Alex Harding
| Alex Harding | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 15, 1949 |
| 2022 (aged 72–73)2022 (aged 72–73) | |
| 🏳️ Citizenship | Citizen of the United Kingdom & Australia. |
| 💼 Occupation | Musical director, composer, playwright, actor, public service worker. |
| Notable work | Only Heaven Knows in 1988 Blood and Honour in 1990 |
| ❤️ Partner(s) | David E. Thompson, (1976-1990) |
| 🏅 Awards | The United Nations Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Award for Drama, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Award for Outstanding Performing Arts. |
Alex Harding (October 15, 1949 – 2022) was a composer, playwright and actor.[1] Among the theatres Harding worked at, he was the musical director at the Gay Sweatshop theatre,[2] Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Bloopis Theatre Company[3] in the United Kingdom, and the Sydney Gay Theatre Company in Australia.[1] While at the Bloopis Theatre Company, Harding acquired the stage name of Dotty Spot.[4]
Harding also used his multiple artistic talents to help in campaigns fighting for equality and human rights for the gay community. One of the more significant campaigns he was involved in was the 1977 Campaign for Homosexual Equality, which happened in Nottingham, United Kingdom.[1] Harding eventually moved to Australia in 1984, and within the year, Harding became an Australian citizen.[1]
Personal life
Harding met his long-time partner David E. Thompson in 1976, and it was not until the end of the theatre season that Thompson finally asked Harding out.[5] On one of their first dates, the two went to a David Bowie concert, where they went home and spent time in a warm tub with some liquor.[5] It was an almost instant connection for the two, and within a few weeks, they had moved in together.[5] The pair spent the next 15 years together before Thompson died due to AIDS in the early 1990s.[1] Harding used his pain and experience with losing a loved one due to AIDS and made a social commentary through the play Blood and Honour.[4]
Harding died sometime in 2022.[1]
Career and notable works
Harding’s multiple talents meant he had played a part in many musical pieces, musical numbers, and plays for roughly two decades between 1977 and 1997. The list of works that Harding contributed to in that period in both England and Australia are as follows;
- Double Exposure in 1977
- Point Blank in 1978
- Martin Sherman had been the director of Point Blank, which Harding collaborated on. Point Blank and Double Exposure Harding's contributions were made in collaboration with Alan Pope.
- The Dear Love of Comrades in 1979
- Noel Grieg directed the play that year, and Harding contributed the music for the production.
- Layers in 1979
- This was another musical where Harding collaborated with Alan Pope. Their collaboration on the musical that season allowed the London theatre production to be sold out for the entire season.
- Not Quite Sixty Minutes in 1985
- This was the first work Harding contributed to when he moved to Australia, and it was performed at the Gay Mardi Gras held in Sydney that year.
- Love, Sex and Romance in 1986
- Acid n Toxic in 1987
- This play was written by Larry Galbraith.
- Only Heaven Knows in 1988
- Blood and Honour in 1990
- Beauty and the Beat in 1996
- This was a one-man play directed and written by Rex Lay and performed by Harding at the Gay and Lesbian Arts Festival.
- The Reunion in 1996
- Kaleidoscope in 1996
- These were two plays that were part of a program of four presented at Lookout Theatre, which was a part of the Queer Fringe.
Only Heaven Knows
Only Heaven Knows became one of Harding's most significant works. It was a romantic musical comedy set in Sydney, Australia, in two time periods, the first half of the play in the 1940s and the second half in the 1950s.[4][4] Harding received an almost thirty-thousand-dollar grant from the Performing Arts Board of the Australian Council which allowed Harding to collaborate with the Griffin Theatre Company.[4] Griffin's original production of Only Heaven Knows at the Stables Theatre was performed 35 times before it closed in June 1988.[4] The musical later received other productions across Australia including a major 1995 revival which won the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Award for Outstanding Performing Arts Event.
Blood and Honour
Blood and Honour was first performed in February 1990 at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney and was awarded the United Nations Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Award for Drama.[1] Beyond the significance the play had to Harding, coming after his partner Thompson's passing, it commented on societal values and responses to social issues like the AIDS epidemic, the intersection of race and sexual prejudice, and where compassion and perception come into context and complicate the social issues.[4]
Later life and death
In late 2000, Harding relocated back to the United Kingdom where he took up a job in public service. This included coordinating activities for those in retirement and long-term care facilities outside of London. Little has been publicized about the death of Harding, but he passed away sometime in 2022.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Bishopsgate Foundation (2023). "Alex Harding Archive". Bishopsgate Institute.
- ↑ Malone, Ray (November 2013). "Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company". Unfinished Histories.
- ↑ Regan, Lucie. "BLOOPIS". Unfinished Histories.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Pine, Peter (March 12, 2019). "Only Heaven Knows (Part 2)". Theatre Heritage Australia Inc.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Jcararua. (November 5, 2007). "Alex Harding interview". Youtube.
This article "Alex Harding" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Alex Harding. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
