Resume

Peter Matheson is a freelance dramaturg and script assessor living on the north coast of NSW. His stable of clients include writers from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin and Perth, and regional writers from NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Overseas clients include writers from New Zealand, Norway and Britain.

Over the last six years Peter has assessed playscripts for Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company (Patrick White Award), Queensland Theatre Company, La Boite, Playlab, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Script Centre, Griffin Theatre Company, the Australian Writers’ Guild and PlayWriting Australia/Australian National Playwrights Centre (ANPC). He has worked dramaturgically with QTC (Emerging Writers Program and Queensland Premier’s Drama awards), Queensland Performing Arts Centre (2004 Out of the Box Festival), La Boite, Kooemba Jdarra, Brink Productions, JUTE in Cairns (2006-2009 Enter Stage Write Program, and the 2007 Young and Emerging Regional Writers Program), Kite Theatre Company, Legs on the Wall/2004 Sydney Festival, Darwin Theatre Company, Knock-Em-Down Theatre in Darwin, Lampshade Shop in Adelaide, Mudlark Theatre in Launceston, Norpa in Lismore, Northern Rivers Writers Centre, Red Dust Theatre Company in Alice Springs, Street Theatre Canberra and Stages WA.

In 2008 and 2009, Peter received a two-year Dramaturgy Fellowship from the Australia Council Theatre Board. During 2007, he was awarded an Australia Council Theatre Board Skills and Arts Development Grant, which took him around the regions to do intensive dramaturgy with writers from Cairns, Alice Springs, Darwin and Hobart.

In 2007-2008, Peter was Playlab’s dramaturg-in-residence. 2005 and 2006 saw him running the Australian National Playwrights’ Conference Residencies, while in 2003 and 2004 he was one of the dramaturgs in charge of the ANPC Residency Program. In 2002 he ran the ANPC Writers’ Studio.

Peter has taught at Queensland University of Technology, tutored filmscript writing at Southern Cross University, run scriptwriting workshops for Camp Creative (Bellingen) and for the Nambucca Heads Writers’ Group. He has facilitated writing workshops for the 2007 Ubud Writers Festival in Bali, and was Keynote speaker at the 2006 and 2003 Jute Playwrights’ Conference in Cairns; an international guest at the 2003 Aotearoa Playwrights Conference in Auckland and the 2006 Aotearoa Playwrights Conference in Hamilton New Zealand, and a participating dramaturg at the 2005 playRites colony in Banff, Canada.

Peter came to dramaturgy through playwrighting; having had fourteen plays produced with companies as diverse as the Brisbane Festival, Melbourne Theatre Company, Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Newcastle Repertory Company and Freewheels Theatre In Education Company. He was resident dramaturg for Melbourne Theatre Company from 1989 to 2001. His work there included literary management as well as dramaturgy; being involved in commissioning and the affiliation of writers to the Company, as well as engaging in research, copywriting for the programmes, and assessment of solicited and unsolicited manuscripts. He was responsible for setting up the Education Program for MTC in 1990, and was the Company’s interface with the writing community and its literary agents.

While at MTC Peter convened the 1999 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in Drama, and convened the Castlemaine Festival’s Award in the same year. He was the Company representative at the Wal Cherry Awards for 12 years, the recipient of a Vice-Chancellor’s Writing Fellowship from Melbourne University [2000/2001], and artist in residence at the Booranga Writers Centre in 2004.

Peter has an interest in prose writing (especially children’s’ literature) and in 2002 he had two developing readers published by Nelson Thomson. Part of his dramaturgical practice has developed into structurally editing a series of novels, readers and primers for his clients.

Peter was a Playlab Board member during 2005-2007, a member of the Kooemba Jdarra Artistic Advisory Panel from 2003-2004, and a member of the La Boite Creative Reference Group in 2002

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