2024 Duologue Program – Participants Announced!
APT is very excited to bring you this year’s Duologue participants!
Supported by the S,B,&W Foundation, this year’s cohort consists of 6 mid-career playwrights and their chosen collaborators. The pairs are supported to meet monthly for six months, enabling the playwrights to make progress on a new play they have been working on. In 2024 the six partnerships are:
- Julie Ritchey + Sarah Lockwood
- Sheridan Harbridge + Jessica Arthur
- Ross Mueller + Chris Isaacs
- Liv Satchell + Emma Valente
- Elise Hearst + Jessica Bellamy
- Emily Sheehan + Sarah Goodes
Julie Ritchey and Sarah Lockwood
Julie and Sarah will work on Julie’s solo piece for a mother/performer, exploring identity formation and transformation, particularly around the relationship between work and caregiving.
Julie Ritchey is a theatre-maker who specializes in immersive, participatory theatre for young people and their families. She is the founder of Filament Theatre in Chicago, IL, where she served as Artistic Director for fifteen years. Her work has been seen at the Kennedy Center, the O’Neill Theatre Center, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Writers Theatre, Third Coast Percussion, Opera Australia, Adventure Stage Chicago, Boise Contemporary Theatre, the Queensland Poetry Festival, Trike Theatre, and more. Her original piece Forts: Build Your Own Adventure has delighted thousands of audience members through over 400 sold out performances. The resources she developed with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra have served over 35,000 teachers and students around the world. She has presented workshops and lectures on her groundbreaking programs for youth leadership and access at the TYA/USA national festival and conference, IPAY CultureCrew Festival, Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Chicago Theatre (Un)Conference, TEDx, and at universities across the United States. Julie’s work is rooted in the belief that:
- Young people have the right to express themselves freely, and to see themselves reflected in arts and culture.
- Play is a human right.
- A truly equitable world necessitates the liberation of children.
Sarah Lockwood brings over two decades of experience as a theatre maker, performer, producer, and civil celebrant to her role as Co-Director of Threshold. With a focus on ritual and performance, Sarah’s expertise lies in creating immersive theatre experiences for families. As the former Creative Producer of Drop Bear Theatre, she co-developed productions such as “Dig” and “The Boy Who Loved Tiny Things,” as well as performance installation ‘RAIN: for babies and their carers’. RAIN continues to tour internationally to venues including Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne and Lincoln Center. Co-founding Threshold in 2019, Sarah has continued to innovate, creating audio theatre experiences “Mountain Goat Mountain” and “The Flying Canoe” and ‘Glow’. Threshold’s experiences invite families to connect more deeply with each other and promote intergenerational play. Sarah’s commitment to creating welcoming and inclusive spaces is evident in every aspect of her work, from the quality of the invitation extended to participants to the gentle approach that underpins each production. Sarah lives on Taungurung land.
Sheridan Harbridge + Jessica Arthur
Sheridan and Jess will work on Sheridan’s play, a story of two artists looking for self worth, expression and escape from the stifling stereotyping and pressures of their respective communities.
Sheridan Harbridge is a multi award winning theatre maker, with a highly regarded career as an actor, writer and director. She grew up in country Victoria to Lebanese-Australian parents before graduating from NIDA in 2006. She won Best Actress at the Sydney Theatre Awards for her performance in ‘Prima Facie’ for Griffin Theatre, and for Blanche Dubois in ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ for RedLine Productions. She received best actress nominations for ‘Stop Girl’ and ‘Calamity Jane’ at Belvoir. As a playwright, her musical ‘Songs for the Fallen’ won Best Musical and Best Actress at the New York Music Theatre Festival, and toured to several major arts festivals across the country. She currently has two musicals under commission with Melbourne Theatre Company, and was awarded the Create NSW Music Theatre Fellowship in 2022. In 2016 she was a resident of the Griffin Studio program, where she co-wrote and directed ‘Nosferatutu’ She directed the premiere of the musical ‘Dubbo Championship Wrestling’ for Hayes Theatre, receiving a nomination for best director at the Sydney Theatre Awards, and directed ‘44 Sex Acts in One Week’ for Sydney Festival. For Adelaide Cabaret Festival, she developed and directed ‘REG: The Reg Livermore Retrospective’.
