WESLEY ENOCH

Wesley Enoch is a writer and director for the stage. He was the Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company from 2010 to 2015 and is the current Artistic Director at the Sydney Festival. He hails from Stradbroke Island (Minjeribah) and is a proud Noonuccal Nuugi man.

Previously Wesley has been the Artistic Director at Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts; Artistic Director at Ilbijerri Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative and the Associate Artistic Director at Belvoir Street Theatre. Wesley’s other residencies include Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company from 2000 – 2001; the 2002 Australia Council Cite Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris and the Australia Council Artistic Director for the Australian Delegation to the 2008 Festival of Pacific Arts. He was creative consultant, segment director and indigenous consultant for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Wesley has written and directed some of Australia’s most iconic Indigenous theatre productions. THE 7 STAGES OF GRIEVING which Wesley directed and co-wrote with Deborah Mailman was first produced in 1995 by Kooemba Jdarra as part of the Warana Festival in Brisbane, and went on and continues to tour both nationally and internationally. In 1999 Wesley wrote and directed THE SUNSHINE CLUB for Queensland Theatre Company which won the 2000 Matilda Award and the 2001 Deadly Award for Best Direction. Wesley devised and directed a new adaptation of Medea by Euripides’; BLACK MEDEA and his play THE STORY OF THE MIRACLES AT COOKIE’S TABLE won the 2005 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award.

In 2004 Wesley directed the original stage production of THE SAPPHIRES by Tony Briggs for Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir Street Theatre. It won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Play. The production toured internationally to Korea as part of The Daegu International Musical Festival in 2010 and the Barbican Theatre in London in 2011. He directed RIVERLAND in 2004 for Windmill Performing Arts which premiered as part of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts and went on to tour the Brisbane, Sydney and Perth Festivals and won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Presentation for Children. In 2000 Wesley directed the landmark production STOLEN, written by Jane Harrison, which toured Australia, London and Tokyo.

Wesley has directed for all major Australian theatre companies including MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, HEADFUL OF LOVE, BOMBSHELLS, BLACK DIGGERS, GASP!, COUNTRY SONG, HAPPY DAYS and THE ODD COUPLE (Queensland Theatre Company); I AM EORA (Performing Lines/Sydney Festival 2012); ONE NIGHT THE MOON (Malthouse Theatre); THE MAN FROM MUKINUPIN (Belvoir Street/Melbourne Theatre Company); YIBIYUNG (Belvoir Street/Malthouse); PARRAMATTA GIRLS (Company B); CAPRICORNIA (Company B); THE CHERRY PICKERS (Sydney Theatre Company); and ROMEO AND JULIET (The Bell Shakespeare Company).