About the Collection
Introduction
One of the most surprising moments of my career as an educator was teaching a monologue workshop that took students through the journey of performing a monologue, beginning with a lesson on ‘picking the right monologue for you’. I instructed the students to surf the internet using terms such as “short monologues for a teenage girl” and after an hour of searching, everyone had successfully located something that resonated with them. Or at least that’s what I thought.
After class I had a non-binary student stay back and tell me they wanted to find a monologue from a non-binary character but couldn’t. Starting to fumble with an answer, they then asked me: do people like me have a place in the Arts?
This shattered my heart. A student thinking that the Arts of all places was potentially going to be a place of exclusion. And although they’re not wrong in a lot of ways – the Arts still has some significant steps in their inclusionary processes for trans, gender diverse and non-binary artists, it broke my heart because as an educator I didn’t have resources up my sleeve suitable for young people.
That’s what the Pride Collection is about. The work presented in this collection is meant to expand our understanding of queer playwriting in Australia – where it has come from, and where it is going. Specifically, I wanted it to be a place where young people could go to find plays that were specifically about them. Publishing plays like ‘Dumb Kids’ by Jacob Parker, ‘Rhomboid’ by Eric Jiang, and ‘The Lies We Were Told’ by Shopfront Arts Co-op was a response to that young person who I couldn’t find stories for.
So please use this collection as something that is both a reflection, and looking forward, but ultimately, it’s a starting point.
– Hayden Tonazzi, Collection Curator
Collection Overview
This collection includes:
- A curated selection of recommendations from the LGBTQIA+ Australian theatrical canon, put forward by prominent theatre-makers as influential to them,
- Five new publications by LGBTQIA+ playwrights, and
- Education and Academic Resources (this section will continue to be updated in 2024), including teachers notes for approaching LGBTQIA+ topics and works with young people, as well as higher-level academic papers and resources.
Highlights from the Canon
Recommendations of queer Australian texts that had an impact on these established creatives in their development as artists.
Page 8 comes recommended by Wesley Enoch.
Page 8 was a collaboration of Louis Nowra writing the life stories told by David Page and Directed by Stephen Page.
It’s a biographical piece adding to the genre of Aboriginal solo works like Box the Pony, White Baptist Abba Fan, Little Black Bastard and Gulpillil. Page 8 gave insights to growing up Black and Queer through 1960/70’s Brisbane. First performed in 2004 at Belvoir St it toured the country and cemented David Page as a triple threat and dead set icon. I remember seeing it with members of his large family in the audience. Far from being a tragic story of repression and self hate which dominated theatrical representations of Queer Australia, Page 8 was about acceptance and celebration by yourself, your family and your community. In many ways the play script does not do the experience justice, sitting in the theatre with a consummate storyteller and rapturous audience and the cheeky commentary from his sisters heckling David from the auditorium. The stand out was the family films shot on a super 8 camera from the period and of the course David lip syncing to Tina Turner’s Proud Mary as he steps out of the closest and ends the show with a tour de force drag act.
About Wesley:
Wesley Enoch is a writer and director for the stage. He is the current Deputy Chair of Creative Australia. Wesley was the Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company from 2010 to 2015 and was the Artistic Director at the Sydney Festival from 2017-2020. Wesley is the QUT Indigenous Chair of Creative Industries. 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; 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.
In 2021 Wesley received the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession and the Industry at the AWGIES.
Wesley has written and directed iconic Indigenous theatre productions. THE 7 STAGES OF GRIEVING which Wesley directed and co-wrote with Deborah Mailman was first produced in 1995 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. 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 which 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. Other productions include APPROPRIATE, BLACK COCKATOO, MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, HEADFUL OF LOVE, BOMBSHELLS, BLACK DIGGERS, GASP!, COUNTRY SONG, HAPPY DAYS and THE ODD COUPLE, I AM EORA , MAN FROM MUKINUPIN, YIBIYUNG, PARRAMATTA GIRLS and CAPRICORNIA.
