Her Story … introducing Carmen Warrington
Carmen was born in England in 1957, the third child of Jozef Wawrzynczak and Patricia McLean. Her father was Polish and her mother is English, with ancestors from Ireland, Scotland and Italy. The family changed the surname to Warrington just before Carmen was born – you can see why.
Carmen’s sister Lisa Warrington is a lecturer in Drama at Otago University in New Zealand, and also a freelance director. Carmen’s brother Jan Wawrzynczak sadly passed away in July 2008 from a motorbike accident – he was at the heart of the Canberra Arts community, as a Multicultural Arts Officer, and is greatly missed.
When Carmen was three the family spent several years in Nigeria, where she attended her first school. After returning to England, and a couple more towns, the family migrated to Australia, on Christmas Day, 1967. Arriving in Rockhampton, Queensland, Carmen was shocked to discover that it wasn’t all deserts and kangaroos, there were actually schools (disappointingly) and towns. Four years later, another move, this time to Hobart, where Carmen attended University, graduating with a BA. A year in Adelaide followed, then Carmen auditioned successfully for NIDA and after graduating, spent the next fifteen years living and working in Sydney. In 1984 Carmen took up a meditation and vegetarian lifestyle, which continues to enrich her life and work. in 1999, she and her partner moved to Melbourne.