Not yet a graduate and Julia-Rose Lewis is already achieving great things.
NIDA would love to congratulate Masters of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance) student, Julia-Rose, on her most recent accomplishment as recipient of the 2014 NSW Philip Parsons Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights. Her prize includes a writer’s commission and creative development of the play supported by Belvoir.
The prestigiousprize was awarded for her first play, Samson, an Australian coming-of-age story, which is set to debut at the Belvoir’s Downstairs Theatre next year.
Having completed the NIDA Writers Studio: Live performance, Lewis was then accepted into NIDA’s Masters course, where she has been studying for the past year and will graduate shortly.
Lewis says that this has been such a pleasant surprise as she finishes her studies and ventures into her career.
“I’m so grateful to be a recipient of the fellowship and Philip Parson’s ongoing legacy. I’m very much looking forward to spending more time with the team at Belvoir St, they’re such an excellent bunch,” commented Lewis.
The fellowship, known previously as the Young Playwright’s Award, is given each year to an outstanding playwright in the first eight years of their career and Anthea Williams, Belvoir’s Associate Director, Literacy, has complete faith in Lewis’ ability to produce great work.
“I’m thrilled Julia-Rose Lewis is the Parsons Fellow for 2015,” said Anthea Williams. “Julia loves people and she loves the way they talk. She has a great ear for voices and creates characters that feel specific and quirky yet utterly believable. Samson is such a strong debut play that we’ve programmed it in our 2015 Season and I’m so pleased we get to work with Julia on her next professional work.”
Lewis joins an impressive list of previous winners, many of whom have works hitting Sydney stages in 2015 including NIDA graduate, Kit Brookman’s A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il at Griffin Theatre in October.
Having previously written for various theatre companies including Griffin Theatre Company, Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), La Boite and Brisbane Powerhouse, Lewis is an emerging artist to watch!
