Week 1: No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames written by 7-On
7-ON
7-ON is Donna Abela, Vanessa Bates, Hilary Bell, Noëlle Janaczewska, Verity Laughton, Ned Manning and Catherine Zimdahl. Seven minds that don’t think alike but are simpatico in this—our belief in the transformative properties of our artform and its place in Australian culture. Over 150 plays between us (and still counting) … Our first outing was The Seven Needs (published by Currency Press in Short Circuit) in the Griffin Theatre Company’s 2007 season. Current projects include site-specific works, Zed, a theatrical adaptation of/response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and Platonic. Find out more about us at http://sevenon.blogspot.com The 6 pieces in Week 1 of the Mayday Playwrights Festival are from our book of monologues (21 in total) No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames, published by The Federation Press in 2012. Available in all good bookshops and online: http://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862878778
NED MANNING
Ned Manning is a writer, actor and teacher. His book Playground Duty, a teaching memoir, was published (NewSouthBooks) in 2012.His adaptation of Euripides Women of Troy has been selected for competition in the 17th International Prix Marulic Radio Festival and was aired on Radio National in 2012. His published plays include Alice Dreaming (Cambridge University Press) Close to the Bone, Luck of the Draw, Milo and Us or Them (all Currency Press). Other plays can be found at AustralianPlays.org His short play SexEd is published in No Nudity, Flames or Naked Weapons (Federation Press). He is a member of 7ON. Ned’s acting credits include the cult hit Dead End Drive In, Looking for Alibrandi, The Shiralee, Bodyline and Aftershocks.
DONNA ABELA
Donna Abela has written plays for audiences of all ages. In 1987, she co-founded Powerhouse Youth Theatre in Western Sydney, and her early plays reflect the company’s street theatre and circus origins. Donna went on to work extensively in youth theatre, theatre for children and young people, and community cultural development, writing plays commissioned by companies such as the Q Theatre, Jigsaw Theatre, Death Defying Theatre, Salamanca Theatre, Pact Youth Theatre, Shopfront Theatre for Young People, Bourke Youth Theatre, the Queensland Music Festival, and Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image. Donna also writes contemporary adult drama for stage and radio, and her play “Aurora’s Lament” won this year’s Australian Writers’ Guilds’ AWGIE Award for radio adaptation. Donna is a founding member of the playwrights’ collective 7-ON which this year published their first book “No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames: Monologues for Drama Students by 7on”. Having previously written pieces for The 428 Project and Brand Spanking New, Donna is delighted to be part of another Augusta Supple initiative.
VANESSA BATES
Every Second, The Magic Hour, Porn.Cake , Checklist for an Armed Robber, Small Hard Things, The Night We Lost Jenny, Match, Mincemeat, The Elephant’s Ark, A Little Bit Each Night, and Darling Oscar. Her plays have been produced by Deckchair Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Belvoir B-Sharp, Vitalstatistix, Black Swan, theatre@risk, Freewheels, Tantrum Theatre and the Sydney Theatre Company as well as ABC Radio National. She has written for several multi-playwright shows with producer/director Augusta Supple including Brand Spanking New, Tales From The 428 and We Contain Multitudes. In 2012 Porn.Cake was nominated for an AWGIE New Play Award and produced by Griffin Independent (the play premiered in 2011 at Malthouse Theatre), later winning NSW Premier’s Literary Award (2012). The Magic Hour premiered at Deckchair Theatre in May. In January, Every Second was showcased at the 2012 National Play Festival in Melbourne and has been selected for showcase at the (US) National New Play Network’s festival in Washington in November. Vanessa is current PWA Playwright in Residence at Griffin Theatre. Vanessa is a graduate of NIDA Playwrights’ Studio and has been recipient of a residency at Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris and at Varuna . She is one seventh of playwrights’ company 7-ON. For television Vanessa has written for SBS drama East West 101 and the script for ABCTV documentary “900 Neighbours”. She has written two short films (The HoneyEaters, Pop’s Dream) and is currently working on a feature length screenplay.
