Janet Brown is an Australian writer. She has won awards from Australia, England and Canada for her plays, short stories and short film. Her plays are staged widely by various independent theatre companies and several are published. With extensive experience as a writing teacher, Janet mentors others to develop their own projects. She is an experienced presenter at literary events and festivals. Janet lives on a farm in regional Victoria near the Surf Coast.
Her work is published in books, anthologies and literary journals in Australia and the United States. Her freelance writing has been published in major newspapers and magazines. Janet has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing (Victoria University), Bachelor of Science Education (Melbourne University) and a Graduate Diploma in Reading Education.
Janet has been writing for
theatre since 2000. The Melbourne Theatre Company supported the
development of her first play A Hole in the Ground which she co-wrote with Joanne
Ryan. 'We submitted an early version of the script to the MTC and gained the attention of dramaturg Peter Matheson, who guided us through many drafts of the script's development.'
With renowned theatre director David Myles at the helm, the play was staged by La Mama at Carlton Courthouse and Wyndham Cultural Centre in 2004. The script is inspired by the Werribee No Toxic Dump Campaign, a 1990s community campaign in the western suburbs of Melbourne that ultimately, and against all odds, defeated the proposal of CSR, a large multi national corporation for a toxic dump in that city.
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One Plain, One Purl, a winner of The Write Stuff playwriting award in 2004, was staged in 2005 by Anglesea Performing Arts -APA - directed by Nikki Watson. It was performed as a radio play for Vision Australia in 2007.
Dolly Stainer of Kew
Cottages, again directed by David Myles,
produced by Soul Theatre, was staged at La Mama’s Carlton Courthouse in
August 2006. Listed for VCE Theatre Studies, the script was first published by Currency Press. The story was inspired by 'Kew Cottages: The World of Dolly Stainer' (by Cliff Judge and Fran van Brummelen, 2002, Spectrum).
Dolly Stainer of Kew Cottages
Cast: Frances Hutson, Gregory Ross, Liz McColl
In 2009 Janet and writer Sandy Fairthorne launched Brown Fairthorne Theatre Projects http://brownfairthorne.blogspot.com.au to produce their own work. They toured two projects of their one-act plays Small Bites (2010) and Making Waves (2011, directed by Cherie Mills). One of Janet's Small Bites plays - You (directed by Suzie Kent) - was selected and staged at the Gala of the 2010 Melbourne Short and Sweet Festival at Chapel Off Chapel.
In 2010 Brown Fairthorne Theatre Projects toured Le Jardin De Ma
Mere (My Mother's Garden) Janet’s adaptation of the Colette story Sido throughout the Geelong and Surfcoast region and into Melbourne, directed by Judy Ellis. With actors Cherie Mills and Wendy Robinson and featuring violinist Patricia Radzi Stewart, the play opened at Wintergarden Gallery, in conjunction with a regional artists exhibition inspired by the story and curated by artist Jill Shalless.
Cast: Cherie Mills (Sido) and Wendy Robinson (Colette)
In 2012 her short story Water, Water was a winner in the UK Global Short Stories competition. Janet then adapted the story into a short film script directed by Iris Walshe-Howling featuring Claudia Clark with original music composed and performed by Shaun Brown. Shot on location on the Victorian Surf Coast it screened at Puertas Film Fest in Spain and the Barossa Film Festival in South Australia in 2014, then at the Geelong Pivotonian Cinema’s Australia Day Shorts event in 2015.
Water, Water won the Silver Award for Short International Film at the Wasaga Film Festival in Canada in 2016.
You can view 'Water,Water' on Youtube:
On location near Anglesea
In April 2015 Skin Of Our Teeth Productions (SOOT) premiered Sandy (directed by Christine Davey) as part of the ANZAC centenary commemoration production ‘The Long Shadow.’ Sandy is based on the true story of Australia’s only warhorse to return home from the First World War. (script published by Australian Plays).
Where the
Heart Is was produced by SOOT in 2016 in its ‘Book of Love’ Production and
directed by Cherie Mills. (script published by Australian Plays).
