Cloudstreet

NICK ENRIGHT (1950–2003) trained for the theatre at New York University School of Arts after early experience in Australia including with Nimrod and MTC. He was an actor, director and teacher as well as a writer. His plays include On the Wallaby, Daylight Saving, St James Infirmary, Mongrels, A Property of the Clan, The Quartet from Rigoletto, Blackrock, Good Works, Spurboard and A Man with Five Children. With Justin Monjo he adapted Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet for the stage. He has also written for film and television, including co-writing with George Miller the screenplay for Lorenzo’s Oil which was nominated for an Oscar. He has written a number of musicals including The Venetian Twins and Summer Rain with composer Terence Clarke. He wrote the book for the Australian production of The Boy From Oz. Among many awards were two Green Room Awards for Best Play, and four Gold AWGIE Awards, the 1998 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award and the NSW Premiers’ Special Award. As well as being a prolific writer, Enright was a noted acting teacher, particularly at NIDA and WAAPA. JUSTIN MONJO is both an actor and stage and screen writer. Together with co-writer Richard Roxburgh he previously adapted Tim Winton’s That Eye, the Sky for Burning House’s stage production. TIM WINTON, the author of 22 books, is the pre-eminent Australian novelist of his generation. Published in more than 22 languages, his novels have garnered major national and international awards. Twice short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Winton is the only writer to have won the Miles Franklin Award four times. Many of his works have been adapted for the stage. Adaptations of his novels include That Eye, The Sky (Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh), Cloudstreet (Nick Enright and Justin Monjo) and The Turning (Bill McCluskey). Of his works for young readers, Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo, Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster and The Bugalugs Bum Thief have been adapted for theatre and The Bugalugs Bum Thief, Blueback and The Deep have enjoyed long lives as adaptations for puppetry. Rising Water, his first work written for the stage, was produced by Black Swan State Theatre Company in 2011, followed by Signs of Life in 2012. Since 1992 Winton has been patron of the Tim Winton Award for Young Writers, sponsored by the City of Subiaco, Western Australia. Active in the environmental movement in Australia, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to literature and the community. He is the Patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society and the Stop the Toad Foundation.