Dr Laura Ginters

BA (Hons), LLB, PhD

Lecturer

Room S108B Woolley Building

61 2 9351 6849


Laura Ginters lectures in the Department of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney. Her doctorate is in Germanic Studies and Performance Studies and concentrated on the role of the female characters in, and female (actors’ and directors’) interpretations of, Georg Büchner’s "Danton’s Death". Laura worked for three and a half years at Playworks, the national women performance writers’ network, developing new women’s writing for theatre and performance. She was previously the Associate Director of the International Theatre Institute and has also worked for Opera Australia. She translates for the stage from German and her translations have been both published and performed: most recently she translated Brecht’s "Threepenny Opera" for Company B Belvoir Street (2003). Laura works as a dramaturg for companies such as Harlos Productions, Pact Youth Theatre, the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre and on independent projects, and has assessed scripts for Playworks and Griffin Theatre Company. She has had articles published locally and internationally in the areas of writing for performance, feminism and theatre, translation, performance analysis and Indigenous theatre, as well as performance reviews for the arts journals Post/West and RealTime.

• Rehearsal studies
• Feminist performance theory
• Writing for performance
• Dramaturgy
• Recent Australian theatre history (including: Sydney University Dramatic Society (1959-65), Rex Cramphorn)

• The Ripples Before the (New) Wave: Sydney University Dramatic Society 1959-64
  SUDS and other University drama groups such as SU Players played a significant role in the—otherwise rather barren—theatrical landscape of Sydney in the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. A striking number of its members (for example Clive James, Bruce Beresford, Germaine Greer, Leo Schofield) went on to have high profile careers in the arts and have made significant contributions to Australian culture and the arts. The “New Wave” in Australian theatre can be traced back to the activities of those prominent in SUDS at this time and has been extensively researched, but almost no attention has been paid to this earlier, foundational period.
• From the Fatal Shore to Far Shores: Australian directors overseas
  In recent years a number of Australian theatre directors (for example Gale Edwards, Barrie Kosky and Beverley Blankenship) have achieved considerable international prominence, bringing a particular Australian sensibility to theatre productions and to the way in which productions evolve in the rehearsal and development phase.
• Rex Cramphorn: Performance Histories
  Rex Cramphorn was a highly original director of Shakespeare, French classical and contemporary Australian theatre. His untimely death at the age of 50 in 1991 cut short a significant artistic career. The Rex Cramphorn Committee has commissioned research for a book length study of Cramphorn’s work, both with the innovative companies he founded in the 1970s, and his later work, including his 5-year Resident Directorship of Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre. This will complement the collected edition of his writings, currently being compiled and edited by Dr Ian Maxwell.

“The Plays of Beatrix Christian: Muses and Makers, Victims and Shakers” in Rachel Fensham and Denise Varney (eds), The Doll’s Revolution, Australian Scholarly Publishing (forthcoming, 2005)

Laura Ginters, Michael Cohen and Paul Dwyer, “Performing Sorry Business: Reconciliation and Redressive Action” in Graham St John (ed), [[i|Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance]], Berghahn Books, New York (forthcoming, 2005)

“Radio Drama as Music Theatre? Re-defining a Genre in Plays by Noëlle Janaczewska”. Paper presented at The Radio Conference 2005, Melbourne, July 2005. (Submitted for publication in online refereed conference proceedings)

Review into Script Development and Dramaturgy in NSW: the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre and Playworks National Women Performance Writers’ Network, Report commissioned by the NSW Ministry for the Arts, 2004

Laura Ginters and Keith Gallasch (eds), Australasian Drama Studies, Number 45, October 2004, Special Issue on Music Theatre

Bertolt Brecht, Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper). Literal translation, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre, 2003. Premiere production: 6 November - 21 December 2003, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney

Laura Ginters and Barbara Campbell (eds), Barbara Campbell: Flesh Winnow, A Retrospective Survey, Power Publications, Sydney, 2002

Laura Ginters and Udo Borgert (trans): Margret Kreidl, "Grateful Women" (Dankbare Frauen), in: Udo Borgert (ed), An Anthology of Contemporary Austrian Plays by Women, Ariadne Press, Riverside, California, 2001.

Laura Ginters and Udo Borgert (trans): Marlene Streeruwitz, "New York, New York" in: Udo Borgert (ed), An Anthology of Contemporary Austrian Plays by Women, Ariadne Press, Riverside, California, 2001.

Laura Ginters and Kerrie Schaefer, "The more things change, the more they stay the same...? Feminisms and Performance Studies", Australasian Drama Studies, Number 39, October 2001

CURRENT TEACHING

Rehearsal Studies; Gender and Performance; Dramaturgy; Documentation of Performance; Theatre History; The Playwright in the Theatre.

SUPERVISION

• Feminist performance theory
• Gender and performance
• Law, liveness and performance
• Indigenous performance
• Creation of "family" in theatre practice
• Dramaturgy

• Radio 2005: Transnational Conference and Forum, Melbourne 2005
  Dramaturgies III, Melbourne 2004
• Australian National Playwrights' Conference: Canberra, 2002; Canberra 2003; Adelaide, 2004

Member, Rex Cramphorn Committee (2002-2005)

Board member, Theatre Kantanka (1998-2004)

Board member, De Quincey Company (2000-2005, Chair 2003-2005)

Board member, Sydney Arts Management Advisory Group (2002-2005)