Jenny Kemp is an Australian

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

and writer. __NOTOC__

Career

The daughter of artist

Roger Kemp Roger Kemp AO OBE (3 July 1908 – 14 November 1987) was an Australian modernist painter, and printmaker, recognized as one of the leading figures in Australian abstraction. He pioneered transcendental abstraction, developing a personal symbo ...

, Kemp trained for one year at the

National Institute of Dramatic Art The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, it offers bachelor's, master's and vocational degrees in subjects including acting ...

. She next worked in experimental theatre in England before returning to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, where she attended a five-month workshop with Rowena Balos. She next joined Rob Meldrum in the Stasis Group, an alternative theatre company, at The Pram Factory. Kemp directed student productions at the Rusden College of Advanced Education and went on to teach at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus ...

. She has been an honorary research associate at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

and has received an

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

fellowship. Her texts are often inspired by the visual art of Belgian painter

Paul Delvaux Paul Delvaux (; 23 September 1897 – 20 July 1994) was a Belgian painter noted for his dream-like scenes of women, classical architecture, trains and train stations, and skeletons, often in combination. He is often considered a surrealist, alt ...

. She has worked with

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

, the State Theatre Company of South Australia,

Malthouse Theatre Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD ...

, the

Australian Performing Group The Australian Performing Group (APG) was a Melbourne-based experimental theatre repertory ensemble formed in an official capacity in 1970 from the La Mama Theatre (Melbourne), La Mama theatre group. Created to address a dissatisfaction with Austr ...

, Playbox Theatre and

Belvoir St Theatre Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre comprises two performing spaces: the Upstairs Theatre and the small ...

. She is writer and artistic director for Black Sequin Productions.

Awards

Kemp has been awarded the Kenneth Myer Medallion for the Performing Arts and

Green Room Awards The Green Room Awards are Australian peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, theatre companies, independent theatre, musical theatre, contemporary and experimental performance, and opera. The awards, which were established in ...

for her work as a director and for her collaboration in dance.

Selected works

Source: * ''Goodnight Sweet Dreams'' (1986) * ''Call of the Wild'' (1989) * ''Remember'' (1992) * '' The Black Sequin Dress'' (1996) * ''Still Angela'' (2002) * ''Kitten'' (2008) * ''Madeleine'' (2010)

References

External links

Jenny Kemp
in

AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

database {{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Jenny 1949 births Living people Australian women dramatists and playwrights Australian theatre directors Australian women theatre directors National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni Academic staff of Monash University Artists from Melbourne