Matthew Ryan – November 27 2016

International Day of Persons with Disabilities – December 3 2016

Matthew is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. He has had ten plays produced in ten years with three national tours and seven published plays. Matthew has run playwriting master classes and taught theatre-making. He is a co-founder of independent theatre-making group The Escapists. Matthew’s other plays include So You Die A Little (co-written with Tony Brockman), Chasing The Whale (performed by La Boite Theatre as The Dance of Jeremiah), boy girl wall (co-written with Lucas Stibbard) and The Harbinger (co-written with David Morton). He has written two commissioned adaptations, Attack of the Attacking Attackers for La Boite Theatre Company, and French Twist, an adaptation of two farce plays by Eugène Marin Labiche and Georges Feydeau, for Queensland Theatre Company (performed as Sacre Bleu). Matthew’s Plays from the Top of the Stairs, in two volumes, is a collection of plays for performers from 8 to 15 years of age, developed from drama exercises in consultation with young performers at Backbone Youth Arts.

Rule of Thumb (in Plays from the Top of the Stairs, Vol. 1)
Playlab; ISBN 9781921390173
15 minutes to 1 hour; Large cast, not gender specific
Cast age: 8 to 12, 12 to 16
Audience age: children, teen, young adult

Veronica Thumb is a bit different. She speaks differently and sees the world differently. Follow Veronica through her childhood as she learns to come to terms with Aspergers and the way it affects the different stages of her life. A story about accepting others and accepting yourself, this work shows the world through the eyes of girl who lives with a very different set of rules.

 KELLY
Currency Press, 2012; ISBN 9780868199870
Full length play; 0 female, 3 male

Ned Kelly is about to hang for his crimes. But his final night in prison is interrupted by the arrival of his brother Dan, disguised as a priest. Supposedly killed at the Siege of Glenrowan, Dan is intent on moving north to Queensland and forgetting his past. To do so, he needs Ned’s blessing and forgiveness. But the last time they saw each other, Dan tried to shoot Ned dead. So begins a brutal confrontation by two titans of Australian history. Facing the sins of their past, each blames the other for their downfall. And neither will escape unharmed. Dramatically entwining fact, theory and myth, Kelly is a smartly written, complex and gripping tale of masculinity, brotherhood and the dangerous dynamic of mateship.