Plays of the 60s: Vol 3 (Play Collections)

RODNEY MILGATE was born in 1934. His early experimental plays opened the way for a new larrikin kind of theatre in Sydney. His first two plays were A Refined Look at Existence (1966) and At Least You Get Something Out of That (1968) burst the boundaries of naturalism and the proscenium, and experimented with popular language and song. Both set Greek legend in suburban Australia, in which Milgate detected unseeing materialism. He acted with the Trust Players and is married to the actor Dinah Shearing. He is also a painter.

JOHN ROMERIL has been a prolific writer whose early plays include the major works I Don't Know Who To Feel Sorry For, Chicago, Chicago and The Floating World. Other plays are Mrs Thally F, Carboni, The Kelly Dance, Lost Weekend, Black Cargo, Bring Down the House, Doing the Block and Red Sun Red Earth. He has studied under Australia Council grants in Europe, Canada and the United States. In 1993–96 he was recipient of an Australian Artists' Creative Fellowship. More recent works published by Currency are Love Suicides and Miss Tanaka. He has acted as Playwright-in-Residence for many theatre companies and tertiary institutions and served as Chair of the Australian National Playwrights' Centre. In 2003 he received the inaugural ANPC Award which honours Australian playwrights who have made a significant contribution to national theatre and culture.

BILL REED was born in 1942. In his first two plays he examined the concept of conscience through two events that have become national myths. Burke's Company (1967) was about the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, and Truganinni (1971) was about white settlers' genocide of the Tasmanian indigenous population. Much of Reed's other work has been along similar lines, taking an Australian view of universal themes.

ALEX BUZO was born in Sydney. He was educated at the Armidale School, the International School in Geneva and the University of New South Wales from which he graduated with a BA in 1965. In 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New South Wales for his contribution to Australian literature. In 1968, Buzo's first play Norm and Ahmed was among the first to find a truly Australian voice and gained national attention primarily through a prosecution for obscenity. The exploration of alienation in this play remained a common theme in his work, often delivered with clever and stylish use of the Australian idiom and a tireless commitment to reflecting the true nature of Australian society. In 1972, Buzo was awarded the Australian Literature Society's Gold Medal for his play Macquarie. His plays include Rooted, The Front Room Boys, Coralie Lansdowne Says No, Martello Towers, Makassar Reef, Big River, The Marginal Farm, Shellcove Road and Pacific Union. His work has been produced around the world including the USA, the UK and South East Asia. He was also writer-in-residence at many theatre companies, schools and universities. Following Buzo's death in 2006, his daughter Emma founded the Alex Buzo Company in 2007.

Katharine Brisbane AM, Hon.Ph.D (UNSW, UWA) was co-founder in 1971 of Currency Press Pty Ltd, the performing arts publishers and its publisher for 30 years. In 2001 she founded Currency House Inc. as a non-profit association to assert the value of the performing arts in public life. She was a theatre critic for 21 years, notably national critic of the Australian 1967–74 during a time of radical change; and has published extensively on the history of Australian theatre, including Not Wrong, Just Different: Observations on the Rise of Contemporary Australian Theatre (2005) and on drama in The Cambridge History of Australian Literature (ed Peter Pierce, 2009). Over 40 years she has received many awards for service to the performing arts.