Writer/scriptwriter, historian, consultant, producer, editor, dramaturg, writer-in-residence
Roberta Bonnin is a prose and non-fiction writer specialising in specific community-based projects and consultancies. Over the course of her career she has been involved in writing and recording oral history, radio and video documentaries, short stories, articles, anthologies, theatre and research-based reports.
Born in Missoula, Montana (USA), Bonnin's family moved to Australia in 1956 and settled in her mother's home town, Brisbane. Much of her own youth was spent living in West End, where she also attanded West End Primary School.
During the early 1970s Bonnin undertook a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland, and at the same time became actively involved in student and local theatre while also pursuing other literary, creative and political activities. After graduating with an Honours degree in 1975 (her thesis was titled 'Jack Hibberd and His Creation of an Australian Drama'), Bonnin spent much of the next 20 years working in theatre and as a broadcaster and educator. Her early theatre experience included an association with the Popular Theatre Troupe (ca. 1974-1977), engagements at the 1976 Adelaide Festival, the 1976 Townsville Pacific Festival, the 1977 Perth Festival, and as writer/producer of Newcastle's 1977 community-based historical event, 'Shooting at Fort Scratchley.' She also worked with Albert Hunt in Britain during 1977. This creative relationship continued through until the 1985 and resulted in a number of radio and television pieces.
In 1978 Bonnin took up a tutoring position at the University of Newcastle and became the founding director of Newcastle's Travelling Players. She also researched, scripted and served as production co-ordinator for the Circus Oz Christmas Show in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria, the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Performing Group (APG). The following year she was appointed Animateur at the Victorian College of the Arts Drama School. This led to later work as Drama Workshop Director in Adult Education at the Coburg State College (1980), and freelance opportunities as writer, presenter and producer for ABC radio through until 1985. During that period Bonnin also co-produced a television documentary for UK broadcaster Channel 4, worked as a writer for a Community Arts Network based in Rockhampton, Queensland, and undertook a post-graduate degree through the University of Newcastle.
Bonnin completed her Masters degree in 1983, submitting a thesis that examines 'Some Experiments in Australian Popular Theatre, Entertainment and Education.' Much of the dissertation draws on her experience with the Popular Theatre Troupe during the 1970s.
The late-1980s saw Bonnin employed as a writer-in-residence for the Queensland Teachers Union (Art in Working Life Scheme, 1985-1987) for which she produced the anthology Dazzling Prospects: Woman in the QTU Since 1945 (1988); Redlands Shire Council, Queensland (Stories About Women project, 1988), the Gladstone/Calliope Oral History Development Project (1989-1990); and Brisbane City Council (Sounds Like Brisbane, 1991). During the same period she also worked as writer and editor of the Family Day Care Companion (1987-1988), as a consultant for the Australia Council (1989-1990), and as dramaturg for the Queensland Performing Arts Trust and writer for the Queensland Attorney-General's Department (1991).
