Fresh Ink National Mentoring Program

Australia’s most respected professional development programs for emerging writers.

Our celebrated Fresh Ink National Mentoring Program for emerging writers runs annually from April–December in selected states across Australia. The initiative has been running for 17 years in varying forms and engages industry professionals to mentor our young writers. To date, the program has supported 167 writers in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Geelong, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

In 2025, there will be four emerging writers for performance (aged 18-26) in each participating city – Brisbane, Hobart and Sydney. Throughout the year they will produce two short works for the stage as well as attend regular meetings with their mentor to hone their skills and build their writing community.

Our program in Brisbane is co-presented with Backbone, and our program in Hobart is co-presented with Archipelago Productions. We warmly acknowledge the Jibb Foundation for their generous support of ATYP’s Fresh Ink program since 2019.

“Fresh Ink was an incredible program that gave me the confidence to explore my own writing more thoroughly in a supportive environment with other writers and our incredible mentor.” Andy James, Hobart 2024 participant

“Fresh Ink was the absolute highlight of my year! I made lifelong connections, developed more than I thought was even possible, and unlocked so many tools (and life skills) that I’ll be bringing with me as my career progresses.” Sophie Wickes, Brisbane 2024 participant

Applications for Fresh Ink 2025 are now closed.

2025 Places & Mentors

Brisbane, QLD

Mentor: LEWIS TRESTON

Co-presented with BACKBONE

Hobart, TAS

Mentor: BELINDA BRADLEY

Co-presented with ARCHIPELAGO PRODUCTIONS

Sydney, NSW

Mentor: GEORGE KEMP

2025 Program

Throughout the program participants will:

Attend a pre-arranged workshop session at least once a month between April and December with their mentor for 6 hours (or equivalent) to develop craft and skills.
Deliver a 15-minute play in July that will be rehearsed and performed by a professional director and actors for an invited audience.
Deliver a 30-minute play in November that will be rehearsed and performed by a professional director and actors for an invited audience.

To be eligible for the program:

Writers must be aged 18–26 years old at the time of application.
Writers should have some experience in the past with writing for performance (may include work for stage and/or screen, poetry, audio work, devised work, etc.).
Writers must be available to meet the time commitments (briefly outlined above) between April and December 2025, including both attending meetings (in-person) and having the capacity to write material between meetings.
We strongly encourage applications from First Nations people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people from Disabled and d/Deaf communities, and people from LGBTQIA+ communities.

HOW TO APPLY:

Applications are to be submitted through the linked application form. To complete this, you will need:

CV/Resume (maximum 2 pages) as a PDF file, detailing any writing, theatre or creative arts experience, including any study.
A writing sample (maximum 3 pages) as a PDF file. This can be from an existing script and can be an excerpt or whole scene, or if you are new to theatre writing you can provide a sample of other writing (screen, poetry, audio work etc).

COST:

The Fresh Ink program costs $450 for successful participants. Thanks to support from the Jibb Foundation, every person successfully selected for Fresh Ink receives a scholarship subsidy of $2,600 from the full cost of the program.

Payment plans and scholarships can be negotiated for successful applicants who could not otherwise participate. Please click on the link in the application form to apply.

DATES:

Mon 10 March 2025 – Applications due by 12pm (midday)
Mon 24 March 2025 – Applicants notified of outcome
April – December 2025 – Fresh Ink meetings and readings (exact dates times and dates TBC)

APPLICATIONS FOR FRESH INK 2025 ARE NOW CLOSED.

Participant Biographies

Sydney

Rebecca Duke
Rebecca Duke is a twenty-one-year-old writer and student raised in Tasmania. In 2021, she is starting her third year of a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics/Bachelor of Arts at the ANU. In 2019 she took part in ATYP’s National Studio and was delighted to receive her first publication in Intersection 2020: Beat closely followed by This Was Urgent Yesterday written during CARCLEW’s residency, The Writing Place. In 2020, she was resident artist at Canberra Youth Theatre and is currently under commission by the company to write Space Oddity, a play that accompanies a work by Mary Rachel Brown. She is also in the process of writing Church Sweet Church, a play about faith, community and reckoning which has been selected for The Street Theatre’s First Seen program.
Eric Jiang
Eric is a Chinese-Australian writer/director from Sydney. In 2020, he participated in the National Studio, a playwriting program run by Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). Eric was an ArtsLab 2021 Resident (Shopfront Arts Co-op), for which he created a short art film, and is involved with the Step Up program (bAKEHOUSE Theatre x KXT) and is excited to be a part of Fresh Ink (ATYP). His creative writing is published in Voiceworks, Australian Poetry Journal, Peril and Rabbit. He is also the writing coordinator for The Waiting Room Project, an art space located in the Sydney Sexual Health Centre.
Haz Lugsdin
Haz Lugsdin (they/them) is a non-binary performance maker who lives and works on the unceded land of the Gadigal and Wangal peoples. Haz is driven by authentic audience connection. Despite this, Haz’s work is characterised by gusto, ego and innuendo. Currently, Haz is interested in the ways that non-binary ways of thinking can be applied to theatre-making, as explored in their two latest shows devised shows; The (Sour Glitch) Two-Step Refusal at The Flying Nun by Brand X (2021) and 101101001: Dude Where’s My Gender at The Giant Dwarf (2020) to be remounted with KXT Pop-Upstairs in 2021. Haz participated in ATYP’s National Studio in 2020. Their short play The End is Nigh, Hold Me Close, Watch Me Die was published in Intersection: Unleashed. With a background in sketch comedy, Haz has written, directed and performed in a number of comedy shows at Sydney Fringe Festival (2018, 2019), Sydney Comedy Festival (2018, 2019) and Bondi Feast (2019).
Margaret Thanos
Margaret Thanos is a Greek-Australian theatremaker and actress, who is most passionate about making intersectional feminist works. Margaret has directed The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Jim Got Shot and Project XXX at the Sydney University Dramatic Society and her short film Sugar High was shortlisted for the Sydney Film Festival 48 Hour Film Fest. In September 2021, she will be directing an original work, Dark Moon, at KXT PopUpstairs. Last year Margaret was a part of Montague Basement’s Laboratory Program, in which her play Smoke and Glass was read for a public audience. Her acting credits include Dear Australia (Spark Youth Theatre 2021), Screen Shot (Short 2021), Twinemies (2021), Spider in My Soup (Shopfront Artslab 2018/2019 and Bondi Feast 2019), My Creatures (Tricky Feet Theatre Company 2018), Intersection 2018: Chrysalis (ATYP/Griffin 2018), No Exit (SUDS), Caligula (SUDS), Grenadine (SUDS) and Kill Climate Deniers (SUDS). She also has assistant directing credits on The Cherry Orchard (Chippen St Theatre), Bathory Begins (Q Theatre), This Genuine Moment (Old 505), Animal Farm (New Theatre), Henry IV (Streamed Shakespeare) and The Originate Project (Q Theatre). Margaret is very excited to be developing her writing skills further with ATYP as part of Fresh Ink this year.

