This essay documents and analyses the work of actor, writer and director Helmut Bakaitis, and his distinctive contribution to children's youth and community theatre in the role of writer, director and artistic director. It also analyses Bakaitis' own career as an actor on stage, television and film.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor, writer, director and composer Barry Creyton who has succeeded as a theatre maker in Australia, the UK and the US. The essay explores Creyton's development as an actor on stage and television, his work in the UK and his later career as a playwright and director. The essay focuses on Creyton's comic writing and performing and his achievements since settling in Los Angeles in 1991.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor and writer Alan Hopgood, who was one of the most significant playwrights of the 1960's, and has contributed scripts to numerous Australian television series and feature films over many years. Hopgood has appeared in plays on stage, television and in feature film from the 1950's until the present. More recently he has developed a genre of short plays based on health issues called 'HealthPlay', that are performed around Australia especially for the medical profession. This essay analyses Hopgood's early life and early career, his work as a television actor and writer, and his highly successful work as writer and producer of specialised plays for health professionals.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor and writer Denise Scott and her rise to prominence as a creator of comic drama and satirical sketch comedy and her work in many modes including stand up, monodrama, cabaret, sketch for the stage and television, television drama, the game show, as well as her success as a performer of extended solo shows. The essay explores Scott's unique contribution to scriptwriting and performing comic drama in the context of her own life experience.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor and writer Henri Szeps from his early life in Europe to his rise to prominence as an actor in Australia in the 1970's. The essay explores Szeps' training with Hayes Gordon, his work with the Ensemble Theatre and his comic acting in the iconic television drama Mother and Son. The essay also explores Szeps' autobiographical plays and his contributions to many Australian premiere stage play productions and their film adaptations.

A collection of short stories that engage with topics in contemporary Australian culture, on topics ranging from family dynamics to gay culture.

This essay documents and analyses the work of English-born actor Julia Blake. The essay explores Blake's early career and training in the UK and her move to Australia, discussing her development as an actor on stage, television and feature film over five decades. The essay focuses on Blake's approach to her craft, the range of her theatrical contribution and her own views of the complexities and demands of the work of an actor.

This essay documents and analyses the work of internationally acclaimed actor Jacki Weaver, examining her early career on stage and on television and analyzing key performances in her career over fifty years. Weaver is one of the most successful Australian actors of all generations, and yet most of her career has taken place on the mainstages of Australian theatre. This essay focuses on the distinctive contribution Weaver has made to Australian theatre, Australian acting and in recent years to international cinema.

This introductory essay sets out the rationale, background and scope of the online essays, explaining their significance to Australian theatre, television and cinema history and explaining the significance of public understanding of the creative work of Australian actors.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor Maggie Dence, exploring her early training with Doris Fitton and her early success playing Mavis Bramston in the iconic television series 'The Mavis Bramston Show'. The essay examines Dence's career on stage and television over more than 50 years, focusing on her many comic roles as well as her contribution to Kingswood Country and the television adaptation of Nevil Shute's 'A Town Like Alice'. The essay also focuses on Dence's recent performance in the popular new Australian play 'Seventeen' and her own approach to this and other particularly demanding theatrical roles.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor Max Cullen on stage, television and in feature film. It explores Cullen's early life and training with Hayes Gordon and Cullen's reputation as an 'anti-actor' in the context of his own attitude and approach to acting as an Australian. The essay explores Cullen's interest and identification with iconic Australian figures such as Lennie Lower and Henry Lawson through his own devised performances of these writers. The essay also explores Cullen and the New Wave, Cullen's work in the plays of Patrick White and his many roles in feature film.

The Mistake is a novel that engages in themes of gender, motherhood, guilt, crime, and the court of public opinion in Australia. Influenced by the cases of Lindy Chamberlain and Kate McCann, the novel explores the ways that women's choices and aspirations, especially with respect to motherhood, are shaped by class and gender politics.

This essay documents and analyses the work of New Zealand-born John Clarke as an actor and writer. It explores Clarke's genesis and background as a sketch writer and his work on radio, television and film in New Zealand and in Australia. The essay focuses on the ways in which Clarke has transformed sketch comedy on television and on his contribution to the democratic project of satire in Australia over several decades.

A novel about heroes, but not heroics. It is a story of men living their lives - quietly and peacefully. But life has its moments when it is neither, when things happen, life changes and men are forced to face themselves. Neil Piggott was a pilot flying Lancasters in World War II. Now he is an old man who likes to potter in his garden. Hidden in the house is the medal he won in the War, the Victorian Cross. His grandson Alex has just met Alyson. She's a friend of his brother Kieran. Alyson has taken Alex into her bed. And told him secrets about his brother Kieran. Neil already knows these secrets. He's faced death before. He can help Kieran face his. The intellectual themes of this novel engage with the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.

The Steele Diaries is a historical/contemporary novel exploring identity, maternity and creativity through the stories of Zelda Steele and her daughter, Ruth. The only child of two famous but self-absorbed artists, Zelda Steele is adopted by her parent's patrons when she is just a baby. Great things are expected of this privileged young woman, but at twenty-seven Zelda is dead, leaving two young children and a body of work that only hints at her promise. Decades later, Zelda's daughter Ruth returns to her childhood home to find the diaries her mother is rumoured to have kept. What they reveal takes her on a journey into the past: her mother's, her grandmothers and, ultimately, her own. Weaving together the narratives of three very different women, living in vastly different times, The Steele Diaries paints a rich and evocative portrait of the Sydney art scene from the thirties to the seventies, and examines the eternal conflict between motherhood and self.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor Elspeth Ballantyne and her career on stage and on television. Ballantyne trained at NIDA in the first graduating class, worked for many years on stage and became a household name when she played Meg in Prisoner (for eight years), a television series of immense popularity that is now regarded as a cult classic internationally. The essay reflects on the contribution of Ballantyne to the profession and its significance for actors in Australia.

This essay documents and analyses the work of internationally renowned actor Nick Tate, from his childhood surrounded by theatrical activity, through his early years as a star of the television adaptation of My Brother Jack to his extraordinary award-winning portrayal of Brother Victor in The Devil's Playground. The essay examines Tate's contribution to the British television cult classic Space 1999 and his experience of playing a real person in the feature film Evil Angels in the context of his own approach to acting, and his belief in the actor's key contribution to artistic integrity in production.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor, writer and director Tony Sheldon. It offers an extended discussion of Sheldon's life as a child star on television and his training on the job with many stage directors including John Bell and Terence Clarke, his development as a lead in musical theatre and his international success in a range of musical theatre productions. The essay offers an account of the distinctive contribution of Sheldon to theatre as a working actor who learned from directors and other actors rather than in a studio or training program.

This essay documents and analyses the work of actor, comedienne and producer Wendy Blacklock. The essay reflects on Blacklock's unique contribution to the profession, firstly as an actor on stage and television, and later as a producer who developed Australian drama of all kinds, including indigenous drama, and brought it to audiences throughout Australia and overseas.

Where Have You Been? is a contemporary suspense novel that explores issues of memory, marriage and identity. The return of a missing, presumed dead, sister after an absence of thirty years, leads to the breakdown of the marriage of the middle class protagonists, Susan and Ed Middleton. The character of the returned sister, who may or may not be an imposter, introduces a puck-ish element that disrupts and exploits the certainties of the Middleton’s comfortable middle-age, and exposes the vulnerabilities of modern suburban life. The work also examines issues of class and sexuality through its depiction of the divergent histories of the two sisters.