Scott McAteer – September 29 2019

National Mental Health Month – October

Scott is a playwright, dramaturge, improv performer, stilt walker and stand-up comedian. He studied Performing Arts at the University of Tasmania and continued his writing studies at Swinburne and VUT (where he studied under Australian comedy legend Brad Oakes). Scott’s plays have been performed in Launceston, Brighton (England), Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart and he has been a finalist in the Short and Sweet Play Writing competition. Touching upon such issues as depression, schizophrenia, family, gender roles, social isolation and masculine identity, Scott’s other plays include Monsters, Anxious but Not Alarmed, Transactions and Glutton for Punishment. His stand-up comedy achievements include competing in the Victorian state final of Raw Comedy in 2005, and performing in the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

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Joy
Australian Script Centre, 1997
35 minutes; 1 female, 2 male (3-10 roles)
Cast: 12-16, 16-18, 18+; Audience: children, teen, young adult, adult
Albin is a sad boy. He’s got some problems and they are difficult to deal with. He’s been sitting in his chair for the past three years and he needs help. This quirky comedy follows Albin’s downward spiral as joy leaves his life. It shows his struggles with parents, psychiatrists and people trying to sell him stuff. Full of side-splitting jokes and wacky characters, it will make you laugh and think. Funny and sad with a poignant sense of the absurd.

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Are You Happy?
Australian Script Centre, 2005
22 minutes; 1 female, 2 male
Cast: 16-18, 18+; Audience: young adult, adult

Are you happy with yourself? Are you the best you can be? Do you want to fly like an eagle or hide your head like a turtle? Are You Happy? is a dark satire on self-help culture that peers into the life of a tortured soul. Watch the journey of Tom, a very troubled man who needs help badly; and Mr Price, who gives him help – badly.