Darwin

Heather Edmonds
Heather Edmonds is a theatre maker based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, where she works as a children’s entertainer in Alice Springs Hospital and across remote communities with the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Growing up on the Central Coast of NSW, Heather gained her Bachelor of Communication (Theatre Media) at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst where she was recipient of the Blair Milan Memorial and John Carroll Memorial Scholarships and worked for Opera Australia in Sydney before moving to the Territory. Heather loves the collaborative nature of theatre-making and enjoys wearing many hats within the storytelling process – some to date have included production team for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, youth drama tutor and facilitator, sketch comedy and immersive theatre director, and actor and co-writer for children’s theatre with On The Wing Theatre Company in Alice Springs. She is passionate about telling and supporting diverse Australian stories, making theatre accessible and engaging to audiences outside the typical theatre demographic, creating imaginative experiences for young people and exploring non-traditional and site-specific theatre. This is her first serious foray into playwriting and she is grateful for the opportunity to further diversify as an artist.
Iona Francis
Jack McMillan
Jack has studied and dabbled in many different art forms over the years, including Film, Animation and Theatre. His most recent works have been performing with Darwin Theatre Company and Corrugated Iron or making videos for his YouTube Channel ‘Big Dog Salad’. Recently Jack has been wanting to focus more on behind-the-scenes roles like directing and writing. More of a visual thinker, “an ideas man”, he has always struggled with dialogue and creating something that “makes sense.” So he is beyond excited to be accepted into the Fresh Ink Program to help him improve his writing capabilities.

Hobart

Rosemary Cann
Rosemary Cann is a pākehā writer, musician and actor based in nipaluna, lutruwita. Rosemary holds a BA in Theatre, English Literature and Anthropology, and a Masters in Creative Writing, specialising in Script and Screen. She was shortlisted for Playmarket’s ‘b4 25’ award for her play Wellington Hill Drinking Society (2015), and nominated ‘Best Newcomer’ at the NZ International Comedy Festival for her debut solo show Chapstick (2016). During her time in Pōneke, Rosemary performed as a member of Wellington-based improv troupe Playshop for three years, and with all-female improv troupe Definitely Not Witches for two seasons. Rosemary also founded an accessible review site Art Murmurs, as well as working as Event Coordinator of Human FM radio station. Following graduation, Rosemary toured for eighteen months with reading charity Duffy Books in Homes and New Zealand Playhouse before moving to Australia. Rosemary then trained as an Early Childhood Educator and became a teacher for Helen O’Grady Drama. She also won Best (Adult Open) Poem in the 2019 Jugiong Writers Festival. Rosemary has participated in Carclew’s Writing Place residency, and ATYP’s National Studio, as well as performing in HerStory (2019-2020) and The Campaign (2018). Rosemary is passionate about representative, intelligent art that touches audiences and brings queer and feminine narratives to the forefront.
Stephanie Francis
Steph has worked with theatre companies and practitioners in both Tasmania and Victoria and is a graduate of the University of Tasmania’s School of Creative Arts and Media (SOCAM). Steph is a multifaceted theatre-maker, having been a performer, director, and writer for a number of years. Most notably, she was the Assistant Director to Leticia Cáceres for Kate Mulvany’s The Mares, produced by the Tasmanian Theatre Company in March of 2019 and was a 2019 Tasmanian Theatre Award winner for ‘Best Supporting Female Performance’ for the portrayal of Dotti Smith in Killer Joe. Steph also participated in the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2019, her original show Goose! (which she wrote, directed, and performed in) being a part of the Fringe program. As well as being a part of IO’s current season, Steph is currently partaking in Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) Fresh Ink National Mentoring Program, where she will be producing original work with Archipelago Productions in Hobart in November 2021.
Indea Quinn
Indea Quinn is a freelance multi-disciplinary performer, theatre-maker, and arts practitioner currently based in Launceston. Indea graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts (Hons.) in 2018. In 2019 Indea undertook a residency with Frantic Assembly (London), training in their physical theatre methodology and creating a performance with practitioners from around the world. Following that she attended the 2020 Tasmania Performs Artist Residency. Indea has been engaged as an artist for Soliloquy 2021 (RANT Arts, Junction Arts Festival) and was recently selected as a participant in Multitrack, a program operated by Theatre North (in collaboration with Tasdance, Mudlark and Junction). Alongside various engagements as a voice artist, she recently performed in The Kookaburra Self-Relocation Project (WHOSLAUGHINGJACKASS) (Fernando do Campo) for Mona Foma 2020, and participated in the Tasmanian Solo Series as a performer and choreographer/director. With a background in classical ballet (formal training up to R.A.D Advanced 2), she teaches Pre-Primary and Primary Ballet with the Tasdance School of Dance. As well as being employed as their Education Program Coordinator, Indea serves on the board of Sawtooth A.R.I.
Emma Skalicky
Emma has worked in Hobart theatre since 2014. Previous publications include Ophelia: A Decomposition in Two Parts (The Picton Grange Quarterly Review, Issue 6), and Panopticon (Currency Press) for ATYP’s Intersection 2019: Arrival. She has acted as assistant director for Loud Mouth Theatre Company’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (2016) and Archipelago Production’s The Bleeding Tree (2020), and directed PLoT Theatre’s Doctor Faustus (2017) and Salome (2020), and Bad Company Theatre’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (2019). Emma has a First Class Honours in playwriting and ran PLoT Theatre from 2016-2020. In May 2021, Emma’s original work Medusa Waking will be staged at the Peacock Theatre.

Perth

Michelle Aitken
Michelle Aitken is a maker and performer working between dance and theatre in Boorloo (Perth.) She has worked with companies including Black Swan State Theatre Company, STRUT Dance, and pvi collective, and is a frequent collaborator on independent projects. Under the banner of Hey! Precious, Michelle presents work that has been described as smart, weird, and fun, including award-winning solo Future’s Eve (2018) and Unrule (2019.) In 2021 Michelle is an artist in residence at PICA, developing a new work called Showy McShowface. Michelle is also an AV designer for performance, and you can find her on Youtube as her science-communicator alter-ego, Michelle From Perth.
Sally Davies
Sally Davies is an emerging artist and Curtin University graduate. In the past few years she has worked in the Perth independent theatre community as a writer and director, including co-founding company Lindstedt & Davies. Her produced works include Ugly Virgins, A Region Where Nobody Goes, and recent short performance Rupert Murdoch and the Jellyfish Girl. She hopes to continue making works that are hopeful and relevant to contemporary Perth.
Noemie Huttner-Koros
Noemie Cecilia Huttner-Koros is a queer Jewish performance-maker, writer, dramaturg and community organiser living on Whadjuk Noongar country. Noemie’s practice is driven by a deep belief in the social, political and communal role of art, and in engaging with sites and histories where ecological crisis, queer culture and composting occur. Her practice ranges from plays such as Untitled Wars (co-written with Mararo Wangai), a walking performance tracing Boorloo/Perth’s LGBTQIA+ history (The Lion Never Sleeps, The Blue Room Theatre), a dinner party (The Trouble-Makers, You are Here Festival & Batch Festival) and an interactive installation tracing her family history and the refugee crisis (Borders at Spectrum Gallery). Her poetry has been featured in Australian Poetry Anthology 2020, Rabbit Poetry Journal and she was the winner of the 2020 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize. Noemie has worked with groups including Spare Parts Puppet Theatre (2019 First Hand Artist), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2019 Resident Artist), DADAA and Australian Theatre for Young People (National Studio 2019). She is currently studying a Master of Theatre (Dramaturgy) at the Victorian College of the Arts and has trained at Intercultural Theatre Institute (Singapore), The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowksi&Thomas Richards (Italy) and Makhampom Living Theatre (Thailand).
Elise Wilson
Elise Wilson is an emerging writer and theatre-maker based in Boorloo (Perth). Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Performing Arts from WAAPA in 2018, Elise was awarded the Fremantle Arts Centre Residency Prize, which she used to develop her new work Supertongues and Supertasters the next year. After doing so, the play was selected for mentorship through The Blue Room Theatre’s Playing Up program, which culminated in a public reading. That same year, she was a writer for the WA Youth Theatre Company’s 24 Hour Play Generator and her play Floor Thirteen received a season at The Blue Room Theatre. Elise spent last year undertaking the AFTRS’ Writing a TV Series ten-week short course, as well as writing The Ransom as part of the WA Youth Theatre Company’s Loungeroom Project, for which she was a Senior Jury Prize Winner. Elise is also an improviser with The Big Hoo Haa and an actor, most recently performing in Perth’s season of The 91-Storey Treehouse (CDP Productions), The Wolves (Red Ryder Productions) and Grace (public service announcement), for which she was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Performing Arts WA Awards.

