Melita is a writer, director, painter and performer.

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She’s a graduate of Swinburne (Advanced Certificate – Art & Design), VCA (BA – Fine Arts), VCA (MA prelim – Visual Theatre), NIDA (Grad Dip – Directing), and UTS (MA – Creative Writing).

Melita’s in her happy place writing and directing plays, painting, telling stories about Australia’s Shit Tourism, performing poetry, writing about travel (while travelling) and she delights in interviewing interesting people.

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Melita started writing for theatre because she wasn’t seeing the voices of Australian women represented on our stages. She’s passionate about giving voice to those left in the shadows, on the sidelines of history. She finds the stories that fall through the cracks are the most compelling. They shed light on the forgotten social narratives of this country and offer us an opportunity to better understand the depth and diversity of our culture, our shared histories and ultimately, ourselves.

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Her performance writing is steeped in research as a springboard for the creative process. Whether it’s colonial women’s diaries, qualitative interviews with women who’ve experienced gendered violence, immersion in Parisian culture, recording hours of oral histories, community outreach exploring the social history of a small town or delving into State Library archives, manuscripts and microfilm, she relishes research and the creative inspiration it provides.

Melita’s plays include: Cockroach (New Zealand Fringe ’20, Adelaide Fringe ’19, Melbourne Fringe ’18, Sydney Fringe ’18), Between the Streetlight and The Moon (KXT Theatre,’17 Shortlisted for 2016 STC Patrick White Playwright’s Award & 2016 Silver Gull Award), Ljubicica: Wild Violet (Casula Powerhouse, ’17, Melbourne Cabaret Festival, ’16, Seymour Centre, Winner BEST MUSIC Sydney Fringe, ‘15) Bread & Butter (ASYLUM, Apocalypse Theatre) ’15, Canyonlands (Low Windows High Doorways, subtlenuance) ‘14, The Crash (MayDay Festival & Sonic Tales) ’13, Crushed (New Theatre, Spare Room) ’12, The Diver (S&S prize winner) ’08, SPEW (Darlinghurst Theatre) ’04, Sugarbomb, (TRS) ’04, Solitude in Blue (Griffin) ’02, Swing Girl (Griffin) ’01, Night Reflections (NIDA ’00). Melita was a resident playwright at Griffin Theatre Company in 2005/06.

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Directing credits include: Cockroach (New Zealand Fringe ’20, Adelaide Fringe ’19, Melbourne Fringe ’18, Sydney Fringe ’18), Ljubicica: Wild Violet (Casula Powerhouse, ’17, Melbourne Cabaret Festival, ’16, Seymour Centre, Winner BEST MUSIC Sydney Fringe ‘15) Bread & Butter (ASYLUM, Apocalypse Theatre) ’15, Why Torture is Wrong, and The People Who Love Them by Christopher Durang (New Theatre) ’14, MilkMilkLemonade by Joshua Conkel (New Theatre) ’13, Sugarbomb (TRS) ‘04, Top Shorts – ‘Rocket Baby’ by Caleb Lewis (Naked Theatre Company/TRS) ‘03, Solitude in Blue (Griffin) ‘02, Spunks by Rebel Wilson (Push Up Theatre) ‘02, cover, girl (B Sharp, ‘01 & Adelaide Cabaret Festival, ‘02) Swing Girl (Griffin) ‘01. Assistant Director to the Opera Project, ‘01, Assistant Director to Barrie Kosky, There is No Need to Wake Up (Olympic Arts Festival, Sydney Opera House) ’00.

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Performance credits include: THE GIANT WORM SHOW! Winner Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund Award, ’17 (Adelaide Fringe ‘17, Sydney Fringe ‘16), 6 Degrees of Ned Kelly, (This is About, ABC Radio National ‘17, Adelaide Fringe ‘16, Sydney Fringe ‘15, Melbourne Fringe ‘15) Hey! Yeah! It’s Molly’s Travelling Worm Show! (Malthouse Theatre) ’13.

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Melita held her first solo exhibition ‘Hours of fun for all the family’ at The George Paton Gallery – Melbourne University in 1995. After painting sets for a university theatre production, she fell in love with theatre. Her first exhibition since 1997 was the group show ‘Modern Nostalgia’ at Tortuga Studios, St Peters in 2018.