His most recent work is includes new production of THE SUNSHINE CLUB (Queensland Theatre), A RAISIN IN THE SUN (Sydney Theatre Company) and THE VISITORS (Sydney Theatre Company & Moogahlin Performing Arts).
The Sum of Us comes recommended by Eva Grace Mullaley.
This play had a profound effect on me when I, somehow, got to read it in the 90’s. Then, as the then Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, I got to program it, cast an entirely Indigenous cast and majority queer team and Direct it for the 2021 Perth Festival. An absolute highlight of my career and term as AD because it was the first and only queer work the 30 year old company had/has ever done. Here are the Directors notes …
The Sum of US 2021
When I was young
In my formative years
I was only shown
A world full of fears
The stories were grim
On the tv and stage
For the person that’s queer
And coming of age
Then I got my hands
On a little known play
With a message of hope
That its ok to be gay
When everything else
Said queer is not right
this script was a beacon
a reason to fight
It said “life might be hard
(Maybe harder when black)
But survival is possible
They won’t all turn their back”
Harry was the first father
That I’d ever been shown
Who loves his son regardless.
My young mind was blown!
I’m excited for this play
Because this is how we heal
We need to be seen here
Because it still remains real
Race is not the issue
And it shouldn’t be
This play is relevant
For the whole of society
Big love to Perth Festival
Collaboration is a plus
Because all good theatre
Becomes ‘The Sum of Us!’
About Eva:
Eva Grace Mullaley is a Widi woman as part of the Yamatji Nation in the Midwest Region of Western Australia. She graduated from WAAPA in 2003 and began her directing career in 2005 when she was assistant to David Milroy for the first creative development of ‘Windmill Baby’, produced by Yirra Yaakin.
In her 20+ year career Eva has worn many hats in the theatre industry including Director, Stage Manager, Tour Manager – internationally and nationally, Producer, Event Manager, Actor, Dramaturge, Lecturer in Character and Script Analysis, Collaborating Director, Workshops Coordinator and many more. She has worked with many of Australia’s leading theatre companies including Moogahlin Performing Arts, Ilbijerri Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse, Circus Oz, Belvoir and many more.
In March 2019 Eva was appointed as the first Female and Queer identifying Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company in Perth, Western Australia and successfully led the company for 4 years. Since stepping down from Yirra Yaakin, she has been in demand for several independent projects as a Director, Mentor, Writer, Dramaturg and Poet and is engaged with a myriad of national and international panels, action groups and Committees.
Sex Magick comes recommended by Suzy Wrong.
Nicholas Brown’s ‘Sex Magick’ stands as a compelling theatrical masterpiece, weaving a vibrant tapestry of identity, love, and the intricate facets of human sexuality. Lead character Ard’s journey to India, ostensibly for romance, unveils a profound exploration into the intricacies of familial heritage and the consequential circumstances driving his father’s earlier migration from Kerala to Sydney.
Delving deep into the process of decolonization and a redefinition of marginalised identities in a world burdened by historical baggage, ‘Sex Magick’ transcends the confines of traditional storytelling. It serves as a compelling call to challenge societal norms surrounding sexuality, inviting audiences to embark on a journey of self-reflection and profound discovery.
The play’s thematic depth, combined with its uproarious yet introspective nature, makes it a transformative experience, inviting audiences to reflect on the intricate meanings of existence and to embrace a relentless pursuit of truth and self-discovery.
Nicholas Brown’s ‘Sex Magick’ stands as a compelling theatrical masterpiece, weaving a vibrant tapestry of identity, love, and the intricate facets of human sexuality. Lead character Ard’s journey to India, ostensibly for romance, unveils a profound exploration into the intricacies of familial heritage and the consequential circumstances driving his father’s earlier migration from Kerala to Sydney.
Delving deep into the process of decolonization and a redefinition of marginalised identities in a world burdened by historical baggage, ‘Sex Magick’ transcends the confines of traditional storytelling. It serves as a compelling call to challenge societal norms surrounding sexuality, inviting audiences to embark on a journey of self-reflection and profound discovery.