Darwin

Danielle Aquilina
Originally from Cairns QLD, Danielle Aquilina is a professional performer with a flair for youth theatre. With a Bachelor of Creative Industries, she has lived in QLD and the NT creating and performing works nationally. In 2017 she wrote her first public children’s theatre work The 5ft Giant which debuted at The Cairns Children’s Festival where it was seen by over 750 children and their families. In conjunction with her career as an actor and comedian, youth theatre coordinator and facilitator, in 2019 she was accepted into Carclew and Country Arts SA scriptwriting program, Writing Place, where she worked closely with Mentors such as Emily Steel, Caleb Lewis and Mary Anne Butler. Due to Covid-19, her solo comedy show Please Date Me will be performed in Fringe 2021. She currently lives in Darwin, NT creating new content exploring the versatility of the arts in regional Australia.
Johanna Hayes
After discovering a love for writing and performing in high school, Johanna Hayes saw most of her peers leave town to study for ‘proper jobs’ or to seek fame in the bright lights of Sydney, Australia. Choosing to stay in her hometown gave her a unique appreciation of the local artists who constantly push to be seen and heard.

Johanna is a Darwin-based actress, appearing in Brown’s Mart Theatre’s and Corrugated Iron’s recent production of Away by Michael Gow and Darwin Theatre Company’s 2019 production of The Hollow by Agatha Christie. She has also been involved in wacky Darwin Fringe Festival shows and Corrugated Iron projects. These are too numerous to be listed but include career-defining moments such as wearing a bell on your head and pushing around a ‘ghost’ in a shopping trolley.

Johanna is fairly new to playwriting, but is inspired to create something that will give other young actors an opportunity to gain confidence and experience. She aspires to be an artistic ‘jack of all trades’ and would love to one day jump between writing, performing, designing and directing in both theatre and film.
Eve Lynch
Eve Lynch moved to Darwin from Melbourne in 2019. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts, majoring in theatre and film. Eve has had the opportunity to work both on and off stage, overseas and in Australia. This is Eve’s first dive into script writing, and she is incredibly thankful and excited to enter the mystical world of playwriting, and cannot wait to explore all the NT arts community has to offer.
Betty Sweetlove
Betty Sweetlove (she/her) is a writer and emerging theatre maker living in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). She is particularly interested in critically and collaboratively investigating local heritage through walking tours and theatre. Before moving to central Australia in 2015, Betty lived in London and south-east England where she grew up. She completed her bachelors degree in History at SOAS, focusing on histories of performance and theatre within struggles for African independence. Betty has written and directed original work for Alice Desert Festival (2017), Totem Theatre (2019), and Carclew (2020). Her monologue for young actors Swallows is published in the anthology This Was Urgent Yesterday (Currency Press, 2020). In 2019, she created an original walking tour as the inaugural artist in residence at the Women’s Museum of Australia, Alice Springs. Betty is an upcoming creative intern with Zen Zen Zo in Brisbane (2020).

Perth

Daley Rangi
Daley Rangi (Te Āti Awa) is an eclectic, award-winning multidisciplinary artist; raised on Whadjuk Noongar boodja, Daley was born in Aotearoa, with Māori whakapapa. They are neurodiverse and genderqueer, and use these lenses to explore the outer limits of humanity, generating unpredictable and uncomfortable works in a celebration of chaos, queerness, and decolonisation. Intent on tearing down the status quo, Daley’s energies are focused on exposing the zeitgeist, speaking truth to power, and encouraging social change. They have written three full-length plays (Curiosity, TANK, Death Stole My Dad), and created several performance works (Lipstuck, Hold Your Breath, i’m not alright). They are a Performing Arts WA judge, and have completed arts programs with national and local art institutions, including the Perth Festival Artist Lab, ATYP’s National Studio, and Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group. Daley is the Performance Space Stephen Cummins Residency 2020 recipient and will be developing new performance work Takatāpui through this residency and the Queer Development Program at PACT this year. Daley has achieved certificates in Noongar Language and Culture, Māori Protocol and Language, and Endangered Language Revival. Daley won the Midsumma and Australia Post Queer Art Award 2020, worked with Moogahlin Performing Arts as a guest artist in their writing intensive for Koori Gras, and is currently employed with DADAA as an Arts Worker.
Rebecca Fingher
Rebecca Fingher is an emerging artist from Perth, WA. A writer, performer, director and theatre maker, Rebecca has been in the industry for several years and has completed a Bachelor of Performing Arts at WAAPA in 2019; graduating with the prestigious Belinda Dunbar Award, awarded to the top graduating student of the class. As a dynamic and multiskilled, rigorous creator, her work aims to send strong messages in unique and entertaining ways. She has picked up several awards along the road, including two Perth Fringe Festival awards in 2015 and 2018 and the prize for the best devised production in her final year at WAAPA for a piece titled, ‘Juliet’.
Rupert Williamson
Rupert Williamson is an emerging writer and theatre-maker studying at the University of Western Australia. In 2019 Rupert co-founded the independent theatre company Runaway Balloon with Matthew Nixon. He has written and co-written several plays and directed several more. Most recently, he was director and co-writer of Fun Times with Olive and No One Else! at Perth Fringe 2020. Other credits include Sad TV Man (co-writer, performer), By the Door to the Bonehouse (writer, director), and Viva La Restoration (performer), for which he won the Leo Award. Among other things, he is currently developing a short solo-work Rupert Sorenson Reads Poems about His Dog. In addition to theatre, Rupert’s writing has appeared in Peacock and Pelican Magazine. His favourite member of The Hooley Dooleys is probably Antoine. Maybe Bruce.
Sian Murphy
Sian Murphy is a Perth based theatre maker who specializes in writing and performing. Sian recently graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor in Performance Making. Born in Albury NSW and before relocating to Perth, Sian worked on various and projects including “Letters from The Border” at Hothouse Theatre, Outback Theatre for Young People, and being placed in the top 12 for ATYP’s National Fresh Ink Monologue competition. Sian’s writing credits include BITE ME (The Blue Room Theatre) Just Kidding (TILT) This Heaving Mass (TILT) and Kebab (600 Seconds) Her recent acting credits include Star Power (The Blue Room Theatre) Life On Earth (Spare Parts Puppet Theatre) Just Kidding (TILT) The House on The Hill (WAAPA) and Letters From the Border (Hothouse Theatre). In 2020 Sian was the recipient of the Fringe World WA Emerging Artist Award, and her show BITE ME was shortlisted for the Martin Sims Award. Sian is passionate about bringing to life new works with powerful stories, humour and a lot of heart.

