Christopher Harley is a playwright and composer. His play Blood Bank was premiered by Ensemble Theatre in 2015, and his latest play Remembering Pirates premiered at Darlinghurst Theatre Company in 2016. In same year, Christopher was shortlisted for the 2016 Ensemble Theatre New Writing Commission for his play Losing Things. In 2013, Birdcage was performed as part of ATYP’s Out of Place (subsequently published by Currency Press) and his play Tortoise Love was presented by Griffin Theatre as part of their Festival of New Writing. His first full-length play Kimono Queen was developed and presented by Queensland Theatre Company in 2012 after winning their Young Playwrights’ Award. As a writer/composer, Christopher’s music theatre works include The Lonely Leaf (Gondwana Choirs), Peter Pan: The Boy Who Could Never (Hunter Drama), and Pink Tutu (NIDA), the latter winning him a CONDA award for Best Musical Score. His musical theatre songs have been recorded and performed by Australia’s leading performers at events such as The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, The Sydney Cabaret Festival, Light the Night and featured regularly at the Homegrown Australia’s New Music concert series.
Christopher’s sound design / theatre composition credits include Blood Bank (Ensemble Theatre), Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing (Sport for Jove), Pool (no water) (NIDA), Cymbeline and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Globe Shakespeare Centre Australia), As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors and The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (Tantrum Theatre), and this year he will compose the score to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (StoreyBoard Entertainment). He was also the composer for short films Animal Love and Past Everything. Most recently, Christopher was commissioned by The Bellingen Music Festival to compose a concert work for strings, clarinet and percussion titled Hiraeth.
Christopher holds a Bachelor of Music (Composition) (Honours – Class I) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.