$5.40 – $15.00
It is the 1960s. Jan is 19, pregnant and alone. At the unmarried mothers home in Sydney, she contemplates suicide. Her baby is born and is taken away by the authorities before she can see it. Powerless, she is forced to sign adoption papers and her daughter is given to a respectable married couple.
Jan throws herself into a new life, performing in professional musicals and partying hard. However, she is always on the lookout for her baby. She marries, has a son and becomes casting director for the TV show Neighbours. Despite having a successful career, she cannot rid herself of her deep shame and tells her secret to no-one.
In an attempt to contact her daughter, she encounters other women with similar stories and realises that she is not alone, that many have suffered a similar fate and are demanding an apology.
DIRECTED BY MIKE BISHOP SET DESIGNED BY GREG CARROLL MUSIC BY FAYE BENDRUPS AUDIO AND FX BY STRAFFORD FLOATE LIGHTING AND SM BY GWENDOLYNA HOLMBERG-GILCHRIST PERFORMED BY GEMMA BISHOP, TERRI BRABON, HELEN HOPKINS, BRIN PRITCHARD, HUGH SEXTON
"Jan Russ's personal story has all the ingredients of a prime time drama playing out over fifty years and several continents. It starts with a teenage pregnancy and a lifelong quest to find a daughter adopted out in particularly harrowing circumstances." Australian Story, ABC, 2014.
"David Robinson chatted to former Neighbours casting director Jan Russ for all the behind-the-scenes goss, and opened up about her own personal struggles." Studio Ten, Network Ten, 2016
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