09.01.25
Hello Grif-friend,
Welcome to 2025! I hope this finds you refreshed and energised after the festive season. I hope you’re riding the same wave of summer joy that’s been carrying me through these first weeks of 2025. My summer break was filled with board games, books and beveraginos —in that order. As we settle into the rhythm of the new year, I’m filled with anticipation for a huge year ahead.
But before we get to that, I want to congratulate all the Sydney Theatre Award nominees! What a remarkable cross-section of the amazing productions that filled our stages last year. We are incredibly proud to receive eight nominations for The Lewis Trilogy and a nomination for Sandy Greenwood in swim (in a hotly contested category of Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Mainstage Production, in great company with Ursula Yovich for The Lewis Trilogy!). We can’t wait to get gussied up for Sydney theatre’s night of nights and celebrate with our industry friends.
As a new writing theatre, we Griffs spend a lot of time reading plays. Whether that is diving into the archives, reading the season ahead (you’re in for a treat with five amazing new stories in 2025, which you can book a subscription for as little as $72), longlisting for the Griffin Award (if you are a budding playwright, you have until tomorrow to submit your 2025 Griffin Award entry!) and in my personal time, I am a part of a great interstate Book Club (a happy leftover from the lockdown years). They helped me achieve my annual reading challenge goal and set an even more ambitious one for the year ahead.
A favourite of mine in 2024 was definitely My Brother’s Ashes are in a Sandwich Bag by Mz Prism herself, Michelle Brasier, who starred last year in Flat Earthers: The Musical. Her book is a memoir you can’t help but devour in a single sitting that took me by surprise with its tenderness, irreverence and life-affirming message of defiance, resilience and grief. And, by surprise, I mean taking myself out for breakfast and accidentally sobbing in a Dulwich Hill café. What a way to start my week!
Speaking of beautiful writing, I am looking forward to Alana Valentine’s Nucleus to begin rehearsals next week. If you were lucky enough to experience Ladies Day, Wayside Bride or her recent opera Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, you know you’re in for a thought-provoking, research driven and emotionally charged play that grapples with one of Australia’s most divisive environmental issues. In the extremely capable hands of director Andrea James and performers Paula Arundell and Peter Kowitz, I look forward to another unexpected cry or two—this time from the safety of the darkness of the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. You won’t want to miss this powerhouse production, book your tickets before it sells out.
And that’s just the start of our year! We’re gearing up for a massive year on the go, performing in venues across Sydney and beyond, and the best way to experience it all is with a subscription. Not only do you guarantee a year of memorable nights to look forward to, but you also gain access to our subscriber benefits, tailored communications and bragging rights that you’re all booked in (or enjoy the flexibility of free exchanges). Jump online or give our friendly box office team a call to book today!
See you in a foyer soon for a beveragino—or maybe an unexpected cry!
Yours vulnerably,
Jake Shavikin
Head of Development
