DAVID ATFIELD

David Atfield - one of Canberra’s most respected directors and playwrights - has won three Canberra Critics’ Circle Awards and received seventeen government grants. He holds a BA (UNSW, 1986), a Certificate in Acting (Ensemble Studios, 1986) and a Diploma in Directing (NIDA, 1991).

Moving to Canberra in 1992 he formed and ran BITS Theatre Company (1992-2000) - winning his first Canberra Critics’ Circle Award for directing Michael Gow’s Furious (1997). David diversified into playwrighting in 1998.

Lovely Louise, about Louise Lovely, was workshopped at the 1998 National Playwrights Conference and produced at the Street Theatre in 1999. Pink Triangles, about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, followed, in 2000.

Scandalous Boy, about Hadrian and Antinous, was named in the Canberra Times’ top five productions of 2014 and won David a second Canberra Critics' Circle Award. The script was short-listed for the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Award, New York and published by Playlab.

Exclusion premiered at The Street for SpringOUT in 2018. A drama about LGBTQIA+ politicians, Exclusion was named in the Canberra Times’ top five productions of 2018 and won David his third Canberra Critics’ Circle Award.

Over 2019/20 David worked on commission from The Street to research/write a play about people living with HIV. Clean, workshopped in November 2019, was given a public reading on World AIDS Day. In 2020 The Street facilitated David working with UK playwrights Jo Clifford and Peter Darney to further refine the script.

Chiaroscuro, about Caravaggio, was selected by Siren Theatre for a reading at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2018. In 2020 SpringOUT filmed a reading for publication on YouTube. Chiaroscuro will premiere at the Canberra Theatre Centre on August 25,2021, as the first full production of their New Works Program.

His latest play, a musical-comedy Just Wrong, about a fading 90s pop-star, will be developed by The Street in 2021.