AustLit

Tom Rothfield, an Australian author and director, worked in theatres in Australia, America, England, Germany and Switzerland. After beginning his career in London with Jam Tomorrow, he wrote the libretto for the first Australian ballet, 'Terra Australis', which premiered in Melbourne on 25 May 1946 and was performed by the Borovansky Ballet and also for 'The Lake', both with music by Esther Rofe.

After World War II Rothfield left Australia and worked in New York as a dialogue director, and wrote plays for the CBS television network in New York and the BBC in London. His play 'Chekov in Love' was staged at the Zurich International Festival in 1979, and was subsequently produced in Germany, London and America.

In addition to the indexed work, Rothfield published a drama history, Classical Comedy: Armoury of Laughter, Democracy's Bastion of Defence: Introducing a Law of Opposites (1999). Rothfield did much of his writing on a Greek island where he lived for many years, as a result of which he wrote a travel book, Stranger Among Greeks (n.d.); however, this work has not been traced.