The Actor as Writer with Tommy Murphy

Course Overview

Award winning playwright and screenwriter (Holding The Man), Tommy Murphy will take participants through a practical online workshop. The goal is to develop writerly skills that will benefit both acting practice and guide actors seeking to write their own screenplays and stage plays. Participants with existing writing credits, ideas for writing projects or just a curiosity about the writing process are encouraged to take part. Tommy has experience in film, TV and in theatre and will therefore explore the differences and shared craft across these mediums.

Tommy Murphy’s plays have been regularly produced internationally including a recent West End production of Stranger in Between and Italian and US productions of Holding the Man. His most recent play, Packer & Sons, broke box office records with its extended season at Belvoir this year. His awards include the WA Premier’s Award for Best Play, The Richard Burton Prize, a two-time winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Winner, three AWGIES, the Philip Parsons Prize, a Film Critics Award for best screenplay.  He was the Patrick White Fellow at the Sydney Theatre Company and the recipient of the 2020 Australia Council’s National Theatre Award. He is under commission from the Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir. His TV credits include Devil’s Playground, Fighting Season, Bloom, OffSpring and the film Holding the Man for which he was also Associate Producer. He has a TV series in development with Fremantle Media as well as adapting his play Mark Colvin’s Kidney for screen with Porchlight Pictures (producers of Animal Kingdom, The Kettering Incident).

This Masterclass is perfect for those actors with pre-developed materials looking to learn how to write and develop their work for stage and screen. 

About Tommy Murphy

Tommy Murphy’s award-winning stage plays have enjoyed international success including a 2018 transfer of his play Strangers in Between to the West End.  Murphy’s adaptation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding formed part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. His stage play Holding the Man continues to be produced across the world with recent productions this year alone in London, Chicago and Melbourne.

Tommy was the screen-writer and associate producer for the feature film Holding the Man (now on Netflix globally and Stan locally), winner of the Australian Writers’ Guild Award for best-adapted screenplay and The Film Critics Circle of Australia award for best screenplay. As a TV writer, he was part of the teams behind Devil’s Playground for Foxtel (winner of mini-series awards at the Logies and AACTAs) and Fighting Season currently screening on Showtime as well as other series TV.

His most recent play Mark Colvin’s Kidney for Belvoir is now in development for screen with Porchlight Pictures (producers of Animal Kingdom, The Kettering Incident). He is winner of the WA Premier’s Award for Best Play, The Richard Burton Prize, a two-time winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Winner, two Awgies, the Philip Parsons Prize and was most recently the Patrick White Fellow at the Sydney Theatre Company. He is now in residence at Currency Press. He is under commission from the Sydney Theatre Company and has a work in development with Fremantle Media. His next play is for Belvoir, the story of three generations of Australia’s infamous media cum gambling dynasty in Packer & Sons.

Tommy’s Imdb

Apply Now