Belvoir St Theatre is one of Australia’s most innovative and acclaimed theatre companies. It engages Australia’s prominent and promising playwrights, directors, actors and designers to realise an annual season of work that is dynamic, challenging and visionary. As well as performing at home, Belvoir regularly takes to the road, touring both nationally and internationally.
Since 2011, The Balnaves Foundation has supported First Nations programming at Belvoir, helping ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories reach new audiences. Belvoir’s First Nations program gives a voice to Indigenous directors, designers and actors portraying unique indigenous stories that have previously been neglected. The Foundation and Belvoir are committed to supporting new work by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatre artists. To-date the Foundation has supported the commissioning of 10 new works and the presentation of more than 20 new productions.
With the Foundation’s support for two annual Indigenous-led productions, Belvoir’s audiences are able to explore issues such as cultural inheritance, the return of ancestral remains, reconciliation, and what it means to be a First Nations person in Australia today.
This program has included the following productions:
2011 – Jack Charles V The Crown
2012 – Beautiful One Day and Don’t Take Your Love to Town
2013 – Coranderrk
2014 – 20 Questions
2015 – Radiance
2016 – The Drover’s Wife and Title and Deed
2017 – Barbara and the Camp Dogs and Which Way Home
2018 – My Name is Jimi and My Urrwai
2019 – Barbara and the Camp Dogs and Winyanboga Yurringa
2020 – Cursed!
2022 – At What Cost?
2023 – Blue and At What Cost?
The Balnaves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellowship is an evolution on The Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award. First launched in 2012, with the aim to encourage and support Indigenous playwrights in their writing, the Award was designed to see their story and vision through to production. From 2018 the expanded Fellowship is open to playwrights to write a new play and also to directors or writer/directors that can lead the creation of an Indigenous-led new stage work, whether that be a new play, an adaptation or through a devised process. The Fellowship accommodates applications from a broader range of creative practitioners and includes wrap around support from the Belvoir team. Initially a 12-month fellowship, in 2022 this was extended to an 18-month residency, allowing for crossover, collaboration and mentorship between contemporary Balnaves Fellows. Past recipients include Leah Purcell (2014), Ursula Yovich (2016), Kodie Bedford (2018), Nathan Maynard (2019), Jorjia Gillis (2020), Thomas Weatherall (2021) and Dalara Williams (2022).
Find out more about the Balnaves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellowship here.