Sydney

Alan Fang
Alan Fang is a 20 year old Asian-Australian emerging Writer, Film-Maker and Performer from Sydney. While studying a diploma of Film at the Academy of Film, Theatre & Television (AFTT), Alan wrote for SUDS (Sydney University Dramatic Society), as a slot writer and as one of the writers in their 24 Hour Play in a Day (2020). As a performer, Alan was featured in Spark Youth Theatre’s Haunted (2019). He has volunteered on many theatre productions including CAAP’s (Contemporary Asian-Australian Performance) Double Delicious (2020) and New Theatre’s Angry Fags (2020). Alan is currently in production of a documentary about two young female Drama students from Sydney, who begin their journey into the Film, TV and Theatre industry. Alan is a participant of the ATYP Fresh Ink Mentoring Program for 2020.
Cassie Hamilton
Cassie Hamilton is transgender playwright and performer based in Sydney. She began acting training at a young age and has since taken on roles as a performer and director on various productions. In 2017 she co-founded a youth-led, queer theatre company in Newcastle called Bearfoot Theatre. There, she debuted her first full-length play in late 2019 Playing Face. The production toured to Sydney following it’s highly successful Newcastle season, and achieved much critical acclaim. The show was awarded both Best Original Work, and Best Dramatic Production at the City of Newcastle Drama Awards.

Cassie is passionate about contemporary, hybrid works that push the boundaries of traditional theatre. Her goal is to create works that are diverse, exciting and eye-opening, often using her experience as a member of the queer community to present work with a sense of urgency and truth.
Sacha Slip
Sacha Slip is a director, writer, and theatre maker mostly based in Sydney Australia. She has a background in physical theatre, and is passionate about the development of new writing, exploring feminist narratives, and interdisciplinary methods of performance making.

Sacha is a founding artist of the theatre collective Assorted Tarts, and wrote and directed their premier work; p#rnscape at PACT theatre for Sydney Fringe Festival last year.

In 2019, she also presented work in Edinburgh, where she wrote and directed Shakespeare for Kids: Fools and Bottoms and directed Shakespeare Up Late! for C Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She was also a participant in the 2019 SITI Company Summer Intensive in New York and studied under Anne Bogart and Company.

In 2018 she attended the ATYP National Studio, and was a resident artist at Tantrum Youth Arts where she wrote and directed [fear less] for Crack X Theatre Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Communications (Theatre/Media) in 2017 and completed internships with Lingua Franca and Sydney Opera House where she observed and assistant directed under Mike Finch.
Victoria Zerbst
Victoria Zerbst is a political satirist and comedy writer for The Feed on SBS. She is a co-founder of the sketch comedy group Freudian Nip and has created work for Comedy Central, JUNKEE Media, and ABC and Screen Australia’s Fresh Blood grant. As a comedian, she has toured nationally with The Chaser and performed at numerous festivals around Australia including Splendour in The Grass.

Victoria studied philosophy at the University of Sydney, where she edited the student newspaper, Honi Soit, directed the Sydney University Arts Revue and was an active member of the Sydney University Dramatic Society. Last year she took part in ATYP’s National Studio in Bundanon and is excited to continue workshopping stories for young people that explore ethics, big tech, and the politics and philosophy of being online.

Sydney

Sally Alrich-Smythe
Sally Alrich-Smythe graduated from The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) with a Diploma of Musical Theatre in 2016. In 2018, Sally completed her Master of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance) at NIDA. Her debut play ‘Homesick’ will be staged at The Old 505 in Newtown in 2019. Outside of performing and writing, Sally is the director of The Prop, an independent website that responds to theatre in Sydney, and a podcast ‘Prop: On Playwrights’, which will be released May 2019.

As a performer, Sally is currently performing at the Sydney Opera House in ‘Chamber Pot Opera’ (Bontom Productions). Sally had the pleasure of playing ‘Belinda’ in the world premiere of Chamber Pot Opera (Bontom). In 2017, she toured with Chamber Pot Opera to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Sydney’s return season, and finally to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland (Bontom). In 2018, Sally travelled to Los Angelis to perform in an industry showcase for ‘C’mon: The Lleyton Hewitt Musical’, and to Saint Petersburg, Russia, for another season of Chamber Pot Opera. In January this year, Sally performed in “The Violent Years: 1956” at The Perth Fringe Festival (Blue Room).

Additional credits include roles with New Musicals Australia Screenshot Presentations, and as chorus in Phantom of the Opera (Packemin, 2015). Sally loves to be a part of story-telling in whatever capacity she can and is particularly invested in showing new work.
Iley Jones
As a young, passionate and curious writer, Iley has driven herself to learn more about the craft of writing and the different ways in which to tell a story. Starting at a young age in front of patient grandparents, she began entertaining others with wild retellings of children’s classics. Mostly involving murder.

In 2014, she graduated from the Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts with a Bachelor of Performance. From her debut play Life’s Contract’s at the Sydney Fringe Festival, to her award winning short film Dead not Dying, Iley enjoys finding new stories and the natural ways in which to tell them. Her new play Two Quarters Full will be premiering later this year, another take on characters and themes of family.

Last year Iley was accepted in ATYP’S National Studio in Bundanon. Learning, working, and laughing with amazing mentors and colleagues alike was an incredible learning experience that positively impacted on her writing. Throughout the program she developed her skills creatively and technically in regards to story writing, and in patting wombats.

Iley strives to work closely with actors, directors and writers alike, in finding the best way of exploring and telling a story. Even if that story is a wild new rendition of a children’s classic. Mostly involving murder.
MICHAEL LOUIS KENNEDY
Michael Louis Kennedy is a writer and journalist from Sydney, Australia. He is a great lover of dark comedy, horror, and the beauty of Australian rural and urban landscapes. His work often explores themes of queerness, migration, neoliberalism, and the intersection of politics and ego. His writing has been published in Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, The Brag, Homer Online, & Publication, Transportation Press, and Baby Teeth Journal. His introduction to writing performance came in the form of multiple university revues. Subsequently he has written and produced a number of works for stage Bushfire, a black comedy premiering to a sold out run on the 2015 Sydney Fringe, later remounted for a staged reading by the acclaimed Siren Theatre Company as part of the Seymour Centre’s Playlist for Mardi Gras 2018; as well as Keep Your Feet, which appeared in the Old 505’s Rapid Reads Festival. He has also previously lived and worked in Scotland, during which time he was a regular performer and writer for events including Glasgow’s Only Skin and Queer Theory cabarets, as well as Edinburgh’s Inky Fingers. He originally studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, graduating with a combined Bachelor of Laws / Bachelor of Communications (Journalism).
JASPER LEE-LINDSAY
Jasper is a Sydney-based Theatre-maker. After completing his Advanced Diploma of Acting from the Academy of Film, Theatre & Television (AFTT), he looked to playwriting as a side interest. In 2017, his first short play, Arthur & Marilyn, won the Festival Director’s Pick and Best Script award at the Short + Sweet Sydney Festival, winning both awards again at Short + Sweet Hollywood later that year. In 2018, Jasper wrote and produced a full-length version of Arthur & Marilyn, which played at the Blood Moon Theatre, before taking part in ATYP’s National Studio, where he wrote The Iceberg, featured in ATYP’s Intersection 2019: Arrival.

