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Verity Laughton Verity Laughton i(A25316 works by) (a.k.a. Verity Brookman)
Born: Established: 1952 Adelaide, South Australia, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

The second of three daughters of Bruce and Jeanette Laughton, Verity Laughton has a BA from the University of Adelaide (1973) with Honours in English, and a Graduate Diploma in Library Studies (SAIT 1975). She worked as a librarian in the State Library of South Australia from 1976-1977. From 1976-1978 Laughton co-edited a small literary magazine, Ash Magazine, and over the years she has worked as a freelance editor, script assessor, arts administrator, dramaturg and writing tutor. This has included co-editing the 4th issue of Tarantella (1994), running a prison writing workshop for Vitalstatistix (1994), writing a curriculum module for TAFE on Writing for the Stage, and teaching in Flinders University's English and Drama Dept. since 1996 and the Adelaide College of TAFE since 1997.

Laughton has had various responsibilities at Adelaide Festivals' Writers Weeks (1982-1986), and has run writing courses on Kangaroo Island and in the Riverland. She has been involved in several aspects of work with children. She wrote video scripts for the Department of Education and Children's Services (1995-1996), was tutor in short story writing for the Come Out Festivals 1995-1999, and has created works for the dance company Outlet Dance (see below).

Laughton was funded by the Literature Board as Writer-in-Residence for the Patch Theatre Co in 1991 and was Co-ordinator for Backstares Theatre 1991-1992. In 1996 she was dramaturg for Cirkidz and the Unley Youth Theatre. For a number of years Laughton was involved as a Board member with the Australian National Playwrights' Centre (1991-1997) and the Patch Theatre Co (1992-1995) and was a member of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Writers' Guild. In 1991-1992 she was a member of the Central Region Cultural Authority Arts Grants Advisory Board.

She has been an advocate for mandatory programming quotas aimed at gender equity in theatre productions.


Most Referenced Works

Affiliation Notes

  • South Australian

Personal Awards

2023 shortlisted Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing for 'Una and the Many Worlds of Dream'.
2014 shortlisted Patrick White Playwrights' Award For manuscript 'What Has Been Taken'
2011 highly commended Blake Poetry Prize for 'The Fox Man'.

Awards for Works

The Dictionary of Lost Words 2023 single work drama

'It’s 1886 and the very first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is being compiled. Four-year-old Esme Nicoll has a front row seat. Well, she’s hiding under the sorting table, anyway. As her father and his male colleagues decide which words stay and which go, Esme collects the discarded (often gendered) scraps to compile her own far more radical, far more magical dictionary.

'A sweeping historical tale in the spirit of The Harp in the South, The Dictionary of Lost Words follows Esme from her childhood in the 1880s, into adulthood at the height of the women’s suffrage movement and the beginning of the First World War.'

Source: Sydney Theatre Company.

2024 highly commended Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Drama
The Sweetest Thing 2010 single work drama

'Sarah is trapped in her parents' story. Now she's fled to New Zealand after the sudden death of her father, leaving the grief stricken remains of her family behind. Teetering out of balance she finds herself falling in love and lust with Jim, a relationship that will change everything, forever.'

Source: Belvoir Street Theatre website, http://www.belvoir.com.au/
Sighted: 01/11/2010

2012 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting
form Moon Door 2008 single work drama radio play

'Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of all of China, lies dying of mercury poisoning which he has taken in a misguided attempt to make himself immortal.

'He is responsible for the building of the Great Wall of China. Two ghosts of men who died during its construction head up an unearthly army waiting to greet him on the other side. He is immortalised in his legacy of the Great Wall, visited in the second part of this play by Liz, who has been an invalid since childhood, with the assistance of Sharpie, who so far in life has not amounted to much. An Angel guides them to top of the Wall, the fulfilment of Liz's life-time ambition.'

Source: ABC Radio National website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/
Sighted: 04/08/2008

2009 nominated AWGIE Awards Radio Award Original Broadcast
Last amended 30 Sep 2021 14:19:06
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