SUZIE MILLER

SUZIE MILLER is a graduate of the NIDA Playwrights Studio (2000), has a Masters degree in Theatre (UNSW) and a Masters degree in Law (UNSW). Her theatre work includes:

Cross Sections, which had two sell out and critically acclaimed seasons in a production directed by Chris Mead (TRS) at the Old Fitzroy Theatre (2004), and the Sydney Opera House Studio 2005. Cross Sections was short-listed for the Qld Premier and was nominated for an Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE). A radio version of Cross Sections has been commissioned by ABC Radio (Airplay) to be produced 2007.

SOLD, which was selected for the 2005 Theatrelab program with Cicely Berry (Royal Shakespeare Company), and was directed by John Sheedy in a sell out and critically acclaimed production at the Old Fitzroy theatre in 2007.

All the Blood and All the Water was short-listed for the 2006 Rodney Seaborne Award, and was awarded the Theatrelab - Open award (the Holmes a Court Award) 2006. As part of that award Suzie completed a 2-week workshop with the renowned Edward Albee. All the Blood and All the Water has been selected for a main stage production at the Riverside Theatre Parramatta to premier in April/May 2008, and to be directed by John Sheedy.

The Emotional Anatomy of a Relationship Breakdown (short play) played for a week at the Victorian Arts Centre in 2006 and was selected to be one of the top 10 plays in that festival; and one act play Births, Deaths and Marriages (Australian National Playwrights Conference in 2001).

Further stage works in progress include: Reasonable Doubt which was selected for the Playworks 21st conference May 2006; Roaring Silence; TOUCH; Trial and Error and Trust. Film works include: All the Blood and All the Water and Objects of Obsession. Suzie currently sits on the board of State of Play, and the new Script Development Organisation PlayWriting Australia. She is a member of the artistic advisories of both TRS theatre company and Inscription.

CROSS SECTIONS

Cross Sections goes beyond the neon buzz of the Coke sign and a tourist's stroll along Darlinghurst Road and allows us to spend 24 hours in the Sydney's quintessential 'red light district'. A play that is populated by a parade of stunningly vulnerable characters, it explores the heart and soul of an underground community with rules of its own. There's young rent boy Aaron, searching for The Goddess (Leeanne, a prostitute who breathed him back to life), David-the-married-with-kids city corporate who in turn is searching for Aaron. Lou picks up fares while runaways Amelia and Fung-Lee hatch a plan, and elderly Enid endlessly sweeps the streets.

"Suzie Miller has written a powerful script that gives personal and often confronting perspectives on issues such as prostitution, heroin, violence, and homelessness. ... Cross Sections is an exhilarating ride ... flecked with humour and understated moments of tenderness."
- Gemma O'Donoghue, State of the Arts

"Miller has produced a stark, often very funny and genuine portrait of the Cross and its workers ... a strong affecting and sometimes tender portrait"
- Stephen Dunne, Sydney Morning Herald

SOLD

In this new age of materialism what have you sold to get ahead

SOLD is the tracking of lives that have become cluttered with the materialism of our new Australia - a new world where mortgage insecurity and consultant employment are the norm, relationships are contracted out, and intimacy is relegated to the too-hard basket. How did we all get sold on this version of life? When enough people silently relent, the complicity of the rest of us is somehow drawn to the fore.

Anthony, Hilary, Stan, Jen and Mandy struggle with their own emotional lives and each are trying to 'make it all work', yet the further they retreat from something real the more they fall. While all aspiring to the great sale - what have they each relinquished to be a player in a world where money spells success - where positive thinking is the new religion? It is only in dealing with our own life tragedies and losses that we can be alive enough to be part of humanity generally. A bitingly funny and intensely acerbic look at real estate, relationships and run-away failure!

"Sold is new Australian theatre rich in theatrical imagination and thematic substance".
- Mark Hopkins, Sydney Morning Herald

"Miller's writing is immediate, and the emotional dilemmas of the characters feel real. While Sold is set in what is ubiquitously termed Howard's Australia, complete with white picket fences, it is without the contempt for the people behind those fences that often follows".
- Vibewire

"Sold is a gently satirical, human and occasionally poignant play"
- Jason Blake, Sun-Herald

All the Blood and All the Water

Angel's dad is a Muslim from Iraq, his mum is a second generation Australian of Italian heritage. His friends Ryder, Lola and Honey are all Anglo Aussies, while his family friends are from his dad's culture. Despite a world of terrorist attacks, racial tension, wars and mounting local aggression, Angel finds himself falling in love when he and local girl Honey share intimate truths. When Ryder's older brother Jax is released from prison, there is suddenly pressure on Angel to choose between his two worlds, to choose a label as an 'aussie' or a 'leb' launching him into a war of his own. Young and struggling with his sense of self he is faced with a calamitous betrayal where his own identity and loyalties are brought to the fore. A play about how we define who we are and where we belong. In our new multicultural world when is blood thicker than water? And which blood is your truth?

Reasonable Doubt

A story of relationships, betrayal and justice as two former jury members Ella and Julian meet up for a hot night of passion acting on previously undeclared feelings - the truth is not what it seems and amidst the sexual and psychological tension arise issues of loyalty, truth and betrayal with the final verdict being one on relationships generally.

Do we interpret the actions of others in ways that suit us or is there a universal we can rely on? Do we desire people for who they are or for who we perceive them to be? What is truth and do we ever really know the people we are involved with? In a world that is increasingly uncertain what is certain and what is just?

Roaring Silence

A horrific crime is committed sending shock waves through the victim's family. The silence that engulfs the victims grand-daughter, 19 year old Amelie, has its own eerie trauma. While the media and public express sensationalist horror those who new the victim have to come to terms with a new way of being in the world. Amelie is ages 19, 20, 25 and 34. The journey that she takes is personal and eventful in the disturbing way that every victim of crime has to find a way to still live in the world as it now appears. Amelie explores every part of her being - her sexuality, her desires, her past, her relationships and her country. Simultaneously exploring the excruciating and conflictual need for revenge, and the need to continue to exist in a now foreign world, it is a story that reveals the process of return.

The Emotional Anatomy of a Relationship Breakdown

A short comedy exploring relationship breakdown. Annabelle and Christopher have broken up! Three facets of Annabelle and three facets of Christopher represent the different versions of truth, games, manipulations and desperations involved in battling the emotional landscape and the see-sawing dynamic implicit in a relationship breakdown. Once shifting power relationships are juggled through lust, romance, despair and remorse, is there finally some balance restored?

Births, Deaths & Marriages

Angie and Vince both went to the same regional high school, were champs in the local spelling bee and were supposed to go to the high school formal together. Both left mysteriously for the big city, and both feel they have 'fallen' from grace for different reasons. When they meet up by accident while stuck in a department store lift, they exchange the truths about why they left, share dark intimacies and grapple with their sense of identity and the possibility of return.

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