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Stuart Hoar
Born1957
New Plymouth, New Zealand
Occupationplaywright
Alma materUniversity of Auckland
Genretheatre, libretti, radio plays

Stuart Hoar (born 1957) is a New Zealand playwright, teacher, novelist, radio dramatist and librettist.[1]

Biography

Hoar was born in New Plymouth and educated at James Cook High School, Manurewa, and the University of Auckland. He worked in the film industry as a sound recordist.

In 1986, his first play, Squatter, was chosen for Playmarket's National Playwrights Workshop, was produced at Mercury Theatre in 1987, and published in 1988.[2][1] Influenced by Brecht, Squatter explored the dismantling of New Zealand's large land holdings by the Liberal government of the 1890s. It was determinedly non-naturalistic, using placards, direct audience address, and anachronism to subvert the idea of a "historical drama"; Hoar stated that he was "determined to annoy people".[1][3] His next play, Exile (1990), satirised founding figures of New Zealand literature.[3]

The following year, Hoar was Writer in Residence at Mercury Theatre and received a Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.[2] In 1993, Hoar received the Robert Burns Fellowship, and during his residence in Dunedin he wrote Not So Poor (produced at the Allen Hall Theatre), based on Mary Isabella Lee's autobiography,[4] and Yo Banfa, about Rewi Alley's time in China, as well as a radio play and research for his novel Hard Light.[5] From 1997 to 2000 he lived in England, during which time Hard Light was published.[1]

While living in Menton as the 2007 Katherine Mansfield fellow, Hoar wrote Pasefika, inspired by the work of the French artist Charles Méryon who had lived in the then French colony of Akaroa in the 1840s.[6] His 2013 musical, The Great Art War, was written with composer Philip Norman and is set in 1950; the plot concerns a dispute between the Christchurch City Council and the Christchurch Art Gallery over the purchase of a Frances Hodgkins painting.[1] Three of his most popular plays have been biopics of New Zealanders, in a relatively naturalistic style: Rutherford (2000), about the scientist Ernest Rutherford, Bright Star (1995), about the astronomer Beatrice Tinsley, and The Face Maker (2002), about the plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe.[1] His most recent play, Rendered, produced by the Auckland Theatre Company in 2018, deals with New Zealand's involvement in the politics of the Middle East.[7]

Since the age of 24, Hoar has written over 30 radio plays which have been broadcast internationally.[8] He has taught playwriting at Canterbury and Auckland universities, and currently works for Playmarket as their script advisor, and is a lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University.[1][9]

Plays

  • Squatter (1987) – first produced at Mercury Theatre, Auckland; published by Victoria University Press (1988)
  • Scott of the Antarctic (1989) – Allen Hall, Dunedin; published in No.8 Wire:8 Plays/8 Decades (Playmarket, 2011)
  • Exile (1990) – Allen Hall, Dunedin
  • A Long Walk Off A Tall Rock (1991) – NZ Drama School, Wellington
  • American Girl (1992) – Allen Hall, Dunedin; published in Three Radio Plays (Victoria University Press, 1989)
  • The Danger of Lifts (1992) – Court Two, Christchurch
  • Not So Poor (1993) – Allen Hall, Dunedin
  • Yo Banfa (Gung Ho) (1993)
  • Rutherford (2000) – Circa Theatre, Wellington
  • The Face Maker (2002) – Circa Theatre, Wellington
  • Bright Star (2005) – Circa Theatre, Wellington
  • Backwards in High Heels (2006) – Court Forge, Christchurch
  • The Great Art War (a musical, with composer Phillip Norman) (2013) – Court Theatre, Christchurch
  • Pasefika (2010) – Circa Theatre, Wellington, 2014
  • Rendered (2018) – Auckland Theatre Company[10]

Screenplays

  • Lovelock

Libretti

Novels

  • Hard Light (1998), Penguin New Zealand, ISBN 978-0140275056

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Forster, Michelanne; Plumb, Vivienne (2013). Twenty New Zealand Playwrights. Wellington: Playmarket. ISBN 9780908607471.
  2. ^ a b "Spotlight Stuart Hoar". Playmarket News Issue 22. Spring 1999.
  3. ^ a b Stringer, Jenny, ed. (1996). The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192122711.
  4. ^ Warrington, Lisa; Finigan, Alison (2014). Allen Hall: 100 Years | 100+ voices. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. p. 137. ISBN 9780473297374.
  5. ^ "Stuart Hoar". Nourishing the Roots: an exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  6. ^ Circa Theatre (10 March 2014). "Pasefika: "You have to live here, you have to be one of us, to get it."". Circa Theatre Blog. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  7. ^ Simei-Barton, Paul (24 September 2018). "Theatre review: Rendered". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  8. ^ Edmond, Murray (22 October 2014). "Plays and Playwrights". Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  9. ^ Massey University. "Stuart Hoar - Lecturer". www.massey.ac.nz. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Giltrap Audi season of Rendered". Auckland Theatre Company. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  11. ^ Smith, Charmian (19 October 1995). "Opera not too grand for Otago composers". Otago Daily Times. p. 26.
  12. ^ "Quartet". SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  13. ^ Manson, Bess (16 March 2004). "Thoroughly fraught about". Dominion Post. p. A12.
  14. ^ "Stuart Hoar". www.playmarket.org.nz. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  15. ^ "Fellows". Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  16. ^ "Pasefika". Scoop Independent News. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
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