Ned Manning

Ned Manning is an Australian playwright, actor and teacher. His film credits include the lead role in Dead End Drive-In (1986), and television credits include The Shiralee and Prisoner, and Brides of Christ. His plays include Us or Them, Milo, Kenny's Coming Home and Close to the Bone. In 2007 Manning played the lead in his own play, Last One Standing, at the Old Fitzroy Theatre in Sydney.

Ned Manning was born in Coonabarabran, New South Wales in 1950,^[1] where he grew up on a property.^[2] His father was a progressive Labour shire president, and his mother was a socialite and budding artist.^[3] His mother passed away when he was twelve years old, and he wasn't particularly close with his father.^[4]

Manning's first play, Us or Them, was initially produced at the Childers Street Hall in Canberra on 1 November 1977. It was then re-written and performed in 1984 at the Stables Theatre in Sydney for the Griffin Theatre Company,^[5] where it marked a turning point in Griffin's history as the play's success led to the cast and creatives being paid full professional rates. The play then transferred to the Phillip Street Theatre and on to the Q Theatre in Penrith.^[6]

Milo premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf 2 Theatre in October 1984^[7] before productions at the Q Theatre, Theatre Up North in Townsville, Theatre South in Wollongong and regional performances.^[8][9] Milo has been recorded for Radio National, had numerous other productions, and also been published by Currency Press.^[6]

Manning's next play, Kenny's Coming Home (1991), was performed at the Q Theatre, Penrith and was subsequently recorded for radio on ABC Radio National.^[9] The play is centred on a Rugby league footballer, Kenny, who gets caught up in a preselection battle between two of his family members.^[10] Kenny's Coming Home included songs by Shane McNamara.^[6]

Close to the Bone was written in collaboration with the Indigenous students at the Eora Centre, and first produced there in September 1991.^[9][11] Luck of the Draw was produced by the Darwin Theatre Company in May 1999^[12] and was the first play written by a non-Indigenous writer to be produced by Kooemba Jdarra theatre company in Brisbane.^[6] Last One Standing was performed at Sydney theatre the Old Fitzroy in 2007. Manning played lead character Joe in the Old Fitzroy production.

In 1989 Manning directed the Belvoir St Theatre production of a play, Black Cockatoos, about the relationship between a white woman and an Aboriginal man.^[13]

Manning has created many works for young audiences. He has prepared scripts for ten works for The Bell Shakespeare Company's Actors at Work program, a travelling community and schools theatrical education initiative.^[9][14] Other plays for young people have included Alice Dreaming, which is one of the Australian Script Centre's anthology of large cast plays.^[9] In 2012 he contributed to a Federation Press anthology of monologues for drama students, No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames.^[15] His play Romeo and Juliet Intensive was nominated for a 2011 AWGIE Award.^[16]

Manning's film credits include the lead role in the 1986 Ozploitation film Dead End Drive-In. Based on a Peter Carey short story called "Crabs", Dead End Drive-In is a post-apocalyptic tale about a young man stranded in a small town's drive-in theater when the wheels are stolen off his car. He finds himself amongst a community of misfits trapped at the site, and seeks to break out. The film, directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, received mixed reviews^[17] and it is one of American film director Quentin Tarantino's favourites.^[18] The film received only a short box-office season; Manning was critical of the distributor Greater Union and worked with the film's other actors to secure separate release in independent cinemas.^[19]

Manning's other film credits include appearances in the 1985 film Rebel (alongside Matt Dillon and Debra Byrne), 2000 teen film Looking for Alibrandi (alongside Pia Miranda and Anthony LaPaglia).^[9] and 2003 made for television crime film The Postcard Bandit (opposite the late Tom Long). In 1998 he appeared in docudrama Aftershocks, based on the 1989 Newcastle earthquake. He also made several short films including, Love Bites. His most recent film was The Menkoff Method, opposite Noah Taylor in 2016.

Manning's television credits include 1984 biographical cricket miniseries Bodyline (alongside Hugo Weaving), 1987 miniseries The Shiralee (alongside Bryan Brown), 1991 miniseries Brides of Christ (alongside Naomi Watts)^[20] and several episodes of miniseries Tanamera – Lion of Singapore. He had a recurring role as Nick Clarke in Prisoner in 1981.

He has made guest appearances in numerous other television series including The Restless Years, Young Ramsay, Cop Shop, Bellamy, A Country Practice, Rafferty's Rules, Home and Away, Heartbreak High, Big Sky, Changi, White Collar Blue, All Saints, Offspring, Neighbours and Mr Inbetween.

In 2012, NewSouth Books published Manning's memoir of a life of school teaching, '"Playground Duty".^[21]

The same year, he also released his debut novel "Painting the Light" – a love letter to his parents, published by Broadcast Books.^[22]

Manning taught at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts where he was a Senior Examiner in HSC Drama, and developed a playwrighting program. He has helped local and refugee students write and perform their own plays in Bendigo and at the MTC. He has also taught playwriting at Monash University. He once received a NSW Premiers Teachers Scholarship.^[23][24]

^[26][27]

^[29]

Manning married Bronwyn Bancroft, an Indigenous Australian artist, with whom he had two children, including New South Wales Young Australian of the Year for 2010, Jack Manning Bancroft.^[30][31][32]

Manning remarried to theatre director Marion Potts, with whom he had two children. In 2010, they relocated from Sydney to Melbourne when she was appointed director of the Malthouse Theatre.^[33]

• Scott Murray (ed.) Australian Film 1978–1994: A Survey of Theatrical Features (2nd ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press, Australian Film Commission and Cinema Papers. ISBN 0-19-553777-7.

• Official website

• "Ned Manning". Austlit.
• Ned Manning at IMDb