Next In Line
We are playwrights. We are the truth tellers. We are the interface. We are the roadmap. We are the whistleblowers. We are the imaginers. We are here. We are Next In Line.
In 2021, Next In Line is continuing. It will be programmed by open submission and will feature fresh and boundary-pushing playwrights and works that provide a fresh take on the world and provoke wider and deeper thinking across the community.
All developments will be writer-led in terms of both process and creative team. We will bringing together a stellar team of dramaturgs, directors and actors to grow each play. The playwrights will work alongside our Producer and Head of New Writing, Leila Enright. These developments will be scheduled across 2021, as convenient for both playwright and the Darlinghurst Theatre Company. This program will pay artists according to industry standards.
2021 SUBMISSIONS
Our 2021 submissions call for a completed draft of a play or theatrical work (at any stage of development) by one or more writers. For this submission we will require:
contact details
a description of your experience and artistic practice
a full synopsis of the play
a breakdown of the intention behind the work you are submitting a writing sample, from the play, no longer than two pages
Submissions are open now and will close 9am 15 March 2021.
Every submission will be read by a panel of artists and producers to collate a longlist. Those playwrights chosen for the longlist will be asked to send through a full draft of their play,. These plays will be read and deliberated on by the same panel. We are looking for works that challenge the audience's perception of the world.
We are aiming to have responses to all submitters by the end of April. Please direct all questions to Leila Enright, leila@darlinghursttheatre.com. All submission details, writing samples and assessments will be kept confidential to the core staff of the Darlinghurst Theatre Company and the Next In Line panel.
We are committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such we encourage artists of all cultures, gender identities, and ages, as well as artists with disabilities, to apply.
Thank you to our Next In Line supporters Elizabeth Evatt & Roxarne Moon.
Next In Line 2020
We’re thrilled to announce that our Next In Line program will resume as planned, thanks to a City of Sydney Cultural Grant, which continues our commitment to artists and is an exciting new foray into script development.
Next in Line was programmed through open submission and will showcase upcoming, fresh and boundary-pushing playwrights and works that provide a fresh take on the world and provoke wider and deeper thinking across the community.
All developments will be writer-led, bringing together a stellar team of dramaturgs, directors and actors for a week to grow each play. The playwrights will work alongside our Producer and Head of New Writing, Leila Enright.
Want to support emerging writers?
Donate now to our Next in Line Program and help support the next generation of Australian storytellers. In 2020 our inaugural program was supported by generous one-off funding from City of Sydney. This 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."
All donations are welcome and greatly appreciated.
Jordyn Fulcher
Cat Piss
Jordyn is a writer and actor from south-west Sydney. She is currently part of Sydney Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group. Her new play Cat Piss is a work looking at how we are complicit in the systematic violence against female bodies and at both the toxicity and the validity of the modern angry female.
Phoebe Grainer
& Wendy Mocke
Jelbu Meri
Phoebe is a NIDA Acting graduate and WAAPA Aboriginal Theatre graduate. Wendy is a Papua New Guinean inter-disciplinary storyteller, NIDA Acting graduate and Creative Director of Melanin Haus. Their play 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.
Kirsty Marilliar
THE ZAP
Kirsty is a South African/Australian actor and emerging playwright. Her play THE ZAP is the winner of the 2020 Max Afford Award. The play investigates what might happen if we continue to underestimate those who are young, marginalised and deemed voiceless.
Moreblessing Maturure
No Pink Dicks
Moreblessing is a Zimbabwean/Australian interdisciplinary artist, TEDx Speaker and the Creative Director of FOLK magazine. 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.
Saman Shad
Nas’s Marriage Agency
Saman is a writer of plays, film, and prose. She has been a writer in residence at the Hampstead Theatre and the Soho Theatre. She is also a journalist and works as the Editor of SBS Voices. Her play Nas’s Marriage Agency is riotous family comedy following Nas and his mission to help Westerners benefit from the tradition of arranged marriages. It explores the complexities and value of marriage, along with the Australian migrant experience.
Dylan van den Berg
way back when
Dylan is a Palawa writer and actor whose work often contends with Indigenous identity through a culturally-hybrid arts practice. His play way back when recently won the 2020 Griffin Award at Griffin Theatre Company and is a gothic revenge drama cross revisionist colonial history that looks at First Nations power and the complex process of healing.