Fiona has joined us for her four week residency, the 19th for the year. She is a writer and director, playwright, actor and Arts Laureate, awarded for her original body of work for television, theatre and film. Trained at the NZ Drama School, Fiona established a career as an actor before moving into writing and directing, chiefly for television and film.
Fiona wrote and directed the award-winning television dramas Piece of My Heart and Bliss – The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield, both screened to critical acclaim and high audience numbers on TVNZ. She also wrote the screenplay for Consent – The Louise Nicholas Story, winning a SWANZ Award for Best Television Drama Script and a MOA Award for Best Television Film.
Last year she was a guest tutor in screenwriting and playwriting for the IIML’s MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University in Wellington.
The project Fiona is working on during her residency is an imaginary memoir (novella) about her grandmother and her grandmother’s sister. History does not record the answer to questions about the life of these two women, so this is an imaginary memoir about sisterhood, about the secrets of married life, and about how female emotions have always frightened patriarchal society, and continue to do so to this day.