FREE contemporary short plays for actors, drama teachers and students, available on the condition that you credit me, let me know when and how the work will be performed and send photos and feedback.
NEW – Grown Ups – A Game for Children
NEW – The Book Club Play – Breaking Up is Hard to Do
In the past three years, these short plays and my FREE monologues have been performed in 80 places around the world, including the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. See FULL LENGTH and ONE ACT for plays available for licence.
Why it’s never too late to start your playwriting career.
If you think you’re too old to start your career as a playwright, think again.
I wrote my first play when I was about 10. My actors were puppets made out of toilet rolls with cottonwool hair and shapeless clothes that I stitched together, leaving holes for my fingers.
I delivered leaflets around the neighbourhood, inviting people to my bedroom to see it for 10 cents. My mother was surprised when groups of mothers and children appeared at our front door. She made me give the $1.40 profit to charity.
Around 40 years passed before my next attempt. In between, I was a stage mother to my own children who performed in concerts and shows at school and in amateur theatre groups.
It wasn’t until they grew up that I studied the craft and began to write seriously.
My plays have since been produced both nationally and internationally and have been translated into Turkish and Tamil, Spanish and Catalan. They’ve been nominated for some awards and won a few, which proves that it’s never too late to follow your passion.
e-baby, my first full-length play, was produced every year after its premiere in 2015, in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, London, Ohio and Missouri – until COVID.
In 2020, the play was translated into Spanish and Catalan for a production and tour of the Catalan States by Les Antonietes Theatre Company in Barcelona. The plan was for the play to open in Barcelona in Season 2021-2022 and tour the Catalunya territory and the rest of the small Catalan-speaking territories in Season 2022-23. However, the production was later cancelled due to Covid, after which the company, sadly, collapsed.
My latest venture, Uked! –The first play-along ukulele musical enjoyed two sell-out seasons in Central Victoria in 2019, and was produced by Libretto Productions in Auckland in August 2024. Uked! is licensed by David Spicer Productions and is ideal for a collaboration between local theatre companies and ukulele groups.
Since I made them free three years ago, my short plays and monologues have been produced in more than 160 locations all over the world, with my most popular short play Members Only, heading for its 20th production in 2026.
In relative terms, my profit is still around $1.40, but I’m still stagestruck.
e-baby Sydney, 2016: Catherine (Danielle Carter) and Nellie (Gabrielle Scawthorn) battle it out over Skype.
Are you writing or producing a play? Need advice? Contact me