The Suzie Miller Award is open to mid-career playwrights across Australia who have both industry recognition and a body of professionally produced work.
Building on the success of inaugural Award winner, Mary Rachel Brown, we’re expanding to a national callout, extending this model of meaningful artistic connection to playwrights across Australia.
The Award aims to provide a supported environment for the writing and development of daring, innovative work, and a scaffolded pathway towards production both within Australia and beyond, pushing writers to explore their craft in the context of Australia’s premier new writing theatre company.
The Award includes a $30,000 commission, mentorship from Suzie Miller, and a two-year residency with Griffin, supported through a mix of digital mentorship, creative exchange and resourcing and periodic in-person collaboration.
The Awardee will have the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to Griffin’s artistic programs, including Griffin Studio, Griffin Award and other industry and community-building initiatives.
The 2026 winner of the Suzie Miller Award is writer and journalist Melanie Tait. Due to the high-calibre of entries this year, a one-off commission has also been awarded to Vanessa Bates.
Applicants should:
- have at least five (5) years of professional credits in mainstage and/or independent contexts.
- be able to demonstrate a track record of work which speaks to ‘now’—asking knotty, contemporary questions of Australia’s audiences.
- stand to benefit from the financial and creative support provided by the Award.
- be an Australian resident and be available to attend regular events and meetings in-person or online over 2026 and 2027.
Applications are now closed.
Griffin Theatre Company is delighted to announce that Melanie Tait is the winner of the Suzie Miller Award.
Melanie Tait is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and journalist.
Her plays include The Vegemite Tales (Riverside Studios and Leicester Square Theatre), The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race (Ensemble Theatre and National Tour, State Theatre Company of SA and Queensland Theatre Company), A Broadcast Coup (Ensemble Theatre), The Queen’s Nanny (Ensemble Theatre and National Tour), How to Plot a Hit In Two Days (Ensemble Theatre) and The Royal Experiment (NIDA), On This Island Now (Blue Cow Theatre).
The Queen’s Nanny is a Best Original Play AWGIE nominee, and Melanie is a finalist for the 2026 Queensland Premier’s Drama Prize for her play Mrs Crocodilia.
She is currently under commission by Sydney Theatre Company.
The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race was filmed by Paramount+. She has a television series in development with Easy Tiger Productions.
She has written extensively for ABC, Guardian and News Corp.
Melanie lives and works on Gadigal Land with her two dogs slash ibis terrorisers, Mabel and Goldie.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be the winner of the 2026 Suzie Miller Award.
“The way Suzie is able to tell urgent stories through her work, and bring them to audiences across Australia and around the world has energised me as an artist for a number of years. I’m incredibly grateful that she’s chosen to generously support this award so that a mid-career playwright can create a new play at Griffin Theatre under her mentorship. Beyond brilliant!
“Griffin Theatre has forever been the shining light of new writing in Australia (my access to the company as a kid growing up in regional Australia was through Currency Press published texts) and to be invited into the company via this award, and becoming part of the company’s story is a huge honour. I’m looking forward to challenging myself as an artist… and hopefully creating a bloody good play that’s worthy of the company and this award, and will excite and impact our treasured audiences.” Melanie Tait
Suzie Miller
Suzie Miller is a contemporary international playwright and screenwriter drawn to complex personal stories often exploring injustice. Her plays have been produced in 40 productions around the world and won multiple prestigious awards. She has been commissioned by, or been in residence at theatres including London’s National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, Griffin Theatre Company, Theatre Gargantua Canada and La Boite Theatre. In 2019, her drama Prima Facie premiered at Griffin Theatre Company. The play won the 2020 AWGIE Award for Drama, the 2020 David Williamson Award for Outstanding Theatre Writing and the prestigious Major AWGIE across all categories of theatre, film and television. Prima Facie enjoyed extraordinary acclaim in 2022, marking Suzie’s West End debut produced by Empire Street Productions and starring Jodie Comer before transferring to Broadway in 2023. In 2023, the production had three Tony nominations and won the Tony Award for Best Actress (Jodie Comer); it had four Olivier nominations and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play (Suzie Miller) and Best Actress (Jodie Comer), and won the What’sOnStage Award London for Best New Play. Prima Facie has been translated into 20 languages. Other theatre credits include: for Sydney Theatre Company: RBG: Of Many, One; for Griffin: Caress/Ache; for Griffin Independent: Sunset Strip; for Black Swan State Theatre Company: DUST; for La Boite: The Mathematics of Longing, Medea; for Performing Lines WA: Overexposed; for Perth International Arts Festival: Driving Into Walls, OneFiveZeroSeven; for Queensland Opera: Snow White; for Ransom Theatre Northern Ireland & Seymour Centre/Riverside Theatres: Transparency. Other international credits include: for Assembly Rooms for Theatre 503 (UK): SOLD; for the Cherry Tree Theatre (USA): Reasonable Doubt; for the National Theatre of Scotland: Velvet Evening Séance; and for Theatre Gargantua (Canada): The Sacrifice Zone. Among other awards, Suzie has been awarded the Kit Denton Award for Writing with Courage in 2009, the 2018 Griffin Award, the NY Fringe Festival Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Playwriting, the AWGIE for Radio Playwriting, Inscription (and a mentorship with Edward Albee in 2006 and 2009) and more. Most recently, Suzie has written a feature film adaptation of Prima Facie for Bunya Productions and Participant Media in the US, with Cynthia Erivo to star in and serve as Executive Producer.