The play’s thematic depth, combined with its uproarious yet introspective nature, makes it a transformative experience, inviting audiences to reflect on the intricate meanings of existence and to embrace a relentless pursuit of truth and self-discovery.
About Suzy:
Suzy Wrong is a theatre critic and blogger for the Sydney main stage and independent scenes, publishing at Suzy Goes See with an annual website traffic of 50,000 visitors and over 100,000 views. Since 2013, she has established herself as the most in-demand theatre critic, receiving review requests from virtually every venue in Sydney, whether promoting a capacity of 10 or 2,500 seats. She sits on the selection panel of the Sydney Theatre Awards.
Having commenced a career in performance in the early 1992 with the Singapore Armed Forces Music & Drama Company, where she had received formal training and intensive stage experience all over Singapore and in neighbouring countries, culminating in a “Best Performance of the Year” Life Theatre Award (the only national awards of the kind) for the play PURPLE in 1998, Suzy Wrong’s depth of understanding for showbusiness is seldom paralleled.
Upon moving to Sydney to undertake a Theatre & Film Studies degree at the University of New South Wales, her focus then switched to studying the artistic ecology of this city. With three years in the Blue Mountains region as a gallerist, another three years in the child talent industry, and then six years in commercial publishing, where she cut her teeth in the corporate world of audience numbers and advertising revenue.
Suzy was last seen on television screens, in the 2020 SBS drama Hungry Ghosts, playing the role of Roxy Ling. For Sydney WorldPride 2023, images of her were featured everywhere in the city, modelling the Amsterdam Rainbow Dress.
Whitefella Yella Tree comes recommended by Declan Greene.
There’s no other play quite like Whitefella Yella Tree. Dylan says, in his introduction to the Currency Press edition, that the play emerged from a place of anger at the erasure of queer identity from First Nations histories. But Dylan has not written an angry play. Instead, he has met confrontation with empathy, and responded with an impossibly tender, yearning tale of young queer love, set in a pre-colonial world where the idea of ‘queer’ – and the otherness it denotes – does not exist.
In doing this, Whitefella Yella Tree sits alongside a series of works by Dylan (including Milk and way back when) which engage with deleted, undocumented, and misconstrued Blak histories. He fills these gaps with epic acts of myth creation, vibrating with both joy and loss. And in doing so with Whitefella Yella Tree, he has also gifted young First Nations actors two roles of incredible complexity, humanity, and humour. I cannot wait for another generation of actors and theatre-goers to discover it.
About Declan:
Declan Greene is a theatre-maker, director, playwright, screenwriter and dramaturg. He is currently Artistic Director at Griffin Theatre Company.
Declan has been a Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. In 2019 Declan directed a one-woman re-versioning of Australian classic WAKE IN FRIGHT with Zahra Newman for Malthouse Theatre. In 2018 Declan directed Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company’s co-production BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN by Nakkiah Lui. In 2016 he directed The Listies’ PRINCE OF SKIDMARK for STC, which had a return season and tour in 2018.
As a playwright Declan’s original work includes MOTH, POMPEII L.A., EIGHT GIGABYTES OF HARDCORE PORNOGRAPHY, I AM A MIRACLE and THE HOMOSEXUALS, OR ‘FAGGOTS’, which have been produced across Australia, Europe, the US, and the UK. Declan adapted Lars Von Triers’ feature film MELANCHOLIA for the stage which Matt Lutton directed at Malthouse.
Declan runs queer independent theatre company Sisters Grimm with collaborator Ash Flanders and has directed and co-created all their shows to date. These include LITTLE MERCY (Sydney Theatre Company), THE SOVEREIGN WIFE (MTC NEON), SUMMERTIME IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Theatre Works / Griffin Independent), CALPURNIA DESCENDING (Malthouse Theatre / Sydney Theatre Company) and LILITH: THE JUNGLE GIRL (MTC / Edinburgh Fringe Festival).
