About Claire Haywood

 

I was born and educated in Perth, Western Australia. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Western Australia,  I moved to Berkeley,  California where I studied a Master of Arts in Drama at San Francisco State University. After living in Bologna, Italy for a year and giving birth to my daughter Tess, I returned to Australia where I performed in and directed over 25 plays,  and appeared all too briefly,  in a handful of tv dramas  -  E Street, Rafferty's Rules and GP.   I settled in Sydney because it was like San Fransisco with better weather and beaches.  It wasn't the small pond of Perth or the big smoke of the States but it proved to be the perfect place to find my voice as an actor/ writer/director/single mother in search of love, laughs, meaning etc, etc...  I married and produced two more children.

In 1989, I completed  the one year National Institute of Dramatic Art, Playwrights Studio. My first play, Dangerous Curve - an ambitious musical drama about growing up in the inner city and living on the dole was performed at The Performance Space in Sydney in 1987. The play featured a live band who also took acting roles, playing themselves. I co-wrote the lyrics with John Negroponte and Howard Shawcross. 

In 1991, I wrote Christmas Day – a black comedy about family relationships that come to a head when the mentally ill 50-something Grace goes AWOL from her nursing home and reunites with her estranged family for a traditional Christmas. Christmas Day received great crits and strong houses at the Q Theatre in Penrith in 1992 and at the Hunter Valley Theatre Company in Newcastle.
 Later that same year, my play Table For One? – a comedy satire about four characters stumbling through the singles scene, opened at the Hunter Valley Theatre Company in Newcastle. The play transferred to Sydney where it enjoyed a sell-out season at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney during the 1993 Festival of Sydney.  The play went on to tour regional theatre centres in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Canberra where it played to capacity houses. In 1991, I was commissioned by Jigsaw Theatre Company to write a play about teen suicide. It Couldn't Happen To Me premiered at the Australian Theatre Festival in Canberra in October 1991.

In 1992, I began writing for film and television.  My tv drama  credits include McLeods Daughters and I spent ten years working as a development writer, storyliner and editor for Southern Star, ITV, MC Films and Fox.  I also wrote and directed a number of short films. In 2006, I wrote directed and co-produced the 4-part series Taxi School for SBS television. 

I currently work as a writer and executive producer for factual television. Recent credits include: the ASTRA award winning 8-part series Kalgoorlie Cops, two series of the 2014 LOGIE AWARD winning 10-part  program Kings Cross ER,  the 10-part series Territory Cops and Gold Coast Cops. In 2014, I was privileged to write and produce Crash Test Mummies & Daddies - a bitterweeet doco series for the ABC about the ups and downs of first time parenting.  My latest 6-part documentary series Storm Season has taken me all over New South Wales chasing extraordinary weather events and telling the stories of the ordinary heroes of the SES who tackle the aftermath with cameraderie and goodwill.

My current project is a documentary feature - a joint venture with SEE Pictures - about a seventy year old Madam and her last loyal lady of the night and their fraught relationship as they battle to keep the doors of the oldest brothel in Kalgoorlie open. The Pink House is a Signature program film financed by Screen Australia.

Drama is still my passion and these days I find it in everyday life and non-fiction, but I will return. 

Table for One? published by Currency Press Australia is available from Wonderland Productions: claire@wonderlandproductions.com.au

Christmas Day is available from australianplays.org