Perth

IZZY MCDONALD
Izzy McDonald is a 25 year old emerging writer, director, performer and Co-Artistic Director of the award winning independent theatre company; Rorschach Beast. Izzy graduated from the University of Western Australia with a degree in English and Cultural Studies in 2015, the same year she co-founded Rorschach Beast and directed the company’s premiere show Girl in the Wood. GITW won Fringe World’s Best Emerging Artist and the Melbourne Fringe Ready to Tour Award, allowing for an interstate tour to occur in 2016.That year she also participated in the Australian Theatre for Young People’s National Studio for young writers. Her piece Dive was performed in Sydney and published by Currency Press.

The following year she wrote, produced and performed in Bus Boy which went on to win Fringe World’s coveted Martin Sims award, the Theatre award, the Best Emerging Artist award and went on to tour internationally to Brighton Fringe. Izzy has performed in shows at The Blue Room Theatre such as TANK (2016) and Tamagotchi Reset (2017) and was a co-devisor and performer in the award winning Let me finish (2018).
MANDY MULLINS
Maddy Mullins is an emerging theatre maker and playwright. She completed Curtin’s Theatre Arts course and was heavily involved in their Hayman Theatre Company in a variety of roles, including performer, lighting designer, and stage manager, culminating in writing/ directing Red Rover, her first original show, in her final semester. Performance highlights include devising City (Joe Lui) and 12 Strings and the Scale of Things (Bec Bradley) and performing in Curtin’s Stage One production at the Blue Room, The Perilous Adventures of the Postman (Damon Lockwood). Recently, she has designed lighting for Mungbean (Beyond the Yard) at the Denmark Arts Festival and Silence My Ladyhead (FUGUE) as a part of Fringeworld 2019. She is currently a part of WAYCTO’s ensemble, and she is very excited to be a part of Fresh Ink and tell some new stories this year.
JESS NYANDA MOYLE
Jess Nyanda Moyle is an emerging theatre maker and musician based in Perth. Mid-2018 she graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre, and is currently working as an associate artist for emerging company Squid Vicious. She is both excited and terrified to be showcasing her playwrighting chops for the first time with Cephalopod as part of the 2019 Blue Room Season, and the work she’ll create through the good folks at AYTP.

Recent performance credits include two PAWA Nominated shows Let Me Finish (Charlotte Otton) and godeatgod (Squid Vicious), as well as Medusa (Bow & Dagger/Renegade Production Company), Metis (a work-in-progress by The Nest Ensemble) and the Subiaco Arts remount of Tissue (Static Drive Co.) She enjoys having a ‘good hard go’ at various non- performative theatre roles; having assistant directed Poorly Drawn Shark (Squid Vicious), composed music and sound designed for Tunes from the Roadside and A Region Where Nobody Goes (Lindstedt & Davies) respectively, as well as dramaturging for 52 Hertz (Beyond the Yard). When she’s not making theatre, she is usually composing music for her solo project nyanda j. and folk-duo Foetus & Fossil, or writing lyrics for indie groups META IV and Effy’s Trip. And when she’s not being creative she makes coffee, watches footy and dreams of one day being an artist as prolific as a super mega hybrid of PJ Harvey and Paul Kelly (hey, a girl can dream).
ZACHARY SHERIDAN
Zachary Sheridan is a performance maker currently practicing in Perth, Western Australia. A graduate of WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts, Zach is the writer of Head Case (shortlisted for 2017 New Plot Award); The Cockburn Incident (winner of the 2018 Adelaide Fringe Tour Ready Award); Cookies & Cream; and GRACE (winner of a 2019 Fringe World Weekly Theatre Award). Zach also adapted Franz Kafka’s The Trial for puppetry.

Zach is currently working on a multiplatform project exploring the Anthropocene, which will culminate in the work I Feel Fine to be presented in October, 2019, at The Blue Room Theatre. Other credits include: The Last Great Hunt’s Improvement Club (Assistant Director) and Stay With Us (Artist Collaborator), as well as WAAPA works Solo Stage: Moments of Being and The Secret Project: Dispatch. Zach was the recipient of the inaugural Belinda Dunbar prize, awarded to top student of the graduating Performance Making major.

Sydney

Lucy Clements
Lucy is the founder of New Ghosts Theatre Company, where she is dedicated to the creation and presentation of new Australian and international works. As a 2017 resident director of the Old Fitz Theatre “New Fitz” program, Lucy directed the debut seasons of THE WIND IN THE UNDERGROUND by Sam O’Sullivan and PAPER DOLL by Katy Warner. In 2018, New Ghosts toured THE WIND IN THE UNDERGROUND to The Stud io Underground, Perth, as part of FRINGE WORLD, where it was nominated for a FRINGE WORLD Theatre Award.

Recent theatre credits include; FEFU AND HER FRIENDS (Stella Adler, New York) and a development of new work ROCCO, CHELSEA, SEAN, CLAUDIA, ALEX (The Private Theatre, New York) as assistant director under John Gould Rubin, MIMESIS (New Ghosts play reading, New York & Sydney) as writer/producer, FRACTURE (Blue Room Theatre, Perth & Old Fitz, Sydney) as writer, producer and director, WONDERFLY as assistant director under Sophie Kelly and THE VOICES PROJECT: ALL GOOD THINGS under Iain Sinclair (ATYP, Sydney). Lucy was also a co-writer and ensemble member of THE REMEDY (The Blue Room Theatre/WAAPA, Perth), which won the Tilt Audience Award in 2015.

In 2018, Lucy looks forward to directing the Australian premier of the award winning play YEN by Anna Jordan at Kings Cross Theatre (KXT). Lucy is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts.
JULES ORCULLO
Jules Orcullo is a Filipina Australian theatre maker and freelance producer. She is the founder of performance platform, The Joy Offensive which launched in London in 2017 with earth. ocean. ancestors. – multi-disciplinary mixed bill nights for makers from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Jules’ recent works for theatre include: May Utang (Theatre Absolute, 2017), phroot sahlad (Lyric Hammersmith, The North Wall Arts Centre, Camden People’s Theatre, 2017), and Look, See (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 2017). She is an alumna of programmes at The Royal Court, Soho Theatre, The Lyric Hammersmith, Belgrade Theatre, The North Wall Arts Centre, and Yellow Earth Theatre in the UK, and Playwriting Australia and ATYP on home soil. Jules is also a speaker and facilitator with an interest in self-determined arts practice and making performance from lived
experience.
PIPPA ELLAMS
Pippa is a Writer/Performer from Western Sydney. Her first play was shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborne Playwright Award in 2015. During 2016 Pippa was a Resident Artist at Shopfront Theatre for Young people. With Collaborator/Director Hannah Goodwin was produced at Shopfront Arts Co-op in February 2017 followed by a remount at Belvoir St Downstairs theatre in June 2017. recently received a remount season produced by Merrigong theatre company in March 2018 followed by 3rd Sydney remount as part of bAKEHOUSE’s Step up festival. Pippa participated in The Propel Initiative, a program created by Q theatre and ATYP to support young Western Sydney Writers.

