Green Room: New leader for Theatre Republic, Stella Prize longlist, canine photography
SA arts & culture news in brief.
Theatre Republic Steels itself
Independent South Australian theatre company has named award-winning playwright and dramaturg Emily Steel as its new artistic director. Since it was founded in 2018 Theatre Republic has become an important player in the local arts landscape, giving a platform to new, original work and an important outlet and sandpit for local performers and creatives.
Steel takes over from company co-founder Corey McMahon, who decided to step back in December after eight years. Steel already has history with Theatre Republic, with McMahon directing several of her plays for the company including How Not to Make it In America in 2021 and The Garden in 2023. She also contributed her play Rabbits to Theatre Republic’s Covid-era podcast series PodPLAY.
“This is a great moment for Theatre Republic,” chair Terence Crawford says. “It honours Corey’s heroic effort and vision in setting up the company eight years ago. It was founded to serve a belief that we all share: that theatre as an artform always has and always will find its core, its propulsion, and its audience through the words and ideas of writers. Theatre Republic is putting its modest financial resources where its mouth is in appointing a playwright and dramaturg as the artist to lead it.”
The news arrives hot on the heels of Steel’s latest play, the political satire Housework, which recently wrapped a critically acclaimed season for the State Theatre Company South Australia.
“The company plays such an important role in the development of new writing and emerging artists here in SA, and in bringing responsive, current, thought-provoking works to local audiences,” Steel says of the news.
“As Artistic Director, I will work to support other theatre artists as they ask unanswerable questions, tell stories we’ve never heard before and say things we think we’re not supposed to say. If we can’t do that in a theatre, where can we do it?”
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Steel starts in April.
Stella Longlist
There were a few local connections when the longlist for the Stella Prize was revealed at Adelaide Writers’ Week on Tuesday afternoon. This celebration of women and non-binary writers in Australia is now celebrating its 30th year, with past winners including Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things, Clare Wright’s The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, Evelyn Araluen’s Dropbear and Alexis Wright for The Tracker in 2018 Praiseworthy in 2024.
This year’s longlist includes narrative-shifting non-fiction work from journalists Amy McQuire (Black Witness) and Santilla Chingaipe (Black Convicts) and an intergenerational family story by Palestinian writer Samah Sabawi (Cactus Pear for my Beloved). On the fiction front, established authors like Michelle de Kretser (Theory & Practice) and Inga Simpson (The Thinning) appear alongisde debut author Jumaana Abdu (Translations) and poet Manisha Anjali (Naag Mountain).
Two noteworthy finalists are Adelaide-born Melanie Cheng with her latest novel The Burrow, and Cher Tan, a Melbourne-based writer and former Adelaide resident whose debut essay collection Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging was released in May.
Chosen from over 180 submissions, this list will be whittled down to six in April before the final winner is announced on May 23. The winner will receive $60,000, while each longlistee pockets $1,000 courtesy of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
Here’s the full list:
Stella Prize longlistee Melanie Cheng. Photo: Chahal Toby / Supplied
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- A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle (fiction)
- Always Will Be by Mykaela Saunders (fiction)
- Black Convicts by Santilla Chingaipe (non-fiction)
- Black Witness by Amy McQuire (non-fiction)
- The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (fiction)
- Cactus Pear For My Beloved by Samah Sabawi (non-fiction)
- Naag Mountain by Manisha Anjali (poetry)
- Peripathetic by Cher Tan (non-fiction)
- Rapture by Emily Macguire (fiction)
- Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (fiction)
- The Thinning by Inga Simpson (fiction)
- Translations by Jumaana Andu (fiction)
Photography prize callout, must love dogs
The David Roche Gallery has announced a new photographic prize that will set tails wagging.
Entries are now open for the inaugural Best in Show 2025: Australian Photographic Dog Prize, a new biennial initiative celebrating man’s best friend and favourite Instagram subject. Open to pro and amateur photographers alike, the first prize fetches a $5000 award along with $500 apiece for Young Photographer and People’s Choice awards.
The late David Roche with a Kerry blue terrier circa 1950s. Photo: Supplied
The prize is also a tribute to founder David Roche, an avid dog lover who ran North Adelaide’s Fermoy Kennels and owned numerous prize-winning pooches over the years. Visitors to his former home-turned-gallery on Melbourne Street can see many examples of canine artwork Roche collected over the years alongside the many other riches and fineries on display.
Entries close on 19 May, with the finalists to be featured in an exhibition at the gallery from August 30 to October 25.
Learn more here.
MUD Club slings $10,000 at debut author
Also at Adelaide Writers’ Week, Monday afternoon saw the MUD Literary Club award its 2025 MUD Literary Prize to Sydney author Cameron Stewart for his debut novel Why Do Horses Run?
The judges praised called Why Do Horses Run? for its “intriguing exploration” of trauma and loss. “This stark searing portrait of grief, resilience and the generosity of strangers takes place in a beautifully portrayed landscape where a tortured character slowly crawls back to life,” they said in a statement.
Stewart was picked from a pool of finalists that included Stella longlistee Jumaana Abu’s Translations, Raeden Richardson’s The Degenerates and The end and everything before it by Adelaide author Finegan Kruckemeyer.
Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]