About Me - Some of the current story...

Peter Fyfe is a writer, performer, bricoleur, and heresiarch with an eclectic range of experience covering theatre, music, comedy, improvisation, art, and mythology. He holds a degree in organic chemistry and computer science and an unused diploma in education. For his own amusement, he is pursuing a meandering research project into the common space shared by myth, theatre, archetype, image, and matter: apparently it's a barrel of laughs.

As a cabaret performer, comedian, and songwriter, Peter's credits include 11pm Sharp! for the Griffin Theatre Company, Total Recoil at the old Tilbury Hotel, Silly Season at Sydney's former Comedy Store, the play Night of the Seamonkey by Reg Cribb at the Old Fitzroy Hotel, the 2003 Sydney Cabaret Convention, and Muf-Tee Casual Cabaret at the Stables Theatre. He went on to write and perform a one-man show Glamourflage: they'll never see the Real you at the once famous Side-On Cafe; read about it on the Glamourflage website and his alter ego Ken E's website.

For seven years (1990-1996), Peter was Sydney's "Queen of the Keyboards" in countless performances of TheatreSports and other improvised comedy shows; during this time he worked with most of Australia's best improvisers and comedians, some of whom are now much more famous than he'll ever be; if you ask he'll be happy to drop names for small change. He played Mark Warren's musical sidekick in that hilarious TV1 game show Cliptomaniacs on Foxtel (there is, of course, a clip on YouTube!). He was a consulting editor on Lyn Pierse's groundbreaking book, TheatreSports Down Under (now in its third edition under the title !mprovisation). To think there's a whole industry out there just making stuff up.

In 1999, Peter visited the US, where he joined an international cast (including Kristen Linklater) in presenting Stealing the Show, directed by Enrique Pardo, at Paris-based Pantheatre's 7th International Myth and Theatre Festival in New Orleans, LA. He also participated in the 8th Myth and Theatre Festival in Waterford, Ireland in 2000, and in Cabaret and Contradiction: a Choreographic Theatre Workshop with Pantheatre in Pau, France, where he met the mayor and made the local paper.

In 1997, his acting "career" reached the staggering heights of a guest appearance on episode 030 of Water Rats ("Jilted"); he can be seen in the background failing not to be obscured by Colin Friels.

Peter's play Waking Blind was nominated for the Monte Miller Award at the 2002 AWGIES (Australian Writer's Guild awards). It is featured in the Australian Script Centre's 2003 Collection No.4 of Australian Plays (see Oz Script's website).

Act One of his play Centre Caught was presented in a workshop production at NIDA in August 2004, directed by Andrew Davidson. Centre Caught was shortlisted for the 2004 Rodney Seaborn Playwright's award and the 2004 Edward Albee Last Frontier Theatre Conference. It is featured in the Australian Script Centre's 2006 Collection No.6 of Australian Plays (see Oz Script's website). Feel free to short-list it yourself.

Peter's outrageous little musical The Von Trapp Heresy premiered on February 6, 2007 at NIDA's Parade Playhouse as part of the Short and Sweet and Song festival and caused at least one argument with a publicist.

Peter occasionally dabbles in the visual arts and exhibited for the first time in More Than Meets the Eye, a group show held At the Vanishing Point in April 2008. His work the brief mystery of time was highly commended by the curators of the Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize 2008. When not taking himself too seriously (an all too rare occurrence), he considers his which came first: the chickens or the universe to be a breakthrough work.

In 2001, Peter joined the founding board of Currency House, a performing arts advocacy, think tank and resource centre. He continued to serve on the board until 2007, by which time Currency House had grown into a leading voice in the debate on the role of the performing arts in Australian public life, and he had some grey hairs.

Peter also works as a technical writer and business analyst, writing all manner of un-read or simply un-readable documents for easily impressed organisations. Until his objectively assessed retrenchment, he was celebrating diversity as a fungible resource maximising synergies to leverage customer delight somewhere in the open plan of a large financial institution.

For a hopelessly out of date mug shot, click here!

Some references: Austage entry, Auslit entry.