Alana Valentine

Alana Valentine (born 1961) is an Australian playwright, dramatist, librettist, and director working in theatre, film, opera and television.

Early life and education
Alana Valentine was born in 1961.

She holds a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney (2000).

Career
Valentine first worked with Vicki Gordon Music Productions to create the First Nations show Barefoot Divas, Walk a Mile in My Shoes. The work premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2012, toured North America in 2014 and was staged at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2015.

In 2016 Gordon commissioned Valentine and Ursula Yovich to co-write the First Nations rock musical Barbara and the Camp Dogs. This premiered at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in December 2017, and toured the country in 2019.

In 2022 Valentine was commissioned by Neil Armfield to co-write the libretto with Christos Tsiolkas for a modern oratorio about the 1972 murder of George Duncan in Adelaide. With music composed by Joseph Twist, it was performed as Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan to critical acclaim at the 2022 Adelaide Festival.

Valentine has collaborated as a co-writer and dramaturg with Aboriginal director and choreographer Stephen Page on many productions for Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Recognition and awards
Valentine has been awarded four Australian Writers Guild awards, and has been a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship. She has also received a Centenary Medal for her work on the Centenary of Federation; a Cultural Leadership Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts; and a Literature Fund Fellowship.

Other awards include:
 * 2007 Nomination for 2007 Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work and Best Play for Parramatta Girls
 * 2004 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Drama Script, for Run Rabbit Run
 * 2003 NSW Writer's Fellowship
 * 2002 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award
 * 2002 International Writing Fellowship at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London
 * 2013 David Williamson Prize, for Grounded
 * 2016 Head Full of Love play [Queensland Theatre production] PAC Australia Drovers Award for Tour of the Year
 * 2018 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, shortlisted for Barbara and the Camp Dogs (with Ursula Yovich)
 * 2019 Best Original Score and Best Musical, Helpmann Awards; four Green Room Awards (2020) for Best Writing, Best Music Composition, Best Production and Best Performance, for Barbara and the Camp Dogs
 * 2021 Co-recipient of the UTS Chancellor's Award for excellence, in recognition of her accomplished work and the consistent excellence of her dramatic output

Plays

 * Swimming The Globe (1996). A play about the parallel paths of two teen-age swimmers from different parts of the world who both strive to compete in the Olympics.  It was first performed at the Mission Theatre in Newcastle, NSW, on 21 August 1996.  It was commissioned by Freewheels Theatre Company, with the two girls played by Louise Chapman as Igorina and Kathryn Hume as Stace.  It was also published as a performing arts book in 1999 by Currency Press.
 * The Conjurers (1997)
 * Run Rabbit Run (2004), about the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a rugby league club, staged at the Belvoir Theatre in 2004
 * Covenant (2006)
 * Parramatta girls (2007) about the Girls Training School, Parramatta. Produced at the Belvoir St Theatre. The play is on the HSC Drama syllabus in New South Wales. It is written as "a dramatisation of interviews with a number of women who served time in Australia’s most notorious girls detention centre".
 * Singing the lonely heart' is a one-act play is loosely based on the life of Carson McCullers. It was published together with Ozone in 2008.
 * Ozone, a surreal fantasy
 * Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah: Soft Revolution (2010) The play, performed at the Seymour Centre Sydney, 6–29 August 2009, is about "how Islamic women think and feel about" wearing the hijab. It was "commissioned by The Alex Buzo Company to 'respond' to Alex Buzo's play Norm and Ahmed"
 * MP (2011)
 * Dead Man Brake (2013), about the Waterfall rail accident. Produced by Merrigong Theatre Company.
 * Barbara and the Camp Dogs (2017), co-written with Ursula Yovich. Produced by Belvoir.
 * The Sugar House (2018), generational play set in a CSR warehouse in Pyrmont. Produced by Belvoir.
 * Wayside Bride (2021) Produced by Belvoir (2022-04-02 to 2022-05-29).
 * Wudjang: not the past (2022) Bangarra Dance Theatre
 * Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan (2022) Adelaide Festival, State Opera South Australia

Books

 * Bowerbird - the Art of Making Theatre Drawn from Life