Background
Alma De Groen was born on the 5th of September, 1941 in Foxton, New Zealand, the daughter of Archibald Mathers and Eileeen Vertongen.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
Going home and other plays
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0868190039/?tag=2022091-20
1977
Vocations
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0868190837/?tag=2022091-20
1981
The Girl Who Saw Everything
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F82HDXQ/?tag=2022091-20
1991
Woman in the Window
(In Stalin's Russia, the great poet Anna Ahkmatova is forb...)
In Stalin's Russia, the great poet Anna Ahkmatova is forbidden to write. In a future, denatured world, a young woman, Rachel, searches for what is missing in her life and the sterile world she inhabits.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0868195936/?tag=2022091-20
1999
Wicked Sisters
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/086819722X/?tag=2022091-20
2003
Alma Margaret De Groen
Edit ProfileCareer
Alma De Groen began her career as a library assistant at the National Library Service in Wellington and Hamilton, New Zealand in 1958-64. In 1964 she settled in Australia where, under the influence of the new theatre movement, she began writing plays in 1968. Feminist themes are threaded through the work of Alma de Groen. The period between 1969 and 1972 she spent overseas among artists in England, France and Canada.
Alma’s first play “The Sweatproof Boy” was presented at the Nimrod Street Theatre in 1972, on her return to Australia “The After-Life of Arthur Cravan” was selected by the first Australian National Playwrights’ Conference in 1973 and had a season the same year at Jane Street Theatre, Sydney. This was followed by “Going Home” in 1976 and “Chidley” in 1977 both of which had their premiere seasons in Melbourne.
In 1986 Alma served as a writer at West Australia Institute of Technology, Perth, Australia. A year later she worked as a dramaturg at Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney, Australia. “The Rivers of China” premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company in 1987.
Alma De Groen later wrote a telemovie “After Marcuse” in 1988 for ABC TV and scripts for the television series “Singles and Rafferty’s Rules”. “The Girl Who Saw Everything”, which focuses on the repressions of women's artistic expression, premiered at the Russell Street Theatre in Melbourne in 1991. It was also performed at The Drama Theatre of Ho Chi Minh City in 1998. Her two-act play “Wicked Sisters” was first produced in 2003, mixes drama with comedy as it follows four friends who meet after the death of one of the women's husband.
Alma worked as co-writer and dramaturg with Legs On the Wall for the performance piece “Wildheart” in 1994. Alma’s work for radio includes Available Light and Stories in the Dark (with Ian Mackenzie). She is the author of episodes for television series and of television plays including “Going Home” in 1980, and “Man of Letters” in 1985.
Alma currently lives in New Zealand, with her plays still being performed both in Australia and around the world.
Achievements
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Alma was a Canadian Playwriting Competition winner in 1970 for “The Joss Adams Show”.
In 1998 De Groen became the first playwright to receive the Patrick White Literary Award for her contribution to Australian theatre.
Alma’s play “The Woman in the Window” was supported by a grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. Currency Press published a revised script of the work in 1999, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
Works
book
-
Woman in the Window
(In Stalin's Russia, the great poet Anna Ahkmatova is forb...)
1999 - Wicked Sisters 2003
- The Girl Who Saw Everything 1991
- Vocations 1981
- Going home and other plays 1977
-
Woman in the Window
Connections
Alma De Groen was married to Geoffrey De Groen, but they divorced in 1965. They have one daughter, Nadine De Groen.