Jessica Arthur is a theatre director and dramaturg with a strong focus on new Australian work. Raised in Melbourne she moved to Sydney in 2014 to complete a Masters in Fine Art (Directing) and has since developed and directed live performance in both independent and mainstage sectors across Australia. At Sydney Theatre Company (STC) Jess directed The
Dictionary of Lost Words, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Grand Horizons, Home, I’m Darling, Wonnangatta, Banging Denmark, Mosquitoes, Lethal Indifference and Chalkface, a co-production with State Theatre of South Australia. In 2017, Jess was STC’s Richard Wherrett Fellow, Directing Associate in 2018 and Resident Director from 2019 – 2022. Jessica’s other directing credits include The Wolves (Belvoir and The Old Fitz); Lose to Win, Tongue Tied and Amongst Ruins (The Old Fitz); The House at Boundary Road Liverpool (Old 505); Two Hearts (The Anchor); The Martin Lysicrates Prize 2018 (Griffin); Kindness, Realism (NIDA); Intoxication (La Mama Courthouse); Unend (Never Never Theatre Company); How Are You? (Design Canberra Festival); The Sugar Syndrome (The Kings Collective). Jess has been an Associate and Assistant Director across multiple productions at STC, MTC and NIDA. She has taught at ATYP, NIDA, STC and Sydney Actors School.
Ross Mueller + Chris Isaacs
Ross and Chris will be working on an imagined political comedy thriller set inside the modern-day Temple to power, ambition, greed and lost principles: Parliament House, Canberra.
Ross Mueller lives in Newcastle, NSW. In 2022, A Simple Act of Kindness premiered at Red Stitch Actors Theatre and was nominated for most Outstanding New Writing in the Victorian Green Awards. In 2020 he was the winner of the Georgi Markov Award, BBC International Audio Drama Prize. In 2009 he was the winner of the New York New Dramatists Playwright exchange. In 2002 he was part of the International Residency of the Royal Court Theatre, London. His plays have been performed at Griffin (Concussion, A Strategic Plan), Malthouse (I Can’t Even), Melbourne Theatre Company (The Ghost Writer), ATYP (A Town Named War Boy), Hothouse (The Glory) Canberra Youth Theatre (The Messenger), Melbourne International Festival (No Man’s Island at La Mama) and Sydney Theatre Company (Concussion, ZEBRA!). He has collaborated and worked in the independent theatre sector for many years and these plays include:
- Construction of the Human Heart
- (A Pilot Version of) Something to Die For
- A Party in Fitzroy
- Little Brother
- Domestic Animals
- Great Ocean Road
- No Man’s Island
He writes for audio & legacy media. His series The Right Fit
for ABC Radio National was nominated for an AWGIE award.
Chris Isaacs is a writer, devisor, performer, founding core artist of The Last Great Hunt, and current literary director at Black Swan State Theatre Company. He has worked extensively as a tutor at WAAPA, a mentor for young artists through ATYP, and a dramaturg across the Perth independent sector. As a writer credits include ‘BITE THE HAND’, ‘YORK’ (Co-Written with Ian Michael for BSSTC), the multiple award winning ‘THE GREAT RIDOLPHI’ (Blaz Award for New Writing Perth Fringeworld), the multiple award winning FAG/STAG (co-written with Jeffrey Jay Fowler), award winning OLD LOVE (Audience Development Award – Blue Room) and award winning FLOOD (PAWA best new play), BALI (co-written with Jeffrey Jay Fowler), and ‘THE 1s, THE 0s, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN’ (RIPTIDE and ATYP). As a co-devisor/performer Chris’ work includes WHISTLBLOWER (Perth Festival and TLGH), LÉ NØR, (Perth Festival/PICA/MPAC and TLGH), STAY WITH US (TLGH), ALL THAT GLITTERS (TLGH), FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS (TLGH) and the award winning IT’S DARK OUTSIDE (ArtsHub Innovation Award – 2013 and Helpmann nominated) for The Last Great Hunt.
