Winning playwright Andrea James joins Regina to talk about her life and how she came to be involved in the theatre.

Andrea James is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai woman and a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. She makes work that reflects her identity, sharing historical and contemporary stories of Aboriginal experiences within sharp contemporary theatrical language and form. Andrea is an experienced collaborator, playwright, producer and director. She was a recipient of British Council’s Accelerate Program for Aboriginal Art Leaders in 2013 and was awarded an Arts NSW Aboriginal Arts Fellowship.

She has produced for Carriageworks, Blacktown Arts Centre and Urban Theatre Projects. She was Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre 2001-2008 where she is best known for her play Yanagai! Yanagai! She cowrote Coranderrk with Giordano Nanni for La Mama and Ilbijerri, Bright World with Elise Hearst for Arthur Productions, and wrote Blacktown Angels for Home Country for Urban Theatre Projects, Bukal for JUTE Theatre, and Winyanboga Yurringa for Moogahlin Performing Arts which was remounted at Belvoir in May 2019. Her works have shown throughout Australia, in the UK, Paris and New York. She is currently a writer-in-residence at Melbourne Theatre Company, developing The Black Woman of Gippsland from her grandmother’s country. Her play, Sunshine Super Girl, about Wiradjuri tennis superstar Evonne Goolagong Cawley, was produced by Performing Lines and premiered in Griffith in October 2020 before travelling to the Sydney Festival. Her newest play is Dogged, written with collaborator and friend Cath Ryan.