Currency Press

Currency Press Pty Ltd

Founded	1971
Founders	Katharine Brisbane and Philip Parsons
Country of origin	Australia
Headquarters location	Redfern, New South Wales
Distribution	Regency Media
Publication types	Books
Nonfiction topics	Performing arts
Fiction genres	Plays and screenplays
Official website	currency.com.au

Currency Press is Australia's only specialist performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works.

Currency Press was founded by Katharine Brisbane, then national theatre critic for The Australian newspaper, and her husband , a lecturer in Drama at the University of New South Wales.^[1] After Philip's death in 1993, Katharine remained at the helm of the company until she retired as Publisher in December 2001 to devote her energies to Currency House, a non-profit association dedicated to the Australian performing arts.^[2]

In 2011, Currency Press received the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession at the AWGIE Awards.^[3] Also supplier for all Nick Hern Books titles

Titles[]

Plays[]

• Away by Michael Gow (1986) – winner of the 1986 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award – Play Award
• The Rivers of China by Alma De Groen (1987) – winner of the Premier's Award in both NSW and Victoria, and included by the Australian Society of Authors in its list of Australia's 200 best literary works^[4]
• Blackrock by Nick Enright – It's Toby Ackland's birthday party down near the surf club – and that means grog, drugs and fun; by the morning a young girl is dead – raped and bashed with a rock
• The Chapel Perilous by Dorothy Hewett – depicts the painful and sometimes farcical life of a defiant young poet, Sally Banner
• Cloudstreet by Nick Enright & Justin Monjo (1999) – an adaptation of Tim Winton's classic novel, and winner of the 1999 Gold AWGIE Award
• The Club by David Williamson – a play set behind the scenes of a football club; a head-on tackle of brawn versus bureaucracy
• Così by Louis Nowra – winner of the 1992 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award – Play Award
• Dead Heart by Nick Parsons – winner of the 1994 Australian Human Rights Award, the 1993 NSW State Premier's Literary Award – Play Award and the 1993 AWGIE Award for Drama
• Diving for Pearls by Katherine Thomson – winner of the 1991 Victorian Premier's Award – Louis Esson Prize for Drama
• Don's Party by David Williamson – Williamson's brilliant satire examines a society on the threshold of emerging from a generation of comfortable, conservative political and social values
• The Ham Funeral by Patrick White – an early expressionist drama which explores the spiritual forces that propel us forward
• Holding the Man by Tommy Murphy (2007) – an adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's best-selling memoir
• Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson (1990) – winner of the 1990 AWGIE Award – Stage Award, 1990 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Drama and the 1990 Green Room Award for Best Play
• Macquarie by Alex Buzo – traces the decline of Governor Lachlan Macquarie's authority in the infant colony of New South Wales; it was the first play published by Currency Press
• No Sugar by Jack Davis – winner of the 1992 Kate Challis RAKA Award for Drama and the 1987 WA Premier's Book Awards – Special Award
• Norm and Ahmed by Alex Buzo creates an image of race prejudice as a profoundly irrational force in the behaviour of ordinary Australians
• The Removalists by David Williamson – winner of the 1972 AWGIE Award – Best Stage Play and Best Script, as well as the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright
• The Season at Sarsaparilla by Patrick White – neighbours are held by their environment, waiting with determination, but little expectation, for the inevitable cycle of birth, copulation and death
• Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell (1996) – winner of the 1997 AWGIE Award – Stage Award; this is the play upon which Lantana was based
• Stolen by Jane Harrison – this tender and moving story brought the tragic history of the Stolen Generations to the Australian stage; winner of the 2002 Kate Challis RAKA Award
• Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler (1955) – a defining moment in Australian theatre history, and a beacon in the Australian dramatic canon
• The Time is Not Yet Ripe by Louis Esson – a political comedy from 1912 in which the forces of socialism, feminism and conservatism fight out an election and an engagement to marry
• The Woman in the Window by Alma De Groen – supported by the Literature Board of the Australia Council and short-listed for the 1999 NSW Premier’s Award for Drama^[5]

Screenplays[]

• Blue Murder by Ian David – a powerful and frightening story about police corruption and Sydney's underworld
• Chopper by Andrew Dominik – goes inside the mind of Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read, one of Australia's most notorious criminals
• Muriel's Wedding by P. J. Hogan – Muriel, an unhappy young woman in dismal surroundings, sets out to overcome obstacles such as her family, her joblessness, and her obsession with 70s glam rockers ABBA
• Rabbit Proof Fence by Christine Olsen – three Aboriginal girls are forcibly removed from their outback families in 1931 to be trained as domestic servants as part of official government policy
• Strictly Ballroom by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce – an exuberant story about the struggle for love and creativity in a world limited by greed and regulation

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Guide to the Records of Currency Press, National Library of Australia