As a director and dramaturg, his works include Zoey Dawson’s THE UNSPOKEN WORD IS ‘JOE’ (MKA / Griffin Independent) and CONVICTION (ZLMD Shakespeare).
Declan has won awards including the Malcolm Robertson Prize, the Max Afford Playwright’s Award, an AWGIE for Theatre for Young Audiences and the Green Room Award for Best Original Writing.
The Gay Divorcee comes recommended by Alana Valentine.
Watch this space for more details on ‘The Gay Divorcee’
The Gay Divorcee by Margaret Fisher very wittily weaves the story of a doomed mermaid and her sceptical grandmother, with that of a lesbian in a long-term relationship that is breaking down because of disrespect, failing desire and paranoid jealousy.
It creates an equivalence for queer people with the emotional complexity of heterosexual marriage, and it did so in 1990, twenty-seven years (count them and weep) before the marriage equality plebiscite. Back when Penny Wong was still at university in Adelaide, the city in which the work was premiered by Vitalstatistix.
I was among the young people who saw the play in Sydney (it also toured to Melbourne and Etcetera Theatre in London) utterly seduced by and coveting the sensual beauty of the giant pink clam shell bed on which the work was played, and afterwards went out into the night, dreaming of changing the world with our rainbow love.
About Alana:
Alana Valentine is a librettist, playwright and director.
In 2021 she wrote and directed the Sydney Festival/Walkleys Award series THE JOURNALIST GENE, innovating a new form of interview panel with performance elements. As co-writer, with Ursula Yovich, of Barbara and the Camp Dogs she was awarded both a 2019 Helpmann Award and 2020 Green Room Award for Best Original Score, as well as a Helpmann for Best Musical and Green Room for Best New Australian Work. In 2019 Alana wrote the libretto for the critically acclaimed song cycle Flight Memory with composer Sandra France and many of her award-winning plays feature original songs including The Sugar House, Head Full of Love and Ladies Day.
Alana also works as dramaturg with Bangarra Dance Theatre and was part of the creative team for their Helpmann Award winning best new Australian work, Bennelong for which she wrote lyrics with composer Steve Francis, as well as working as dramaturg on their dance theatre productions of DARK EMU, PATYEGARANG, and ID (Belong).
In 2019 the Seymour Centre in Australia presented Made To Measure, a commission from the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, where Alana was Writer in Residence. Alana has been awarded four Australian Writers Guild awards and a Churchill Fellowship and she previously worked with six First Nations singers on the narrative concert Barefoot Divas: Walk A Mile In My Shoes. She has also received a Centenary Medal for her work on the Centenary of Federation, a Cultural Leadership Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts and a Literature Fund Fellowship.
New Publications
A selection of new Australian queer works with either LGBTQIA+ authors and/or characters & themes.
Click on the cover image of a work to be taken directly to its page, which includes more information about the work, including cast breakdown, themes, duration, and more.
20-something misfits, Twiglet and Boots, live in a ramshackle house on the outskirts of suburbia, where buildings are just waiting to be gobbled up by developers. As Boots prepares to move out to work for their mum’s company, the pair is determined to make the most of summer while they can. But with an old Possum lady marrying their lemon tree, a vagabond Cowgirl officiating the ceremony, and a Vulture circling the property, things are bound to get interesting…
Dumb Kids is a contemporary queer commentary on Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, asking why do we always tell queer kids it’ll get better but never that it’ll get good. Set over the course of a year it follows a group of ten Australian school students planning their year eleven formal and their intermixing journeys of discovering their sexualities, gender and how to grow up in a world where everyone seems to have already figured it out. Raucously funny and unflinching, Dumb Kids is a celebration of community, friendship and identity.
Xavier and Sebastian immediately connect in high school, starting a…complicated relationship which continues to evolve through their mid-20s as they grow up (and glow up) Across intimate virtual conversations and awkward real-life encounters, years of missed connections and new partners, they gradually figure out what they mean to each other. And learn some sick dance moves.
