Rewi Alley
Chapple was one of the writers of "Gung Ho – Rewi Alley of China", a documentary filmed in 1979 about famous New Zealand writer and political activist Rewi Alley, and its companion documentary "The Humble Force". Chapple subsequently wrote a biography about Alley that was published in 1980. In 1997, he co-wrote the libretto for an opera in two acts called "Alley", with music by Jack Body, which premiered at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in 1998.