VERITY LAUGHTON
Verity’s work has been produced nationally and internationally. It includes main-stage adult dramas, a promenade community event, a musical, adaptations, plays for child and family audiences, as well as for dance, for puppets and theatre of image. Awards include: AWGIE for Community Theatre, 2004 (The Lightkeeper); The Griffin Prize, 2001 (Burning); AWGIE for Radio Drama, 2004 (Fox); Adelaide Critics’ Circle Best New Australian Play, 1999 (Carrying Light); Inscription Award, 2009 (The Ice Season). Recent Work: The Nargun and the Stars for the 2009 Sydney Festival and the 2009 Perth International Festival. The Sweetest Thing (Nominated for the NSW Premier’s Award) and A Crate of Souls (published by Phoenix Educational) were both produced in 2010.
NOELLE JANACZEWSKA
Noëlle Janaczewska writes plays, performance texts, lyrics & libretti, monologues, poetry, essays, gallery and on-line explorations, and radio scripts across drama and non-fiction. Her work has been performed, broadcast and published throughout Australia and overseas. The recipient of 6 AWGIE Awards, her stage plays have won the Griffin Playwriting Award, the Playbox-Asialink Playwriting Competition (Songket) and the 2006 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award (Mrs Petrov’s Shoe). Recent productions include: Random Red and Weeds Etc for ABC Radio National, Eyewitness Blues for the BBC, and The Hannah First Collection, 1919—1949 for the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai. Noëlle has a Creative Fellowship from the University of Queensland/Arts Queensland (2012/2013), and is developing new works for performance, radio, print and digital media. As well as revisiting an early play from her ‘backlist’. Find out more about her work and read excerpts at http://noelle-janaczewska.com
HILARY BELL
Hilary’s plays have been produced nationally by companies including Griffin, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Black Swan, Deckchair, La Boite, NORPA and Vitalstatistix; in the US by Atlantic and Steppenwolf; in the UK by the National’s Connections programme. These include Wolf Lullaby, Fortune, The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch, The Falls, Memmie Le Blanc, Open-Cut, The Bloody Bride, The White Divers of Broome, The Splinter, Victim Sidekick Boyfriend Me, and The Mysteries: Genesis (with Lally Katz). She was associate writer on Paul Capsis’ Angela’s Kitchen. She has written libretti for opera, musicals and song cycles. Awards: Philip Parsons, Jill Blewitt, Bug’n’Bub (USA), Aurealis Fiction, the Eric Kocher (USA), Inscription, a Helpmann and an AWGIE. Hilary is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, NIDA, and AFTRS. She was the 2003-04 Tennessee Williams Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of the South in Tennessee.
Week 2
The Solitudes written by Jonathan Gavin, Shannon Murdoch, Ava Karuso, Melita Rowston, Kate Gaul, Maxine Mellor, Julia Rose Lewis, David Finnigan, Noelle Janaczewska and Ruth Melville
JONATHAN GAVIN
A graduate of the WAAPA Theatre Course, Jonathan is an actor, musician and writer. He has appeared in Bell Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Pericles, and The Taming of the Shrew for Sydney Theatre Company’s Education Program. He played Matthew Flinders in Ensemble Theatre’s Navigating Flinders. Also with Ensemble he appeared in Glorious and the UK tour of End of the Rainbow. For several years Jonathan toured nationally and internationally in the hit show 2 Pianos 4 Hands. For White Box Theatre he appeared in Love Song and A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg, directed by Kim Hardwick. Most recently he appeared in the TV adaptation of Puberty Blues.He is the author of a number of plays including A Moment on the Lips, Tiger Country, Bang and The Business and was one of several writers of Bien Etre’s Breast Wishes. For the screen, Jonathan wrote the telemovie Dungoona (Starchild Productions), which won the MTV/Optus One80 competition. For the screen he has written for Rush and Mr & Mrs Murder, and is one of the writers of Network Ten’s comic drama Offspring.
SHANNON MURDOCH
Shannon Murdoch is the winner of the Yale Drama Series Award for her play New Light Shine, which was also selected for the National Play Festival 2011 in Sydney, Australia. It has received staged readings from Yale Repertory Theatre and Monkey Wrench Collective and is published by Yale Press. Other plays include One Cloud (Theatreworks, Melbourne), Everything in Between (Smith& Kraus) and Act Accordingly (JAC Publishing). She holds a first class honours degree in Theatre and Creative Writing from Griffith University and is a graduate of The Playwrights Studio at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). Shannon was an Australian delegate to the International Youth Playwrights Festival (Interplay) and has received writing fellowships from the Australian Council for the Arts, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in California, Victoria Writers Centre and Hothouse Theatre in Victoria.
