Next In Line 2020 Creates 42 Paid Opportunities For Artists
The development team for Nas's Marriage Agency by Saman Shad.
2020 was the inaugural year of our Next In Line play development program, and was only made possible by the generosity of the City of Sydney.
The aim of this program was twofold; to develop work that treated theatre as social and thought infrastructure, demanding that audiences think wider and deeper about the world around them, and to place playwrights in contexts that will grow their craft as well as their play.
We are so proud of this program and we have been privileged to work with these 7 playwrights and the incredible teams that assembled around them, including the co-development partnerships that are testament to the quality and value of their work.
Next In Line created 42 employment opportunities for artists over the span of three months. Meet the incredible teams from these developments and see below how you can help us build on that number in 2021.
Jelbu Meri by Phoebe Grainer and Wendy Mocke
Dramaturg: Rachael Maza
Director: Kirk Paige
Cast: Gloria Bose and Abbie Lee-Lewis
Jelbu Meri explores the lived experiences of an Aboriginal woman and Papua New Guinean woman, growing up as black women in Australia. It is a journey of time; it is a signal to cleanse. It is a call to love; and for the black woman, a timely stand of resistance.
Cat Piss by Jordyn Fulcher
Dramaturg: Melissa Reeves
This development will continue in early 2021.
Cat Piss is a work looking at how we are complicit in the systematic violence against female bodies. Fast forward to tomorrow, when women are forcibly sterilised, and authorities don’t have the funding to find rapists - a group of women do it themselves.
way back when by Dylan Van Den Berg
Dramaturg: Shari Sebbens
Director: Amy Sole
Cast: Shakira Clanton, Sharni McDermott, Megan Wilding, Ursula Yovich
way back when is a revisionist colonial history that looks at First Nations power and what it is to lose country and the complex process of healing. The piece appropriates the western theatrical tradition and infuses it with unapologetic Indigenous content - to scrutinize the colonial relationship as much as demonstrate its ongoing stranglehold on culture, values and art.
THE ZAP by Kirsty Marillier
A co-development with Belvoir and Playwriting Australia
Dramaturg: Louise Gough
Director: Courtney Stewart
Consultant: Amy Sole
Cast: Henrietta Amevor, Vivienne Awosoga, Daniel Gabriel, Yerin Ha, Michelle Ny, Patrick Jhanur, Angela Sullen
THE ZAP investigates the ins and outs of a young, woman of colour’s psyche. Using an ensemble of teenage WOC, the play is a piece of intersectional feminist speculative fiction which spans over the years 2019 to 2022 using a suburban high school as its setting.
Image supplied my Moreblessing
No Pink Dicks by Moreblessing Maturure
A co-development with Playwriting Australia
Dramaturg: Louise Gough
Director: Courtney Stewart
Cast: Vivienne Awosoga, Chantelle Jamieson, Angela Mahlatjie Kirsty Marillier, Zindzi Okenyo, Charles Upton
No Pink Dicks is an incisive look at intercultural relationships from a black female perspective and stages the murky, grey chasm in which political and personal lives intersect, where our individual drives come in conflict with our political beliefs and how we go about reconciling, or ignoring, that conflict.
Nas's Marriage Agency by Saman Shad
Dramaturg: Courtney Stewart
Director: Kenneth Moraleda
Cast: Nicholas Brown, Lex Marinos, Monica Kumar, Jennifer Rani
A riotous family comedy sutured in with an exploration of the complexities and value of marriage, along with the Australian migrant experience. The story follows Nas, who is convinced that Westerners will benefit from the tradition of arranged marriage. As his mission progresses the play unfolds, showing how social myths around and expectations of marriage do not necessarily benefit the individual.
Want to support emerging writers?
Donate now to our Next in Line Program and help support the next generation of Australian storytellers. This year our inaugural program was supported by generous one-off funding from City of Sydney. Next year, we need your help. Every dollar goes towards paying the artists. Below is a breakdown of how funds are used:
$1,200 will pay for one week of a playwright's wage
$10,000 will pay for a weeks worth of development of a new work (with a cast of 4)
> All donors will be invited to exclusive industry readings of incubating work, to be given a rare insight into the development process
> All donors will be acknowledged on the Next in Line page on our website under "Supporters."