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Winners Announcement
Congratulations to the following playwrights who will have their plays performed at the Geelong Short Play Festival at the Geelong Arts Centre on 14-15 August, 2026.
Dead Serious by Belle Donald
Belle Donald is a playwright and high school teacher living in Ocean Grove. Her plays have featured in several of the 12 x 12 play festivals at both the Potato Shed in Drysdale and at the Creswick Theatre. Her play Hydrangeas and Lillies won the People’s Choice prize at the inaugural Geelong Short Play Festival in 2025.
Four Chairs in a Waiting Room by Jade Kemp
Jade is a media, theatre studies, and drama teacher who moved to Geelong in 2022. A poet at heart, she began writing rhymes as a teenager and now works increasingly in lyrical, image-driven forms. After almost 20 years of writing primarily for her students to perform, Jade is stepping more fully into playwriting and joyfully naming this stage her Act 3. She has recently completed her first manuscript and is dreaming her way toward self-publishing.
Knock Me Down with a Feather by Steve Brown
Steve is a published author of ten non-fiction books (published internationally). He was long-listed for the Templer Medal (the UK’s premier military history book award) in 2024. In addition, he was a finalist in the inaugural Geelong Short Play Festival last year, with his play Hear No Evil performed at Geelong Arts Centre in November 2025. Steve is an occasional international podcaster, with his military history episodes attracting more than one million views on The Redcoat History Channel. He also presents annually to the Society of Genealogists in the UK. He is a Member of Writers Victoria, Geelong Writers, the Australian Society of Authors, and the Geelong Historical Society.
Lifetime Mortgage by Tim Symons
Tim Symons has been interested in writing as long as he can remember. Having taken a break from his hobby while his two boys were young, the stories were always sitting there waiting to be written: Lifetime Mortgage was one such story. Tim has been involved in theatre since his youth, growing up in the Greater Shepparton area. He starred in the musical Little Shop of Horrors and directed The Importance of Being Earnest, among other performances. He has lived and worked in Geelong for 10 years. Having recently returned to writing, he currently has a number of short stories submitted to literary magazines.
Theology by Geoff Gaskill
Geoff began writing when he retired. He spent his working life trying to teach children how to write. So, he thought he needed to practice what he preached. He is a life member of Geelong Repertory Theatre Company and has spent many pleasant years acting and directing there and with other companies.
The Presser by Adam McGurk
Based in Geelong, Adam has worked across many areas of theatre, on both sides of the curtain. As a playwright, his work includes lyrics for the musical The Travelling (Blue Room Theatre, Perth), as well as the short play Artemis Athol, which has been performed at the Anywhere Theatre Festival (Brisbane) and the Short + Sweet Festival (Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne), where it received the award for Best Script. Most recently, his play Good People was staged as part of the Short + Sweet Festivals in Los Angeles and Sydney. Adam has also written the short films Three Shades of White and La Fleur De La Vie.
For those writers who were unsuccessful, we appreciate the time and effort put into your submission and we encourage you to keep writing! There are more competitions and opportunities to acknowledged your hard work in the future.
www.geelongwriters.org.au/competitions/
Photo by Victoria Quirk on Unsplash
Following last year’s highly successful, inaugural Geelong Short Play Festival, when over 300 people attended the three sessions, the 2026 Festival is open for writers to submit original, fifteen-minute plays, six of which will be anonymously chosen by a panel of experienced judges to be performed by local theatre companies at the Geelong Arts Centre in August.
Writers can submit one or two plays on any theme. They must be limited to five characters and, because the festival’s point of difference celebrates the text, performed using minimal sets.
To assist writers in preparing their plays to a standard aligned with the requirements of the festival and to provide further guidance on how to submit their play, please refer to these guidelines. Please also refer to the APT Play Submission Style Guide.
Geelong Writers members, wherever they reside, or anyone living in the Greater Geelong region are eligible to submit, including residents of the Bellarine Peninsula, the Surf Coast Shire, Colac and Golden Plains.
Among the 300 people attending the three sessions of six plays in 2025, was Cr Stretch Kontelj, Mayor of the City of Greater Geelong, who praised the festival for captivating audiences and for shining a light on Geelong’s creative spirit. The plays “revealed the tremendous talent of some of our most gifted playwrights and actors … minimal sets but maximum imagination.”
Festival Coordinator, Paul Bucci, also expressed pride that the event gave opportunities for local writers and actors. “We learned significantly from staging the first festival, and plan an even better event second time around. We want Geelong, in terms of creativity, to punch above its weight. So, all you writers out there, get busy for take two.”
Deadline for submissions was Sunday, 15th March, 2026.
For more information, contact Festival Coordinator, Paul Bucci on 0428 326 012 or paulbucci@live.com.au.