We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Elders, Ancestors and leaders of the Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands ILBIJERRI Theatre Company is based.
We extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, recognising their resilience and ongoing connection to land, water and culture, despite ongoing colonial interruption and genocide.
Always was, always will be, sacred Indigenous land.
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Call out for BlackWrights participants
DO YOU HAVE THE FIRST DRAFT OF A THEATRE SCRIPT THAT YOU ARE BURNING TO DEVELOP?
SUBMIT YOUR INTEREST AND BE A PART OF THE SECOND ACT OF ILBIJERRI'S BLACKWRIGHTS SCRIPT COMMISSIONING PROGRAM 2023
Over six months in 2022 and early 2023, under the leadership of ILBIJERRI’s Creative Associate, Amy Sole - our BlackWrights Program held four dramatic scripts by First Nations artists through the development process, from birth to first draft.
The four playwrights selected via submission had access to a seed commission, one-on-one dramaturgy sessions, story-circles, and masterclasses with industry professionals. This first stage of the program culminated in dramatic readings of the four works as part of YIRRAMBOI Festival in May 2023.
NOW, the call is out, for a further 3 writers to participate in CHAPTER TWO of the program.
EXPRESS YOUR INTEREST BY Midnight 17 JULY 2023
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
ILBIJERRI’S BlackWrights Team wants to support you in getting your first draft ready for the stage through a deep dramaturgical development process from first to final draft.
This opportunity is open to all Australian First Peoples over 18 years of age who have a pre-existing script ripe for development (with maximum four cast members). Applications will be accepted from anywhere in Australia.
Successful applicants will receive the following over the next six months:
- Commission of $8500 each participant
- One on one dramaturgy sessions
- Connection with industry professionals
- A program with Cultural safety at its core, designed around the individual needs of each participant
- Potential to take your play to the stage in 2024
Nb. Previous applicants and participants in the BlackWrights program are eligible to also apply.
ABOUT BLACKWRIGHTS
The BlackWrights program creates a culturally safe and nurturing space that is designed to empower First Nations artists to share our stories through theatre.
BlackWrights has evolved through the years in the form of writer’s residencies; commissions; connecting and evolving programs and hands-on theatre workshops, all exclusively codesigned with and for First Nations artists and creatives.
Success of the writers residency program can be seen in a number of works including the dance-theatre script Blood on the Dancefloor by Jacob Boehme, which was seeded in an earlier iteration of the BlackWrights program and went on to tour internationally, Katie Beckett’s Which Way Home which toured nationally in 2018, and John Harvey’s Heart is a Wasteland which toured Australia in 2021 and 2022.
The BlackWrights Program is a meditation on the future direction of theatre and what it means for First Nations People. It is a dynamic program aimed at self-determination, innovating the development and performance development of our stories.
The evolution of the BlackWrights program continues based on needs identified through each previous iteration of the program. Under the leadership of Creative Associate, Amy Sole, BlackWrights has been reimagined as a multi-year program which will constitute a pipeline for the next generation of First Nations theatre.
