Jean Tong is the first recipient of Melbourne Theatre Company's NEXT STAGE Fellowship.
In Conversation
Playwrights Patricia Cornelius (My Sister Jill) and Declan Furber Gillick (Jacky) brought urgent new plays to the fore in 2023. They sat down to discuss their process, as well as the risk, relevance and inspiration for writing for theatre.
Set The Stage
We talk to MTC Associate Director Petra Kalive and writer and comedian Diana Nguyen about adapting Alice Pung’s award-winning book Laurinda for the stage.
Q&A
Set Designer Christina Smith talks with MTC about exploding houses, researching like a spider, the sandwich of history – and how this all informed her design for the Berlin set.
Interview
Carolyn Burns, Tim Finn and Simon Phillips, the creative team behind the beloved Ladies in Black, have reunited to work on a new musical that is the latest MTC NEXT STAGE commission.
Interview
After a year offstage, Michael Wahr is thrilled to return to MTC, and to all the joys and challenges of being a working actor.
Q&A
Theatre can be a way of time travelling, says director Iain Sinclair, whose approach to new works is to treat them as classics.
Q&A
Pretending to be somebody else is both a profession and a hobby for Grace Cummings.
Interview
A family holiday inspired playwright Joanna Murray-Smith to rediscover her Jewish heritage and write her latest play, Berlin.
Q&A
Melbourne playwright Louris van de Geer talks about what attracted her to Elizabeth Jolley's novel, the benefits of the NEXT STAGE Writers' program, and the importance of art.
Q&A
Already a fan of Alice Pung’s work, Diana Nguyen is thrilled to now have the author’s blessing to adapt her award-winning YA novel Laurinda for the stage.
Get an insight into the play development process with an excerpt of a new play, Pandora, by former MTC NEXT STAGE writer-in-residence Kylie Trounson.
Feature
While COVID has certainly put a spoke in the wheel of 2020, MTC’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program has been continuing apace behind the scenes.
Feature
Talking tech thrillers, Zoom theatre and the benefits of working in an office with playwright Kylie Trounson…
Twice named Tasmanian Aboriginal Artist of the Year, Nathan Maynard has been awarded a NEXT STAGE commission to work on a new play inspired by the Adam Goodes saga.