Pippa was chosen as a participant in ATYP’s 2017 National Studio Program and from this program her piece was selected to be performed as part of ATYP’s . Pippa is one half of ‘pip and han inc.’ a company dedicated to creating dynamic new Australian works. Pippa is currently a participant in ATYP’s 2018 Fresh Ink Program.
Joseph Brown
Joseph is theatre maker who grew up in Armidale, NSW. After being involved in theatre and performance throughout high school and beyond, Joseph moved to Melbourne in 2012 to complete his bachelor degree in performing arts at Monash University. While studying, he performed in student productions before eventually moving to writing and directing his own work.

In 2016 Joseph completed his Master of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance) at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts. While there, Joseph completed a full length stage play titled The End of Hawke Street, as well as a full length screenplay titled 86’d.

Joseph was part of the Australian Theatre for Young People’s 2017 National Studio. His piece, Lights on the Water was selected to be performed as part of ATYP’s ‘Intersection: Chrysalis’, directed by Rachel Chant.

In 2018 Joseph will be a part of ATYP’s Fresh Ink Mentorship program.

Writing and directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Monash Shakespeare Company), You Walk Away (Melbourne Fringe), Tuck in the Corners (MUST, La Mama), Tensions: Curated Works (MUST) and Love, Me (Old 505).

Perth

GEORDIE CRAWLEY
Geordie Crawley is a Perth based theatre maker. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the award winning independent theatre company Rorschach Beast.Geordie’s writing credits include Hive Mind, Girl in the Wood (Rorschach Beast), Logue Lake (Black Swan Emerging Writer’s Group) FIRE and Servant of Mercy (The WA Youth Theatre Company).

He has performed in Roald Dahl’s The Twits (Spare Parts Puppet Theatre), Monroe & Associates (The Last Great Hunt), TANK (Second Chance Theatre), Pirate Church, and Shakespeare in the Park’s Much Ado About Nothing.

His directorial debut Bus Boy (Rorschach Beast) won both the 2017 Theatre Award, and Martin Sims Award for Best New WA Production at Perth’s Fringe World Festival.

Geordie regularly performs improvised comedy with The Big HOO-HAA! and it proud to be making theatre in Perth.
MEGAN HUNTER
Megan is an emerging theatre maker and performer and is a recent graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She has trained under Lauren Langlois and Adam Marks of Chunky Move as well as co-founder of Kidd Pivot, Cindy Salgado. Megan’s past collaborations have included James Berlyn in 2016 for the His Majesty’s Theatre site-specific project Memory Bones, Melissa Cantwell for TILT at The Blue Room Theatre in 2017 and most recently with The Last Great Hunt in THE TALK. She recently made her writing debut with her one-woman cabaret Mavis (And Other Broken Objects) at Downstairs At The Maj as part of this years’ Fringe World Festival. Megan is looking forward to honing her writing skills further with the Fresh Ink program.
SAMANTHA NERIDA
Samantha Nerida is the Associate Producer of The Blue Room Theatre, as well as a performance maker and creative producer in her own right. She is also a pioneering member of SimLab @ Murdoch University, for which she is a digital puppeteer and Simulation Specialist. Samantha is a founding member of Static Drive Co, alongside Timothy Green and Haydon Wilson. She graduated from WAAPA’s Bachelor of Perfoming Arts in 2015, and has since studied writing online with Second City in Chicago. Her most recent credits include producing and publicising a collection of shows for the 2018 Fringe World Festival, including Night Sweats (Static Drive Co), Tunes from the Roadside (Lindstedt & Davies) and The Big Dark (Rhi P), and working as a performer in a devising residency with Fremantle Arts Centre & Charlotte Otton. In 2017 Samantha directed and produced Well Mannered (Samantha Nerida &; Haydon Wilson), performed in Toast (Maiden Voyage) and attended ATYP’s National Playwriting Studio. In 2016 Samantha co-wrote and co-directed Tissue (Static Drive Co) which she will soon redirect with Timothy Green for the 2018 Subiaco Theatre Festival.

Melbourne

AMELIA NEWMAN
Amelia has worked extensively with Riot Stage Youth Theatre as a performer on Forever City (2015) and Lovely Mess (2017). They assistant director F. with Riot Stage for Poppy Seed Theatre Festival 2016 and are currently part of Riot Stages Youth Ensemble. In 2017 Amelia wrote, produced and directed Younger and Smaller which was a part of La Mamas 2017 Exploration season.

In 2018 Amelia performed in Lovely Mess (2018) as a part of Festival of Live Art. Amelia is a part of Malthouse Vanguard 2018 and is a part of the Melbourne chapter of ATYP’s Fresh Ink Program 2018.

When Amelia is not talking or thinking about theatre, they enjoy chatting to strangers about babies and dogs or they are painting their nails and watching all the queer content they can find. And dancing.
GENEVIEVE ATKINS
This is Genevieve’s second time with ATYP, having taken part in our writer’s retreat last year. Genevieve is a writer and director, her work ranges from dark comedy and surreal drama to drag and burlesque. Unflinchingly queer and feminist, her work is gritty, funny and thought-provoking. Her audience is simultaneously entertained and horrified.

Genevieve graduated from Monash University’s Bachelor of Performing Arts program, as well as spending a lot of time in their student theatre. Her works include “Bedtime Stories for Girls,” “Drag///Strip” and “Frankenstein XX.”

Genevieve is thrilled to be working with ATYP again.
GEORGINA HARRISS
Georgina Harriss is a Melbourne-based screen and theatre writer who specialises in comedy. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The Victorian College of the Arts, where she is currently undertaking her Honours year. Georgina began writing for theatre in 2016 when her playlet The Best is Yet to Come was featured in Red Stitch’s annual fundraising showcase: Playlist. She subsequently undertook a playwriting residency at Lonely Company and the play she produced was chosen for inclusion in Betafest: Theatre in Various States of Undress.

In 2018 Georgina was offered a place in the Tessa Waters Mentorship Program. Her work has since been programmed as part of Small and Loud’s monthly scratch nights as well as part of The Voice in My Hands’ Dinner and a Show program. In February Georgina’s debut play Love Bird enjoyed a successful season as part of The Butterfly Club’s summer curated program. She is a 2018 recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship.

Georgina’s writing is usually described as farcical, absurdist and deeply uncomfortable. She is fascinated by the relationship between potential and failure and enjoys confronting audiences’ deepest anxieties while adding just a pinch of the life-affirming.
KATE CAMERON
Kate is a recent addition to the Melbourne theatre scene, having spent her formative artist years in NSW. In 2014 she graduated from the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of Performance (Performance-Making) with a minor in creative writing and has since taken on further literary studies at UNSW. Working as a non-performer for the last few years has seen Kate as production designer for film (Fragmentary), director (The Last Five Years),assistant director (Spring Awakening, A Little Night Music), producer (Foreign Woman), and co-founder of emerging theatre company ALCAT. Her theatre-making interests have been developed and steered towards playwriting and directing by her time at UOW and working through workshops and productions at The Phoenix Theatre.

