Creative Team
HILARY BELL
BOOK & LYRICS
JO BONNEY
DIRECTOR
GRETA GERTLER GOLD
COMPOSER
HILARY BELL is a multi-award-winning playwright and lyricist. Hilary’s plays and musicals have been produced nationally around Australia by the Sydney Theatre Company, Ensemble, Belvoir, Griffin, Black Swan, Deckchair, La Boite, NORPA, National Theatre of Parramatta, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Vitalstatistix and Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Internationally she’s been produced by theatres including Atlantic and Steppenwolf (USA) and The National (UK). Her plays include Summer of Harold, Splinter, Fortune, The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch, The Falls, Memmie Le Blanc, The Red Balloon, The White Divers of Broome, Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me, The Mysteries: Genesis(with Lally Katz) and adaptations of Chekhov’sThe Seagull, Moliere’s The Hypochondriac, Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. She was associate writer on Paul Capsis’ Helpmann-winning play Angela’s Kitchen. Wolf Lullaby, won the inaugural Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award in 1995 and remains on the school syllabus. She also writes libretti for opera, musicals and song cycles. Collaborating with composers including Phillip Johnston, Greta Gertler Gold, Andree Greenwell, Douglas Stephen Rae, Elena Katz-Chernin, Luke Styles, Maria Alfonsine and Ensemble Offspring, among her music theatre works are The Red Tree, Mrs President, Starstruck The Stage Musical (with Mitchell Butel), Seven Stories and Alphabetical Sydney: All Aboard! Currently she is writing a musical adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock with Gertler Gold, directed by Jo Bonney, and is collaborating with Michael Gracey, Jacob Collier and Scenario Two on a new musical. Other awards include the Jill Blewitt, Bug’n’Bub (USA), Aurealis Fiction, the Eric Kocher (USA), Inscription, two Australian Writers Guild Awards, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize shortlist. She was the 2003-04 Tennessee Williams Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of the South, Tennessee, and in 2013 the Patrick White Playwriting Fellow at the STC. Hilary is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Sydney) and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. She has served on boards including Griffin, ANPC and Australian Plays, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the State Library of NSW. She is a member of 7-ON Playwrights. Hilary is the creator, with illustrator Antonia Pesenti, of several picture books, including the best- selling Alphabetical Sydney. For a full CV please contact info@rgm.com.au. Website: https://hilarybell.org/
JO BONNEY has directed the premieres of plays by: Alan Ball, Hilary Bettis, Eric Bogosian, Eleanor Burgess, Hammaad Chaudry, Culture Clash, Eve Ensler, Jessica Goldberg, Isaac Gomez, Danny Hoch, Ione Patricia Lloyd, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Dan O’Brien, Dael Orlandersmith, Suzan- Lori Parks, Darci Picoult, John Pollono, Will Power, David Rabe, Jose Rivera, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Christopher Shinn, Diana Son, Universes, Naomi Wallace, Michael Weller. Productions of plays by: Caryl Churchill, Nilo Cruz, Anna Deavere Smith, Charles Fuller, Lisa Loomer, Paul Lucas, Carey Perloff, Lanford Wilson. Productions directed at: ART, Boston; PS 122; The Public Theater NYC; NYTW; Second Stage; Goodman Theatre; La Jolla Playhouse; MCC, NY; Geffen Playhouse; Williamstown Festival; McCarter Theater; Playwrights Horizons; Arena Stage; CTG, LA; Signature, NY; Long Wharf; The New Group; CSC; Humana Festival; Almeida, London; Edinburgh Festival; The Market Theatre, Johannesburg; The Baxter, Cape Town SA, Cine 13, Paris. Tony Award nomination for Cost of Living, two Obie Awards for Sustained Excellence of Direction, Lucille Lortel Best Musical and Lucille Lortel Best Revival, Drama Desk nomination for Direction of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, and Alliance and Lilly Award. Audelco Award for Father Comes Home from the Wars. Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Cost of Living. Editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (TCG).
GRETA GERTLER GOLD is a composer, lyricist, performer and producer. A Yaddo Fellow, Jonathan Larson Grant and NY Women's Fund Finalist, she was awarded a Create NSW Grant with playwright Hilary Bell to write a musical adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s "Picnic at Hanging Rock", directed by Jo Bonney. She produced the first 29-hour reading of “Picnic” in November 2023 at Open Jar Studios, NYC following a music workshop at Ars Nova and a developmental workshop at the Hayes Theatre, Sydney earlier in the year. She composed music for psychedelic rock musical "The Red Tree" (based on Shaun Tan's book) in collaboration with Hilary Bell for seasons at Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne and National Theatre of Parramatta. Gertler Gold and Bell also received a Cultural Grant from the City of Sydney and Create NSW Grant to develop a musical adaptation of Bell & Antonia Pesenti’s "Alphabetical Sydney", which toured Riverside Theatre, Sydney Opera House, The Joan and The Concourse. Greta and playwright Alexandra Collier were awarded residencies and workshops to develop rock musical “Triplight” at Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Space at Ryder Farm, New Musicals Australia and The Tank (NYC) culminating in a concert season starring Kristen Sieh and Tony Torn at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, NYC. Greta was a composer in Ars Nova's "Uncharted" Program and Polyphone Festival (Philadelphia), where she developed the musical "The Real Whisper" with playwright Akin Salawu. She and Stew (Tony Award winning creator of "Passing Strange") were granted a residence at The Orchard to begin development of their musical "Anna Hit". Greta was also a composer in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Greta has performed and released several albums as a solo artist and with her bands The Universal Thump and Peccadillo, and has toured the USA, Australia and Europe and made her Lincoln Center debut in early 2023 with her show ‘Characters’ merging an orchestral pop ensemble with guests from the musical theater world. Greta's songs have been featured multiple times on NPR, she was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Grant to tour in support of her theatrical concept album "Edible Restaurant". She co-penned multi-platinum-selling pop songs, "Blow Up the Pokies" and "Charlie #3", performed by The Whitlams (Warner Music Australia), featured in the musical "Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You" (Hayes Theatre). Greta is also currently composing music for Dr. Seuss characters Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, The Grinch and others for Tonies toy company, in collaboration with LA-based actor-producer, Bill Kates. She is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatists Guild and Maestra. Please visit: https://maestramusic.org/profile/greta-gertler-gold/ and https://GretaGertlerGold.com/ for more information. Website: https://gretagertlergold.com/