Currency Press is Australia's only specialist performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works.

Currency Press was founded by Katharine Brisbane

Katharine Brisbane

Katharine Brisbane was born on 7 January 1932 in Singapore. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, where she was active in student theatre...

, then national theatre critic for The Australian

The Australian

The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....

 newspaper, and her husband Philip Parsons, a lecturer in Drama at the University of New South Wales

University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

. After Philip’s death in 1993, Katharine remained at the helm of the company until she retired as Publisher in December 2001 in order to devote her energies to Currency House, a non-profit association dedicated to the Australian performing arts.

In 2011, Currency Press received the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession at the AWGIE Awards

AWGIE Awards

The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967....

.

Recent Titles include

• Alvin Purple
  Alvin Purple
  Alvin Purple was a 1973 Australian comedy film starring Graeme Blundell, written by Alan Hopgood and directed by Tim Burstall.It received largely negative reviews from local film critics. Despite this it was a major hit with Australian audiences...
  
   (critical commentary)

by Catherine Lumby

• Beautiful Words (stage play)

by Sean Riley

Sean Riley

Sean Riley is the current host of the National Geographic Channel's "World's Toughest Fixes" in which he travels around the world performing on-site feats of engineering....

• The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
  The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
  The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a 1972 Booker Prize-nominated novel by Thomas Keneally, and a 1978 Australian film of the same name directed by Fred Schepisi. The novel is based on the life of bushranger Jimmy Governor....
  
   (critical commentary)

by Henry Reynolds

Henry Reynolds

Henry Reynolds may refer to:* Henry Reynolds , Australian historian* Henry Reynolds , English poet and critic of the seventeenth century* Henry Reynolds , English World War I recipient of the Victoria Cross...

• Commedia Oz: Playing Commedia in Contemporary Australia (training manual)

by Steven Gration and Nicky Peelgrane

• Don't Say the Words (stage play)

by Tom Holloway

Tom Holloway

-Education:After attending University in Tasmania, Holloway studied playwriting at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2001, as well as at London's Royal Court Theatre International Playwriting Studio in 2006.-Plays:...

• Stories in the Dark (stage play)

by Debra Oswald

Debra Oswald

Debra Oswald is an Australian writer for film, television, stage, radio and children's fiction. In 2008 her Stories in the Dark won Best Play in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She is creator and head writer of the Channel 10 drama series Offspring, for which she won the 2011 NSW Premier's...

• The Female of the Species (stage play)

by Joanna Murray-Smith

Joanna Murray-Smith

Joanna Murray-Smith is a Melbourne based playwright, screenwriter, novelist, librettist and newspaper columnist.-Biography:...

• Saturn's Return
  Saturn's Return
  Saturn's Return is an Australian play by Tommy Murphy. The play was commissioned for the Sydney Theatre Company 2008 season by incoming co-artistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton.It plays 15 August-6 September 2008....
  
   (stage play)

by Tommy Murphy (Australian playwright)

• The Great (stage play)

by Tony McNamara

• The Modern International Dead

by Damien Millar

• Toy Symphony (stage play)

by Michael Gow

Michael Gow

Michael Gow is an Australian playwright and director most famed for his 1986 work Away.As a student at Sydney University, Gow acted and directed with the Dramatic Society from 1973-1976. After graduation, Gow went on to act with Nimrod, Thalia and Sydney theatre companies.He has been the Artist...

• Make it Australian: The APG, The Pram Factory and New Wave Theatre (critical history)

by Gabrielle Wolf