DARWIN

EL IBO
El Ibo moved to Darwin from Cairns in 2017. Her first love has always been theatre, followed by her passion in dance. She was part of the Tropical Arts ensemble who performs Shakespeare at the Cairns Tanks Centre. She has recently appeared in Darwin’s Theatre – Mr Takahashi and Other Falling Secrets and Turquoise Elephant. El holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries from James Cook University, majoring in Performance. She’s always been intrigued by writing and hopes to pursue more of this interest on paper, just as much as on the stage.
KONSTANTINE HATZIVALSAMIS
Kostantine is a Darwin-based emerging writer who has recently graduated year 12. He has worked in theatre once before, as an actor in Brown’s Mart’s The Crucible. He has written and performed in numerous comedy sketches that have been uploaded to YouTube. His writing has been inspired by Red Dwarf, Monty Python, Ricky Gervais, and Barry Humphries. He hopes that he can maintain both writing and acting in his future pursuits in either film or stage.
RACHAEL CHISHOLM
Rachael Chisholm is a jack of all trades. She’s a Chef by trade, an Actor by degree and is News Broadcaster and Breakfast Radio Host by profession who edits docos in her spare time.

Rachael is fairly new to playwriting having only produce work for assignments while studying for her B.A at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, writing two or three scene for stage or film.

Before NIDA Rachael attended the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts to do a one year course in Aboriginal Theatre, the course introduced her to the world of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playwrights and help Rachael realises there is a place for Australia’s First Nation stories in theatre and film and that they do not have to sorely focus on the injustices of the past.

Rachael has joined Fresh Ink because she believes that there needs to be more Female and Queer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers in the world, and hopes that the Fresh Ink program will help her develop her voice so she can start writing the stories of the struggles and victories of First Nation people, especially the women living in the 21st Century curated program. She is a 2018 recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship.
THOMAS MIDENA
Thomas Midena is passionate about creating and storytelling in all its forms. He is an experienced actor, having performed in a number of productions in Darwin and Melbourne including Trotsky & Friends at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Third Door Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing and Darwin Theatre Company’s Slow Falling Bird, as well as The Importance of Being Earnest, The Crucible and Antigone. He has studied Film & TV at Swinburne University, creating and performing in several short films and winning awards in acting, writing and directing at film festivals.

Thomas currently resides in Darwin, teaching drama classes as he undertakes further studies in arts and education.

Sydney

Moreblessing Maturure
Moreblessing Maturure, the Creative Director of FOLK Magazine is a Zimbabwean/Australian inter-disciplinary artist. As an actor on both stage and screen in various projects, Moreblessing has garnered a great wealth of experience in a plethora of fields within the performing arts processes including writing, devising, performance directing and producing. THEATRE: Fallen (Sport for Jove, She Said- performer) The Bee and the Tree, Like Me, Age of Entitlement, The Way of the Wall (Mongrel Mouth-performer/writer) Hairspray: The Musical (Backstage UTS-Producer) Neighbours (Short and Sweet-Director) SCREEN: Displaced, Undefined Black Beauty, Searching for Babel, The Last Men, Marley,Someone, (Short filmPerformer) Akoni (Feature-Performer) Seen and Heard, Be in the Know, Count Me In (Gov. Videos-Performer) As a writer, Moreblessing utilises various forms of linguistic expression ranging poetic, dramatic and analytical writing. Having been published in a range of online magazines and having had her plays produced in the past, Moreblessing hopes to re-imagine what theatre can do- how to merge other forms of linguistic expression on the stage while still being engaging and dramatic. Mongrel Mouth, PWA, Eureka Street, The Q.
Disapol Savetsila
Disapol Savetsila is a Sydney-based writer and theatre-maker. His prose has been published in the Stringybark Anthology A Tick Tock Heart, Melaleuca Blue’s You’ll Eat Worse than That Before You Die, Australian Theatre for Young People’s (ATYP) Between Us, Melbourne Book’s Award Winning Australian Writing 2015, and on Seizure Online . His theatre writing credits include Unwrap Me and Hothouse (Budding Theatre), as well as Hissyfest Wyong and Hissyfest 2015 (Tantrum Theatre). In 2013, he was a winner of ATYP’s national monologue competition ‘Where in the World’ and Stringybark’s ‘Future Times Award’. He is a member of Theatre versus Everything, co-writing PressOne4Love for Crack Theatre Festival 2015 and A Walk to Remember for You Are Here 2017. He is also a University of Wollongong undergraduate.
Jordan Shea
Jordan Shea is an emerging Asian-Australian writer, teacher and director. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts/University of Melbourne’s MA-Writing for Performance (Hons II), his works have been performed, produced and workshopped in both Sydney and Melbourne. Upon graduating, he was appointed one of the resident playwrights at the Old 505 Theatre, and is currently a member of Belvoir’s writers group. He is also one of the invited participants for the live streamed Joanna Murray Smith Masterclass later this year. His current projects/developments include Mufti every day for ATYP, Testing Words for Old 505, Without Him for the VCA/Open House Theatre and directing Liz Hobart’s new play; Snap Season for the Sydney Fringe Festival.

His play Little Differences, dealing with race relations in youths, was published by Currency Press and performed earlier this year at ATYP. Jordan’s writing aims to give a voice to the marginalised and encourage the normalization of diversity. In order to feed an expensive theatre and travel habit, he has previously worked selling candles, concert tickets, ushering and now finds himself tutoring creative writing/playwriting to people of all ages.
Gretel Vella
Gretel Vella is a writer and dramaturg from Sydney. She has an undergraduate degree in Media Arts and Production from the University of Technology, Sydney, where she trained in screenwriting, directing and filmmaking. During her time at University she was able to produce a number of documentaries and shorts including her graduating comedy film ‘Pound Town’. She has also enjoyed placements at Channel Ten, post-production house, Spectrum films in Fox Studios, Australia and a role as marketing assistant, script editor and post production coordinator on Australian independent feature ‘Damaged’. ‘Damaged’ has recently been included in the official selection for the Sydney Indie Film Festival and the Sydney Lift Off Film Festival. In 2017, Gretel will complete her masters degree in Writing for Performance at The National Institute of Dramatic Art. During her time at the Institute Gretel was involved in the writing and creation of a number of shorts, a feature film and her major work – a 6 part comedy television series entitled ‘Carking It’, which was long listed for the Australian Writers Guild’s Primetime Screenwriting Competition.

Her theatre making credits at NIDA include co-creating Director’s Production ‘All That Glitters’. She has been privileged enough to receive mentoring opportunities from course coordinator and playwright Stephen Sewell, production house ‘The Dollhouse Collective’ and time in the writer’s room for Channel Nine’s Doctor, Doctor. Gretel is currently working as an associate artist with Glitterbomb Sydney with whom she has written and co-created sketch comedy ‘A Period Piece’ for the Old 505 in Newtown. Her next projects include web series ‘Hoods’ with Blackridge Productions and romantic comedy ‘No Love for Iguana’ for the Sydney Fringe Festival. Gretel has recently established arts collective, ‘Pretty Nice Company,’ with fellow NIDA alumni, Emme Hoy.

