Award winning Australian writer Alex Broun has had over 100 different ten minute plays produced in over 1000 productions in over 40 countries all over the world, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, USA and Wales. His plays have also been translated into many languages and published in many nations.
His most popular short play, 10,000 Cigarettes, has had over 200 productions across the globe, including being produced in 35 states of the USA. In 2010 in Concepcion, Chile 10,000 Cigarettes was used by a local theatre group "to bring some joy to the community" after the devastating earthquakes. The same year in Chile some of his plays were translated into Spanish and sent down to the trapped miners for them to read while they waited to be rescued and a collection of his short plays was translated into Persian and published in Iran.
His one act and full length plays have been produced around Australia and the world including at the Sydney Opera House, La Mama, the Old Fitzroy, Belvoir St Theatre, Chapel Off Chapel, the Darlinghurst Theatre, Newtown Theatre, King Street Theatre, the Hayes Theatre, the Brisbane Powerhouse and the Arts Centre in Melbourne.
Alex is a former winner of the Sydney Theatre Company Young Playwright's Scheme and he has had plays workshopped and developed by the Sydney Theatre Company, Playwriting Australia and the Australian National Playwright's Conference.
His play, The Jacaranda Tree, was a winner of the Inscription script award in 2009. From 1995 to 2000 he was based in South Africa where his play, Pick Ups, was nominated for Best Script in the Vita Awards in 1998.
Recent highlights include Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You, a new Australian musical written in collaboration with Tim Freedman, which premiered at the Hayes Theatre in Sydney in May 2014, and 10,000 Beers, which was directed by Lee Lewis, for a sold out season at the Darlinghurst Theatre in late 2011. The play was nominated for an Australian Writer's Guild Award (AWGIE) for Best Stage Play of 2011.
In September 2013, Alex wrote and co-directed Oneness - Voice Without Form, about the life of Swami Vivekananda for the Vedanta Society of NSW as part of the 150th anniversary of Vivekananda's birth. The play premiered at the Sydney Opera House before touring to BMAC in Brisbane.
His one man play, Half a Person - My Life as told by the Smiths, played to excellent reviews and plentiful houses at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival before touring the UK, and his full length play, Pick Ups, was performed at the National Theatre of Macedonia in Prilep in mid-September 2012.
Alex has twice received funding from the Australian Film Commission as well as recently having numerous short screenplays filmed.
In mid 2008 the then Federal Minister for the Arts in Australia, Peter Garrett, launched www.alexbroun.com, one of the world's leading website for ten-minute plays.
As at July 2014 the website had accumulated over 15 million hits and was rated number 2 in the world on Google for "ten minute plays". A social media expert, Alex also has over 10,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter.
Alex has worked extensively as an activist for refugee rights with the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) and is a national ambassador for Welcome to Australia. In 2004, he acted as Convenor for Artists Against Howard, a group of artists across Australia who joined together to work with Not Happy John to try to remove Australian Prime Minister John Howard from his Federal seat of Bennelong in Sydney's north.
In 2007, Alex organised the "Your Shout Forums" across Australia for the Shadow Arts Minister Peter Garrett, and co-ordinated the ALP's Federal Arts' Launch at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta, Sydney. Alex has also worked extensively with Short+Sweet, the largest ten minute theatre festival in the world.
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