Briar Grace-Smith ONZM is a writer of scripts, screenplays and short
stories from New Zealand. She has worked as an actor and writer with
the Maori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari and Maori theatre
company He Ara Hou. Early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown,
were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996.[1]
Waitapu, a play written by Grace-Smith, was devised by He Ara Hou and
performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in
Canada in 1996.Her first major play Nga Pou Wahine earned her the 1995
Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Grace-Smith won Best New Zealand Play
at the 1997 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for Purapurawhetu, called "a
new classic of New Zealand theatre" by New Zealand Listener.[2] The
play also toured to Canada and Greece.[3] In 2000, she received the
Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 1993 she was Writer-in-Residence at
Massey University, and in 2003, she was Writers' Fellow at Victoria
University of Wellington.[4] Her 2014 play Paniora was inspired by the
story of Spanish influence in the East Coast, via Manuel
José.[5][6]Screenplays include Fresh Meat (2012), Nine of Hearts and
the New Zealand feature film The Strength of Water (2009).[7] Her
plays have toured in New Zealand and internationally. The Strength of
Water was selected for the 2006 Sundance Screenwriters' Lab in Utah,
and premiered at the Berlin and Rotterdam Film Festivals in 2009. She
was a finalist at the 2009 Qantas Film and TV Awards for Best
Screenplay for a Feature Film for The Strength of Water.[8]
stories from New Zealand. She has worked as an actor and writer with
the Maori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari and Maori theatre
company He Ara Hou. Early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown,
were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996.[1]
Waitapu, a play written by Grace-Smith, was devised by He Ara Hou and
performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in
Canada in 1996.Her first major play Nga Pou Wahine earned her the 1995
Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Grace-Smith won Best New Zealand Play
at the 1997 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for Purapurawhetu, called "a
new classic of New Zealand theatre" by New Zealand Listener.[2] The
play also toured to Canada and Greece.[3] In 2000, she received the
Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 1993 she was Writer-in-Residence at
Massey University, and in 2003, she was Writers' Fellow at Victoria
University of Wellington.[4] Her 2014 play Paniora was inspired by the
story of Spanish influence in the East Coast, via Manuel
José.[5][6]Screenplays include Fresh Meat (2012), Nine of Hearts and
the New Zealand feature film The Strength of Water (2009).[7] Her
plays have toured in New Zealand and internationally. The Strength of
Water was selected for the 2006 Sundance Screenwriters' Lab in Utah,
and premiered at the Berlin and Rotterdam Film Festivals in 2009. She
was a finalist at the 2009 Qantas Film and TV Awards for Best
Screenplay for a Feature Film for The Strength of Water.[8]
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