Liv Satchell + Emma Valente
Liv and Emma will collaborate on a love letter to theatre, exploring how we care for each other.
Liv Satchell is a theatre-maker, writer, dramaturg and facilitator trained at the Victorian College of the Arts (Masters of Directing) and the University of Sydney. Her practice focuses on building community platforms for independent artists, on new writing development, and on producing original work through VIMH. Her recent body of work The Grief Trilogy (‘I sat and waited but you were gone too long’; ‘my sister feather’; ‘let bleeding girls lie’) is three thematically linked plays exploring transformational encounters between strangers in public space and was presented in March 2023 at La Mama Courthouse. She is in the midst of making her mainstage debut at Belvoir Street Theatre with original work Nayika: A Dancing Girl, which she has written and co-directed with Nithya Nagarajan. Her plays have been variously shortlisted for the Phillip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights, the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, the Max Afford Playwrights Award, and the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award. She has been nominated for Best Director four times at the Green Room Awards and both ‘I sat and waited but you were gone too long’ and ‘let bleeding girls lie’ won Best New Writing for Independent Theatre.
Emma Valente is an established arts leader and facilitator. She is the Co-Artistic director and Co CEO of feminist theatre company THE RABBLE. THE RABBLE has forged an unrivalled reputation for producing experimental theatre of the highest quality – theatre that interrogates the human condition through a combination of surreal and visceral aesthetics, a feminist sensibility, and the application of intellectually rigorous research. The results have changed the paradigm of what is possible in theatrical culture in Australia. Emma’s work at THE RABBLE focuses on creating feminist practices, methodology and content as is one of the most recognized feminist practitioners in the country. Emma is the recipient of the Creators Fund grant from Creative Victoria and she is a Sidney Myer Fellowship. Emma has instigated and facilitated workshops, panels and gatherings for: Theatre Network Australia, Australian Theatre Forum, Playwriting Australia, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Blue Room, Vitalstatistix, Safe Theatres Australia, APAM and Melbourne Fringe Festival. Emma also founded an initiative to increase gender equity in the technical design sector (lighting, sound and video design) and has been an advocate for change around Sexual Harassment and Bullying in the sector.
Elise Hearst + Jessica Bellamy
Elise and Jessica will be working on a dark comedy exploring the differences between how we present ourselves in public and in private spaces, particularly about what it means to be a woman with one’s identity tied to external structures.
Elise Esther Hearst is an award-winning Melbourne-based playwright, author and performer, working and living on Boon Wurrung country. Her plays have appeared at various theatres around Australia, including A Very Jewish Christmas Carol (Melbourne Theatre Company), Yentl, the winner of Green Room Award for Outstanding Writing (Malthouse Theatre and Arts Centre Melbourne), The Mesh (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), The Sea Project, shortlisted for the Griffin Award (Griffin Theatre) and Bright World (Theatre Works). She is the author of One Day We’re All Going to Die, a novel published by HQ Fiction, Harper Collins Australia. Her second novel will be published in 2025.