Perth

Jackson Used
Jackson is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, undertaking the Bachelor of Performing Arts – Performance Making course. Prior to this, Jackson studied a Certificate II in Music Theatre at the same institution. In addition, he has recently completed Playwriting Australia and The Blue Room Theatre’s Dramaturgy Training Program. Jackson has a history of involvement in numerous amateur, independent and professional productions in a variety of roles, such as writer, director, performer, producer, dramaturg and mechanist. He has recently returned from Australian Theatre for Young People’s National Studio and is currently directing sandpaperplane’s production of So You Think You’re Charlie Smith.
Scott McArdle
Scott is a Perth-based theatre maker, publicist, and lighting designer, as well as the founder of Second Chance Theatre. He graduated Murdoch University in 2015 with Honours in Theatre & Drama, and is currently studying Arts Management at WAAPA. Under his leadership, Second Chance Theatre has produced over fifteen shows, including Between Solar Systems (Best Production Team – Blue Room Theatre Awards 2015), Coincidences at the End of Time, and Frankenstein. He was the writer and director of fourteen of these shows. As a lighting designer, Scott has worked with local independent companies such as Second Chance Theatre, The Cutting Room Floor (What’s Love Got To Do With It), The Chaos Ensemble (TANK), and Maiden Voyage (Alone Outside). Recently, Scott has pursued freelance publicity and worked on Bus Boy (Rorschach Beast – Martins Sims Award Winner and Best Theatre Award – Fringe World 2017), Her Crown (Ellen-Hope Thompson), and 4-in-50 (Hand-in-Hand Theatre).
Rachael Woodward
Rachael Woodward is an emerging performance maker, creator and collaborator who is interested in performance that facilitates an experience for an audience. A recent graduate from WAAPA’s new Performance Making course interested in interdisciplinary visual performance, and has a background in physical theatre. She has devised and directed What’s Love Got To Do With It? at Blue Room Theatre (2016) and has had the opportunity to work with companies such as Snapcat (Rumble Strip, Lighting Furries), Blank Space Productions (Edge, Stage Manager) and be involved in shows such as West of The Moon (Clare Testoni) and If My Body Was A Poem (Maddie Godfrey). In 2016 she also completed the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre First Hand Training Program where she developed her show Valentine, an intimate interactive show combining clowning and shadow puppetry. Rachael is a teaching artist who loves to work with young people.
Hannah Cockroft
Hannah is a 20-year-old creative writing enthusiast currently completing her Bachelor of Arts Degree (Honours) in English and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia. She’s loved writing stories and getting involved in theatre since she was quite young. Hannah loves playwriting because it lets her combine both of these things. She’s have written some short stories for Pelican Magazine (the student magazine at my uni), and was recently chosen as a finalist for Frankie Magazine’s Good Stuff Awards 2017. Usually, Hannah gets writing inspiration from childhood anecdotes or Australiana, but she has also written stories about things like ghosts and ants and nude beaches. In the future Hannah hope to be able to work in a field that allows me to be creative and make good theatre.

Melbourne

Stephanie Clark
Stephanie is an actor, director and writer, who grew up in community theatre in West Gippsland. In 2012, she wrote and produced her first play at age 18- which led to the beginning of her theatre company: Impact Theatre. Since then, Stephanie has written four more plays- most receiving awards in rural theatre circles. She also has a bachelor of creative arts- drama from Deakin University. She is very excited to be given this opportunity.
Louis Corbett
Louis is a Melbourne-based actor, director and producer who has recently made the foray into writing. He has appeared on stage for the MTC in All My Sons (2007) and Rising Water (2011), as well as in Peter Blackburn’s VCA Master’s project Zone 4 (2016). He has appeared on Australian television and in films such as The Dragon Pearl playing the lead opposite Sam Neil, The King, as a young Graham Kennedy, Charlotte’s Web opposite Dakota Fanning and Macbeth. He has completed the Shakespeare Summer Intensive at RADA (2014, London) and last year graduated from the 16^th Street Full-Time Program. Louis is very excited to be a part of Fresh Ink in 2017.
Liam Maguire
Liam is excited to be welcomed into ATYP’s Fresh Ink intake and to be honing his skills as a playwright. Liam studied Acting at Western Australia’s Academy of Performing Arts where he grew enamored with not only performing, but also creating theatre. Through out the two years following his graduation, Liam has developed several original scripts that he looks forward to fine-tuning through out the year. He has also been involved in creative developments for new works by both Ilbijerri and Malthouse theatre companies, including “Little Emperors” which he also performed in earlier in 2017.
Lou Wall
Lou Wall is a comedian, actor, and theatre-maker based in Melbourne. She is a 2016 acting graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and since graduating, has been well-known for her original comedy works. Last year, her acclaimed black comedy cabaret A Dingo Ate My Baby toured for three seasons including a sold-out season at the Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2017). As a recipient of Melbourne Cabaret Festival’s Emerging Cabaret Artist Award, Lou developed her second comedy special It’s Not Me, It’s Lou. Premiering at Chapel off Chapel, the show received critical acclaim, a Best Cabaret nomination (Melbourne Fringe Festival 2017) and will go on to be presented at the Malthouse Theatre in 2018 (MICF). Recently she starred in the hit lesbian musical Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit for Poppyseed Festival. The show is set to have its return season at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival also at the Malthouse Theatre.

DARWIN

Julia Richardson
Stuart Fong

Fresh Ink National Mentoring Program

Australia’s most respected professional development programs for emerging writers.

Applications for Fresh Ink 2025 are now closed.

2025 Places & Mentors

Brisbane, QLD

Hobart, TAS

Sydney, NSW

2025 Program

APPLICATIONS FOR FRESH INK 2025 ARE NOW CLOSED.

Participant Biographies

BRISBANE

Chelsea August

Harrison Mills

Ewan Robertson

Lexie Stretton

HOBART

Hamish Chilcott

Tommy Howard

Scott Lleonart

Inigo Wadsley

SYDNEY

Mohammad Awad

Ruby Blinkhorn

Koen Brown

Pippa Thoroughgood

BRISBANE

Matt Bapty

Olivia Brand

Sarah Esser

Sophie Wickes

HOBART

Eilish Alexander

Paul Dellas

Andy James

Megan Kenna

PERTH

Sharni Andersson

Laura Goodlet

Clea Purkis

Makaela Rowe-Fox

SYDNEY

Kate Bubalo

Aliyah Knight

Miranda Michalowski

Pratha Nagpal

CAIRNS

Lena Bwami

Adria Cunningham

Amber Grossmann

Grace Wilson

HOBART

Delia Bartle

Nicola Ingram

Adrian Reddish

Bella Young

PERTH

Lily Baitup

Arthur Brown

Alicia Lori

Gabrielle Wilson

SYDNEY

Melody Chen

Michele Gould

Lachlan Parry

Bokkie Robertson

BRISBANE

Courtney Cavallaro

Nicky Haeusler

Blake Hohenhaus

Egan Sun-Bin

DARWIN

Michael Van Berkel

Jessica Lawrence

Eloy Mason

Will York

HOBART

Noah Casey

Milla Chaffer

Mostafa Faraji

Amelia Pond