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Writing : Theatre - Independent
Subcategory of Victorian Green Room Awards
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

winner Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands David Finnigan , 2020 single work drama

'The biggest popstar of the Philippines has been kidnapped, and it’s up to a ragtag squad of fans to bring her back. They’ll brave rooftop chases, mystic rituals, knife fights in the back of speeding jeepneys and underwater shoot-outs to liberate their idol from a conspiracy that threatens to tear their country apart.

'Over one explosive night this vigilante crew of pop obsessives, misfits and outsiders race the streets of Manila, careening between street beauty pageants, political protests, underground hip-hop battles and senator’s homes.

'And then there’s the music: this blistering action epic is set to 40 years of Filipino pop, vaulting from 1970s peace anthems to contemporary Filipino hip-hop, from viral YouTube techno to iconic Pinoy power ballads. The fast and the fabulous face off in the dizzying thrill-ride that results.

'A neon-drenched action adventure set in a nation on the brink, Are You Ready To Take the Law Into Your Own Hands has zero political relevance to current events. None. At all.'

Source: Arts House.

Year: 2020

joint winner World Problems Emma Mary Hall , 2018 single work drama

'One woman lists real and imagined memories of life on Planet Earth, shifting between personal memories and world events unfolding over a century. What results is a gradual accumulation of the tragic and joyful moments shaping global consciousness, and the tentacular connections that make a life.'

Source: Author's website.

joint winner y separately published work icon Them Samah Sabawi , 2019 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2021 18380405 2019 single work drama Five people try and survive the shelling of an unnamed city, where escape is almost as dangerous as staying.

Year: 2019

winner Bighouse Dreaming Declan Furber Gillick , 2018 single work drama

'Mr. Anand. Has your client spent what could reasonably be called a significant portion of any one week of the last two years at school? Or is it the case that your client attends school when he feels like it to utilise the free lunch service when none of his so-called family will house, feed or clothe him?

'RACE. CLASS. SEX. DRUGS. VIOLENCE. INCARCERATION. POVERTY.
THE PSYCHIC MAELSTROM OF COLONISATION.

'PICTURE Ned Flanders' race porn fetish. WITNESS a prison officer's smutty underage liaison. BEHOLD a land-grabbing Legal Aid lawyer. SEE a messianic youth-worker's nasty ketamine habit.'

Source: Melbourne Fringe.

Year: 2018

winner Merciless Gods Dan Giovannoni , 2017 single work drama

'From migrant camps to pill-popping hipster dinner parties, from prison cells to gay saunas and porn shoots, Merciless Gods is a vicious and tender portrait of contemporary Australian society, capturing the haunting aspects of the human psyche.

'Multi award-winning Christos Tsiolkas is one of the most significant writers in Australia. This first ever stage adaptation of his short story collection, Merciless Gods, takes you deep into worlds both strange and familiar, introducing you to characters who will never let you go and situations that will haunt you forever.

'Told from diverse cultural perspectives, Merciless Gods by award-winning playwright Dan Giovannoni is urgent, dirty, glorious theatre.' (Production summary)

Year: 2016

winner Shit Patricia Cornelius , 2015 single work drama
— Appears in: Muff [and] MinusOneSister [and] SHIT 2017;

'What of the women and girls who defy gender demarcations, who transgress the boundaries and restraints of social order and expectation?

'When a girl spits, or swears, or screams, or shouts, or pulls down her pants to moon someone from a car, or she laughs too loudly, or she’s too shrill, or she pulls up her t-shirt and flashes her tits, or she fights, really fights, head butts and with her fists, or she fucks too much or cuts her hair too short, and wears too much lipstick or none at all, or tells everyone she’s got a dick and she’s not a girl at all, all we want to do with this girl is lock her up and throw away the key. Out of control girls – angry, nasty girls – are a sight to behold. They’re terrifying, electrifying, they’re everything girls shouldn’t be, and we hate them.

'This is a work about these girls.

'Their names are Billy, Bobby and Sam.

'There’s not a single moment when the three young women transcend their ugliness. There’s no indication of a better, or in fact any, inner life. They don’t believe in anything. They’re mean, foul-mouthed, downtrodden, hard-bitten, utterly damaged women. They’re neither salt of the earth nor sexy. They love no one and no one loves them. They believe the world is shit, that their lives are shit, that they are shit.' (Production summary)

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