Lachlan Philpott

Artistic Director

Lachlan Philpott comes to Playwriting Australia after a long and celebrated career as a writer, dramaturg, teacher and mentor with companies and festivals around the world, with recent projects at The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, La Comedie Francaise in Paris, Outburst in Belfast, Australian Theatre for Young People, Malthouse, Merrigong Theatre Company, and Red Stitch with his long-term creative collaborator Alyson Campbell as part of their queer collective wreckedallprods. He was also the Artistic Director/CEO of Tantrum Theatre, Newcastle and led Australian Theatre for Young People’s emerging writers’ program between 2008 and 2011, establishing one of the companies’ most successful and enduring programs, the National Studio for emerging writers.

Lachlan’s output as a writer has been prodigious, with wide production of his work in Australia and internationally and 15 plays published to-date. In 2018, Oberon Books will publish two anthologies of his most recent works.

Widely respected for his generous and insightful mentorship of emerging artists and his vocal leadership as an advocate of new Australian plays and playwrights, Lachlan has mentored over 100 emerging writers in Australia. He was lead tutor of Interplay Africa [2009] and a recent tutor at American Conservatory Theater, Edinburgh University, Kansas State University, NIDA, The University of Southern Alaska, UOW and VCA.  Lachlan facilitated The Lotus Asian writers’ initiative and Outposts regional writers’ programs for Playwriting Australia.

Lachlan has been writer in residence at Keesing Studio at The International Cite des Arts Paris, The American Conservatory Theater, Newington College, Griffin Theatre Company, The Playwrights Foundation, and Red Stitch and was part of The Traverse Fifty at the Traverse Edinburgh. In 2013 he was awarded an Australia Council Cultural Leadership grant to study new play development models in several countries. Lachlan was the inaugural Australian Professional Playwright Fulbright Scholar in 2014-15. He was also Chair of the Australian Writer’s Guild Playwrights’ Committee between 2011 and 2014.

Lachlan recently received professional development funding from The Australia Council to undertake work in Europe. He will work closely with Maison Antoine Vitez on new play translations, as well as the creation of two LGBTIQ community works in Belfast and Rijeka.

Michelle Kotevski

General Manager

Michelle Kotevski came to Playwriting Australia in 2017 with a wealth of experiences across the arts. Before joining PWA she as Program Manager at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta, and previously the Producer of The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe. Michelle has a passion for new voices, reflected by her work as Executive Producer of Urban Theatre Projects, Creative Producer with Big hART, founding member of Queen Street Studios, Manager of the Community Cultural Development Board of the Australia Council and Theatre Co-ordinator at Carnivale. With one eye on audiences and the other on artists, Michelle brings her diverse understanding of theatre to PWA.