Lindstedt & Davies take home the inaugural 2024 Queer Playwriting People's Choice Award with “Day for It”
In its ninth year, the Queer Playwriting Award Showcase was presented to Midsumma Festival audiences at Gasworks Arts Park. Based on audience feedback gathered on the night, the inaugural People's Choice Award was granted to Anna Lindstedt & Sally Davies for their short play "Day for It". They will work alongside Gasworks and Midsumma over the next year to deliver a full work for Midsumma Festival audiences in 2025.
“We had such a blast writing for QPAS and couldn't be more thrilled that we can continue this journey with Gasworks and get Day for It into it’s full length hiking boots and onto a stage in the future. Receiving the inaugural People’s Choice Award is a huge honour as newcomers to the Naarm theatre scene, and we are so appreciative to every audience member who came to support us and give us feedback on the night. We also wanted to extend a huge thanks to Roz Hammond, who gave so generously of her time, voice and expertise.” – Anna Lindstedt & Sally Davies, playwrights - Day for It
“The panel sees great potential in Lindstedt & Davies’ writing, and their rendering of intergenerational stories and characters. Based on the strong audience response and overall merit of their writing, we are thrilled to name Day for It with the inaugural accolade of People's Choice Award Winner. With support from Midsumma Festival and the Gasworks Foundation Patrons Fund towards production costs, Gasworks Arts Park is delighted to support the development of this work to realise it as a full production. Alongside the 2024 overall winner, The Queer Kingdom by Tom Ballard, we are excited to work towards presenting two world premieres in Midsumma Festival 2025. We are looking forward to working with Anna and Sally in the coming year, and helping them to develop this heartfelt, funny, relatable show.” - Marisa Cesario, Programming Co-ordinator - Gasworks Arts Park
- Image: QPAS 2024 Day for It reading - photo by Rielly Bennie
“The inaugural People’s Choice Award provides us with an opportunity to recognise and invest in the further development of even more of the incredible new script writing to emerge from the Queer Playwriting Award. Midsumma Festival and Gasworks Art Park are thrilled to be able to provide support to Anna Lindstedt & Sally Davies for the production of their script ‘Day For It’ - and we cannot wait to see it fully realised in 2025.” - Karen Bryant, CEO - Midsumma
ABOUT THE PLAY
Mother Peta and daughter Kelly enter the wilderness together; one of them comes out. In this comedic drama with a big heart, the duo must navigate the rugged landscape of the north-east Victorian wilderness – and an unprecedented amount of time together. Told chronologically across 7 days, in a twist on a coming-out story, they explore Peta’s newfound lesbian identity and the ramifications it has for Kelly’s ideas of her nuclear family. The spiritual lovechild of 'Please Like Me' and 'Fun Home', 'Day For It' unpacks familial dynamics and queerness in a muddy, uphill homage to the complexities of intergenerational relationships.
Credits
Co-written & directed by Sally Q Davies (she/her), co-written & performed by Anna Lindstedt (she/her), accompanied by performer Roz Hammond (she/her)
ABOUT QPAS
Creators of new or developing works of theatre were invited to submit their proposals for consideration by a panel of supportive industry professionals. A shortlist of four works were selected by the industry panel and invited to present a 15 minute staged reading at Gasworks Arts Park as part of Midsumma Festival 2023 on 23 January.
This development program aims to identify, support and develop new playwriting talent and get queer issues out there for mainstream audiences to consider and enjoy. The LGBTQIA+ community is diverse, exciting and full of stories and ideas that deserve to be heard on the stages of performing arts venues throughout the country.
Find out more about the Queer Playwriting Award Showcase 2024, or apply for 2025 (opens June 2024).
Presented by Midsumma Festival and Gasworks Arts Park.
