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I am a writer and educator in Drama and Theatre Studies. My specialist areas are Shakespeare, particularly with regard to the female characters, dramaturgy and theatre history. Raising a little boy also gives me plenty of cause to reflect on parenting and social justice issues. While my active site is orlandocreature.wordpress.com you can find lots more of my writing archived at Hoyden About Town, under both Anna and my earlier handle, Orlando. Twitter: @orlandocreature

  • Life at 9: discussion thread

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    Life at 5: group shot of parents and children

    Here we are at Life at Nine already. How quickly they grow up! The ABC’s documentary series tracking the growth and development of a sample cross-section of Australian children only appears every two years. The two episodes of this edition are designated ‘Independence’ and ‘Creativity’.

  • Friday Hoyden quick hit: Linda Brodsky

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    Headshot of Linda Brodsky

    A piece came across my Twitter feed a few weeks ago about an American doctor who died earlier this year. Rebecca Greenfield wrote describing the pay discrimination her mother experienced, the retaliation she suffered when she protested, and the enormous personal cost of the years she spent fighting the injustice.

  • Dressmaking for the Obsessive

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    Ink sketch of Victorian lady's coat, Russian text.

    One for the dressmakers, costumiers and historians among us: an unexpected family treasure unearthed.

  • Friday Hoyden: Maya Angelou

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    B&W of Maya Angelou as a young woman, in traditional African dress.

    Maya Angelou is one of the great figures of literature, and of humanity, of the modern age. Her death on Wednesday will be a sorrow to many, but also a prompt to stop and think about her outsized contribution to the total of both the justice and the beauty that exists in our world.

  • Signal Boost: Eastside Ride

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    a beam of light like the Bat Signal but the symbol shown is the RSS symbol

    This Sunday in Centennial Park, Sydney, is the Eastside Ride. From 9am to 3pm, Loch Avenue South area. Free music, yoga, Try2Wheels and general outdoorsy happy vibe. Tina Harrod will be playing at 2pm. This is a family event, with a bit of something for everyone. In support of green living and community togetherness.

  • Signal Boost: Beatrice Mtetwa

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    Head portrait of black woman with glasses.

    Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa is making two appearances this week in Sydney, on Thursday and Friday.

  • Lego is Refusing to Get the Message

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    2 Lego minifigs, one a girl from 'friends' one a boy from regular set.

    Someone at Lego has decided that they will make more money from parents who like gender segregation and stereotyping than those who loathe it.

  • Somebody’s Having a Birthday

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    It’s Shakespeare! Today is Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Probably. Nominally. Well, we know he was baptised on the 26th, and it was usual for that to happen about three days after the birth. Also he died on April 23rd, 52 years later, so it appeals to our sense of symmetry.

  • Friday Hoyden: Trillian

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    Zooey Deschanel in lab coat and glasses.

    I’m feeling a bit Life, the Universe and Everything this week, so our Friday Hoyden is the space-hopping astrophysicist heroine of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Trisha McMillan, aka Trillian.

  • Friday Hoyden: Hortense Mancini

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    Portrait of C17th pale, brunette woman in off-shoulder gown.

    Hortense Mancini was married at fifteen to one of the richest men in Europe, who turned out to be an obsessive, violent, controlling abuser. She found a way to escape, and to live the rest of her life with an exuberance that would be difficult to match.