 |
|
Alan Hopgood has been one of Australia's leading playwrights since 1963, when the first of his successful plays for the Melbourne Theatre Company, AND THE BIG MEN FLY, was presented. He followed this in 1964 with THE GOLDEN LEGION OF CLEANING WOMEN and, in 1966, the first play in the world on the subject of the Vietnam War, PRIVATE YUK OBJECTS. Following the success of AND THE BIG MEN FLY, Alan wrote a sequel AND HERE COMES BUCKNUCKLE.
Then followed a career in film and television, winning Awgie awards for THE CHEERFUL CUCKOLD and THE BUSH BUNCH and writing several feature films, including ALVIN PURPLE and the documentaries THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS and THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.
His collaboration with Michael Easton produced the children's opera LITTLE REDINKA for the Victorian State Opera and PETROV - THE MUSICAL for the Summer Music Festival in 1992 and the musiographies OH, MR PORTER!, RODGERS AND HART and CALLAS - THE WOMAN. He collaborated with Michael Harrison to produce THE MARIO LANZA STORY for Mietta's in 1994-5, the Melbourne Concert Hall and a tour of Queensland.
As an actor, Alan spent ten years with the MTC; six years as the popular "Doctor Reed" in BELLBIRD, and then created the characters "Wally" in PRISONER and "Jack Lassiter" in NEIGHBOURS.
His performance as "Rumkowski" in Avraham Cykiert's mono-drama THE EMPEROR OF THE GHETTO played seasons in Melbourne and won him the Best Actor at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1994. He has also performed the play in some sixty schools and on ABC-FM radio.
In 1996, his book about prostate cancer, SURVIVING PROSTATE CANCER - ONE MAN'S JOURNEY, was published to wide acclaim. As a result, Alan has addressed many conferences, men's health and Rotary nights and, seeing the need for information, he adapted his story into a comedy about men's health, intimacy and cancer, FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE which premiered at Chapel Off Chapel in Melbourne in 1997 and then toured regional areas in Victoria. In 1998, the play had a return season in Melbourne before being filmed for video release. In 1999 it toured widely in regional Victoria and performances are scheduled in Tasmania and South Australia in 2000.
In 1999, his new play THE CARER was produced, starring Charles 'Bud' Tingwell. The production has toured to all states since 2000 (183 performances) and is scheduled to tour overseas in 2004.
For more information, please email ahopgood@bsp.net.au
Created by: Simon Bolch (sbolch@dingoblue.net.au) Maintainer: Fincina Hopgood (fhopgood@ormond.unimelb.edu.au)