Paul Davies (writer)

Paul Michael Davies was born in Queensland in 1949.[1] He took his BA with Honours from the University of Queensland and his MA in 1973. He began tutoring at James Cook University before taking a script writing role at Crawford Television Productions in Melbourne, Australia in 1974.[2] He was a script editor and writer on the police television series, Homicide (1974-1975),[3] before moving to work on the Crawford series The Box (1975-1976) and The Sullivans (1976-1978). He also contributed to scripts for Against the Wind (1978), Skyways (1979), Rafferty's Rules (1985), Blue Heelers (1997), Pacific Drive (1996), Stingers (1998-2003), Something in the Air (1999-2001 and Headland (2005).

Davies moved into film and theatre work, working as a writer, actor and director. He co-wrote and directed the documentary drama film Exits (1980) which was taught on the history syllabus of selected high schools.[4] He co wrote Niel Lynne (1985) with David Baker. He wrote and performed in four John Hughes short or documentary films[5][6] - November Eleven (1979), Traps (1985), All That Is Solid (1988),[7] and One Way Street (1990). He has also co-written Red Ted and the Great Depression (1994)[8] and Holy Rollers (2000),[9]

Davies became a founding member, writer and performer of the TheatreWorks ensemble in Melbourne. He wrote several “location theatre” plays for TheatreWorks -Storming Mont Albert by Tram (1982) which was performed on trams in Melbourne, Adelaide and around the world for a number of years with great success.[10][11] He also wrote Breaking Up in Balwyn (1983) which was staged on a riverboat,[12] Living Rooms (1986), which was staged in an historic mansion and Full House/No Vacancies (1989) which was staged in a boarding house. On Shifting Sandshoes was staged in 1988.

He published his first novel, 33 Postcards from Heaven in 2004.[1]

Davies has taught film and scriptwriting at a number of Australian universities and has been published in drama and industry journals and magazines. He completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in 2013 with a thesis entitled Really Moving Drama, a study of TheatreWorks’ ‘location plays’.[13] 49 boxes of his papers, scripts and other materials are held in the University of Queensland Fryer Library.[14]

• Exits (1980) – nominated for a Greater Union Award at the Sydney Film Festival[4]
• Something in the air – Return of the prodigal episode – Australian Writers Guild Award 2000
• Storming Mont Albert by Tram – Australian Writer's Guild Award (1988)
• On Shifting Sands (1988) – Australian Writer's Guild Award