Paul Michael Davies first discovered the thrilling connection between hoodwinking an audience and receiving an actual cash reward when he won £1 in a Smiling Competition at the Vogue Picture Theatre, Ipswich, in 1956. He later sharpened his quill on a number of TV series from the Crawford classics: Homicide (1974-5), The Box (1975-76), The Sullivans (1976-78) Against The Wind (1978), and Skyways (1979), to Rafferty’s Rules (1985), Pacific Drive (1996), Blue Heelers (1997), Something in the Air (1999-2001), Stingers (1998-2003), and Headland (2005). He also helped spark the site-specific revolution in Melbourne theatre in the 1980s with Storming Mont Albert By Tram (1982). What became known as The Tram Show played over a dozen years to sold out trams in Melbourne and Adelaide. Its success lead to an outbreak of ‘location theatre’ throughout the 1980s including Breaking Up In Balwyn (1983, on a riverboat), Living Rooms (1986, in an historic mansion) and Full House/No Vacancies (1989, in a boarding house). These works became the subject of his thesis Really Moving Drama. Both The Tram Show and On Shifting Sandshoes (1988) were awarded AWGIES, along with Return of The Prodigal (2000) an episode of Something In The Air. He has co-written two feature films: Neil Lynn (with David Baker in 1984) and the Greater Union Award nominated Exits (with Pat Laughren and Carolyn Howard in 1980). He has also co-written documentaries with John Hughes (Traps, All That Is Solid, and One Way Street), Rosie Jones (Holy Rollers) and Pat Laughren (Red Ted and the Great Depression). The novel, 33 Postcards From Heaven was published by Gondwana Press in 2005, and numerous articles, reviews, stories and interviews have been published in Metro, Cinema Papers, Cantrill’s Filmnotes, Australasian Drama Studies, Community Theatre In Australia, Popular Entertainment Studies, The Macquarie Companion to the Australian Media and Theatre Research International (Cambridge).
AWARDS
1956 SMILING COMPETITION
Vogue Picture Theatre Ipswich, Winner.
1966 ARCHBISHOP DUHIG MEMORIAL BATON
Nudgee College, Outstanding Cadet Under Officer
1970 BACHELOR OF ARTS (Honours) in English Literature
University of Queensland
1972 MASTER OF ARTS in English Literature
University of Queensland
1981 ENCOURAGEMENT PRIZE
Japan Information Service Amateur 8mm Short Film Competition
For “Memories of Tatura”
1981 DIRECTION AND EDITING AWARD
For “Fragments”
Armidale Film Festival
1982 THE AGE/JOURNAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION 3RD PRIZE
For “Storming Mont Albert By Tram” (as a short story)
1983 THE AGE/JOURNAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2ND PRIZE
For “Breaking Up In Balwyn” (as a short story)
1989 BEST PLAY Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE)
For “On Shifting Sandshoes”
1989 BEST COMMUNITY/ THETRE IN EDUCATION PLAY Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE)
For “Storming St. Kilda By Tram”
2000 BEST TV SERIAL Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE)
For “Return of the Prodigal” an episode of Something In the Air
2013 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Performance Studies
University of Queensland