Who is Alana Valentine?
An Australian playwright and the author of Letters to Lindy currently playing at Merrigong Theatre Company, Wollongong, before touring to the Canberra Theatre Centre and the Seymour Theatre in Sydney.
What would you do differently to what you do now?
I already use a standing desk and try to walk 10,000 steps per day but I would like to reach that target more consistently.
Who inspires you and why?
Most recently I have been inspired by Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton’s collection of 20,000 letters housed in the National Library of Australia because they speak of a community of kindness and empathy, and a mother who overcame a cruel miscarriage of justice.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
Support the humane destruction of feral cats.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
London. Love the theatre.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
I’d take them to South Pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge because it gives them a unique view of Sydney.
What are you currently reading?
The Penguin Rhyming dictionary and Frank Moorhouse’s Cold Light.
What are you currently listening to?
Barefoot Divas.
Happiness is?
Swimming in close to freezing water on the Booderee Peninsula.
What does the future hold for you?
A commission from the Charles Perkins Centre to write Made To Measure, about wedding clothes seamstresses and tailors, a project with the City of Sydney and Griffin Theatre called Wayside Bride about marriages at the Wayside Chapel; the publication of Dear Mrs Chamberlain through the National Library of Australia in 2017; the publication of a writing memoir called Bowerbird by Currency Press; later this year, the stage adaptation of Cold Light at the Street Theatre in Canberra from 19 November – 4 December 2016; and in Maryland, USA at the Venus Theatre Company my first ever USA production Soft Revolution: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah.
Alana’s latest work, Letters to Lindy is currently playing at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong until 6 August, before touring to the Canberra Theatre Centre (9 – 13 August); Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre (30 August); and the Seymour Centre, Sydney (2 – 10 September).
Image: Alana Valentine – photo by Vicki Gordon