VANESSA BATES is an award winning playwright, screenwriter and researcher. Her plays include The Magic Hour 2024, The One, Small Hard Things, A Ghost In My Suitcase, Trailer, Every Second, PORN.CAKE, Checklist For An Armed Robber and Darling Oscar. She has received a NSW Premier’s Prize, two AWGIE Awards, the Stoddart Playwriting Award and been shortlisted for the Victorian Premiers Award, STC Patrick White Award, Griffin Award, the Newton John Award, the 503 Playwriting Award, Brennan Playwriting Award and further AWGIE Awards. Vanessa received her doctorate in scriptwriting, examining Mixed Cultural Identity and effects on a playwrighting practice pivoted to screenwriting. She is one-seventh of playwrighting alliance 7ON. Several of their works have been published including Sharp Darts, No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames and as part of Short Circuits.

LACHLAN PHILPOTT is a dog person who writes plays, screenplays and lyrics. He has taught and mentored generations of Australian theatre writers. His plays have been performed across Australia and internationally. Most have been translated into French by Gisele Joly from Maison Antione Vitez, Paris. The Tina Arena of Australian theatre, Lachlan's play Truck Stop will feature at the Avignon Festival in 2025 and will be produced by La Comedie Francaise in 2026.   Lachlan’s plays are currently studied as HSC and VCE texts in schools in Australia. Recent projects include his collaboration with Paul Mac and Kate Champion; The Rise and Fall of St George [Sydney Festival] an adaptation of his play M.Rock to screen and a new adaptation of The Duck and The Darklings by Glenda Millard for Monkey Baa.   Much of Lachlan’s work has been made with his long-time collaborative partner, director Alyson Campbell under the banner of wreckallprods. This work has featured at festivals around the world, including the multi-award-winning Melbourne Festival production of The Trouble with Harry. Lachlan was the Artistic Director of Tantrum Youth Arts Newcastle. He initiated Australian Theatre for Young People’s Emerging Writers’ Program, Australia’s most successful and enduring emerging writers’ program. He was Artistic Director CEO of Playwriting Australia between 2018 and 2019. Lachlan has been writer in residence at Keesing Studio at The International Cite des Arts Paris, La Comedie Francaise, The American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco, Griffin Theatre Company, The Playwrights Foundation San Francisco, Red Stitch, Melbourne and was selected as the Australian writer for The Traverse Fifty at the Traverse Edinburgh. Lachlan was the inaugural Australian Professional Playwright Fulbright Scholar. 

SUZIE MILLER is a multi-award winning Australian playwright who has been in residence and/or attached to the following theatres: Ex Machina Quebec with Robert Lepage (2012), National Theatre in London (2011; 2009), Ransom Theatre, Ireland (2009) and Griffin Theatre Company (2012). She has worked with Black Swan State Theatre Company, ATYP, Legs on the Wall, LIVE theatre in Newcastle UK, Oran M’or and the Perth Theatre in Scotland. Her plays include The Sacrifice Zone, Driving into Walls, Caress/Ache, Everything I Have, DUST, Overexposed, Sunset Strip and Medea. Two Geordie Boys is being developed with LIVE Theatre Newcastle and Enlightening Entertainment London. Miller won the Kit Denton Fellowship for writing with courage; was shortlisted for the 2013, 2010 and 2008 Australian Writers Guild Awards for drama, was shortlisted for the Griffin Award in 2009; won the New York Fringe Festival ‘Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Playwriting’, and won the Theatrelab Award. Her plays have won 9 equity awards and Helpmann awards.

MARY RACHEL BROWN has an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts and is the recipient of the following National Playwriting Awards: the Lysicrates Prize, the Rodney Seaborn Award, the Max Afford Award, and the Griffin Award. Her latest work Rosieville was runner-up in the 2021 Shane and Cathryn Brennan Prize. Mary’s most notable work is The Dapto Chaser, which was commissioned and developed by Merrigong and reproduced by Apocalypse Theatre. The play was screened at Dendy Cinemas as part of Australian Theatre Live’s program. Other works for the stage include Betty Blokk Buster Reimagined (Sydney Festival – contributing writer), Dead Cat Bounce (Griffin Theatre Company), All My Sleep and Waking (Apocalypse Theatre), Permission to Spin (Apocalypse Theatre), Inside Out (Christine Dunstan Productions), and an adaptation of Die Fledermaus (Sydney Conservatorium of Music). Mary’s TV credits include sketch writing for The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting for ABC and several episodes of Home and Away for Channel 7. Mary is a proud member of the Australian Writers Guild and supporter of WITS (Women in Theatre and Screen). Mary is the 2024 recipient of the Suzie Miller Fellowship, which awards her a commission and two-year residency at Griffin Theatre Company. Mary is a proud alumni of Canberra Youth Theatre.

KATIE POLLOCK is an award-winning writer for stage, radio and screen with a background in journalism. Her works include: Human Activity, which was produced in Sydney and longlisted for Theatre 503’s International Playwriting Award and shortlisted for the Silver Gull Award; her solo show Rough Trade, which she also performed in seasons in Sydney, regional NSW and Melbourne; The Curve (co-written with Vanessa Bates, Mary Rachel Brown, Suzie Miller and Lachlan Philpott); and Normal, which has been performed by theatres across Australia and won numerous awards, including the Inscription/Edward Albee Playwriting Scholarship. Katie’s play People Inside Me won the 2018 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, was longlisted for Theatre 503’s International Playwriting Award and shortlisted for the Silver Gull Award, while her play Summerland won the inaugural Martin Lysicrates Prize. She has been nominated for three AWGIE awards including two for her radio works. Katie also works in TV rooms and as a development executive for TV production, and is working on a combination of adapted and original ideas for screen. See: www.katiepollock.com