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y separately published work icon Parramatta Girls single work   drama   - Two acts
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 Parramatta Girls
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Parramatta Girls Training School operated from 1889 to its close in the late 1970s as a state home for 'uncontrollable' girls. Under the guise of 'reforming' them, these teenagers were subjected to mental, emotional and physical brutality. It was a start in life that was metered out to vulnerable, uniformly poor and frequently indigenous women. 'Parramatta Girls' is based on verbatim accounts of the women who were incarcerated at the Parramatta Girls Training School.'

Source: Belvoir Street Theatre website, http://www.belvoir.com.au/

Sighted: 09/05/2005

Exhibitions

12925340
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Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Production Details

  • 'Parramatta Girls' (as a work in progress) was presented in an early draft at the 2004 Winter Play Reading Series at Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney.

    Rehearsed reading 23 May 2005 of third draft, as part of the Winter Play Reading Series at the Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney. Director: Wesley Enoch.

    Produced at Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, from March 17 2007. Director: Wesley Enoch.

    Riverside Productions presentation at the Lennox Theatre, Parramatta: 3-17 May, 2014

    DIRECTOR: Tanya Goldberg

    DESIGNER: Tobhiyah Stone Feller

    LIGHTING DESIGNER: Verity Hampson

    SOUND DESIGNER: Jeremy Silver

    PRODUCER: Camilla Rountree

    PERFORMERS: Christine Anu, Holly Austin, Annie Byron, Vanessa Downing, Anni Finsterer, Sandy Gore, Sharni McDermott, Tessa Rose -

Contents

* Contents derived from the Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,:Currency Press , 2007 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Home Girls Have Their Say, Rosalie Higson , single work review
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama ; (p. vii-x)
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Strawberry Hills, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Currency Press , 2007 .
      Extent: [xii], 81, [1], [2]p.p.
      Description: illus., ports
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by Rosalie Higson was originally published in The Australian 19 March, 2007.
      ISBN: 9780868198118 (pbk.)
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Alana Valentine and Parramatta Girls Dino Dimitriadis (presenter), 2020 25305569 2020 single work podcast

'In the third episode of the series, Dino Dimitriadis and Alana Valentine talk Parramatta Girls, Valentine's multi-award-winning play. An intimate look at drawing theatre from life, and the challenges and joys of making 'close-work' art.'

Source: Production blurb.
Parramatta Girls: A Review Of The Riverside Theatre And The Relevancy Past Events Still Have In Contemporary Australia Georgina stortenbeker , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies , March vol. 4 no. 1 2018; (p. 120-123)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama 'Feminism and issues of violence against women are at the forefront of the contemporary world. However, although women are speaking out for themselves, there are still minority groups whose voices remain unheard. With the recent Women’s Marches and International Women’s Day, it is important to place emphasis on the mistreatment of all women throughout Australian history, particularly that of Aboriginal women, who have often had issues which have been ignored by the government and media. The Riverside Theatre (Parramatta Girls 2014) acknowledges the voices of Aboriginal women in their production of Alana Valentine’s Parramatta Girls (2007), a verbatim-style play that tells the true stories of women who grew up in a training home for girls. Through the plot device of memory, an integral theme throughout the performance, eight women meet in the old Parramatta Girl’s Home at a reunion, reflecting on their experiences they each had with each other and their determination to escape and survive the psychological, physical and sexual abuse inflicted on them as young girls.'
Parramatta Girls: A Review Of The Riverside Theatre And The Relevancy Past Events Still Have In Contemporary Australia Georgina stortenbeker , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies , March vol. 4 no. 1 2018; (p. 120-123)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama 'Feminism and issues of violence against women are at the forefront of the contemporary world. However, although women are speaking out for themselves, there are still minority groups whose voices remain unheard. With the recent Women’s Marches and International Women’s Day, it is important to place emphasis on the mistreatment of all women throughout Australian history, particularly that of Aboriginal women, who have often had issues which have been ignored by the government and media. The Riverside Theatre (Parramatta Girls 2014) acknowledges the voices of Aboriginal women in their production of Alana Valentine’s Parramatta Girls (2007), a verbatim-style play that tells the true stories of women who grew up in a training home for girls. Through the plot device of memory, an integral theme throughout the performance, eight women meet in the old Parramatta Girl’s Home at a reunion, reflecting on their experiences they each had with each other and their determination to escape and survive the psychological, physical and sexual abuse inflicted on them as young girls.'
Postcard from the Edge : Tom Holloway's beyond the Neck and the Limits of Verbatim Caroline Wake , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 72 2018; (p. 100-125)

'When the New South Wales Board of Studies put Tom Holloway’s Beyond the Neck (2007) on the list of prescribed texts for the Year 12 Verbatim Theatre elective, they seemed to be wilfully ignoring the playwright’s statement that the play is not verbatim. On the one hand, the lack of vernacular speech and characters that correspond to real-life people would seem to confirm Holloway’s argument. Conversely, the play’s reliance on interviews, community consultation, bottom-up history and mode of diegetic theatricality would seem to support the Board of Studies’ decision. This article argues that this difference of opinion is due, in part, to a difference of definition: whereas Holloway conceives of verbatim as a genre, the Board of Studies sees it as a practice. To contemplate verbatim as a practice opens the way for new research across theatre, performance, dance, television and film.'  (Publication abstract)
Reliving the Pain From a Girls Home Just Down the Road Jason Blake , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12 May 2014; (p. 10)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama
Spirit Triumphs in Healing Journey Bryce Hallett , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23 March 2007; (p. 15)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama
Harrowing Tales - and Humour Jason Blake , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 25 March 2007; (p. 25)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama
Home Girls Have Their Say Rosalie Higson , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 19 March 2007; (p. 20) Parramatta Girls 2007; (p. vii-x)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama
Revisiting the Brutal Truths of Parramatta John McCallum , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 23 March 2007; (p. 19)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama
Untitled Görkem Acaroglu , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 57 2010; (p. 235-237)
— Review of Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine , 2007 single work drama
Shining a Light into a Dark Corner of Our Past Andrew Taylor , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 18 March 2007; (p. 21)
Home Truths Jacqui Taffel , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17-18 March 2007; (p. 8-9)
Leah Picks Her 'Netball' Team Erin McWhirter , 2007 single work column
— Appears in: National Indigenous Times , 22 March vol. 6 no. 125 2007; (p. 13) Leah Purcell actor in award-winning movies Jindabyne, The Proposition and Somersault is making her debut as a writer/director in a homegrown drama called 'Netball'.
Full Transcript of Alana Valentine Interview Tim Benzie , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: Sydney Star Observer , 22 July 2004;
Liberation, Word for Word Tim Benzie , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: Sydney Star Observer , 22 July 2004;
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Awards

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Last amended 21 Oct 2022 11:58:24
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Parramatta, Parramatta area, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 2003
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