Katharine Brisbane

Katharine Brisbane AM (born 7 January 1932) is an Australian journalist and publisher, well known for her writings as a theatre critic. She was born in Singapore, immigrating to Australia at a young age.

Katharine Brisbane was born in Singapore in 1932, to David Williams, a civll engineer and Myra Glady Brisbane. She spent her early years growing up in Western Australia, living in Peppermint Grove. Brisbane graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia. During her time at UWA she participated in student theatre, firstly designing costumes and then moving onto directing productions.

After graduating she became a cadet at The West Australian, and spent 18 months in London. She took up the position of theatre critic for The West Australian from 1959 to 1961, and again from 1962 to 1965. This work provided her the platform she needed to become the national theatre critic for The Australian from 1967 to 1974. In this role, she was a part of the changing Australian drama of the new wave at the time and saw many new emerging Australian plays and playwrights. She documents these productions in her 2005 book Not Wrong: Just Different. She also wrote as the national theatre writer for The National Times from 1981-1982.

Brisbane founded Currency Press with her husband Philip Parsons in 1971 and it became the largest independent publishing company in Australia. The first play that Currency published was Macquarie, a 1972 play by Alex Buzo. In 1995, with Brisbane's continual backing, Currency published The Concise Companion to Australian Theatre (ed. Philip Parsons).

Brisbane's writings include contributions to The Literature of Australia, World Drama, Contemporary Australian Drama: Perspectives Since 1955, as well asNew Currents in Australian Writing, which she co-edited. She has also written introductions for many plays published by Currency Press.

In 1967, Brisbane wrote a scathing review of the Sydney production of Othello in which Peter O'Shaughnessy both directed and played the part of Othello. Brisbane wrote, in part, "Stupidity and lack of talent are forgivable; brave failures are deserving of praise – these are every day human failings. But the waste and dishonesty of this production ... made me very angry indeed."

...
Wikipedia