AUSTRALIAN THEATRE FESTIVAL NYC Plays to Sold-Out Audiences

The AUSTRALIAN THEATRE FESTIVAL NYC, Co-Artistic Directors and Executive Producers Mark Barford, Connor Delves, and Jillian Geurts, co-produced by Ali Kennedy Scott, was a sold-out weekend-long celebration of Australian creativity, community and culture in New York City, December 10-12, 2021. The Australian Theatre Festival is an annual celebration of Australian stories and artists in New York City that included three staged readings of Australian plays, including the 2020 New Play Award Winner, The Tiniest Thing by Richard Jordan, a cabaret at The Green Room 42, an industry panel and a community networking event.

"After the success of last year's online festival, we are thrilled with the response we received to this year's first in-person festival. Our mission, to share and celebrate Australian culture with New Yorkers, saw a diverse range of Australian stories and artists performing to sold-out audiences across the city. We are extremely grateful for the support we received from the community, as well as our donors and sponsors. We look forward to building on this year's festival to make next year's event even more impactful," express Barford, Delves and Geurts.

Nick Greiner AC, Australia's Consul General to NY, enjoyed the weekend and enthusiastically said, "Both the panel in which I participated - and the entire festival program itself - was a terrific display of Australian talent and community here in the United States."

Jordan, who was fortunate enough to to be able to be flown in from Australia to witness his award-winning play's reading, added "I have been working as a playwright in Australia for 20 years, and each step on my journey has been significant: my first reading, my first independent show, my first professional show, my first publication. But winning this award and travelling to this festival (especially after an 18-month delay) has been the highlight of my entire playwriting career. It was electric to sit in a room and see an audience respond to the concerns of a fictional family from a country so far away, and to see those concerns resonate and felt just as deeply on the other side of the world. It was a reminder of what I write theatre for - and it's given me the confidence to pursue a full production of the play in the future."

Australian Theatre Festival NYC has much planned for 2022 as it sets its sights on its third annual New Play Award in the spring and the third annual festival in the fall. It will continue its mission throughout the year aiming to Create opportunities for an exchange of culture through the presentation of diverse theatrical content, Cultivate the development of Australian artists and their work on a global stage and Connect Australians living in New York to foster a sense of community within a festival setting.

The 2021 company included Alanah Allen, Hannah Bailey, Mark Barford, Analisa Bell, Matt Coleman, Sam Cook, Brenton Cosier, Jess D'Souza, Connor Delves, Ross Graham, Nate Edmondson, Patricia Garvey, Jillian Geurts, Nick Greiner AC, Isaac Hayward, Rebecca Ho, Richard Jordan, Carla Kissane, Michelle Law, Katey Lewis, Ben McHugh, Glenn Morizio, Scott Anderson Morris, Madison Prince, Josh Pugh, Jennifer Reed, Adam Rennie, Kathleen Simmonds, Sophia Skiles, Kurt Slater, Andrew Strano, Kaye Tuckerman, Dylan Van Den Berg, Genevieve Wilson & Rosie Yates.

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