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Angela Betzien
Angela Betzien Angela Betzien i(A3592 works by)
Born: Established: 1978 Rockhampton, Rockhampton - Yeppoon area, Maryborough - Rockhampton area, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Chalkface Angela Betzien , 2022 single work drama

'Bullying behaviour, tantrums and tough lessons are all part of a typical day at public-school St Jude’s – and that’s just in the staffroom!

'Creatures of habit, the tired teachers of St Jude’s find themselves jolted awake by the arrival of a young and enthusiastic new teacher, Anna Park, a recent graduate known as “the child whisperer”.

'Pat Novitsky, the school’s brilliant but bitter and longest-serving teacher, thinks Anna’s Masters of Neuroplasticity and new-age thinking has nothing on her 35 years of experience. Anna thinks Pat is stuck in the past. When the principal assigns school terror Hurricane Little to Anna’s class, the two teachers come head-to-head in a brutal smackdown of old versus new guard, exposing everyone’s darkest secrets.'

Source: State Theatre Company of South Australia.

1 y separately published work icon The Shot Angela Betzien , 2019 Brisbane : Playlab , 2021 23579400 2019 single work drama

'On board flight 404 a photojournalist settles in for another normal journey, but when their fellow passengers start seeming a little too familiar they’re forced to confront the subjects from all the photos they’ve shot across the years.

'Faced with a career’s worth of documented trauma, conflict, hardship, and grief the photojournalist, stuck in a tin can thirty thousand feet in the air, is forced to question the ethics of bringing about change one photo at a time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 4 form y separately published work icon Total Control Black B*tch Stuart Page , Kim Wilson , Rachel Perkins , Pip Karmel , Angela Betzien , Larissa Behrendt , Nakkiah Lui , ( dir. Rachel Perkins et. al. )agent Australia : Blackfella Films Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 2019-2021 15284926 2019 series - publisher film/TV

'An unlikely national hero, Alex is catapulted into government in a cynical power play. Used, abandoned and underestimated, now she's on a path that will send the political establishment into meltdown.'

Source: Screen Australia.

1 y separately published work icon The Hum Angela Betzien , 2017 14128016 2017 single work drama

'In Angela Betzien's play The Hum, a photojournalist sits in an airport toilet cubicle and contemplates taking her life with a pair of shoelaces. As the final boarding call is announced for Flight 404 to Singapore, she leaves the cubicle, shoelaces in hand, and rushes to gate Number 24. She settles in her seat but there is trouble on board, and take-off is delayed. Finally, the plane is in the air and the journey begins. Or does it? For soon it becomes clear that this is not an ordinary journey. Is it real or is it a dream? Are we seeing the last visions of a woman soon to be dead?'

Source: University of Wollogong (https://lha.uow.edu.au/taem/performances/UOW231684.html). (Sighted: 29/06/2018)

1 3 y separately published work icon The Hanging Angela Betzien , 2016 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2017 8959657 2016 single work drama mystery thriller crime

'Two private school girls are missing in Melbourne’s hinterland. The clock is ticking, the search is on. The one clue is 15-year-old Vivienne. Beguiling, quick-witted, provocative, she won’t give up her secrets easily. What exactly will the police uncover?

'Award-winning playwright Angela Betzien (an STC Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellow) has created a tense, tantalising crime thriller that reveals the mysterious underbelly of a privileged world.'

Source: Sydney Theatre Company 2016 program.

1 17 form y separately published work icon Secret City Secret City : Under the Eagle Belinda Chayko , Matt Cameron , Elise McCredie , Angela Betzien , Australia : Matchbox Pictures Foxtel , 2016-2019 8654771 2016 series - publisher film/TV thriller

'Amidst rising tension between China and America, senior political journalist, Harriet Dunkley, pursues a long-buried and exposing secret, leading to assassination attempts, suicide and murder. Beneath the placid façade of Canberra, she uncovers a ‘secret city’ of high-level Australians corrupted by the competing super-powers.'

Source: Screen Australia

1 y separately published work icon Egg Angela Betzien , 2016 11415379 2016 single work drama

'Across a dry and dusty desert, two tinkers, Clyde and Horse, drag an enormous egg. They can’t remember how long they’ve been dragging it, or why they’ve been dragging it, or where they are dragging it to. All they know is that it’s really important. Life on their big bald egg of a planet depends upon it. So there’s nothing to be done but to go on! Let’s tug this great big googy into the future. And who knows? Maybe something wonderful will hatch!

'A tale of two forgetful fellows yoked to a yoke. Silly and funny and a little bit cracked, Egg is filled with clowning, puppetry, hope and the promise of renewal.'

Source: Author's website (https://angelabetzien.com.au/plays/egg/). (Sighted: 26/06/2017)

1 7 y separately published work icon Mortido Angela Betzien , 2015 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2015 7804097 2015 single work drama crime

'Mortido is a crime drama, revenge tragedy and morality play rolled into one. In other words, a quintessential Sydney tale.

'It begins with a Mexican fable about death and ends in the Western suburbs. In between it takes in the public housing on Belvoir Street, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, quinoa, Nazi Germany, Qantas, Coca-Cola, a seventh birthday party, the Surry Hills police, the property market and a body in the harbour. The connective tissue? Cocaine.

'Jimmy is a small-time dealer and Monte is a biggish-time distributor. Grubbe is a detective. They all want the same thing: to live out their lives in leisure. And a water view would be nice. But for Jimmy and Monte to win, Grubbe has to lose. Same goes the other way.

'Angela Betzien is a virtuoso playwright who writes a funny line as well as she writes a thrilling plot and a furious social critique. Mortido is her most ambitious play so far, and a brilliant portrait of the emerald city: familiar, bizarre, glorious and mean.

