Griffin Studio is our esteemed mentorship program—a creative lab for early career playwrights. Each year our Studio artists develop one or more projects with support from Griffin’s Artistic team, while undertaking workshops on aspects of playwriting and theatremaking. Griffin Studio provides artists with the time and resources to create work that can shape the nation.
In the program’s thirteen-year-long history, Griffin Studio has engaged 41 artists and has led to 19 professional productions including City of Gold, Orange Thrower and Whitefella Yella Tree, with alumni including Kate Mulvany, Sheridan Harbridge and Tessa Leong.
Griffin’s Studio artists for 2024 are:
Josipa Draisma
Josipa Draisma is a critically acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, performer, writer, theatre maker, creative producer and cultural leader. Josipa holds an MFA in Cultural Leadership (NIDA) and is the 2023 recipient of the Lynne Williams AM Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cultural Leadership. Josipa also holds an MFA and BCA in Performance and Music with Distinction (University of Wollongong). As lead artist, Josipa has developed and presented live performance works that have been programmed across arts festivals and venues in Australia including: The Melbourne Comedy Festival, The Sydney Comedy Festival, The Adelaide Fringe Festival, Riverside Theatre, The Sydney Fringe Festival, Perth Fringeworld, The Melbourne Cabaret Festival, The Art House Wyong, Orange Civic Centre, Chatswood Concourse and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Josipa’s work Ljubicica – Wild Violet was awarded The Sydney Fringe Best Music Show Award. Josipa was picked by the Sydney Comedy Festival as a Best Emerging Comedian under their FRESH Artist program. Josipa is the Creative Director of In Wild Company that specialises in new music and theatre storytelling championing female driven narratives and untold histories. In 2023, under Josipa’s leadership, In Wild Company co-presented the critically acclaimed production of The Hen House, a musical and story-rich homage to the inspirational and (sometimes) tragic lives of migrant female factory workers. In 2024, Josipa will be an artist in residence at Campbelltown Arts Centre.
Jorjia Gillis
Jorjia Gillis is a proud Budawang/Yuin woman raised on Awabakal land. As a Sydney based writer, actor and script development manager, Jorjia has worked on a number of theatre, TV and film productions. Jorjia was the 2020 Balnaves Fellow at Belvoir where she developed her play Throwback. Jorjia performed in the award-winning short film Game Night and co-wrote and performed in the comedy show The Office at the End of the World with The Kvetch Set. Other theatre credits include, Bollywood Dreaming and Bless the Child at the Yellamundie Festival, BAD, iDNA, Haircuts, A Pair of Lunatics, Slutterati, Haus, Enron, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and The Woman. Jorjia was an Arts Educator for Bell Shakespeare and is a Graduate of the University of New England and the Actors College of Theatre & Television.
Jacob Parker
Jacob is a Sydney-based queer playwright who still needs to say the whole alphabet to know if R goes before or after T. In 2020, Jacob’s play, This Genuine Moment was put on to a sold out season at The Old 505 Theatre and then again as part of La Mama’s Midsummer Festival in 2021 to rave reviews. In 2022, his play Tell Me Before the Sun Explodes was debuted at Kings Cross Theatre, produced by Rock Bottom Productions and in 2023, he premiered Dumb Kids at Kings Cross Theatre Company produced by Legit Theatre Company. He has worked with the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), Q Theatre, Kings Cross Theatre company, was a finalist for the 2021 Martin Lysicrates Prize, shortlisted for production by London’s Royal Court Theatre and was recipient of Out For Australia’s 30 under 30 in 2023.
Since its inception in 2011, the Griffin Studio has seen 44 exceptional artists move through the program. Meet them all here.
Thank you also to the generosity of our Griffin Studio donors.
If you’re interested in supporting a small annual cohort of early career playwrights over the course of their year-long residency and beyond while making a deeper connection with Griffin, we’d love for you to consider supporting Griffin Studio.
To find out more, or to arrange a meeting to discuss Griffin Studio, please contact our Head of Development Jake Shavikin on (02) 8960 7799 or [email protected].
We’re very proud that our former Studio artists have worked at every major theatre in Australia, demonstrating the important contribution our Studio donors make to not only Griffin, but the wider arts community.
If you’re passionate about the process of creating new Australian work, consider supporting Griffin Studio Workshop. You can support a creative, a trio of creatives, or a whole team of creatives for a work’s weeklong creative development. Learn more and donate online
