STC Announces the Patrick White Playwrights Award and Fellowship

Multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed playwright Michelle Law has been named Sydney Theatre Company’s next Patrick White Fellow, and Disapol Savetsila is the 26th recipient of the Patrick White Playwrights Award for his play Ama and Nana.

 

 

The Patrick White Fellowship is a year-long appointment that will see Michelle develop a new work for Sydney Theatre Company while mentoring participants in the Company’s Watershed: Writers program:

It’s an enormous honour to be named a Patrick White Fellow alongside some of my industry heroes: playwrights whose words I’ve studied, been inspired by, and been moved by. Truly, it’s one of the biggest pinch-me moments of my career.

Michelle continues:

As a young adult, my family used to make special trips from regional Queensland to see shows at Sydney Theatre Company. Afterwards, I’d pore over the show programs, carefully flicking through each page, hoping that I might be able to capture some of that theatre magic. I think younger Michelle would be in complete disbelief that I have the opportunity to work at the Wharf alongside the wonderful STC team and Watershed Writers. What an immense privilege and gift it is to now play a part in bringing that theatre magic to life for others.

Disapol Savetsila’s play, Ama and Nana, was presented as a rehearsed reading at Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2 Theatre last night.

I’m so proud to accept the Patrick Playwrights Award. Still pretty shocked to tell the truth. But proud beyond words. Ama and Nana is proudly a regional story, and I am proudly a regional writer. I can only hope that winning this Award shows what is possible when regional artists are given the support they need.

Ama and Nana is a compelling contemporary play that brings two vivid, complex women into sharp focus. With humour, emotional honesty and a strikingly filmic sensibility, Savetsila explores migration, motherhood and political inheritance.

 

 

Savetsila explains:

The story of these two women – sidelined from society by age, by race, and by economic status – finding common ground together and then being tested by political forces too large to comprehend, felt like a vital story to tell right now.

STC Artistic Director and co-CEO Mitchell Butel:

Recognising Disapol Savetsila with one of the nation’s most significant honours for new writing is a well-deserved celebration of Ama and Nana.

For more than 25 years, the Patrick White Playwrights Award has championed the future of Australian storytelling, honouring Patrick White’s extraordinary legacy by recognising artists who challenge, provoke and move audiences in equal measure. Michelle Law’s body of work has already had a profound impact across Australian theatre, television and literature, and I am beyond thrilled to recognise Michelle will be joining us here at the Wharf as our Patrick White Fellow.

They are remarkable artists whose work speaks powerfully to contemporary Australia, and I cannot wait to see how they continue shaping our theatrical landscape in the years ahead.

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For more information click HERE

Photo Credit: Daniel-Boud