Playlab Theatre and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) has confirmed that from next week, six young aspiring First Nations playwrights will be undertaking the next intake in the professional development program titled ‘Sparks‘.
The objective of this program, which will run over the next twelve months, is to provide real world experience to take their creative ideas from development stage through to a creative product.
The six playwrights chosen to partake in the 2020-2021 run of Sparks are:
Aurora Liddle-Christie
Aurora Liddle-Christie is a Jamaican and First Nations Australian multidisciplinary artist. In 2017 Aurora graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Drama from Queensland University of Technology. Her practice draws on the experience of People of Colour and Australia’s First Nations Peoples at the intersection of community, activism, spirituality and connections to country. Aurora explores this through the mediums of; spoken word, performance, playwriting, singing and songwriting.
Che Skeen
Che is a Wakka Wakka/Birra Gubbi woman born on Jagera, Meanjin. Che is an Indigenous creative with goals to be a state actor with a capable understanding and skill to direct and playwright. In 2019 Che was an actor in the Sparks program and this year joins as a writer. She is an announcer of Indigi-Briz, 4ZZZ and wants to see more first nations creatives in collaborations and running organisations.
Lyric Araluen
Lyric is a Gureng Gureng, Binthi Warra and Miyally woman and was raised in Brisbane for most of her life before attending boarding school in Canberra during high school after being accepted for a Rosemary Bishop Indigenous Education Scholarship. She is currently studying a Cert IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention with TAFE QLD with aspirations to enrol in QUT’s Creative Writing as a potential student in 2021. Her main mediums of writing are novel writing, poetry and screenplay so being accepted into Playlab’s Sparks Program is my first opportunity creating a piece for theatre.
Merindi Schrieber
Merindi’s artistic practice is grounded with a deep connection to her mother’s land, Kuku Yalanji (Mossman, NQ). Language, culture and history through song, Merindi’s Bama resonance and soulful, easy-listening mixes echo her passion to educate and empower through the creative song expression. Her involvement in various community initiatives and performances have included festivals, gatherings, events, corporate functions and school-based programs. From performer to producer, participant to listener, singer to weaver, writer to consultant, Merind’s experience in the arts sector is reflective of her Yalanji name Jankaji – Wealth of Knowledge. Bama = People of the Land.
Phillippa Sandy
Phillippa is a multiracial woman of Mununjali, English and Greek heritage, which lends to her strong connection and upbringing of mixed cultures while growing up on the northside of Meanjin (Brisbane) on Ningy Ningy land (Redcliffe). She has explored her creative endeavours in varied mediums of the arts for the past ten years with the conviction and passion of storytelling within each project. Currently Phillippa is studying her Bachelors of Creative Industries, majoring in film and screen production at Queensland University of Technology. Her latest projects have been working and gaining experience within the creative and business side of the advertising, marketing and media sector. Phillippa looks forward to participating in the Sparks program, where she gets to visit, create and develop new techniques and ideas in writing with fellow aspiring and established playwrights.
Raelee Lancaster
Raelee Lancaster is a writer, collaborator and creative producer based in Brisbane. She won the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers in 2018 and was awarded a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship in 2019. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Overland, Cordite Poetry Review, The Lifted Brow, The Saturday Paper, and more. Raised on Awabakal land, Raelee is of Wiradjuri, Biripi, and European descent.
Sparks is being arranged as part of QPAC’s wider First Nations programming. You can read more about their initiatives and productions HERE.