Objects of Substance – Doreen Yeates Interhouse Play Competi

1995, England’s Harriette Lawson (1995) and Jane Ascough (1997) assist Annabel Porter (1996) as Dorothy and Brooke Kildey (1996) as Tin Man

1998 saw a change in the structure of the Interhouse Drama competition and, rather than award one House the winner, the top three plays were chosen to perform in a showcase performance. One of the chosen plays was written by a student from the newly established Mackay House. Melissa Chambers’ (1998) play with co -producer and Drama co-captain, Taryn Whiteford (1998), Hello Dolly was about the new scientific breakthrough in cloning. The play went on to win the Queensland Theatre’s Young Playwrights Award for Melissa. Post-school, Melissa has enjoyed a successful acting career which took her to New York for many years and to London where she has been a leading audiobook narrator and is now an ensemble director. My practice as an ensemble theatre-maker often deals with the human stories woven into the frontiers of 20th-century science. The play I created for the Interhouse Drama competition at Girls Grammar is my earliest experiment in this form and the origin of a lifelong artistic interest. The extraordinary resources of the BGGS Drama program, and Ms Sybil Edward’s support in entering the play for the Comalco QLD Young Playwrights award set a standard of self-entitlement for my work Melissa shared thoughts of her Girls Grammar playwright days saying: