Peta Tait – July 11 2021

Death of Chekhov – July 15 1904

Peta is an academic scholar and playwright with an extensive background in theatre, dramatic literature, performance theory and creative arts practice. She holds a BA from Monash University, a Masters from the University of NSW, and a PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney. Peta’s other plays include Mesmerized, about Dr Charcot’s treatment – including performances in his public lectures – of his patient, Augustine, diagnosed as a hysteric in 1880s Paris, and Deadlock, about a social worker who finds a 12-year-old boy has been beating up his mother. As an academic she has authored six books, edited and co-edited five anthologies, and published over 60 other works including articles in Theatre Journal, Modern Drama and Performance Research. Peta was awarded a personal chair at La Trobe University and was elected to the Executive Board of Performance Studies International 2005-2009. Her visiting professorships have included NYU Performance Studies in 2000 and the University of Helsinki in 2010 and she regularly presents internationally on the phenomenology of circus bodies. Peta is a life member of the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA). Its inaugural Peta Tait Prize was awarded in 2019 and will be awarded every four years.

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Breath by Breath – co-written with Matra Robertson
Australian Script Centre, 2003;
90 minutes; 2 female, 5 male
A play within a play: writer Anton Chekhov and female actor Olga Knipper’s intimate relationship is set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century innovation in theatre and political persecution of Jews in Russia, which became indicative of major developments throughout the century. The consumptive Chekhov, who writes about love, confronts evidence of hatred. This is a play about different kinds of love; romantic love, love of family, love for theatre and art, and spiritual love for others. It asks – what is the artist’s responsibility?

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Epicentre
Australian Script Centre, 1986;
60 minutes; 3 female, 1 male
Three travellers are stranded in a roadside cafe. Vila and Daphne are lovers trying to work out their relationship. Simon has come back to trace his Aboriginal family. The play uses quantum physics as a metaphor to explore the patterns of relationships.