New Zealand Writers

FORSTER, Michaelanne

'I feel very lucky to have found my own voice on stage through the voice of others.'

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FORSTER, Michaelanne (1953 - ) is a playwright, scriptwriter, fiction writer and editor who moved to New Zealand in 1972 from her native California. She is a graduate of Auckland University and the Auckland Secondary Teachers College.

After some rather mixed experiences as an actor - including a stint as a singing rabbit - Forster decided her talents were better used as a writer and script editor. 'Far safer to stand behind the camera and tell actors how to act,' she writes.

Her plays have all premiered at Christchurch's Court Theatre and been produced throughout New Zealand. They are: A Dream Romance (1986); Daughters of Heaven (1991); Songs My Mother Taught Me (1993); Lanarch - Castle of Lies (1993); and This Other Eden (1996). Both Larnach - Castle of Lies and Daughters of Heaven have been adapted successfully for radio: Daughters of Heaven was a finalist in the (1993) Mobil Radio Awards, and Lanarch - Castle of Lies won the Best Radio NZ Drama award in 1993.

Another play for radio, The Rosenberg Sisters (1997) won the award for Radio New Zealand Best Dramatic Production. Forster was awarded a QEII Playwright's Bursary in 1993, and won the Buckland Award for Literature in 1994 for Daughters of Heaven.

'I feel very lucky to have found my own voice on stage through the voice of others,' she writes. 'Actors have the gift of saying out loud what writers can only say on paper.'

Since being appointed to her first job in television - as a script editor for that children's television institution Play School - Forster has worked on numerous television programmes. These include Bumble, The Big Chair, What Now, After School, Sunday, and the Maori language inserts added to the American children's series Sesame Street. She has also written a feature film script, The Third Wife of Lanarch.

Forster has written four plays for children: The Bungling Burglars; Mean Jean The Pirate Queen; Arabella and the Amazing Wardrobe; and Musical Beasts. Her books for children are Rodney Rat and the Sunken Treasure (1983); Rodney Rat and the Sneaky Weasel Gang (1985); The Four-legged Prince (1985); and Rodney Rat and the Space Creatures.

Her non-fiction writing has appeared in A Passion for Travel (1998) and When It's Over: New Zealanders Talk About Their Experiences of Separation and Divorce (1998). Her work also appears in Play Lunch (1996), an anthology of New Zealand writing.

As a fiction writer, her stories have appeared in journals including Metro, Sport, Landfall, and Takahe. In 1996 she won the Takahe short story competition.

Michaelanne Forster was Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury in 1995. She teaches scriptwriting and video at the New Zealand School of Broadcasting.

(KC.)