AVA KARUSO
Ava is a young playwright from Sydney. Her first writing credit was the short play Spoons and Forks, which was performed and published in 2008 as part of the Page-To-Stage festival. Since then her love of playwriting has grown, and in 2011 year her short play Guilt of the Vaudevillian was performed in the Short and Sweet festivals in Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast and Sydney. Last year Ava had her first full length play Rope Burn in the Sydney Fringe Festival, with the script later published by Australian Plays. She was also artist in residence at the Shopfront Contemporary Arts Centre creating the edible piece Life.Death.Food. Ava is currently developing her own theatre company Outrageous Fortune and will be mounting a show in the Rocks Pop-Up later in the year.
NOELLE JANACZEWSKA
Noëlle Janaczewska writes plays, performance texts, lyrics & libretti, monologues, poetry, essays, gallery and on-line explorations, and radio scripts across drama and non-fiction. Her work has been performed, broadcast and published throughout Australia and overseas. The recipient of 6 AWGIE Awards, her stage plays have won the Griffin Playwriting Award, the Playbox-Asialink Playwriting Competition (Songket) and the 2006 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award (Mrs Petrov’s Shoe). Recent productions include: Random Red and Weeds Etc for ABC Radio National, Eyewitness Blues for the BBC, and The Hannah First Collection, 1919—1949 for the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai. Noëlle has a Creative Fellowship from the University of Queensland/Arts Queensland (2012/2013), and is developing new works for performance, radio, print and digital media. As well as revisiting an early play from her ‘backlist’. Find out more about her work and read excerpts at http://noelle-janaczewska.com
MELITA ROWSTON
Melita is a writer, director and performer. A graduate of VCA (BFA- Painting), NIDA (Directing) and UTS (MA – Creative Writing). Credits include: Director – MilkMilkLemonade, (New Theatre/Mardi Gras) ’13, Sugarbomb, (TRS) at The Old Fitz, ‘04, Top Shorts – ‘Rocket Baby’ by Caleb Lewis, (Naked Theatre Company/TRS), ‘03, Solitude in Blue, (Griffin Stablemates), ‘02, Spunks by Rebel Wilson, (Push Up Theatre), ‘02, cover, girl, (B Sharp & Adelaide Cabaret Festival), ‘01/’02, Swing Girl (Griffin Stablemates), ‘01. Assistant Director to the Opera Project, ‘01, Assistant Director to Barrie Kosky, There is No Need to Wake Up, (Olympic Arts Festival, Sydney Opera House), ’00. Writer – Kvetch Set Ketch Collective, Crushed, (New Theatre Spare Room) ’12, The Diver S&S prize winner ’08, Sugarbomb, (TRS) ’04, Solitude in Blue, (Griffin Stablemates) ’02, Swing Girl, (Griffin Stablemates) ’01 and Night Reflections, (NIDA) ’00. Melita was a resident playwright at Griffin Theatre Company in 2005/06. Performer - Six Degrees of Ned Kelly, (Time Machine Festival@Serial Space ’12). She will perform in Melita Rowston’s Travelling Worm Show in Melbourne later this year. melitarowston.com
KATE GAUL
Kate graduated from NIDA (Directing Course) in 1996 and trained with the Anne Bogart SITI Company in 2005. In 2004/5 Kate was the Associate Director at the Ensemble Theatre where productions include The Violet Hour, Kimberly Akimbo and Lobby Hero. Other directing credits include Castor + Pollux (Pinchgut), The Cunning Little Vixen (Sydney Chamber Opera), Carmen (Oz Opera), Beautiful (Mudlark Theatre) The Altar Boyz (Ovations Live), Camarilla (Merrigong Theatre Co) Coup D’Etat (MTC), The Gates of Egypt, Our Lady of Sligo, Run Rabbit Run, The Laramie Project, Svetlana in Slingbacks (Company B), Wicked Sisters (Griffin/National tour), Rabbit (Griffin Theatre) and projects for all major drama schools and theatre companies throughout Australia. Kate is the Artistic Director of Siren Theatre Co: productions include The New Electric Ballroom (By Enda Walsh), The Lunch Hour (By Chris Aronsten) FOX (Monkey Baa/National Tour, 2010), The Seagull (Chekhov), Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Richard 3, Twelfth Night, Human Resources (by Chris Aronsten), Duck (by Stella Feehily), eeni meeni mini mo (devised by the company), Hard Swallow (by Mirra Todd), Polly Blue (by Belinda Bradley), Wanna Go Home, Baby? (devised by the company), Connie and Kevin and the Secret Life of Groceries (by Noelle Janaczweska) and Blue Heart (by Caryl Churchill) and Frozen (by Michael O’Brien). Kate has also written and directed two short films Embrace and Cake. www.sirentheatre.com
MAXINE MELLOR
Maxine Mellor is an award-winning Queensland playwright who has authored over twenty plays, and had work produced throughout Australia. Awards include the Queensland Theatre Company’s Young Playwright’s Award (2001, 2002, 2003), the QTC George Landen Dann Award (2004) and a Matilda Award for best new independent work for Performance (2005) for Magda’s Fascination with Wax Cats. In 2012 she was announced winner of Inscription’s Edward Albee New York City Residency and winner of the 2012/2013 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award. In 2013, her play Trollop premiers at Queensland Theatre Company, and she is devising The Wizard of Oz with the Danger Ensemble for La Boite Theatre Company and the Brisbane Festival. She is currently working with Griffin Theatre Company on a new play, The Silver Alps, and is a resident writer with La Boite Theatre Company. Maxine’s work is published through Playlab and the Australian Script Centre.