From emerging Chinese/Australian writer and playwright Eric Jiang, Rhomboid is a hilarious and heartwarming new play about navigating friendship, relationships and love as a queer Asian-Australian.
Ruth and Judith have been together for a long time. Long enough to have seen Australia change, for better and for worse. They have two bright and enquiring kids and a manageable mortgage. With love and hard work, they made the political personal and built a family of which they’re fiercely proud. Their life together is a progressive success story. Why should breaking up be any different?
But even the loftiest ideals can come undone when pesky human emotion gets involved.
Wickedly funny and deeply moving, Blessed Union is for anyone who’s looked at their life and wondered if there might be a better way to live it.
We grow up being lied to. Often for good reasons – so we can believe in something magical, to believe we can be whoever we want to be, or to shield us from pain. This is about those moments. When a lie is revealed and the truth is learnt and in that moment something is discovered, something that will change you forever, something that cannot be unlearnt. From global conspiracies to childhood memories to the most personal moments of all. This is how we grow up. This is life!
An ensemble of young people aged 8-18 will share personal stories and verbatim texts, investigating the moments when it felt like you grew up in one day, or one hour, or one minute and nothing would ever be the same again.
Performing These Plays
If you are interested in performing any of these plays – or parts of them – please fill out a Production Enquiry form by heading to the play page of the script you are interested in staging (tip: clicking the script image in the ‘New Publications” section above will take you there directly).
Then scroll down on that page until you find the “PRODUCTION RIGHTS” button.
Filling out that enquiry form will enable us to let the rights holder know of your interest so they can contact you directly.
Education Resources
Resources – Primary and Secondary
New learning resources will be added to the collection throughout 2024.
Resources – Tertiary
Stay tuned! Links and resources will be updated here in the coming weeks.
Collection Producer – Hayden Tonazzi
Hayden Tonazzi (they/he) is a director and creative producer of theatre and musical theatre. They were appointed Artistic Associate in 2022 at the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), working on productions such as SAPLINGS by Hannah Belanszky for Sydney Festival 2024, CUSP by Mary Anne Butler, SHACK by George Kemp and FOLLOW ME HOME by Lewis Treston.
In 2024, Hayden will direct PICKLED كبيس for Belvoir 25A / PYT Fairfield, THE LAST TRAIN TO MADELINE by Callum Mackay for Fever103, and SAINTS OF DAMOUR by James Elazzi for Qtopia Sydney. The works they are currently developing include a new Australian satirical disco musical CONVERTED! by Vic Zerbst, and WATERFOWL by Callum Mackay which won the 2023 QPAS Queer Playwriting Award.
They are also Co-Artistic Director with Constantine Costi for the Lysicrates Prize and Martin-Lysicrates Prize, currently responsible for the ongoing development of winning commissions including MURDER, MURDER, HAIR! by Suvi Derkenne, NOTHING SCARES US ANYMORE by Joseph Brown, and RIPPLE by Jacob Sgouros.
Their other directing credits include THIS GENUINE MOMENT for La Mama and The Old 505, SIGNIFICANT OTHER for the New Theatre, TELL ME BEFORE THE SUN EXPLODES for the Kings Cross Theatre, and STOP. DROP. AND LISTEN. for Shopfront Youth Arts.
Their associate/assistant directing credits include HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING for OutHouse Theatre, CAMP and THE END OF WINTER Siren Theatre Co, and 21 FORSTER ST for Steps & Holes Theatre. Their directorial secondments include MOULIN ROUGE: THE MUSICAL with Global Creatures, HOSH: LA TRAVIATA with Opera Australia, and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY for the Hayes Theatre.
Supporters
The collection was generously supported by the Pride Foundation, a national organisation supporting projects by and for the LGBTQIA+ community. Learn more about them and their amazing work on their website.
Australian Plays Transform is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its Arts funding and advisory body, CreateNSW.
