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By permission of the author
Merrilee Moss Merrilee Moss i(A12822 works by) (birth name: Merrilee Edwards) (a.k.a. 'Moss')
Also writes as: Alice Adams
Born: Established: 1950 ;
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon Running with Emus Merrilee Moss , 2020 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2020 18796302 2020 single work drama

'Running with Emus is a new tragi-comic play about the conflicts and dynamics that arise as a community considers becoming a “Refugee Friendly Town”.

'Running with Emus is a new play by award-winning regional playwright Merrilee Moss about refugees, identity and belonging. Seventy-six year old Pat has dropped out of life. She is living on her veranda, watching birds, when her granddaughter arrives to stir up the town. Throw into the mix an Italian ghost from the past, a bigoted Mayor and a chorus of laconic locals and you have a story about what it is to be Australian in a multicultural world.' (Production summary)

1 The Sacrifice of Oriel Gray (1920-2003) : Australian Playwright Merrilee Moss , 2016 single work biography
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 68 2016; (p. 75-96)
'Between 1943 and 1960, Australian playwright Oriel Gray had more than fourteen theatre scripts produced in almost every capital city of Australia. She was arguably the first playwright-in-residence in Australia's history and one of only a few Australian playwrights to make her living from her work. She wrote numerous radio plays for 2KY in the 1940s and many more for the then Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in the 1950s. She was well respected and well reviewed. She won many playwriting awards, including the Wagga Wagga play competition prize in 1946 for My Life Is My Affair, the J.C. Williamson Guild competition prize in 1960 for Burst of Summer and the 1955 Playwrights Advisory Board's (PAB) prize for the best Australian play with her script The 'Torrents'.' (Publication abstract)
1 Oriel Merrilee Moss , 2016 single work drama

'In a liminal, late night world, the playwright Oriel types her plays, stalked by her characters, battling her demons and sharing thoughts and reflections with modern day playwright, Moss. In a series of flashbacks, Oriel depicts the left wing bohemian world of Sydney in the early 1950’s, including vibrant moments from Oriel Gray’s unconventional love life, her passionate involvement with the New Theatre and her occasionally fractious association with the Australian Communist Party.

'In 1955, Gray’s play The Torrents shared the prize for best Australian play with Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Both plays were promised production, but only The Doll was supported. Imaginative and dynamic, Oriel raises questions about the foundation of Australian theatre today.' (Production details)

1 Janis Balodis, Engine and Debra Oswald House on Fire Merrilee Moss , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 67 2015; (p. 198-203)

— Review of Engine Janis Balodis , 2010 single work drama ; House on Fire Debra Oswald , 2009 single work drama
1 y separately published work icon Australian Women Playwrights : The Sacrifice of Oriel Gray Merrilee Moss , Clayton : Monash University , 2015 10799496 2015 single work thesis

'Australian Women Playwrights: the Sacrifice of Oriel Gray argues that multi-award winning left-wing Australian playwright Oriel Gray was sacrificed in 1955 by and for the dominant discourse in one symbolic act of “violence”. It investigates contributing elements and circumstances that may have worked together and separately to create and maintain Gray’s liminal status in the theatre world, despite her significant achievements, for more than half a century, and asks how it has been possible for Gray and her considerable body of work to be “forgotten” again and again. It also seeks to examine the manner in which Gray as an outsider/stranger/artist depicted sacrifice and expressed liminality in her work, and argues that Gray’s position provided her a particular point of view. The artwork at the centre of the thesis is the play script Oriel, structured by a dialogue between two Australian playwrights: ‘Oriel’ from the mid-twentieth century, and modern-day playwright, ‘Moss’. As a secondary task, both artwork and dissertation speculate on what effect the forgetting of Gray and her work may have had on the situation for women playwrights today, focusing particularly on contemporary multi-award winning left-wing Melbourne playwright, Patricia Cornelius. With reference to psychoanalysis, sociology and anthropology, using a feminist lens and a synthesized practice-as-research methodology, this thesis highlights Gray as an innovative, important playwright, and argues that she was sacrificed precisely because of her significance.' (Publication summary)