'Colin Friels and director Leticia Cáceres (Miss Julie, The Dark Room) team up for this remarkable new play about crime, globalisation and the killer desire for a bigger house.' (Publication summary)

1 Welcome to Bulgaria Angela Betzien , 2014 single work drama
— Appears in: The Gap 2014;
1 y separately published work icon The Gap Patricia Cornelius , Melissa Reeves , Angela Betzien , 2014 8954348 2014 selected work drama

Three plays by female Australian playwrights, all centring on the 'gap year': the year after the end of high school.

1 1 Tall Man Angela Betzien , 2013 single work drama 'Twenty-eight-year-old Billie tracks down her father, Wayne, an ex criminal living under the radar in a shack out on the minefields. Billie and her boyfriend are fleeing drug barons who will kill them unless they return the drug money they loaned and now don't have. Billie visits her father in the desperate hope that Wayne has kept the "stash" from his last job, a stolen inheritance he promised to his young daughter a decade ago. However Wayne, brain injured and half mad from a car accident while fleeing police, can't remember the past or the promise he buried years ago.

'Tall Man' is a compelling drama revealing the fractured bond between a disillusioned daughter and a guilt-ridden father. Ultimately it is a play about heritage and redemption. It is a story that affirms the strength of family, the power of forgiveness and the hope of the future. It is also a haunting yet healing hymn to the land and its eternal resilience.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 y separately published work icon Who in the World is Frank Sparrow? [and] Girl Who Cried Wolf Angela Betzien , Brisbane : Playlab , 2013 Z1925575 2013 selected work drama
1 y separately published work icon Wicked Wonderland Angela Betzien , 2013 9764341 2013 single work drama

Little is known of the plot of this play.

1 y separately published work icon The Teenage Alchemist Angela Betzien , 2013 Brisbane : Playlab , 2013 7257815 2013 single work drama

'When two young people living with cancer meet on line in an internet chat room they form an unlikely bond, but are they brave enough to seize the day and meet in real life?' (Publication summary)

1 Where in the World is Frank Sparrow? Angela Betzien , 2012 single work drama
— Appears in: Who in the World is Frank Sparrow? [and] Girl Who Cried Wolf 2013;

"Where in the World is Frank Sparrow? was commissioned by Graffiti Theatre Company, Ireland. It's quirky graphic novel style weaves stark urban reality with the mythic underworld. Against this grim backdrop the young hero, Frank Sparrow, must endure dangers and trials, overcome weakness, find love and face death.

A uniquely modern legend, Where in the World is Frank Sparrow? reinvents the hero's journey for the 21st Century and propels its audience through the dangerous streets of Stab City and into the dark underworld of change and transformation."

Source: Playlab Publications

1 4 y separately published work icon Helicopter Angela Betzien , 2012 Z1840754 2012 single work drama satire 'Fourteen-year-old Jack is bullied in school, yet spoilt rotten at home by his rich, well-meaning parents who relentlessly baby-proof Jack’s life in case of looming dangers. Although, the hazards of Jack’s life pale into insignificance when compared to his young neighbour Thomas who lived through the war in Southern Sudan. Neither does it compare to the danger raised when Jack’s dad reverses his luxury 4x4 out their drive...' Source: www.stagewhispers.com.au/ (Sighted 08/02/2012).
1 y separately published work icon The Very True And Unusual Life Of Chook Angela Betzien , 2010 9765525 2010 single work drama

Little known of the plot of the text.

1 2 y separately published work icon War Crimes Angela Betzien , 2009 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2011 Z1580154 2009 single work drama young adult It's 1am on Anzac Day and the war memorial in a small town has been desecrated with anti-war slogans. In the dark hours before the dawn service, a group of girls are caught hiding out. Calling themselves the R.A.T. PAK, they are responsible for 'Random Acts of Terrorism' and upload their statements onto MySpace. Now, they face the strong arm of the law and the persecution of an entire town.
Source:http://my247.com.au/sydney/Utzon-Room-Sydney-Opera-House/whats-on/War-Crimes-Window-into-the-Rehearsal-Room.157150 (Sighted 22/4/2009)
1 11 y separately published work icon The Dark Room Angela Betzien , 2009 Brisbane : Playlab , 2009 Z1560212 2009 single work drama thriller

'A lonely motel somewhere in the Northern Territory. Deep into the night, six lost souls play out a small, distant tragedy of lovesickness and social breakdown – only it’s not the same night.

'The Dark Room is Angela Betzien’s beautifully-formed thriller about the startling idea that, no matter how far apart we are in distance and time, we are all responsible for each other’s lives.

'The Dark Room is a timely reflection on the conflict between what we ask of society and what it asks of us.'

Source: Playlab Publications

1 2 Girl Who Cried Wolf Angela Betzien , 2008 single work drama children's young adult
— Appears in: Who in the World is Frank Sparrow? [and] Girl Who Cried Wolf 2013;

'The most popular girl at school has disappeared prompting a lockdown in the suburb of Pleasant Lakes. Fear and hysteria grips the community. But all is not what it seems as two girls form an unlikely connection and collude in the construction of a gigantic lie.

Inspired by media reports involving the story of a girl who faked her own abduction, Girl Who Cried Wolf examines the cult of celebrity and the machinations of the school playground hierarchy. Set against the backdrop of a local shopping mall's Idol competition, an awkward 11 year old girl suffers the pain of growing up differently in a claustrophobic new housing estate in the outer suburban sprawl, anywhere and everywhere in contemporary Australia.' Source: www.theartscentre.com.au/ (Sighted 21/01/2009).

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