ANDREA JAMES is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatremaker and graduate of VCA. She was Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre 2001-2008 where she is best known for her play Yanagai! Yanagai! The play was produced by Melbourne Workers Theatre and premiered at Playbox and toured to the UK. Andrea wrote and directed Winyanboga Yurringa at Carriageworks and Geelong Performing Arts Centre and was later remounted at Belvoir directed by Anthea Williams. Her play Sunshine Super Girl, about Wiradjuri tennis star Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, premiered at Griffith and Sydney Festival and underwent an extensive national tour. Her play Dogged was written with collaborator Cath Ryan and premiered at Griffin Theatre. She wrote Big Name No Blankets with Sammy and Anyupa Butcher for Ilbijerri Theatre about iconic Aboriginal Rock Legends, Warumpi Band that toured Australia wide. She has written Coranderrk with Giordano Nanni for Ilbijerri Theatre and Bright World with Elise Hearst for Arthur Productions at Theatreworks and Bukal for Jute Theatre. Her newest play, The Black Woman of Gippsland is set on her Grandmother’s Gunaikurnai country and is produced by Melbourne Theatre Company. Andrea was recently awarded the Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers, Australia’s most prestigious writing prize for women, and Creative Australia’s National Award for Theatre.

A VCA graduate Animateur, CATHERINE RYAN works as a writer, dramaturg, director, community theatre maker, producer and performer, with a range of experiences across several media including stage, radio, published prose and documentary film. Her practice is inspired by questions about empathy, interconnectedness, the dynamics of relationships and the spaces and obstacles between us. She lives in Dja Dja Wurrung country (Central Victoria), just outside a town with a name, but no shop, pub, tennis court or public phone (there are, however, magnificent eagles and a gorgeous river). In 2001 she co-founded Castlemaine’s Barking Owl Theatre, co-creating many original and community-based works in their 8 years of activity. In 2009 Catherine won an AWGIE for Best Radio Adaptation for Aurora Calling: The Results of a Joint Observation, which was then the Australian nominee in its category at the Prix Italia International Media Awards. Her work has also won a George Fairfax Award (Precipice, 2009) and 2 Inscription Awards (Precipice and Getting Away From It All; 2009, 2006), along with Patrick White, Griffin and Hal Porter Short Story Awards and Perishable Theatre International Women’s Playwright short-listings. She has been an Affiliate Writer at the Melbourne Theatre Company, a Resident Playwright at Griffin Theatre, Sydney, and commissioned by the Malthouse Theatre (2013) and ABC Radio National (2008, 2004). Catherine’s work has appeared at/in the Castlemaine State Festival, ABC Radio National, La Mama Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Overland, and will be seen in the journal Antipodes. In 2017 her work, Dogged, received a National Script Workshop at Playwriting Australia.