The papers of Louis Nowra.

• Author: Vaughan, Donna

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The National Library is the privileged custodian of the papers of Louis Nowra (b.1950), held in the Manuscript Collection at MS 10042. The collection was purchased from Nowra in 1999, and in December 2007 it was arranged and described with the generous assistance of the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust.

Louis Nowra is best known for his plays, which include Cosi, The Temple, The Jungle, Spellbound, Deceit, The Incorruptible, Radiance, The Watchtower, Byzantine Flowers and Miss Bosnia, to name but a few. Nowra's attraction to the theatre apparently began early in his life, when he performed in a school concert in Dutch costume, singing a duet about dikes with a boy called Danny. According to an article by Nowra ('How I Became Stagestruck', Good Weekend, 12 January 1985), he made his entrance and commenced his solo first verse to the accompaniment of chortles from the audience, which momentarily puzzled and alarmed him. However at the...