Ken Duncum

Profile
Recognised as a major New Zealand playwright, Ken Duncum has won a variety of awards and commissions with a series of thematically satisfying, dramatically gripping and highly entertaining plays that investigate the nature of human relationships through compelling situations, engaging characters and vivid theatricality.

Selected published works
Cherish, 2004; Plays 1: Small Towns and Sea: Horseplay, Flipside, Trick of the Light, 2005.

Biography
Ken Duncum was born in Napier in 1959. After a period working as a computer programmer for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, he left to attend Bill Manhire’s creative writing course at Victoria University of Wellington. His first published work was poetry, but he has been writing for theatre and television for nearly 20 years, and is recognised as one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent playwrights. His plays have won numerous awards and have been successfully produced (and praised) nationwide and as far afield as the United States. A recent all-time ‘Top 30’ list of New Zealand plays (as compiled by theatre professionals) featured three of Duncum’s plays (Blue Sky Boys, Flipside and Horseplay). Similarly, his work for television has won awards in New Zealand and has been screened internationally.

In 2001 Duncum was appointed Michael Hirschfeld Director of Scriptwriting at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, where he continues to foster emerging New Zealand scriptwriting talent.

In 2003 (in addition to three productions of his plays in Wellington, Auckland and the United States), Duncum also had two plays adapted by Radio New Zealand (Flipside and Trick of the Light). Initially best known for Blue Sky Boys in 1990 (included in the New Zealand Listener’s 10 Best New Zealand Plays) Duncum’s other plays include Cherish (Best New New Zealand Play at the 2003 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards), Trick of the Light (Best New New Zealand Play at the 2002 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards), Flipside (Production Of The Year at the 2000 Chapman Tripp Awards), Waterloo Sunset, Horseplay, The Temptations of St. Max and Jism (co-writer with Rebecca Roddin). He received the Michael Hirschfeld Playwriting Award in 2001.

Duncum has also written extensively for television drama series such as Duggan and Cover Story (for which he won Best Script For Drama at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards) as well as television comedy (receiving an award for Best Writer – Comedy at the 2002 Television Awards for Willy Nilly).