Erroll Bray – July 14 2019

Erroll has worked in theatre for over 40 years as playwright, director, arts administrator, festival director and youth arts worker, as well as being a lecturer/tutor and most recently, Supervisor of MA (Research) Playwriting at QUT Brisbane. He has held roles as Artistic Director of Shopfront Theatre for Young People, the Switchboard Arts Co-op Ltd, Australian National Young Playwrights Weekend, World Interplay festival for young playwrights, and the Emerge Project at the Judith Wright Centre in Brisbane, and has run major community theatre projects including being Director of the West Gippsland Arts Centre and the Desert Uplands Festival in Central Queensland (covering 75,000 sq km). In 2001, he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on international projects in new play development. Erroll’s other writing includes the play Playing Federation, a history of Thuringowa in Northern Queensland, with a cast of over 300 local people; the film, Resolutions, two novels, Berzoo and The Quarters, and a book on group-creation with young people, Playbuilding, which is used nationally as a text for drama teachers.

Nijinsky at Twilight
Australian Script Centre, 1998;
100 minutes, 1 female, 2 male; (3 actor/dancers play 16 roles)
Cast age: 16-18, 18+; Audience age: Adult
The greatest male dancer in the history of ballet and a genius choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky enjoyed a decade of fame from 19 to 29 before declining into a 30-year madness. Told from the perspective of his 60 year old self, this play sees him summon his 29 year old “spirit” to revisit and try to understand the tragedy of his life. With the help of “The Woman” – an every-woman in his life, from dance partner, to wife, to mother – scenes are played out which explore his adoration of his mother and contempt for his father; his early fame as a dancer; his artistic and personal liaison with Diaghilev; his controversial choreography and his marriage. The brilliant costumes, music and dance involved in Nijinsky’s life are used – mostly suggested in broad strokes – to illustrate the richness of his emotional journey towards the twilight of madness.

The Choir
Australian Script Centre, 2013
85 minutes, 0 female, 7 male (adult males play schoolboys)
Cast age: 16-18 Audience age: Young adult, adult
The orphanage boys’ choir has won the interstate competition three years in a row. Miss Lawson (never seen) wants to win it again and has the boy sopranos castrated so their voices will remain high, pure and beautiful. When it is revealed that the castrations were done too late, the boys are extremely disturbed and try to organise an escape. The rest of the choir doesn’t believe them and fighting breaks out. Some try to set the building on fire; David, the singer, commits suicide with the help of his best friend, Colin; and when Andrew, the Head Boy, tries to bring about calm, they castrate him too so that everyone in their choir room will be equal.