and Matchbox’s 2014 Foxtel mini-series Devil’s Playground.

Murphy is the recipient of a Centenary Medal and the British Council Realise Your Dream Award. In 2007, he had the title of honorary associate conferred by the Faculty of Education & Social Work, University of Sydney. He also sat on the board of directors of the Australian Theatre for Young People 2005–2010.

Murphy was commissioned to write a play for Black Swan State Theatre Company as recipient (joint) of the Richard Burton Award 2012, which carried $15,000 prizemoney .He is also currently writing for Belvoir Theatre as well as developing a number of screen projects. Murphy is the 2016 University of Queensland Drama Creative Fellow.

The Sydney Theatre Company has awarded Murphy the 2015 Patrick White Fellowship, worth $25.000. The gives the playwright a commission and 12 months work at the company. Each year the fellowship is awarded to an established playwright and Murphy said of the fellowship that it, “offers a sense of belonging to a pursuit that is often solitary.”

In 2021 ABC Television commissioned Murphy to write a psychological drama series called Significant Others . The series, which was directed by Tony Krawitz, went to air from 16 October 2022.

Murphy won best For Audio – Fiction, for his radio play Call You Back as part of the Untrue Romance series at the AWGIE Awards 2022.

Tommy’s Imdb

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