Performing Arts: Leah Purcell
Leah Purcell is an award-winning actor, writer and director with no formal training.
Purcell was born in Murgon, south–west Queensland and seemed destined to work in the meat works or cheese factory. Pregnant at age 17, crowned "Miss Murgon" at 18, contemplating suicide at 19, she has turned her life around.
Purcell has starred in Australian theatre productions and feature films such as Lantana, The Proposition and Jindabyne.
In 1997, Leah Purcell conceived, co-wrote and starred in Box the Pony, an autobiographical play about her own life. In 2002, the energetic Purcell created, wrote, directed and starred in Black Chicks Talking, a documentary film, book and stage play about the lives of contemporary Aboriginal women. This has helped to inspire the young women she visits at prisons and juvenile detention centres to change their lives, just as Purcell did.
Some of Leah Purcell's favourite things from the State Library's collections are ...
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South Burnett Co-operative |
Photographer unknown |
Boxing gloves 1997
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Watch and listen to Leah Purcell
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Credits: camera - David Crane; additional camera/editing - Robert Dobson.
Last updated: 23rd November 2011
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