NEWS
I have been awarded two writing residencies in 2019. In January 2019 I will spend two weeks at the Michael King Writers' Centre in Devonport, New Zealand. In April 2019 I will spend two weeks at Varuna, the Writers' House in Katoomba, New South Wales.
Varuna The Writers' House. Katoomba. |
Michael King Writers' Centre. Devonport.
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I am currently working on my second novel, a fictional account of the life of actor, director, writer and producer Alla Nazimova.
In December 1935, a revival of Ibsen’s Ghosts opened at the Empire Theatre in New York City. Starring in the production was a 56-year-old actress who was so famous, she was known America-wide by her last name only: Nazimova. Having, in the space of ten years, lost her marriage, her Beverley Hills home, her movie career, and a considerable fortune, Ghosts was Nazimova’s final chance at artistic and financial recovery. Nazimova was accompanied on the nationwide tour of Ghosts by 33-year-old Glesca Marshall, her business manager, secretary, companion, and unknown to the wider world, her lover.
In 1896, at age seventeen, Alla moved to Moscow from Odessa to study drama under Nemirovich and Stanislavsky. In 1905, on tour in America with a Russian theatre company, Nazimova decided not to return home to Russia but to stay in New York City. She got herself an agent and learnt English in three months. The 1906 productions of Ibsen and Chekhov she starred in where the first ever to be staged in America and they caused a sensation, making Nazimova famous overnight. By the early 1920’s she was Metro’s most bankable female film star, she was the star to a debut Rudolph Valentino in the 1928 version of Camille, and through her own production company, she self- funded an art deco version of Wilde’s Salome which is now considered a masterpiece.
In December 1935, a revival of Ibsen’s Ghosts opened at the Empire Theatre in New York City. Starring in the production was a 56-year-old actress who was so famous, she was known America-wide by her last name only: Nazimova. Having, in the space of ten years, lost her marriage, her Beverley Hills home, her movie career, and a considerable fortune, Ghosts was Nazimova’s final chance at artistic and financial recovery. Nazimova was accompanied on the nationwide tour of Ghosts by 33-year-old Glesca Marshall, her business manager, secretary, companion, and unknown to the wider world, her lover.
In 1896, at age seventeen, Alla moved to Moscow from Odessa to study drama under Nemirovich and Stanislavsky. In 1905, on tour in America with a Russian theatre company, Nazimova decided not to return home to Russia but to stay in New York City. She got herself an agent and learnt English in three months. The 1906 productions of Ibsen and Chekhov she starred in where the first ever to be staged in America and they caused a sensation, making Nazimova famous overnight. By the early 1920’s she was Metro’s most bankable female film star, she was the star to a debut Rudolph Valentino in the 1928 version of Camille, and through her own production company, she self- funded an art deco version of Wilde’s Salome which is now considered a masterpiece.
