Donna Abela
Mentor
Donna has written over 50 stage and radio plays for audiences of all ages and won prestigious national awards for her work. She has worked extensively with theatre companies, script development organisations, and individuals to develop new Australian plays, and to mentor new writers, often from culturally diverse backgrounds. Since 1991, Donna has taught scriptwriting to tertiary students at Excelsia College (formerly Wesley Institute), and more recently, at the University of Wollongong, and has run countless writing workshops and short courses for community groups, schools and theatre companies. Donna recently completed a thesis entitled Dialogic Interplay: a Strategy for Representing Difference and Cultural Diversity on Stage and was awarded a Doctor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong. Her thesis combined her passion for comedy, language-based playwriting, cross-cultural narratives, and feminist theatre, and consolidated her expertise in these areas.