top of page
Supporting emerging writers to create their biggest work yet
The Telescope New Writing Program supports emerging playwrights to make their ambitious new works a reality on stage. We commission them to write daring, adventurous and imaginative stories, encouraging growth, learning and experimentation across the process. Writers are given creative license to run amok, throw all ideas on the table and see what sticks. The program also offers unique opportunities to have their work seen by audiences and industry through a premiere production.
Across the process, playwrights work with the Observatory team and associate artists, receiving guidance, feedback, workshopping and creative development to grow the play to its fullest, most creative potential.
Reading and Creative Development of Dead Bat on the Night Shift by Samantha Hill, November 2024
Photo by Lucy Rayner-Toy
Moved Reading of Pony Club by Grace Wilson, supported by Backbone's HUB Residency, October 2024
Photo by Georgia Haupt
Previous writers
GRACE WILSON
"Observatory’s focus on nurturing writers from script to stage facilitates this learning, and the collaborative nature of the process means that the work is enriched by insights and ideas from a wide variety of artistic perspectives"
OLIVER GOUGH
"Telescope has helped to open up a wealth of new perspectives and ideas about the work, and the craft of writing and making theatre in general. It’s been great to feel both supported and productively challenged by the company and generous associate artists across the whole process"
SAMANTHA HILL
"Observatory's expertise and thoughtful guidance have shaped my work in exciting and unexpected ways, while their trust has given me the freedom to fully explore the ideas that drive my writing"
In development
Currently in development
WASTED (Working Title)
Writer Annabel Gilbert
About The Play: Corporate events are famously flashy, often to a bizarre extent considering the mundane nature of business they usually address. But what weight does this level of consumption bear? Frighteningly, The Wharves event spaces generate approximately 10kg of food waste per employee everyday, and at the ColaGren annual corporate dinner, amongst the crowd of attendants and employees alike, it won’t just be wasted food but wasted people, wasted potential, wasted time and one wasted life. Set in our era of increased decadence and frivolousness, yet also increased inequality, Wasted is a multi-protagonist environmentally political farce that explores the intersections of environmental and social issues, questioning when does protocol hinder progress?
Wasted is commissioned through the Telescope New Writing Program. Observatory Theatre receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund.
About Annabel: Annabel is a Meanjin based playwright and theatremaker with a knack for the colourful and quirky. Having graduated from QUT’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) with Distinction, she has further developed her craft through La Boite’s 2024 Assembly (Writing Stream), Dead Puppet Society’s 2025 Lab and Playlab’s 2025 Incubator. In 2023, under Steve Pirie’s mentorship she wrote Bug House, a one act play that had productions at La Boite with Vena Cava Productions and at The Big Penny Social in London by Performers' College Brighton alumni in 2025 (as a staged reading). Additional international projects include The Art of Courage Ukraine of which Annabel was a co-writer for both its Italian season by the QUT 2023 Acting Cohort and its 2024 Brisbane season at PIP Theatre. Currently, she is writing Trolley Bandits, a two act magical realism comedy exploring the Australian supermarket duopoly and youth crime fear mongering, under Kathryn Marquet’s mentorship.
PAID! (Working Title)
Writer Alexandra Ellen
About The Play: PAID! follows the relationship between Azzi, a disabled woman and her new support worker, Didi. As their dynamic unfolds, Azzi begins to find her voice and agency, while Didi is challenged on her unconscious ableism and learns new, inclusive ways of working together. Azzi’s world is complicated by family: her neurodivergent sibling Charlie is also her housemate, and their overbearing and judgmental mother Heather drops in often to “help,” though her presence usually causes more chaos than calm. When Charlie and Didi begin to form an unexpected bond, Azzi is confronted with feelings of betrayal, independence, and the messy overlaps of family and paid care. At its heart, PAID! is about power, trust, and intimacy. It explores how ableism can creep into the everyday, but also how new ways of listening, supporting, and collaborating can emerge.
PAID! is commissioned through the Telescope New Writing Program. Observatory Theatre receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund.
About Alexandra: Alexandra is a Meanjin-based actor, playwright, and multidisciplinary artist. She believes artists are storytellers and is passionate about disabled stories being told by authentic voices through disability-led creative processes, an ethos that underpins all her art and advocacy. From 2017 to 2025, Alex was a member of the indelarts professional ensemble, participating in the development of Love Me; and performing in the award-winning Wilbur the Optical Whale. Her disability-led show Betsy and I premiered to a sold-out audience at Undercover Artist Festival in 2023 and was published by Playlab in 2024. With support from Redlands Performing Arts Centre, she is developing her cabaret Flabaret through the PASSAGE program. Alex was the Access Arts Achievement Award recipient in 2020 and part of La Boite’s ASSEMBLY writers’ cohort. Alex also serves on the Crossroad Arts Inclusive Advisory Group and board, and the Matilda Awards judging panel.
bottom of page