Queer Playwriting Award Showcase

Join us over 2 nights to witness fresh excerpts of the first staged readings of brand new queer focused theatre works from our top 8 shortlisted finalists.

Hear queer issues & voices on stage, engage with new playwriting talent and have your say in the 2022 Award selection. Your feedback guides the industry panel to select a top 4 to present extended excerpts at the Official Showcase on Tue 22 March.

The 2022 Award winner receives support to develop their work for presentation at Gasworks in Midsumma Festival 2023. The 2022 finalists are:

Mon 24 Jan:
- “The Reasonable Grounds” by Emmanuelle Mattana: A queer black-comedy about privilege, power and high school debating.
- “No Asians” by Andrew Undi Lee: Set on the fringes of Sydney’s housing commission, we follow a delicate relationship between two Korean Australian boys and their devastating fear of letting go.
- “Coming Home To You” by Reuben James: An intimate, authentic play about the lives of three queer people, and the inherent dichotomy between monogamy and queerness. A raw and emotionally-charged piece of LGBTQIA+ theatre.
- “Woolf” by Bravo Arts: A queer adaptation of Edward Albee’s iconic play ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’, exploring themes of family and domestic abuse through a queer lens.

Tue 25 Jan:
- “CROSS” by Rory Godbold: Jasper’s a teacher, and he’s gay. When a colleague, David, ignores a homophobic slur made about Jasper in his class, their lives begin to unravel.
- “Besties” by Alice Tovey: A musical about love & self-loathing set in the world of an on-screen romantic comedy. When two straight-presenting leading women fall in love, their gay best friends have a full-on identity crisis.
- “Driftwood” by Guy Stephen Webster: Two brothers come together to pack up their Father's apartment after his death. They soon discover what really haunts the empty apartment, while a storm threatens to bring the place down into the Pacific.
- “That’s Not Big Mac Sauce, That’s Ectoplasm” by Emily White: This is the story of a Maccas playground and the ghosts that haunt it. Some dead, some living, all gay as hell.

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Please be advised that due to current government regulations all visitors over the age of 12 years and 2 months attending Gasworks Arts Park events and performances will be required to show a valid Covid-19 digital certificate of vaccination or medical exemption that has been issued by the Australian Immunization Register, to one of our friendly staff. More information around valid certificates can be found here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/how-we-live-vaccination-status