Lorae Parry

{{Short description|New Zealand playwright and actor}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Lorae Parry | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM|size=100%}} | image = Lorae Parry The Witch Project (cropped).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1955 | birth_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | death_date =  | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | nationality = | residence = | education = Diploma in Acting, Toi Whakaari, New Zealand Drama School, MA in Scriptwriting, Victoria University of Wellington | alma_mater = | known_for = playwriting, performance | notable_works = Eugenia, 1996 | style = Parry's plays often explore sexuality, gender, and class systems. | home_town = | movement = | spouse = | partner = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website =  | module = }} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use New Zealand English|date= February 2020}} '''Lorae Ann Parry''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM}} (born 1955) is an Australian-born New Zealand playwright and actress.<ref name = 'twenty'>{{cite book|last1=Forster|first1=Michelanne|last2=Plumb|first2=Vivienne|title=Twenty New Zealand Playwrights|date=2013|publisher=Playmarket|location=Wellington|isbn=9780908607471}}</ref>

==Biography and education== She was born in 1955 in Sydney, Australia and in 1970 moved to New Zealand. Parry has two qualifications, a Diploma in Acting from Toi Whakaari, the national New Zealand Drama School in 1976,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Graduate|url=https://www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz/graduate|access-date=2021-08-09|website=www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> and a Master in Scriptwriting from Victoria University of Wellington. thumb|''The Witch Project'' (2019) featuring Parry

== Career == A noted feminist playwright, Parry's plays often explore sexuality, gender, and class systems.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lorae, Parry|url=http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/parry.html|website=New Zealand Book Council|access-date=8 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923195323/http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/parry.html|archive-date=23 September 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her first plays, ''Strip'', and ''Frontwomen'', used a combination of realism and humor to promote empowerment of women and more acceptance of lesbianism.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Carnegie|first=David|title=Parry, Lorae|date=2005-01-01|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordencycloped0002unse_e9d3|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198601746.001.0001|isbn=9780198601746|access-date=2019-10-08|url-access=registration}}</ref> The play ''Frontwomen'' was a breakthrough in history when it was the first lesbian play performed in New Zealand.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/routledgeinterna0000unse|title=Routledge international encyclopedia of queer culture|date=2006|publisher=Routledge|others=Gerstner, David A., 1963-|isbn=9780415306515|location=London|oclc=62475216|url-access=registration}}</ref> However, her most influential play, ''Eugenia,'' was published in 1996 and explored the nature of sexuality and gender, as well as challenging social traditions around females.<ref name=":0" /> ''Eugenia'' is noted for its mixing of the magical and supernatural with the true historical figure Eugene Falleni, an Italian-Australian transgender man convicted of the 1917 murder of his first wife.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Edmond|first=Murray|date=2004|title=How gothic is s/he? Three New Zealand dramas|id={{ProQuest|763426985}}|journal=Australasian Drama Studies|volume=44|pages=113–129, 149}}</ref> Parry constantly focuses on empowering women through theatre and through her plays, she focuses on the importance of women's lives.<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 2017|title=Parry, Lorae|url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/parry-lorae/|access-date=2019-10-08|work=Read NZ}}</ref> She continues to be active in women's issues through play publishing and theatre.<ref name=":0" />

Parry is a performer including being part of the Crows Feet Dance Collective, a dance company for women with a lowest age limit of 40 years.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|title=Crows Feets Dance - C is for Climate Change|url=https://danz.org.nz/c%20is%20for%20climate%20change%20review|access-date=2021-09-10|website=DANZ|language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-02-25|title=The Witch Project|url=https://www.thebigidea.nz/events/222329-the-witch-project|access-date=2021-09-10|website=The Big Idea|language=en}}</ref> She is known for her stage impersonation of former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark.<ref>{{Cite web|title=WRITING WELLINGTON: TWENTY YEARS OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY WRITING FELLOWS|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-RobWrit-_N74542.html|access-date=2021-09-10|website=NZETC}}</ref>

==Plays== *(1986) ''Strip'' [[File:Scarlet and Gold Circa Theatre 2016.jpg|thumb|Season of ''Scarlet and Gold'' at Circa Theatre in 2016]] *(1992) ''Digger & Nudger Try Harder'', co-written by Carmel McGlone *(1993) ''Frontwomen''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parry|first1=Lorae|title=Frontwomen|date=1993|publisher=Women's Play Press|location=Wellington, N.Z.|isbn=0473021714|pages=71}}</ref> *(1994) ''Cracks''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parry|first1=Lorae|title=Cracks|date=1994|publisher=Women's Play Press|location=Wellington, N.Z.|isbn=0473021714|pages=76|url=http://natlib.govt.nz/records/21083182?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=cracks+lorae+parry}}</ref> *(1996) ''Eugenia''<ref>{{cite book|last1=parry|first1=Lorae|title=Eugenia|date=1996|publisher=Victoria University Press|location=Wellington, [N.Z.]|isbn=0864733046|pages=86|url=http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22047591?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=eugenia+lorae+parry}}</ref> *(2002) ''Vagabonds''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parry|first1=Lorae|title=Vagabonds|date=2002|publisher=Victoria University Press in association with Women's Play Press|location=Wellington [N.Z.]|isbn=0864734352|pages=92|url=http://natlib.govt.nz/records/21031867?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=vagabond+lorae+parry}}</ref> *(2003) ''The Truth About Loven,'' co-written by Pinky Agnew *(2006) ''The Candidates'', co-written Pinky Agnew *(2008) ''Kate & Mrs Jones'' *(2010) ''Bloomsbury Women & The Wild Colonial Girl''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parry|first1=Lorae|title=Bloomsbury women & the wild colonial girl|date=2010|publisher=Women's Play Press|location=Wellington, N.Z.|isbn=9780958231015|pages=43|url=http://natlib.govt.nz/records/21758579?search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=bloomsbury+lorae+parry}}</ref> *(2010) ''Sex Drive,'' co-written by Pinky Agnew *(2014) ''Destination Beehive'', co-written by Pinky Agnew *(2016) ''Scarlet & Gold''

==Film== *(1988) ''Send a Gorilla'' as Sender of revenge gram

==Honours and awards== * 1994 – Awarded Stout Fellowship, Victoria University of Wellington * 1995 – The Reader's Digest PEN Stout Research Centre Fellowship * 1998 – Writer in Residence, Victoria University of Wellington.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Birch|first1=Dinah|last2=Drable|first2=Margaret|title=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature|date=2009|publisher=Oxford University|location=New York|isbn=9780192806871}}</ref> Parry was the first female playwright to achieve this award. * 2004 – Appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the performing arts, in the 2004 New Year Honours<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2004 |title=New Year honours list 2004 |date=31 December 2003 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |access-date=15 February 2020}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, Lorae}} Category:Living people Category:20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Category:New Zealand women dramatists and playwrights Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni Category:Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit Category:21st-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century New Zealand women writers Category:21st-century New Zealand women writers Category:1955 births Category:Toi Whakaari alumni Category:Australian emigrants to New Zealand