Finalists announced for Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2025

• Playwrights David Burton, Jordan Shea and Steve Rodgers have been selected as Finalists.
• The Queensland Premier’s Drama Award is Australia’s most significant playwriting prize which guarantees a professional production during Queensland Theatre’s 2025 season.
• The three finalists were chosen from more than 200 of Australia’s most outstanding writers.

Playwrights David Burton, Jordan Shea and Steve Rodgers, have been selected as finalists for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2025, Australia’s most significant national playwriting prize. These three finalists were chosen out of more than 200 entries from some of Australia’s most outstanding writers. 

David Burton’s The Good Dad shares the story of a young father suddenly left at home with his two young daughters, in a brutally honest portrayal of the grind of modern parenting. This play both entertains and horrifies in ways that all parents will recognise.

Jordan Shea’s Malacañang Made Us is a tender dramedy that follows two Filipino brothers separated in 1986 amid Ferdinand Marcos’ 21-year dictatorship and their reunion nearly 40 years later in Australia. It is an ambitious, eye-opening, and complex story.

Steve Rodgers’ The Future is History is a captivating story set over just one night, telling of a mother chasing a dream for her daughter and the lengths she will go to, to ensure she has a better life. This story speaks of the growing opportunity divide between the classes.

All three scripts will receive creative development in 2024, with the winning play to premiere in Queensland Theatre’s 2025 Season. The winning playwright will also receive ongoing mentorship from some of the state’s renowned theatre makers, $16,000 to develop their play and a substantial $30,000 cash prize from Griffith University, the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award sponsor.

With 215 submissions received, Premier Steven Miles commended playwrights David Burton, Jordan Shea and Steve Rodgers on their compelling stories.

The anticipation for the upcoming winner follows enormous success from previous award recipients, including 2022-23 award winner Ryan Enniss and his play Drizzle Boy which premiered in Brisbane in March 2023 and was recently announced to be touring the state as part of Queensland Theatre’s 2024 Season.

Quotes attributable to Minister Leeanne Enoch:

“Powerful storytelling is at the heart of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award which supports the extraordinary work of playwrights from across Australia. 

“Queensland Government support of the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award (QPDA) enables writers to develop and share their stories, generating work for actors and artsworkers, and providing opportunities for Queensland audiences to experience vibrant new theatre work. 

“Since 2002, the QPDA has created opportunities for more than 270 artists, writers and directors, who have shared their talents on the Queensland Theatre mainstage to audiences of more than 40,000.

“Congratulations to the three finalists for this year’s Queensland Premier’s Drama Award, I know audiences will treasure the rich and diverse stories you share,” the Minister said. 

Quotes attributable to Queensland Theatre Artistic Director Lee Lewis:

“We’ve had the honour of presenting the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award for over two decades now. In collaboration with the Queensland Government and the generous support of Griffith University, this unique award continues to bring new stories to Queensland audiences and introduces new voices to our great state. There is nothing like it in the rest of the country,” Lewis said.

“It’s always a privilege to read the early drafts of plays and watch them flourish into incredible stories. Thank you again to all the playwrights who submitted their plays. Every year I am blown away by the depth of the playwrighting talent in this country.”

Explainer/fast facts and/or further information:

The 2025 Finalists:
David Burton
David Burton is a writer from Brisbane, Queensland. By the age of 30, he'd written over two dozen professionally produced plays, published a book, and been a core part of some of Australia's most innovative theatrical projects. He’s now 36, a dad, and completed his doctorate. [Full biography on request]

His entry, The Good Dad
When a young father is suddenly left alone with his two daughters for a week, he is not only forced to deal with pooey nappies, hungry children and complicated sleep routines. His conspiracy-theorist brother-in-law is about to have a nervous breakdown. He accidentally enrages online trolls when he suggests Bluey’s dad isn’t a great role model. And… oh God… is the dog choking on something? A funny, brutally honest look at the day-to-day grind of modern parenting, The Good Dad is about fatherhood, fury and freedom. For our hero, the question ultimately becomes if he can juggle the expectations placed upon him or will he become a real-life Princess Elsa and just… let it go?

Jordan Shea

Jordan Shea is a writer for stage and screen. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (Writing) and the University of Notre Dame (Theatre, English & Education), his extensive body of work has been shortlisted or awarded runner-up for the Lysicrates Prize 2023 (Malacañang Made Us), the Australian Theatre Festival’s New Play Award (They’re not listening) and the SBW Award (Ate Lovia).

His entry, Malacañang Made Us
A tender new dramedy that pits love against obligation. It's 1986: Manila, Philippines. Hopeful young brothers Martin and Ernie take to the streets to celebrate the impending fall of Ferdinand Marcos’s 21-year dictatorship. By early morning, they’ve been separated in the crowd. In 2022, Australia, a now cautious Martin implores his internet activist son Leo to be careful with his online presence. In the wake of Bong Bong Marcos' landslide victory, Leo feels now more than ever, to reconcile both his identity and his activism. But when free-spirited Ernie shows up unannounced, all three men must face their shared legacy of survival and responsibility.

Steve Rodgers
Playwright Steve Rodgers has worked as an actor in film, theatre, and television for the last thirty years. His first play Ray’s Tempest was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award following productions at both Belvoir St and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Steve’s other plays include, Savage River, for the Griffin Theatre Company, and Melbourne Theatre Company. King of Pigs, for The Old Fitz Theatre, which toured nationally courtesy of Redline Productions and Critical Stages.

His entry, The Future is History
It’s the story of a mother chasing a dream for her daughter, and the lengths she will go to, to ensure her daughter has a better life. It’s about everyone who has ever been invisible; in the workplace, at school, in life, and the corrosive effects this disregard has on creating the have and have nots. But most of all, The Future is History, is about love. Romantic love between a boy and a girl. Difficult love, with an ageing grandparent. Ever-changing love, between a parent and child. Set over one night, Rae must complete her QCE assignment for English, or her future is history. When her mum leaves for work, and her grandfather arrives drunk, things go from bad to worse. Just when completing her assignment might be possible, her boyfriend arrives, looking for romance. The Future is History takes place now, on the outer edges of a city like Brisbane, where generational unemployment and drug-crime thrive. It’s a story full of complex characters we don’t often shine a light on, where the heroes are our mothers, women of humour, resilience, and strength, striving to hold the world together.

Previous Winners

2022–23

Ryan Enniss, Drizzle Boy (winner)

Phoebe Grainer, Burning House

Anthony Mullins, The Norman Mailer Anecdote

2020–21

Steve Pirie, Return to the Dirt (winner)

Anna Loren, Comfort

Maddie Nixon, Binnavale

2018–19

David Megarrity, The Holidays (winner)

Hannah Belanszky, don’t ask what the bird look like

Anna Yen, Slow Boat

2016–17

Michele Lee, Rice (winner)

Kathryn Marquet, Furious Creatures

Suzie Miller, I Looked Up and There You Were

2014–15

Daniel Evans, Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (winner)

Tim Benzie, The Overflow

Megan Shorey, One in Seven

[Additional winners can be found here]

For more information, visit queenslandtheatre.com.au/queensland-premiers-drama-award.

ENDS

Media contact – Tim Auguston 0427 090 563