Donna Abela – June 2015

World Refugee Day – June 20 2015

Donna is an award-winning playwright. She has written over 30 original and adapted stage plays for youth, community, independent and mainstream theatre companies, and radio plays for the ABC and Eastside Radio. She holds a Master of Arts, Theatre from the University of New South Wales and Doctor of Creative Arts, Playwriting from the University of Wollongong. Donna is a co-founder and board member of the Powerhouse Youth Theatre in NSW and has served on the board of the Playworks Women Writers’ Development Network.

Tales From the Arabian Nights
Australian Script Centre, 2004;
1 hour; minimum 3 female, 3 male; children – adult

The King has beheaded his Queen. The desperate outsiders she hid in his kingdom will be executed, one by one, each dawn. But, disguised as the next outsider due to die, Shahrazad tells stories to the King; strange and amazing stories about merchants and fishermen, Ali Baba and bandits, kings and professors, calligraphers and demons. The King ponders her stories of greed and foul play, his fury is subdued and he relinquishes his vow. Anyone who seeks help in the King’s land is now welcome.

The Princess and the Pea – Illustrated by Chantal Stewart
HarperCollins Publishers Limited, 2007; ISBN 9780007228669
15 minutes; 3 female, 5 male; ages 7-9

How do you test a rain-soaked young girl to make sure she is a Princess? You hide a pea in her bed, of course! Only a real Princess can feel a pea under twenty plump mattresses. But this Princess has a mind of her own. Will she endure the test and end up black and blue? Will she win the heart of the Prince? A play based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale.