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Lally Katz Lally Katz i(A68236 works by)
Born: Established: ca. 1978 New Jersey,
c
United States of America (USA),
c
Americas,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1987
Heritage: American
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BiographyHistory

Born in New Jersey, Lally Katz lived briefly in Miami before her family moved to Australia when she was aged nine. She graduated from the University of Melbourne's Victoria College of Art in 2000.

A core member of Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre, she is a prolific writer for the stage, beginning in 2000 with Dead Girls are Fantastic and Tabitha to Saturn: the former was produced by Elena Vereker and Janice Mueller for NMIT Theatre, Melbourne, and the latter was produced by Katz and directed by Melinda Hetzel for Guild Theatre, University of Melbourne. Her first major success was The Black Swan of Trespass (2003), based on the Ern Malley affair, which earned her awards for Excellence in Writing and Best Theatre Production from the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and the Producer's Choice Award from the New York International Fringe Festival. Her 2004 play, The Eisteddfod, won the awards for Excellence in Direction and Producer's Choice at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival. Her 2009 play, Goodbye Vaudeville, Charlie Mudd, won the State Library of Victoria's Louis Esson Prize for Drama, which she won again in 2012 for A Golem Story.

In addition to some twenty playscripts, Katz has written occasional episodes of television (including for young-adult fantasy series The Elephant Princess and adult fantasy-romance Spirited), as well as regularly scripting short films, including Ingrid Sits Holding a Knife (2006, directed by Charlotte George), The Apocalypse Bear: Beyond the Sea (2009, directed by Nicholas Verso), and Greg's First Day (2012, directed by Scott Otto Anderson).



Further Reference

Robb, Peter. 'Out of the Box: Meeting Lally Katz'. The Monthly. August 2011. (Sighted: 22/10/2012)

Troup, Cynthia. 'Space to See Things: An Interview with Lally Katz'. Antipodes, 1 June 2006. (Sighted: 22/10/2012)

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2015 runner-up The Lysicrates Prize for Fortune
2012 co-winner Women of Style Awards Arts and Culture Co-winner with Nikki Gemmell.
2010 recipient Churchill Fellowship To Gain Knowledge of current German, Irish, UK and North American Playwriting

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Atlantis 2017 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2017 12243216 2017 single work drama

'Lally Katz is on a journey. She’s left Australia behind and she’s in the country of her childhood, trying to find a way back to when things were innocent. Her relationships are chaotic, her professional life is a shambles and contemporary America seems riddled with charlatans and shysters. But along the way moments of wisdom bubble up, as if from some lost ancient city beneath the waves off Florida…

'Five women play the myriad characters of Lally’s life: ageing Jewish grandparents in Miami, wizened taxi drivers, cynical prophets, unhappy pharmacists, clowns, hip-hop artistes, narcissists, angels, animals – and, of course, Lally herself.' (Production summary)

2018 nominated AWGIE Awards Stage Award
y separately published work icon The Rabbits 2015 8043706 2015 single work drama opera

'John Marsden and Shaun Tan's haunting picture book tells a story we all know: a story of colonisation, civilisation and progress — a story about displacement, destruction and culture clash. And in that landscape, it tells a story of hope taking root.

'It's a story for young people, it's a story for old people, it's a story for all of us.

'Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company have assembled some of Australia's foremost creative talents to collaborate on a new opera for children and families.

'Gabriela Tylesova's kooky sets and costumes realise Tan's pictures in all of their mystical wonder, while Lally Katz has turned Marsden's spare poetry into an enchanting libretto. To write the score, Kate Miller Heidke: the butterfly-voiced, classically-trained indie-pop singer who is as at home on the charts as she is performing at the Met. As well as composing The Rabbits, Kate will perform in this production.' (Production summary)

2016 shortlisted International Opera Awards
2015 winner Helpmann Awards for Performing Arts in Australia Costume design Awarded to Gabriela Tylesova
2015 winner Helpmann Awards for Performing Arts in Australia Best New Australian Work
2015 winner Helpmann Awards for Performing Arts in Australia Best Presentation for Children
2016 winner AWGIE Awards Music Theatre
Stories I Want to Tell You in Person 2013 single work drama 'For more than a decade, playwright Lally Katz has been one of Australia’s foremost fabulists, trekking off to the furthest coasts of the imagination and returning with her findings. Now she introduces to the stage one of her most unexpected subjects: herself. She might be alone on the stage but she’s far from lonely, bringing with her a cast of characters — from fortune tellers to mystics to Mississippi Evangelicals — encountered on the quest to cure her curses. Known for delving into fantasy, this writer proves art imitates life.' Source: www.malthousetheatre.com.au/ (Sighted 18/05/2012.
2013 nominated Victorian Green Room Awards Writing/Adaptation for the Australian Stage
Last amended 22 Sep 2016 15:58:02
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