About me
This page features my biography, an insight into my career developments and achievements. Some of my papers are available to download on my ‘Papers’ page.
Biography
I began my working life as a fire-eater with a circus over the summer of 1973-74. I was studying at the time at the University of Western Australia, so rather than go travelling with the troupe, I returned to complete my second year of University. The next summer I was invited to join a film crew and this time I left University and moved to Melbourne where I spent the next ten years working on feature films and television series. I completed the Women’s Training Course run by the Open Programme of The Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Melbourne in 1978 and then worked on documentary films at Film Australia in Sydney 1980-1983 as a writer-director.
I left Film Australia to train at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art), graduated from the Director’s Course in 1985 and wrote plays for the next ten years. My plays have been produced by State Theatre SA, WA Theatre Co, Doppio Teatro, Salamanca Theatre, MYT, SYTE and Vitalstatistix, as well as on ABC Radio and have won several awards, including the Inaugural Samuel Weisberg Award (1989) for Hiccup, a Jewish comedy, and a 1991 Awgie for Behind The Beat, a play about young people and alcohol. Ten of my plays were produced and four have been published. I was also a recipient of Australia Council Grants and Fellowships, as well as a Writers Residency at the Keesing Studio in Paris in 1992. A book on the experiences of Keesing Studio residents (my work included) was published by Halstead Press in December, 2001.
I am also a professional consulting and teaching astrologer. I gained my formal qualifications in 1988 (FAA Diploma), taught astrology at TAFE (with Bernadette Brady) in 1989, and then in 1990 we opened our own school, Astro Logos Ltd, dedicated to the education and qualification of practicing astrologers. Astro Logos is now 30 years old. Apart from course material for our school I’ve written two astrological books: Life After Grief: An Astrological Guide to Dealing with Loss (The Wessex Astrologer, 2004), and AstroGraphology, the hidden link between your horoscope and your handwriting (The Wessex Astrologer, 2009.)
In September 2002 we emigrated to the UK and home is now in North Devon. I returned to University in 2004 and completed my BA (Hons) through the Open University, majoring in the exploration of religious art produced in Italy between 1280 and 1500. My BA (Hons) dissertation was short-listed for the AAH Bulletin 2006 BA Dissertation Prize. I then read for my doctorate in History of Art at the University of Bristol, graduating in 2014. I feel deeply privileged to be employed as tutor for the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at The University of Wales, Lampeter, UK
I’ve also done a fair amount of editing in my time: The FAA Journal (1986-87; 1991-93); Dialogue: Newsletter of the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre (Sept 1989-Dec 1991); Under Capricorn: An Anthology of Australian Astrology (1990); and Lowdown Magazine: Youth Performing Arts in Australia (1993). More recently I’ve edited two Special Issues of the Journal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture (JSRNC), 7.4 (2013) and 13.1 (2019 and two volumes The Imagined Sky: Cultural Perspectives (Equinox Publishing, 2016) and Space, Place, and Religious Landscapes: Living Mountains (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
Get in touch
If you would like to speak to me about any of the publications or work on this website please send me a message using the form below.
You can also contact me on Facebook.
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Darrelyn Gunzburg on Sark, May 2024.