Media Release February 2015 Belvoir opens entries for Indigenous Playwright’s Award Belvoir is now accepting entries for the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award. The award is open to all writers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander decent. ‘This is a prestigious award,’ said judge Wesley Enoch, Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company. ‘It is significant because the award commits to creating the opportunity for playwrights to work with actors in a theatrical setting. ‘The award is an act of generosity on behalf of The Balnaves Foundation, and is important as Indigenous storytelling often doesn’t fit into the structures of funding models.’ 2015 is the fourth year this award has been offered. In the past three years the award has recognised playwrights Leah Purcell, Jada Alberts and Nakkiah Lui, but also inspired many Indigenous artists to dream up new plays. At the time of winning the 2015 Award, Purcell said ‘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.’ 2013 winner Alberts said ‘Not more than a year ago I was midway through writing the first draft of my first play, and knowing that this award had come into existence gave me inspiration and assurance that playwriting can be a practical and serious career choice.’ The Balnaves Foundation is committed to working towards reconciliation and have supported numerous Indigenous arts projects including the creative development of I Am Eora and Black Diggers for Sydney Festival. Since 2011 The Balnaves Foundation supported the presentation of two Indigenous-led works per year as part of Belvoir’s annual season. To further their commitment to the telling of Indigenous stories through theatre, the Foundation has committed $20,000 per year to this annual award for an Indigenous playwright. ‘Over the previous three years of this award, we have uncovered some extraordinary talent,’ said Hamish Balnaves. ‘Nakkiah Lui’s Kill the Messenger opens this week. It’s a remarkable play that challenges the audience to confront the deadly reality of the institutionalised racism at the heart of Australia’s bureaucracies. This is exactly the kind of work the Balnaves Award was set up to champion and we can’t wait to see what the next winner has in store for us.’ The award comprises a $7,500 cash prize and a $12,500 commission to write a new play with the support of Belvoir. Entries close on Friday 27 March with the winner announced in May during National Reconciliation Week. Wesley Enoch is joined on the judging panel by the Artistic Director of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, Rachael Maza, Belvoir’s Eamon Flack and Anthea Williams and last year’s winner Leah Purcell. For media information contact publicist Elly Michelle Clough [email protected] | + 61 (0)2 8396 6242 | 0407 163 921 Media Release February 2015 Notes for Editors 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 $2.5 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, Sydney 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 he collaborated with Deborah Mailman on 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 Sydney Opera House 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 Once in Royal David’s City, Angles 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. 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. Leah Purcell Leah is a proud Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman from Queensland. She is an actor, writer and director. In 2014 Leah directed Brothers Wreck for Belvoir. Her theatre credits as an actor include Don’t Take Your Love to Town (which she also co-adapted and directed), The Dark Room, Stuff Happens, Parramatta Girls, The Marriage of Figaro, Box the Pony (which she also co-wrote) (Belvoir); King Lear (Bell Shakespeare); Blood Wedding (Sydney Theatre Company); The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table (Griffin Theatre Company/HotHouse Theatre); and Beasty Girl: The Secret Life of Errol Flynn (Melbourne International Arts Festival). Leah’s film and TV credits include Gina vs Rose: The House of Hancock, Love Child, The Last Cab to Darwin, The Darkside, My Mistress, Jindabyne, Lantana, The Proposition, Redfern Now, My Place, Love My Way, Starter Wife and Police Rescue. Leah’s awards include the 2014 Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award; a 2013 AACTA Award for Best Female Actor in a TV Drama for Redfern Now; a Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play and Matilda Awards for Best Actress and Director for The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table; a Film Critics’ Circle Award and an IF Award for Lantana; an IF Award for Black Chicks Talking; two Actor of the Year and one Singer of the Year Deadly Awards; the inaugural Bob Maza Fellowship; and the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship for her artistic endeavours, community philanthropy and cultural activism. She is also a best-selling author for her anthology epic Black Chicks Talking, and is known for her writing and directing across Media Release February 2015 Redfern Now series 1 and 2, the children’s TV series My Place, and the award-winning short films She.Say and Aunty Maggie and the Womba Wakgun. 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. .