Media Release May 2014

Leah Purcell wins The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award Acclaimed theatre, film and television maker Leah Purcell (Don’t Take Your Love to Town) will be announced as the winner of The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award 2014 at an event at the Belvoir St Theatre on Tuesday 27 May at 12 noon. The award will be presented by Neil Balnaves, Director of The Balnaves Foundation and judge Wesley Enoch, Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company.

‘I am so very thrilled to be the winner of the 2014 Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award!’ said Purcell. ‘I want to thank Belvoir and the Balnaves family for their support to Indigenous artists. This truly is an amazing opportunity to be able to write a play of my choice, with the possibility of bringing it to performance at Belvoir. I’m very grateful that this award can go to 'first time writers' and to those of us with experience, this really is an amazing opportunity.’

‘Leah Purcell is a true woman of the theatre and a consummate professional,’ said Anthea Williams, Belvoir’s Literary Manager and a member of the judging panel for the Balnaves Award. ‘She directs, she acts, she sings – and she most certainly writes. Leah co-wrote Belvoir’s Don’t Take Your Love to Town and Box the Pony, both of which she also stared in. She’s also written for film and TV including the award winning (ABC1).

‘Leah’s pitch for the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award was a radical adaptation of ’s The Drover’s Wife. Leah has re-imagined the wife as an Aboriginal woman estranged from her culture. Quick witted, fast and theatrical, this pitch promises a surprising adaptation full of exciting twists.’

The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award was established to encourage the telling of Indigenous stories with the aim of fostering understanding and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-. ‘Most non-Indigenous Australians are largely sheltered from the lives of Indigenous Australians,’ said Hamish Balnaves. ‘For many, they only see news reports of the Indigenous community’s interactions with police and justice, and motherhood statement from governments. This award is about creating the opportunity for Indigenous playwrights to tell their own stories directly to an audience that needs to hear the unfiltered reality of Indigenous experiences.’

The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award is a $20,000 award which is comprised of a $12,500 commission to write a new play and a $7,500 cash prize.

For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 | 0407 163 921

Media Release May 2014

Notes for Editors Media are invited to attend the announcement of the winner of The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award: 12pm Tuesday 27 May Foyer | Belvoir St Theatre

Available for interviews and photos: Neil Balnaves AO Wesley Enoch Leah Purcell Anthea Williams

This event will be followed by the media call for Brothers Wreck written by last year’s winner of the Balnaves Award Jada Alberts and directed by this year’s winner Leah Purcell.

Two scenes from Brothers Wreck will be performed twice each. The cast and director will then be available for interviews. Interviews and photo set ups must be requested in advance.

For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 | 0407 163 921

Media Release May 2014

The Balnaves Foundation The Balnaves Foundation is a private philanthropic organisation established in 2006 by Neil Balnaves AO to provide support to charitable enterprises across Australia.

Dispersing over $2 million annually, the Foundation supports eligible organisations that aim to create a better Australia through education, medicine and the arts with a focus on young people, the disadvantaged and Indigenous communities.

Judges Wesley Enoch Wesley is the Artistic Director for Queensland Theatre Company. Wesley has directed for Queensland Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, State Theatre Company South Australia, Belvoir, Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Malthouse Theatre, Windmill, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Alphaville and the ERTH Festival. As a playwright he has written The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table (awarded the 2005 Patrick White Playwright’s Award), The Sunshine Club, Life of Grace and Piety, Black Medea and a collaboration with , The 7 Stages of Grieving. Wesley has been Artistic Director of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts and ILBIJERRI Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre, Associate Artist with Queensland Theatre Company, Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company, Director of the Indigenous section of the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, a trustee, a NSW Government Arts Advisory Council member and on numerous other committees.

Eamon Flack Eamon is Associate Director – New Projects at Belvoir. He graduated from the acting course at WAAPA in 2003 and has since worked as a director, actor, writer and dramaturg for Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre, Bell Shakespeare’s Mind’s Eye, ThinIce, Perth International Arts Festival, Darwin Festival, Griffin Stablemates, Playwriting Australia and various other companies. For Belvoir, Eamon has directed Angels in America, Babyteeth, As You Like It and The End (which toured to Malthouse Theatre), co-adapted Ruby Langford Ginibi’s memoir Don’t Take Your Love to Town, with Leah Purcell, and co-devised Beautiful One Day. His dramaturgy credits for Belvoir include The Wild Duck, Neighbourhood Watch, The Book of Everything and Gwen in Purgatory. Eamon’s productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (B Sharp/Bob Presents/Arts Radar) and Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui (Darwin Festival) have both toured nationally. He has adapted and directed Gorky’s Summerfolk (Bob Presents) and his adaptation of Antigone was produced at the Perth International Arts Festival and published by Currency Press.

Jada Alberts Jada is a Larrakia, Bardi, Wadaman and Yanuwa performer. She graduated in 2006 from the Adelaide Centre for the Arts with an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts. Her stage credits include Yibiyung (Belvoir/Malthouse); Frost/Nixon, The Birthday Party (MTC); Second to None (Vitalstatistix/Kurruru Performing Arts); Cat (Windmill Performing Arts); Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui (Darwin Festival); The Green Sheep (Cate Fowler); and Saltbush (Insight Arts). Jada was assistant director on Windmill Baby for Belvoir. She appeared in the feature film Red Hill and on television in Rush, Redfern Now and the upcoming series . In 2007 Jada won the Adelaide Critics’ Circle Award for Best Emerging Artist for What I Heard About Iraq (Holden St Theatre).

Rachael Maza Rachael is the Artistic Director of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company. She is well known as a television presenter on SBS’s ICAM and ABC’s Message Stick, and for her stunning performances in Radiance and The Sapphires. Most recently, in her role at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, she has directed Jacky Jacky in the Box (Federation Square 2009, Melbourne Museum 2010), A Black Sheep Walks into a Baa… and Black Sheep: Glorious Baastards (Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2009 & 2010) and Chopped Liver (National tours 2008 & 2009). She performs regularly with her sister Lisa in the duo ‘The Maza Sisters’, and together they wrote and performed in the highly successful theatre production Sisters of Gelam, which premiered in Melbourne in 2009.

Anthea Williams Anthea is Literary Manager at Belvoir, for Belvoir she has directed Forget Me Not and Old Man. Prior to working at Belvoir Anthea was the Associate Director at London’s Bush Theatre. While at the Bush she directed Two Cigarettes, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover at Christmas, suddenlossofdignity.com, Turf and The Great British Country Fete. Prior to working at the Bush she lived in Auckland and was the Co-Artistic Director of SmackBang Theatre Company and the Producer of Massive Company. Anthea trained as a director at the Victorian College of the Arts and the University of New South Wales.

For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 | 0407 163 921