Moogahlin welcomes award winning playwright Victor Rodger and Yellamundie Queer Blak Writing Intensive Participants

Off the back of the success of the 2019 Koori Gras drag creative development workshops and following a two-month call out, Moogahlin Performing Arts welcomes Aidan Rowlingson, Bana Hankin, Bee Cruse, Jayla Shae Davey, MadB, and guest Daley Rangi as participants to the Yellamundie Queer Blak Writing Workshops!

From next Monday 17 February 2020 participants will be undertaking a one week writing intensive with internationally renowned and award winning playwright Victor Rodger and Moogahlin Co-Artistic Director Liza-Mare Syron, hosted at Carriageworks. The focus of the writing workshops will be for performance, exploring the 2020 Sydney gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras theme WHAT MATTERS.

The workshops will culminate in a free public reading at 3pm on Saturday 22 February 2020 at Sydney’s Seymour Centre as part of Koori Gras, presented by Moogahlin Performing Arts with Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

More about the Artists and Participants…

VICTOR RODGER (LEAD ARTIST)

Victor Rodger is a Journalist, actor and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. He is a graduate of Toi Whakaari New Zealand’s National Drama School and best is known for his play about Queer subcultures and religious intolerance in Black Faggot, and Cunning Stunts. Rodger’s has received the Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play award 2001, the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best New Writer 1998, and he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. He gained the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers’ Residency in 2006 based at the University of Hawaii', and has studied film writing at the Maurits Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam.

LIZA-MARE SYRON (LEAD ARTIST)

Liza-Mare’s clan is Biripi. She is a director, dramaturge, producer, teacher and academic. Liza-Mare is a co-founder and co-artistic director of Moogahlin Performing Arts. Liza-Mare is the creative producer of Koori Gras-a black event in partnership with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. She has worked as a director on The Fox and the Freedom Fighters (2015), Winyanboga Yurringa (2016), Broken Glass (2018), The Weekend (2019), Rainbows’s End (2019) and as a reading director for the Yellamundie National Indigenous Playwriting Festival (2015-2017). She has worked as a dramaturge on Capricornia and Blood Wedding performed by second year acting students at NIDA. Liza-Mare was Head of Theatre at The Eora College for over ten years.

AIDAN ROWLINGSON (PARTICIPANT)

Aidan is a proud queer Butchulla man from K’gari (Fraser Island). He studied a Bachelor of Acting and Performance at the University of Canberra and currently works as a producer and re-occurring performer with Digi Youth Arts, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and Brisbane Sci-Fi Theatre Festival. Aidan merges his love for Indigenous and queer culture through working as a spoken word poet performing at Jungle Love Festival, IMA’s First Thursdays, as well as numerous events in the Brisbane poetry and zine scene. 

Aidan’s introduction to Yellamundie Queer Blak is thanks to our work in 2019 with Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Seedlings – Sparks program, and made possible with the support of the Department of Communication and the Arts.

BEE CRUSE (PARTICIPANT)

Bee Cruse is a Storyteller. Born and raised on Darug country, her people come from the Gomeroi, Wiradjuri and Monaroo-Yuin people of NSW. Starting off in the film & television industry as Rachel Perkins attachment on REDFERN NOW S3 (2014) Bee has, since then, developed skills as an ‘all-rounder’ working on several large-scale productions such as CLEVERMAN (2015), AFTER THE APOLOGY (2016) and more recently as an Impact Producer on Maya Newell’s latest documentary IN MY BLOOD IT RUNS (2019).

NIGHTWALKERS (2019) is Bee’s Producing debut. 

BANA HANKIN (PARTICIPANT)

Bana is a Sydney based Moa and Yam Island artist from the Torres Strait. He has performed at Black Pearlz, Klub Koori, Koori Gras, Queer Nu Werk, Performance Space, Queerbourhood, The Bearded Tit, Heaps Gay, The Spellbound Show, Naughty Noodle Fun Haus, First Nations Rainbow, and The Oyster Club. His performances inspire, astound and allure you with a mystique presence. Bana is a graduate of the Eora Center for Visual and Performing Arts theatre performance program. Since 2011 Bana has been doing cabaret style performance focussing on stage and movement through space. Bana has been introducing writing and spoken word elements to enhance his stage performance.

JAYLA SHAE DAVEY  (PARTICIPANT)

Jayla Shae Davey is a Miriwoong actor, producer and creative artist from Kununurra WA, currently based in Sydney. They completed Aboriginal theatre at WAAPA and an AD at International Screen Academy and have been working in the industry since. Some recent credits include Kylie in ATYP's the climbing tree, hosting in Beyond Production's Wow That's Amazing and performing in Koori Gras: Blak Nulla Cabaret (2019).

MADB (PARTICIPANT)

MadB is a Parent and Performer now extending to writing! They grew up travelling a lot and are Djabugandji and adopted into kaurareg Nation of Torres Strait. They’ve had a broad variety of creative experience in different genres and are eager to further develop their writing during this amazing program! They have a tough work background and have spent a lot of time at community level which will have a major influence on their writing as it does with their other art forms!

DALEY RANGI  (GUEST PARTICIPANT)

Daley Rangi (Te Āti Awa) is an award-winning gender queer visual and performance artist, and social justice advocate; raised on Whadjuk Noongar boodja, Daley was born in Aotearoa, with Māori whakapapa. Exploring the outer limits of performance through a lens of neurodiversity, unpredictable and uncomfortable works are generated in a celebration of chaos, queerness, and decolonisation; Daley's energies are focused on exposing the zeitgeist - the fringes of society, and the furthest corners of humanity. Daley won the prestigious 2020 Midsumma and Australia Post Art Award with a self-portrait, and their performance works include TANK, Hold Your Breath, and Lipstuck. Daley has completed arts programs with national and local art institutions, including Perth Festival Lab, ATYP National Studio, and Black Swan State Theatre Company's Emerging Writers Group. An enthusiastic autodidact and language enthusiast, Daley has achieved certificates in Noongar Language and Culture, Māori Protocol and Language, and Endangered Language Revival.