Peter Sumner

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WRITER  / DIRECTOR

 

Peter's apprenticeship began in the sixties on a five year contract with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked as writer and program assistant with the 'Argonauts' before moving to ABC Television where he wrote and directed over a hundred multicam productions. For ABCTV and Gunnar Isaacson Productions he wrote 24 half hour travel documentaries on Middle Eastern and Asian countries, 'Letters From Abroad' and directed a documentary on students politics in Sweden, 'Sweden at Home' . He also wrote and directed a number of short films for ABCTV magazine programs. In the late sixties Peter worked as Peter Summerton's assistant director on a production of Arthur Miller's 'After the Fall' at the Independent Theatre in Sydney.

In the 1980's Peter wrote and directed two very successful documentaries for Chateau productions, 'Mountain Man' about a brumby hunter's life in the Victorian High Plains and 'Cradle of Mankind', shot in Africa and investigating Dr. Richard Leakey's latest discoveries of ancient hominid fossils. Both documentaries were bought and screened by Network Ten and later sold to Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Deutsche Television.

He worked as a producer with Beyond International making 'Entertainment Beyond 2000' and setting up several other documentaries. For the same company Peter adapted Trish Sheppard's novel 'Children of Blindness' into a screenplay.  He also wrote the screenplays 'Big Tin Gods' and 'Spider Dance'.

In 2003 Peter directed a production of William Mastrosimone's violent play about rape,
'Extremities' at the Edge Theatre in Sydney. Other plays he has directed include
'Uncle Vanya', 'Icarus's Mother', 'Chamber Music', 'White With Wire Wheels', 'The Real Inspector Hound', 'Good Sometime' and 'The Waiting Room'

In early 2006 he directed a highly successful stage adaptation of the iconic Australian film,
'The Castle' for Jally Productions in Queensland.  Recent short films include 'Cirque du Psyche' and 'No Strings'.

In February 2006 he wrote and directed a one hour documentary, 'Baba's Birthday', with Michael Ney of Sensory Image Productions. This film follows Peter's son Luke to India where Luke appears in a theatre production of the classic Bedouin love story 'Leila and Majnun', to celebrate the birthday of the spiritual Master Meher Baba.