Jessica Bellamy is a theatre maker based in Melbourne, who has worked with companies in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, regional New South Wales, Singapore, and the Philippines. Jessica is the writer of A is for Apple (Griffin Theatre, Sydney), co-writer and performer of Thick Beats for Good Girls (Checkpoint Theatre, Singapore) as well as writer and performer of Shabbat Dinner, which had three Sydney seasons. She won the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award for Sprout (2011). She has worked in dramaturgical roles in schools and youth theatre settings, as well as with playwright Michele Lee on What If?…Hypothetical (Arts House), and Broth Bitch (Melbourne Fringe, Vitalstatistix). Collaborations include (After)Hero with Monash University Student Theatre, as well as works with Local Peoples, Sydney Living Museums, Sipat Lawin Ensemble and Clockfire Theatre Company. She has run workshops or residencies for Express Media, Arts Centre Melbourne, Dreamhouse Theatre, atyp, NIDA, OTYP, Back to Back Theatre, and in many educational settings.
Emily Sheehan + Sarah Goodes
Emily and Sarah are working on two of Emily’s plays – a family epic contending with the climate crisis in Australia, and a comedy about the politics of hyper-femme spaces.
Emily Sheehan is an award-winning playwright and dramaturg based in Naarm. In 2023, the critically-acclaimed world premiere of her play ‘Monument’ at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, directed by Artistic Director Ella Caldwell, enjoyed an extended sold-out season, followed by a return season by popular demand in 2024. Her latest play Frame Narrative, developed through New Ghosts, opened Lucy Clements’ inaugural 2024 season as Artistic Director of the The Old Fitz’s Theatre and enjoyed multiple 5, 4.5 and 4 star reviews. Her other plays include ‘Hell’s Canyon’ (Old 505 Theatre / La Mama Theatre / Regional Arts Victoria tour), ‘Daisy Moon Was Born This Way’ (Q Theatre Penrith) and ‘versions of us’ (Canberra Youth Theatre). Her plays have been developed by Melbourne Theatre Company Cybec, Red Stitch INK, Playwriting Australia National Script Workshops and New Ghosts. Awards include the Rodney Seaborn Award (Winner), The Patrick White Award (Finalist), Max Afford Award (Finalist), UK’s Theatre503 Playwriting Award (Longlist) and Melbourne Fringe Award (Winner). Emily has completed dramaturgy attachments with The Bush Theatre (London), Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh) and Playwrights’ Studio Scotland and worked as a dramaturg for Theatre503 (London). Emily is represented by Cameron’s Management and is currently developing an original television series.
Sarah Goodes is an award-winning theatre director and dramaturg. From 2012-2016 she was the Resident Director at the Sydney Theatre Company and from 2016-2020 she was the Associate Artistic Director at the Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2023 Sarah’s production of ‘Sunday’ by Anthony Weigh starring Nikki Shiels enjoyed an extended sell out season at Melbourne Theatre Company. Sarah also directed STC’s critically acclaimed production of Joanna Murray-Smith’s ‘Julia’ starring Justine Clarke which sold out both Sydney and Canberra seasons and will tour to Melbourne, Canberra and South Australia with a return season to STC in 2024. In 2023 she also directed the critically acclaimed world premiere of ‘The Weekend’ by Sue Smith, adapted from the novel by Charlotte Wood, at Belvoir Street Theatre. For Melbourne Theatre Company, Sarah’s work includes SUNDAY; CYRANO; THE SOUND INSIDE; HOME, I’M DARLING; COSI (with the Sydney Theatre Company); GOLDEN SHIELD; ARBUS & WEST; ASTROMAN; A DOLL’S HOUSE: PART 2; THE CHILDREN (with Sydney Theatre Company); THREE LITTLE WORDS and JOHN. As Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company Sarah directed THE HANGING; DISGRACED; ORLANDO; BATTLE OF WATERLOO; SWITZERLAND; THE EFFECT; VERE (FAITH); THE SPLINTER and EDWARD GANT’S AMAZING FEATS OF LONELINESS.
SUBMISSION DEMOGRAPHICS
In 2024, APT received 22 applications to the Duologue program. As with all programs, applicants are given the option to self-report on certain demographics. These are not factored into assessment of applications, but help APT assess the reach of our programs.
