Debra Oswald – March 31 2019

Alcohol awareness month – April

Debra is an award-winning script writer and author. Her first play was workshopped when she was 17 and then broadcast on ABC Radio. She studied at the Australian National University and at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and has since made her living as a writer for film, television, stage and radio as well as publishing a number of novels. Debra’s plays have been performed in Australia and internationally, including Gary’s House, which has been on the New South Wales Year 12 drama syllabus and was performed in translation in both Denmark and Japan, Sweet Road, The Peach Season, Going Under, Lumps, and Dags, which has been produced around Australia and performed in Britain and the United States. In addition to Skate, her other plays for the Australian Theatre for Young People are Stories in the Dark and House on Fire. Debra’s television credits include Bananas in Pyjamas, Sweet and Sour, Palace of Dreams, The Secret Life of Us and award-winning episodes of Police Rescue. The television series Offspring was based on her telemovie of the same name. As an author, Debra has written the novel Useful as well as children’s fiction, stories for upper primary students and novels for teenage readers.

Mr Bailey’s Minder
Currency Press, 2005; ISBN 9780868197616
Full length; 2 female 2 male
Leo Bailey is one of Australia’s greatest living artists, whose genius battles to survive the effects of alcohol, cynicism and self-loathing. Only one of his many children, his daughter Margo, is prepared to help, but she does so at arm’s length. Margo finds a live-in-minder, Therese, who is fresh out of prison and desperate for a home. Then along comes Karl, a handyman who has the job of removing a valuable mural but who keeps returning with offers of practical friendship. A funny and deeply moving play about friendship, ego, art and the secret longing for a better life.
‘Like her character Leo Bailey, playwright Debra Oswald reveals the luminous inner beauty of ordinary men and women emotionally scarred by life.’ – Mark Hopkins, Sydney Morning Herald

Skate
Currency Press, 2004; ISBN 9780868197272
Full length play; 5 female 9 male
Teen
A fictional play inspired by true events that occurred in a south western NSW town, Skate is about a group of kids battling with their local council to get a skate park built in their home town of Narragindi. In the midst of this struggle, tragedy strikes with the sudden death of one of their friends and the battle grows into a struggle for acceptance and unity. Ultimately, after being galvanised into making one last effort, they meet with success. The skate park is built and the local youth find a renewed sense of pride and self esteem. A turbo-charged, moving and funny account of the mates, mothers, tricks and traumas of a group of young skaters.