1996: Centre stage

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Tags: performing arts, summer-2011

Marcel Dorney, Bachelor of Arts (honours)

Marcel Dorney and partner Emily Tomlins at the announcement of the 2010 Queensland Premier's Drama Award

The spotlight is on Marcel Dorney, who since graduating from UQ has taken the theatre world by storm.

His honours thesis on rehearsal techniques in political theatre groomed him well as a playwright.

“For the purpose, I wrote and directed my first play, Bulldog Front, at what’s now the Geoffrey Rush Studio, but was then the Cement Box Theatre,” Mr Dorney said.

Following university, Mr Dorney went on to receive the Lord Mayor’s Performing Arts Fellowship in 2002, enabling him to study at the Maly Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia.

He has worked as a professional playwright, director and performer and his work has been commissioned by Queensland Theatre Company (QTC), Merrigong Theatre Company, Hothouse Theatre, La Boite, Brisbane Powerhouse, and the Melbourne Next Wave Festival, and has also been published by Playlab Press.

His latest production, Fractions, about an ancient Egyptian female mathematician, received the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award and will be performed by QTC in November and December.

“To have one of my plays performed by the flagship theatre company in my home city is wonderful,” he said.

Mr Dorney said both the best and worst part of his job was that there was always a new challenge awaiting him.

His determined attitude has led him to undertake further study in the dramatic field.

“I’m currently completing a masters by research in directing at the Victorian College of the Arts,” he said.

The playwright has fond memories of his time at UQ, and said that it was there he learnt some of his most valuable skills.

“No one is coming to save you, you’ve got to do it yourself. Partly that was because funding to my discipline was being viciously cut at the time, and partly because the performing arts were fairly marginal in the wider university culture,” Mr Dorney said.

“The other thing that has stayed with me from UQ is always to tell the truth, whether or not everyone wants to hear it.”

Mr Dorney has also recently reconnected with his honours supervisor – former Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Richard Fotheringham – who has recently become Chair of QTC.

The premiere season of Fractions plays at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre until December 10.

By Ingrid Rubie

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