Griffin Award

It is with utmost excitement that we announce the shortlisted plays (and one Highly Commended play!) for the Griffin Award 2023. Congratulations to these talented creatives—their plays were identified as innovative and exciting examples of new Australian playwriting from a record pool of 144 entries.

This year’s Griffin Award winner will be announced at a ceremony on Sunday 23 July.

Your Name by Kate Bubalo

Kate Bubalo is a writer based on the land of the Gadigal and Wangal people, who has recently completed a Masters of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance) at NIDA. As a child of the internet, Kate often interrogates in her work preconceptions of how the internet has shaped our world and culture. Kate has been a part of multiple independent shows taking place at Sydney Comedy Festival and Sydney Fringe Festival. Her extensive background in writing and performing comedy has fed into all of her work and is a driving force for getting to the authentic heart of her stories.

Animal by Cassie Hamilton

Cassie Hamilton is a playwright, performer and director hailing from Awabakal Country (Newcastle). Her play, Daddy Developed a Pill, debuted at the Kings Cross Theatre in June of 2022 before touring to Theatre Works in 2023. She is currently developing an original musical, A Transgender Woman on the Internet Crying, which was a finalist for the APRA Professional Development Awards 2023 and the recipient of a creative development grant from the Hayes Theatre in 2022. She was a co-writer on the feature film Satranic Panic, which is slated to debut in late 2023. Cassie was a part of ATYP’s 2020 Fresh Ink National Mentoring Program for emerging writers and took part in Montague Basement and KXT’s Laboratory program in 2021. She is currently finishing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Theatre and Performance at The University of Sydney. In 2017, she co-founded a youth-led queer theatre company in Newcastle called Bearfoot Theatre. There, she debuted her first full-length play in late 2019, Playing Face. Following its Newcastle season, the production toured to Sydney and achieved much critical acclaim. The work has since been published by APT and was awarded Best Original Work, Best Dramatic Production and Best Director at the City of Newcastle Drama Awards.

WINNER: I am Kegu by Wendy Mocke

Wendy Mocke is a Papua New Guinean interdisciplinary storyteller and a NIDA Acting graduate. Wendy works across live performance and film as an actor, writer and visual artist. A former member of the Sydney Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group, Wendy’s play I am Kegu was shortlisted for last year’s Patrick White Playwrights Award and the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award. Wendy has had stage plays in development programs across various theatre companies: Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company, and Darlinghurst Theatre Company, and has had her plays read at various play festivals in Sydney: Festival Fatale and KXT’s Storytellers Festival. Last year, Wendy was part of the creative team who worked on a TV series called It’s Fine, I’m Fine, which went onto premiere at Canneseries in April last year. Wendy wrote three episodes and also acted in the TV series. The series went on to be nominated for an AACTA award for Best Digital Series or Channel. In 2021 Wendy’s visual arts project entitled m e r i exhibited at Northsite Contemporary Arts gallery in Cairns and in June 2022 it was exhibited at the Brisbane Powerhouse. Wendy is currently a Writing Fellow at Queensland Theatre Company and is a recipient of the 2023 Malcolm Robertson Foundation Commission through Malthouse Theatre Company to write her play Kirk’s Backyard (My first caucasian play). Recently, Wendy’s stage play REALish was announced as a finalist for the Australian Theatre Festival NYC for the 2023 New Play Award. One of Wendy’s quests as a writer and artist is to make alive what is quiet and asleep in Melanesian stories and unpack the myriad of layers that is Black Pacific Islander identity.

Christ Is Back by Laurence Rosier Staines

Laurence Rosier Staines is a writer and director who works across theatre and film. His politically-minded black comedies have been called “razor sharp, wildly funny, mysterious, unique and thrilling” (The Black List) and “inventive and prophetic, with echoes of Dario Fo and Gogol” (Royal Exchange Theatre). In 2019 his play D’Annunzio was longlisted for the UK’s Bruntwood Prize and he worked on immersive shows in London and Paris through the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. He’s also the creator of the Caldera boutique festival and the three-room interactive show You Can Have It All. Christ is Back is his first full-length play.

Goodbye Eli Anderson by Grace Wilson

Grace Wilson is an 18 year old emerging playwright from Yidinji land in Far North Queensland. Her works have been recognised by many different theatre companies across Australia including Queensland Theatre (Young Playwrights’ Award Winner 2022/Shortlist 2021) and Sydney Theatre Company (Patrick White Playwrights’ Award Shortlist 2023). She has also developed her writing within Queensland Theatre’s Young Writers’ Ensemble and JUTE Theatre Company’s Write Sparks program. In 2023, Grace is currently under mentorship with ATYP’s Fresh Ink Program and is facilitating Vena Cava’s Evolution Program.

Highly Commended
The Incomplete Works of Wilhelmina Baker by Brendan Hogan

Brendan Hogan is a multi-award-winning playwright and theatremaker from Yackandandah, who is passionate about writing for young people and communities. He was the winner of the 2018 and 2019 Martin Lysicrates Prize for his plays, Farewell, Mr Nippy and Play Number Four, both of which are currently in development. Gamers for Life was a finalist in 2022. His works have also been shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award (2021) and longlisted for the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize (2022). His mainstage debut was in 2022 with All The Shining Lights, commissioned and presented by HotHouse Theatre. His published works for children include, Scaredy-Cat (MICF, 2015), How to Beat a Bully (2016), and The Last Boy on Earth (2019), all of which have been performed by youth ensembles in schools around Australia.