Books published by Currency Press Pty Ltd

One eye closed, the other locked on my target.' Monologues are a crucial element of theatre, for actors and students alike. From high school study to professional auditions and performances, the monologue exposes the heart of a play and the capacities of the performer. The monologue should be relevant to the performer, and a revelation to the audience. This new collection brings together 30 monologues from contemporary Australian plays. These voices -- from ages 14 to 84, from the 1880s to the near future -- showcase the best of our national writing for the stage. Featuring monologues written by: Donna Abela; Jada Alberts; Angela Betzien; Andrew Bovell; Melissa Bubnic; Mary Anne Butler; Justine Campbell & Sarah Hamilton; Stephen Carleton; Katherine Thomson, Angela Chaplin & Kavisha Mazzella; Elizabeth Coleman; Patricia Cornelius; Wesley Enoch; Jane Montgomery Griffiths; Rashma N. Kalsie; Daniel Keene; Finegan Kruckemeyer; Suzie Miller; Kate Mulvany & Craig Silvey; Terence Oconnell; Debra Oswald; Lachlan Philpott; Leah Purcell; Caroline Reid; Damien Ryan; Samah Sabawi; Stephen Sewell; Ninna Tersman; Alana Valentine.

Wild, unpredictable, and deeply vulnerable, Barbara and her sister René are singing for their lives. Barbaras been trying to make it in Sydney, but when their mothers health deteriorates, the sisters embark on a pilgrimage back home to country. Full of painful, unfinished business for Barbara, their return sends her into a downward spiral. Can Barbara find a way to resolve the past in time to preserve love in the only family she has known? Through music that ranges from punk-inspired explosions of rage, to tender rock and soul ballads full of yearning, Barbara and the Camp Dogs is a gob-spit of fun, frenzy and family that finds beauty in honesty and hope in confronting the past.

A theatrical collection of stories and songs from Richard Franklands extraordinary life as a child abattoir-worker, a young soldier, a fisherman and a field officer for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. These are Richards tales, given universal voice on the stage. Richard Frankland is a Gunditjmara man and a singer/songwriter, author, and creator of Conversations with the Dead. Working on the front line of Indigenous issues for the past 25 years, his aim has been to facilitate the voice of Indigenous Australians and bridge the gap between black and white. Walking into the Bigness offers an evocative glimpse into the indigenous Australian experience seen through the prism of a single life. (4 acts, 38 male, 4 female).

Kane and I were both rising stars. I was rising to the top of the hand-modelling world and Kane was doing his plays. Kane got his first action film and I became his double. We clicked. Everyone said so. Kane is one of the worlds biggest movie stars. His body double has been there from the start, sharing more than just looks with his famous counterpart. The body double and Kane are to work on Lake Disappointmentan independent arts film that might see them win prestigious awards and fame. This one-person play of mirrors and mannerisms explores the strange world of the body double. It makes unique contributions to timeless theatrical concepts of images and representation. Lake Disappointment is an unusual new work about ego, self-fashioning, and illusions. (1 act, 1 male).

A premiere Australian play based on actual events, showing just how startling real-life can be. Mary-Ellen Field is a successful Australian business consultant in London -- until she is accused of betraying the secrets of her supermodel client to the press. Her life comes crashing down: her job, her health and her standing in society collapse. When it emerges that her client's phone had been hacked by reporters, Mary Ellen sets out to defiantly restore her reputation. But along the way, her ideas of redemption change she has been interviewed by a journalist on the other side of the world, and his story puts everything into a new perspective.

At Sunset Strip the only people left are those who couldnt leave. Arriving home after a bout of chemotherapy to this once-thriving summer hot spot, Caroline finds the lake completely dried up, the holiday-makers long gone. Yet her younger sister, the ever-optimistic Phoebe, remains doggedly hopeful. Between a stint in rehab, caring for her demented dad (who has a penchant for training goldfish) and losing her kids temporarily to DOCS, Phoebe has managed to find love in Teddy, a local fallen fella with a big heart. And now that Caroline is back, Phoebe is determined to make life fabulous. In Sunset Strip, Suzie Miller, author of Caress/Ache and Transparency, examines love, family dysfunction and making the best of shitty situations and prosthetic breasts. Sunset Strip finds the humour in tragedy and creates an unlikely path for humanity to triumph. (2 acts, 2 male, 2 female).

''In drama, we are the creators. Like in a skeleton, the bones of drama only work together. The human context-the situation, the people and their relationships-are the flesh. The body is given shape and animated by the way we focus those basic elements, and how we place them in space and time. We breathe life into the body through the story and the tension we create, and we give it language and movement to express itself, clothing the drama with its mood and symbols.'' In 1987 Brad Haseman and John O''Toole released Dramawise, a dynamic guide to drama education. This book stands as a definitive text for teachers, students and drama practitioners, shaping many classroom programs and curricula at a state, national and international level. Dramawise Reimagined is the successor. It reaches beyond the original concepts, offering newly challenging drama activities that reflect complex questions in today''s society. The result is a complete coursebook for students and teachers of secondary-school drama, featuring activities that thoroughly detail each element of drama. This is done using process dramas and plays from the wider world. Practical drama activities are supported with in-depth discussion of each of the elements of dramatic form, as well as traditional and contemporary dramatic meanings and approaches to play-making contextualised by the elements of theatre.

The court case captivated a nation. A mother accused of murdering her child, her claim that the baby was taken by a dingo denied and discredited by zealous police and a flawed legal system. The media circus, the rumours, the nations prejudices laid bare. And in the eye of the storm: Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton. Over three decades, from baby Azarias death to the final coroners report, the publics fascination with Lindy seldom waned. The National Library holds a collection of more than 20,000 letters to Lindy. From sympathy to abuse, from marriage proposals to death threats, the correspondence traverses the gamut of responses to Lindys story. Letters to Lindy draws on this correspondence and interviews with Lindy herself. It is an enthralling, revealing, and long overdue dialogue between Lindy and the nation; a portrait of the wisdom and resilience of a grieving mother. This new work by award-winning playwright Alana Valentine ( Ladies Day, Parramatta Girls) explores the publics relationship with one of Australias most iconic figures. (2 acts, 2 male, 2 female).

Smurf in Wanderland is one man's insightful and hilarious examination of football, tribalism, belonging and identity.

Three confronting and provocative plays about women. Muff by Van Badham -- Winner of the 2014 NSW Premiers Award, the Nick Enright Award for Playwriting, Muff explores women, sex and relationships; a horrific, random rape of a young woman and the threads from this event that continue to wrap and bind their way into lives years after the physical injuries have healed. MinusOneSister by Anna Barnes -- Sophocles & Electra is furiously wrenched into the present and told from the point of view of the teenagers. Eternal obsessions mingle with the obsessions of our times, bloodshed goes hand in hand with Bacardi Breezers and Facebook, and a chilling portrait emerges of a family irreversibly shattered by grief and guilt. Shit by Patricia Cornelius -- Shit takes us into the world of three women -- Billy, Bobby and Sam -- three women from a violent, impoverished underclass who have landed in prison together after a vicious incident. These are the underbelly of womenhood we as a society so rarely want to admit exist.