October 2017 and Janet's verbatim theatre project The Hope Song, co-directed by Iris Walshe-Howling and Janine McKenzie, was staged by APA (Anglesea Performing Arts). This play is based on her extensive interviews with people who have experienced mental health challenges and illuminates the issues they face. Seven talented actors as well as a choir of community singers performed in this premiere season. It was a wonderful production with full houses - audiences who came from far and wide. (script published by Australian Plays).
It was a big month - also in October 2017, Honouring Carers was launched. Janet was commissioned to interview family carers and to write this book of their real-life stories - their challenges, their rewards, their wisdoms, their frustrations and their day to day experiences. (Ed Jacqui Pierce, Published by genU)
APA's production of The Hope Song travelled to Melbourne's La Mama Carlton Courthouse for another successful season in February 2018 where the season sold out in advance, playing to full houses every night. For this special season SANE Australia partnered with APA and the music was performed by Kieran Tobin. The company was then invited by Women With Disabilities Vic Barwon Region to stage the production in October 2018 at Geelong's Courthouse Theatre, with music performed by Tim Hulsman.
2019 - When Hedy Met George directed by Emma Watson for SOOT Productions staged in Anglesea and Geelong. It tells the amazing true story of the famous Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr, and the unique scientific invention she developed with the musician George Antheil in the 1940s that is still used widely in our wifi and mobile phone technology today.
Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil
Co-inventors of Spread Spectrum Technology
In September 2019 Sydney's Crying Chair Theatre presented The Hope Song to Sydney Fringe audiences. Directed by Socratis Otto, this was an exciting new interpretation of Janet's script.
Crying Chair's fabulous cast: Di Smith, Mel Day, Emma Dalton, Chantelle Gardiner, Grant Lyndon, Richard Cotter, Socratis Otto, Mia Morrissey and (piano) Leo Bosi
2020 was a year like no other. All our lives were changed by the Corona Virus pandemic which swept the world. Concerned about the significant mental health impacts of this experience, Socratis Otto directed and created a new filmed version of The Hope Song to make it freely available online. The film featured in the 2021 Humans In Geelong online expo.
Cast: Di Smith, Mel Day, Emma Dalton, Chantelle Gardiner, Grant Lyndon, Richard Cotter, Luke Carroll, Socratis Otto. Music: Mia Morrissey and Leo Bosi
Editor: Vicki Bobotis
Watch the film at:
Janet's short stories, poetry, articles and essays have been published in:
Stereo Stories
Stereo Stories
Antipodes - North American Journal of Australian Literature
Utter Silence: Voicing the Unspeakable (ed.Alice Mills & Jeremy Smith. Published by Lang, New York)
Overland
Australian Multicultural Book Review
AWBR - Australian Women's Book Review
The Write Season (anthology)
The Age
Gardens and Outdoor Living Magazine
French Provincial Magazine
Books:
Dancing Into Freedom (Heidi Giersch with Janet Brown, 2020) published by Ginninderra Press.
Heidi’s unique story of growing up in East Berlin, behind the Iron Curtain and in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, begins the moment she was chosen to go to ballet school at ten years of age. Eventually she performed with major East German dance companies. In 1980 she ran away after the final Sydney performance of the prestigious Komische Oper Berlin Ballet Company's Australian tour. Following her defection, she made her home in Melbourne where she still lives today.
I Did My Best - (2008) Ted (Edvard) Snore’s autobiography. Ted, a Latvian refugee, arrived in Australia in 1947. His life story is full of adventure. Ted left his notes to his family, and Janet used them to write his story. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/5598943
The Shaded Side (2003) – novel
Available online at: Amazon e book The Shaded Side
Jenny is about to discover the identity of her birth mother. As a baby, she was given up for adoption in Australia during the war-time era of the 1940s when Ellen, a young woman from Footscray, is in her early twenties and a patient of Bellington Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Now Ellen is old, frail and living with dementia. While Jenny cares for her aunt she discovers some photos. Secrets are unravelled and her family's history is re-written.
'The novel The Shaded Side, by Victorian writer Janet M Brown, is a story about mothers, sisters and friends, secrets and lies, stigma and taboo.'
In The Company of Strangers: former patients of
Australian tuberculosis sanatoria share their experiences and insights (1993) – non fiction book. For hard copy book, contact Janet.
Contact Janet:
janetbrown.m@gmail.com
