MARK PRITCHARD // DRAMATURG & THEATRE-MAKER
New Play Development
I worked in new play development at Malthouse for ten years, so have experience working with a range of writers and supporting plays from concept to production. I'm particularly interested in working on projects that have a perspective on theatre as a form, that enjoy the live-ness of theatre, and that entertain and welcome an audience in.
My approach is to understand a writer or maker's personal dramaturgy - their ideas about theatre - and to help them realise it. This usually means understanding the project's dramatic (or postdramatic) engine, exploring how it works, and seeing where it can take us.
Writers I've worked with as dramaturg include: Ra Chapman, Amelia Chandos Evans, Dan Giovannoni, John Harvey, Kim Ho, Lally Katz, Jessica Knight, Michele Lee, Nakkiah Lui, Chanella Macri, Vidya Rajan, Natesha Somasundaram, Aran Thangaratnam, Alistair Baldwin, Wang Chong, and Keziah Warner.
As a freelance dramaturg, I'm available for ad hoc consultation and script reports for playwrights needing independent professional advice or feedback on their projects.
This slideshow gives a brief snapshot of some recent scripts I've worked on as dramaturg, from concept through to production.
by Natesha Somasundaram
A woman starts eating herself alive to protest climate change inaction—the internet goes wild.
A drowning island downloads a dating app to make one last connection before it disappears forever.
A team of archeology students find themselves lost in a collapsing cave, and realise they've been following the wrong leader.
As exponential human technological development comes into collision with the greatest environmental challenge of our time, Hello, World! asks if we can make it out alive, with our dignity still intact.
Hello, World! was commissioned by Malthouse Theatre for the Suitcase Series, the sixth script written for this award-winning program that sees Year 9 & 10 drama students use theatre to explore their relationship to climate change.
The script functions as source material for the students to explore, and was then a digital production directed by Bridget Balodis in 2020.