For 2024 submissions, these demographics were as follows:
| DUOLOGUE 2024 | Number | % of Total |
| Total Submissions | 22 | 100% |
| Gender | ||
| Female-identifying | 15 | 68% |
| Non-binary | 1 | 5% |
| Male-identifying | 4 | 18% |
| Trans | 0 | 0% |
| Not identified | 2 | 9% |
| Location | ||
| ACT | 0 | 0% |
| NSW | 6 | 27% |
| NT | 0 | 0% |
| QLD | 2 | 9% |
| SA | 1 | 5% |
| TAS | 1 | 5% |
| VIC | 12 | 55% |
| WA | 0 | 0% |
| Other demographics | ||
| CALD, PoC or non-Western | 4 | 18% |
| Australian First Nations | 0 | 0% |
| Experiencing disability | 4 | 18% |
| LGBTQIA+ | 13 | 59% |
2024 ASSESSING PANEL
In 2024, The Duologue panel consisted of: Brittanie Shipway, Jane Bodie, and Mark Pritchard.
We kindly ask that applicants do not contact the assessing panel to request feedback on their submissions.
Brittanie Shipway is a Gumbaynggirr and Turkish storyteller, whose creative practise encompasses singing, acting, writing and dramaturgy.
She recently wrote and starred in her debut play A Letter For Molly at the Ensemble Theatre, under the directorial helm of Ursula Yovich. A Letter For Molly was developed in 2020 as part of Belvoir’s shutdown residency, and received funding from both Create NSW and the Australia Council for the Arts. This debut play was a semi-finalist piece in the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award (2021) and nominated for Best Play for the 2022 Broadway World Awards. Her next play Senser, premiered at Theatre Works in 2022, directed by kindred creative spirit Miranda Middleton, featuring original music by composer Jess Newman. In 2022, Brittanie was the recipient of the prestigious Dreaming Award from the Australia Council of the Arts as well as Create NSW to develop her musical Yellow Rock. This new Gumbaynggirr musical also received the 2022 APRA AMCOS Professional Development Awards (Music Theatre) and a Koori grant from Create NSW. Yellow Rock will be developed and showcased in 2023. Brittanie has also written and performed her queer audio piece Salt & Biber for ABC Radio, and has written a short story Gözleme which was recently published by SBS Voices. As a dramaturg, Brittanie has worked on Laura Murphy’s musical Zombie! at The Hayes, and Hannah Reilly’s new musical The Deb which opened at ATYP’s new Rebel Theatre in 2022. Her creative collaborations with Miranda Middleton have seen Brittanie dramaturg a variety of Middleton’s works, including Pear Shaped (Theatre Works), Paper Stars and Ally Morgan’s award winning cabaret Not Today. As a performer, Brittanie has made her mark at the Sydney Opera House as Hermia in Bell Shakespeare’s worldwide premiere of The Lovers. She recently starred as Margaret Whitlam in the new Australian musical The Dismissal, as well as a national tour of Rolling Thunder Vietnam with the John Farnham band. She has also performed alongside Natalie Bassingthwaite and Paulini as the Arbiter in Chess, Kay in a national tour of The Sapphires, The Witch in Big Fish, Claire in Ordinary Days, Lauren in Kinky Boots, Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar, Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Bianca in Othello and various roles in Sport for Jove’s epic Rose Riot, to name a few. Brittanie is passionate about diverse stories being told on Australian stages, and has worked closely with Theatre Works to create a playwriting program First Stories to empower First Nations storytellers. She hopes to leave behind a legacy that encourages artists to breathe voice into their own stories, and forge their own path in the creative industry.