1 Book Reviews Merrilee Moss , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , April no. 64 2014; (p. 342-346)

— Review of Transparency Suzie Miller , 2009 single work drama ; Kelly Matthew Ryan , 2011 single work drama ; Cyberbile [and] Grounded Alana Valentine , 2013 selected work drama
1 Tango Femme Merrilee Moss , 2011 single work drama humour 'Burlesque comedy amidst the world of lesbian ballroom dancing - funny, sexy and poignant. Lannie, a menopausal librarian, is struggling to maintain her job, while caring for her elderly mother. The Golden Apple Dance Studio is struggling to survive. Six over-enthusiastic dancers are determined to compete in the Outgames Dancesports in Madrid. Amidst the a passionate battle about who will win the ultimate prize, a cast of vibrant characters waltz, cha cha, jive and rhumba towards the ultimate climax - the Tango.' Source: http://www.midsumma.org.au/ (Sighted 10/04/2012).
1 y separately published work icon Tango Femme : Placing The Lesbian Centre Stage Merrilee Moss , Brisbane : 2009 Z1853397 2009 single work thesis 'The play "Tango Femme" places the lesbian centre stage by creating characters, narrative and drama in the world of same-sex dancing. The accompanying exegesis examines the problems and issues associated with creating lesbian characters in theatre, using a synthesized, practice led methodology. During the process of imagining, constructing and writing my case study play, I have investigated lesbian theatre productions and companies in order to make sense of my personal experiences in the theatre world. I have also reflected on the lesbian as represented in mainstream theatre and popular culture. Through journal writing and contemplation, I have sought to identify difficulties inherent in writing this type of play, using my own journey as a focus. My study illuminates the historical and sociological circumstances in the eighties and nineties in Australia and concludes that as a lesbian playwright I was caught between a rock and a hard place: the rock being lesbian theatre on a community level, as defined and attended primarily by separatist lesbians, and the hard place being mainstream theatre, located within the dominant, heteronormative discourse.' Merrilee Moss.
1 Night Breakfast Merrilee Moss , 2009 single work drama This play is based on real interviews with seven Australian women aged between 55-85, from different cultural backgrounds stranded overnight in the Darebin area, after the floods of 2003 - Irish, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Chinese, English and Australian backgrounds.
1 y separately published work icon At the Crossroads ; Empty Suitcases Merrilee Moss , Jan Cornall , Charnwood : Ginninderra Press , 2004 Z1250849 2004 selected work drama
1 2 The Slippery Slope Merrilee Moss , 2002 single work drama
2 1 y separately published work icon Fedora Walks Merrilee Moss , North Melbourne : Spinifex Press , 2001 Z796565 2001 single work novel crime satire
1 Performance Time Merrilee Moss , 1997 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , Spring vol. 9 no. 2-3 1997; (p. 5-6)

— Review of Telling Time : Papers, Perfomances and Images from Playworks Playing with Time Festival Held at the Wharf Theatre, Sydney 13-15 October 1995 1996 anthology drama criticism ; Playing with Time : Women Writing for Performance Colleen Chesterman , 1995 single work criticism
1 Gay Plays Merrilee Moss , 1997 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 189 1997; (p. 58-59)

— Review of Australian Gay and Lesbian Plays 1996 anthology drama
1 Dumped Merrilee Moss , 1996 single work short story
— Appears in: Hide and Seek : Stories About Being Young and Gay/Lesbian 1996; (p. 151-160)
1 Empty Suitcases Merrilee Moss , 1995 single work drama
— Appears in: At the Crossroads ; Empty Suitcases 2004; (p. 71-140)
1 y separately published work icon Taking a Punt : First Stop Bonegilla Merrilee Moss (editor), Preston : City of Darebin , 1994 Z1584669 1994 anthology short story
1 6 y separately published work icon Thriller and Me Merrilee Moss , Glen Iris : Silver Gum Press , 1994 Z542637 1994 single work children's fiction children's Angelica's twelve, and no angel, as she says herself. But she wants to know what she has done to deserve her dad being gone, her mum flipping her lid and the dog howling every night. She sets off with Beth and try-hard Max to try to learn the truth.
1 Puppets to Playwrights: Girls on Stage Merrilee Moss , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia for Women : Travel and Culture 1994; (p. 142-148)
1 y separately published work icon Kristi Merrilee Moss , Ringwood : Penguin , 1993 Z1584675 1993 single work novel young adult
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