Jean Betts

Jean Betts is a London born New Zealand playwright, actor and director.

Background

Jean Betts emigrated with her parents, both founders of Unity Theatre, London, to Christchurch, New Zealand. She obtained a degree at University of Canterbury in English Literature and New Zealand and Pacific History.[1] Betts graduated from Toi Whakaari: the New Zealand Drama School in 1970, the inaugural year when its founder, Nola Millar, was principal. Her classmates were Elizabeth Coulter, Jennifer Ludlam, Denise Maunder, Joanna Miekle, John Otto, William (Bill) Petley, Darien Takle and Bevan Wilson.[2]

Career

Jean Betts has written many plays including Revenge of the Amazons, Ophelia Thinks Harder, The Collective and The Misandrist.[3] The Collective is dramatisation of the story of Bertolt Brecht's theatre collective based on the principle that the collective are the owners of the work that Brecht took credit for.[4]

For many years Jean Betts worked as an actor and director at Gateway, BATS, Downstage Theatre and Circa Theatre. She was involved with the development of professional theatre in New Zealand including as a foundation member of Playmarket (New Zealand, 1975), Circa Theatre (Wellington, 1976) and Taki Rua/The Depot Theatre (Wellington, 1983).[5][6]

In 1979 Jean worked at ESTA (English Speaking Theatre Amsterdam) as actor/director, and was a founding member of the expatriate (New Zealand) group 'The Heartache and Sorrow Company' (directing)[7][3] which presented work in Amsterdam, Germany, Australia, London and at the Edinburgh Festival, where the group received a 'Fringe First' and a Scotsman's Award.

In 1993 she was a founding member of WOPPA (Women's Professional Playwrights Association)[8] which premiered her play Ophelia Thinks Harder.[1] and established The Women's Play Press with Lorae Parry, Cathy Downes, Vivienne Plumb and Fiona Samuel. Her play Ophelia Thinks Harder has subsequently been translated in German and Italian and produced over 160 times, it is a feminist response to Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. A reviewer from a presentation at the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin in 2019 states:

It is sheer delight to see again what has become a true New Zealand classic, and realise how brilliantly Ophelia Thinks Harder has stood the test of time. Combining love of poetical language with impudent humour, Jean Betts plunders many of Shakespeare’s plays as well as Hamlet – from The Taming of the Shrew to Othello and Much Ado – to create a hilariously topsy-turvy world.[9]

In 2005 she set up a small NZ play publishing project, The Play Press (www.playpress.co.nz).

Awards

She has been a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize twice; and in 2015 received the Playmarket Award of $20,000 for her contribution to New Zealand Theatre.[3]

Plays
  • 2014 - Genesis Falls (Finalist, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize)
  • 2012 - Into the Uncanny Valley (BATS Theatre, Wellington)
  • 2010 - The Man from Tamil Nadu
  • 2005 - The Collective[10] (BATS Theatre, Wellington; Finalist, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize)
  • 2000 - The Misandrist (an angry comedy) - (BATS Theatre, Wellington; winner, Aoraki Festival Playwriting Award)
  • 1996 - Saskia's Version (BATS Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1995 - Camelot School (Allen Hall, Dunedin)
  • 1995 - Strange Brew (BATS Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1993 - Ophelia Thinks Harder [11] (Circa Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1990 - Digger and Nudger Try Harder (with Parry & McGlone, BATS Theatre & Taki Rua Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1989 - Digger and Nudger (with Parry & McGlone, Hen's Teeth/ Circa Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1986 - Leave All Fair (screenplay, written with Pons, Reid, Harper)
  • 1983 - Revenge of the Amazons[12] (Circa Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1980 - Leaving Home (compiled with Barbara Ewing, performed Edinburgh Festival 1980)
  • 1977 - Dada (Downstage Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1976 - Fairy Tales (Theatre 87, Wellington)
  • 1974 - Bloomsberries (Downstage Theatre, Wellington)
  • 1973 - The Nobodies from Nowhere (co-written with Ludlam, Frost, Minifie & Wahren; Gateway Theatre, Tauranga)
gollark: Fascinating.
gollark: I use it for spaced repetition things. It is quite good.
gollark: You could use Anki?
gollark: Not that i know that much esoteric thingies.
gollark: You can* tell from the asterisks that this is ironic. I merely happen to have lots of free time, via things.

References
  1. "Spotlight Jean Betts" (11297039703). Playmarket. Playmarket News.
  2. Guest, Bill (2010). Transitions : four decades of Toi Whakaari : New Zealand Drama School. Wellington [N.Z.]: Victoria University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-86473-642-0. OCLC 669968400.
  3. "Jean Betts awarded 2015 Playmarket Award". Creative New Zealand. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  4. "The Collective". Playmarket. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  5. Circa 1996 - 2016. Wellington, New Zealand: Whitireia Publishing. 2016. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-9941302-3-5.
  6. Maufort, Marc; O'Donnell, David, eds. (2007). Performing Aotearoa : New Zealand theatre and drama in an age of transition. Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-90-5201-359-6. OCLC 165412282.
  7. "AusStage". The Australian Live Performance Database. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  8. "Women's Professional Playwrights Association". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  9. MacTavish, Terry (14 September 2019). "OPHELIA THINKS HARDER - A witty, daring mistresspiece". TheatreView. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  10. Betts, Jean (2005). The Collective. Wellington, New Zealand: The Play Press. ISBN 1-877319-10-4.
  11. "Jean Betts". Playmarket. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  12. Betts, Jean (1998). Revenge of the Amazons. Wellington, New Zealand: The Women's Play Press. ISBN 0958339368.
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