Jane Bodie is a playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. Jane was recently longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize and Shortlisted for the Paines Plough Women’s Prize for Playwriting for her play Savage. She also won the 2019 Lysicrates Prize for her new play Tell Me You Love Me. Jane was awarded a full commission to finish the play which she is currently writing. Her play Water opened this year at the Black Swan State Theatre Company in Perth and was very well reviewed and received by audiences. In 2018 her new play Lamb with songs by Mark Seymour opened at the Red Stitch Theatre and is set for a regional tour in early 2021. She is also writing a Screen Australia funded feature adaptation of her play This Year’s Ashes and developing her own TV show. Jane was Head of Playwriting at NIDA from 2010 – 2013. Her plays include; Fourplay (Trades Hall, Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Festival), Hilt (Playbox, Theatre Royal Bath, Edinburgh Festival), Ride (Beckett Theatre, Belvoir Street, Assembly Rooms Edinburgh Festival, Rattlestick Theatre NY starring Josh Lucas and Summer Phoenix, and Fox Theatricals Reading starring Julianna Margulies), Through, Still (The Store Room – Winner, Green Room Award for Outstanding Writing), A Single Act (Hampstead Theatre London, Melbourne Theatre Company and was nominated for the 2007 NSW Premier’s Literary Award and won the 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award). Other more recent plays include Home By Now, Unit (Royal Court Theatre), Out Of Me (Soho Theatre, London), and Hallelujah (Theatre 503 London) Hinterland (NIDA). Jane has directed many of the above productions. Griffin Theatre Company produced the premiere of This Year’s Ashes, and Red Stitch presented it in 2014. Music (Griffin Independent) received great reviews from its season and Savage was written for Bell Shakespeare’s Minds Eye program and read at the 2014 PWA National Play Festival. Her plays Rideand Fourplay were presented at the Eternity Playhouse for Darlinghurst Theatre Company in 2015. She is currently under commission at Red Stitch to write two plays. Jane has also written extensively for television, radio and film. Her television credits include Crash/Burn, The Secret Life of Us in Australia, and No Angels, Echo Beach, Nearly Famous andMoving Wallpaper in the UK. The feature film, Dick Kerr’s Ladies is currently in development with Altered Image Productions (UK). Her short film Alice was the Winner of Best Film in the anthology series POV and it was selected for screening at Cannes Film Festival. Jane has written three radio dramas for ABC Radio National and one for the BBC’s Radio Four.
Mark Pritchard is a dramaturg, arts programmer and theatre-maker. He trained at the Victorian College of the Arts, and the University of Wollongong. His practice focuses on new play development, cross-artform conversations, and using the tools of dramaturgy outside the theatre context. He’s interested in how theatre works, and how to make it work for everyone. Currently, Mark is a Senior Arts Programmer for Darebin Arts, running a year-round Speakeasy program of contemporary theatre, dance, circus, live art across Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre and Darebin Arts Centre, and cultivating a community of practice around these two venues. From 2014 to 2022 Mark was the New Work Manager & Resident Dramaturg at Malthouse Theatre. Here he managed their new play commissions, works in development, artist development programs, and provided dramaturgical support across the company’s activities.
Recent plays he has developed include: Telethon Kid by Alistair Baldwin, Made in China 2.0 by Wang Chong, Atlantis by Chanella Macri, K-BOX by Ra Chapman, The Return by John Harvey, Stay Woke by Aran Thangaratnam, Hello, World! By Natesha Somasundaram, Atomic by Amelia Chandos Evans, Going Down by Michele Lee, Heart is a Wasteland by John Harvey (Brown Cabs), and Little Emperors 小皇帝by Lachlan Philpott (AsiaTOPA). He was also the dramaturg on Malthouse Theatre’s 2021 large-scale immersive production Because The Night. With his partner Arie Rain Glorie, Mark established the Centre for Dramaturgy and Curation (2019-2020) to explore the intersections and expanded applications of these two fields of practice.
He was a founding member of artist collective New Working Group, and co-director of interactive theatre outfit NO SHOW. Mark was a panelist and then chair of the Green Room Association Awards’ Independent Theatre Panel. He was a recipient of the Mike Walsh Fellowship, a member of Australian Plays Transform’s National Advisory Panel, and a participant in the Australia Council’s Future Leaders Program.
