Chris Thompson is a writer, director, teacher and arts manager. SHOCK JOCK is his first time writing for television.
A former secondary school teacher, Chris has written, adapted and directed numerous plays and has worked for many arts organisations, including St Martins Youth Arts Centre, The Victorian Arts Centre, HotHouse Theatre, Playbox, Asialink, The Australian Ballet School, Geminiani Orchestra, Theatreworks, The Murray River Performing Group, Mainstreet Theatre, FM Live Theatre and Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre.
Chris has written and directed several plays for young audiences, including adaptations of Sonya Hartnett’s Wilful Blue (Victorian Arts Centre) and Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale (Geminiani Orchestra). He was co-creator and director of Waterworks, a community based summer spectacular performed in a swimming pool (for Hothouse Theatre), and wrote and directed the highly successful Shady Characters (Victorian Arts Centre) for which he won the Australian Writers’ Guild’s ‘Best Theatre For Young People’ AWGIE in 1997. His latest play is The Bridge, dealing with youth suicide (Hothouse Theatre), with a new work on the horizon, The Sadness Of Monsieur Saint-Saens, a new play for actors and an orchestra (funded by the Literature Fund of the Australia Council).
Other writing credits include two feature films Jigsaw (1989) and A Slow Night At The Kuwaiti Cafe (yet to be released). He has had poetry broadcast on ABC Radio and two short stories The Passing Of Aunty Erl and Roadking published in Family and Crossing (anthologies for young adult readers). His story, If You Sleep, You Die, won the 1993 Eltham Short Story Award, published in ...And The Winner Is.
