Peter Fitzpatrick is Honorary Professor of Performing Arts at Monash University, where he held a Personal Chair until 2007. His first venture into biography was entitled Pioneer Players: The Lives of Louis and Hilda Esson (1995), which was nominated for a Victorian Premier’s Prize and four national awards. He has published two novels (the football ‘whodunit’ tale Death in the Back Pocket, in collaboration with Barbara Wenzel, and Promontory), three non-fiction books and more than sixty articles on Australian theatre. He has written two major feature-film screenplays, Hotel Sorrento (for which he and director Richard Franklin won AFI Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay), and Brilliant Lies.

In theatre, Peter is the author of the book for Anthony Costanzo’s musical Life’s a Circus (nominated for a Green Room Award for best new musical). He devised and wrote Flowerchildren: the Mamas and Papas Story, and directed more than thirty plays and musicals at Monash University, including five works by Stephen Sondheim and the world premiere seasons of Martin and Gina and The White Rose (Melbourne and Singapore). His other professional directing credits include Paris and Rent at Melbourne’s National Theatre.