PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE
Through the Playwright-in-Residence program, Playlab Theatre commissions playwrights to develop a new work for production. The development process for each work lasts as long as is needed, with playwrights provided with rigorous dramaturgical support and the resources necessary for an inspired process of adventure and discovery in pursuit of excellence.
Big Yikes! by Madeleine Border
Meet Lorrie. Sorry… Loxie. Loxie is cooler. She’s rebranding so as not to be mistaken with a load bearing truck. She wouldn’t want you to know that – she doesn’t like being ‘perceived’.
Loxie is leaving school, starting her first job, moving out of home, and waiting for Uni offers. She’s entering her adulting era. ‘Finding yourself’ is hard when you’re searching in a rundown share house, a situationship you THINK you have with your coworker, and under the constant nagging of your divorced parents.
Big Yikes! is a coming-of-age story that explores boundaries, decision making and autonomy while asking the big questions like “what is my purpose?”, “what should I do with my life?” and “why does my housemate leave lentils in the fridge to rot?”
Madeleine Border is a Meanjin/Brisbane theatre maker, performer and writer. A voice that mixes political satire and quirky dialogue, she writes to provoke, intrigue and amuse. She was Playlab Theatre’s Young Playwright-in-Residence (2019), Backbone Youth Arts resident artist (2019), Express Media’s Left to Write Program participant (2020), Playlab Theatre commissioned writer for Rising (2021), Incubator Program participant (2021), Dead Puppet Society Academy Program participant (2022) and Assistant Director on Counterpilot’s Breaking (2022). Madeleine’s theatre collective, Yours Sincerely, creates experiential live theatre; Sometimes it’s Hot like the Sun (2018), This Fantastic Plastic Planet (2019) and Deep Breath In (2022). After doing a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Political Science, she completed her Masters of Writing, Editing and Publishing at UQ in 2019.
Eat Slay Zombie by Alinta McGrady
Never fear, the @BLKBUNKERBTCHES are here!
The zombie apocalypse has finally happened and TikTok is the sole form of communication. This is a world of zombie kill tally’s, educational doomsday TikTok’s, and out-of-bounds Bunnings. Sheree and Tash are bunking down in a bowling alley, when another survivor turns up, challenging their isolation. Maybe it’s time to explore who, and what else, is out there? With big decisions to make, and no working flamethrower to protect them, how do two blak women navigate a world that is actively trying to kill them?
Eat Slay Zombie is a horror/comedy about colonisation, friendship and state occupation – except it’s zombies.
A Githabul, Migunberri-Yugumbeh woman residing in Meanjin, Alinta McGrady is a seasoned multi-faceted artist and has performed at festivals and events such as Woodford folk festival, Yonder, Quandamooka Festival, Brisbane Festival, Melbourne Comedy Festival and more. With a love of creating Music and Theatre for Children, she has toured regionally with productions Stradbroke Dreamtime with Queensland theatre, Have you Ever Heard a Wombat Sing a music theatre work written by herself, Waveney Yasso and Sue Rider and an Artist in Residency with Powerkids: Little Artists At Play at the Brisbane Powerhouse with Imaginary Theatre. She has worked with the likes of Xavier Rudd and Blue King Brown as a backing vocalist and toured nationally and internationally with Xavier Rudd & the United Nations, along with releasing music and performing as a solo artist weaving stories inspired by Regage, roots, funk and soul. 2021 and 2022 have been huge years for Alinta, performing with Polytoxic in Demolition for Brisbane Festival and Apocalystick for WOW, creating and recording children’s music with Waveney Yasso in Our backyard and becoming a member of the world renowned collective that is Hot Brown Honey touring nationally and internationally.
Plan.et B by Kathryn Marquet
Evie, a geneticist, is on her way to Mars. Her husband, Aiden, a geologist, is also on the mission to establish a conservation sanctuary on the red planet in the face of environmental collapse on Earth.
Ark Mark II is carrying thousands of samples of plant and animal genetic material. Genesis, the private corporation funding the mission, has marketed this as God’s plan for a redo. Evie is their winning ticket: she’s developed a working artificial womb for mammals.
In one bizarre night on-board Ark Mark II, Evie wakes up sick and discovers that she is pregnant. She must decide what to do and quickly. As she attempts to contact family on Earth, she discovers the Ark Mark II is not just carrying animal and plant DNA.
Plan.et B is a tragicomedy of galactic proportions and a love song to planet Earth, which explores the rise of corporate power, and the need for a new ethics in a time of boundless capitalism. If we refuse to learn from our mistakes on Earth, are we destined to repeat them on Mars?
Kathryn’s theatre performances include Magpie (Playlab), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Glass Menagerie, As You Like It, Ruben Guthrie and The White Earth (La Boite), Faustus (Bell Shakespeare/QT), The Crucible, Maxine Mellor’s Mystery Project, and 25 Down (Queensland Theatre), Bastard Territory (JUTE/Brown’s Mart), Prehistoric and After All This (Elbow Room), April’s Fool (Empire), Tender (…and Moor), Risk (Umber), Catholic School Girls (ThreeSisters/Mad Cat), Brontë (ThreeSisters), Cinderella, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Two Weeks with the Queen, Into the Woods, and The Taming of the Shrew (HRTC).
Her film and television credits include the feature film Don’t Tell (Tori Garrett), and series’ Secrets & Lies (Hoodlum/Network Ten), and Sisters of War (ABC). Kathryn was engaged in the Emerging Artist program for QT in 2009. She won the 2009 Matilda Award for Best Emerging Artist, was nominated for the 2010 Matilda for Best Supporting Actress and won Best Ensemble at the 2015 Melbourne Green Room Awards for Prehistoric. She is a graduate of the acting program at the University of Southern Queensland.