JULIA ROSE LEWIS
Julia-Rose Lewis is an emerging playwright and performance maker from Queensland. In 2010 Julia-Rose graduated with distinction from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor Of Creative Industries majoring in Drama. Julia is passionate about writing for both the stage and screen. In 2013 Julia is a Playwright In Residence with La Boite Theatre Company and also a mentee in the inaugural atyp National Mentoring Program. In 2012 Julia was selected to attend atyp’s National Young Writer’s Studio which saw the creation of a work titled This Feral Life, which was produced by atyp and published by Currency Press as a part of The Voices Project 2013, Out Of Place. This Feral Life is being adapted to film with atyp for shooting in late 2013. Julia has worked as a creative with companies such as atyp, La Boite, The Brisbane Powerhouse, Metro Arts, Vena Cava Productions and The Escapists. Julia is a founding member of The BreadBeard Collective which will produce ><R&J as a part of the La Boite Indie Season in 2013. Julia-Rose has also worked for Queensland Theatre Company as their Youth Program Coordinator and Queensland Performing Arts Centre as a Project Assistant with the KITE Arts Education Program.
DAVID FINNIGAN
David Finnigan is an Australian playwright and theatre-maker. Since 2001, more than 30 of his scripts have been produced in Australia and overseas. In 2012, David completed residencies at the University College London Environment Institute and the Battersea Arts Centre in London, and Campos de Gutierrez in Medellin, Colombia. David was 2006 Writer-in-Residence in Manila with Tanghalang Pilipino, the key government-funded theatre company in the Philippines, and his work continues to be performed in Manila, including a production of Battalia Royale in March 2012. David founded and co-directed the Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle and the You Are Here festival in Canberra.
Week 3
Little Gods written by Nicholas Hope
NICHOLAS HOPE
Nicholas Hope began his film career playing the character of ‘Bubby’ in the cult Rolf De Heer film ‘Bad Boy Bubby’ (1993). The role brought him various awards including the CIAC (popular) prize for best performance at the Venice Film Festival 1993, the AFI Best Actor award in 1994, and the Valencienne Popular Vote for Best Actor in 1995. He has since worked around the world in film, theatre and television, in a series of roles ranging from priests to sailors to psychotic killers to polar bears. He has appeared in more than 30 film and TV productions, from Henry Fool (Hal Hartley) to Scooby Doo (Raja Gosnell) and from Getting Hurt (Ben Bolt, BBC) to Redd Inc. (Dan Krige) – as well as numerous theatre productions. He has recently completed work on Permafrost (John Sullivan), and is currently directing a series of storytelling pieces to be shown at the Tap Gallery in May 2013. Nicholas’s memoir ‘Brushing the Tip of Fame’ was published by Bantam Books, Random House, and his short story ‘Heartache’ appeared in their compilation ‘Take Me With You’. His first play, ‘The Colour of Panic’, won the Norwegian ‘100 0g Nå’ Ibsen centenary writing prize, and premiered at The Studio, Sydney Opera House before travelling to Oslo, Norway. He completed a PhD in Performance Studies in 2010. Nicholas is based in Sydney, Australia.