GASWORKS SCRIPT LAB 2025

Melbourne Writers’ Theatre and Gasworks Arts Park are delighted to support the following writers in 2025.

EMERGING
Keelan Armstrong
Michelle Adams
Bek Schilling
Matthew Chan
Liubov Korpusova
Lochlan Gibbons-Tighe
Sophie Bengough
Shahrin Shamin

EXPERIENCED
Megan Scolyer-Gray
Michel Paul Tuomy
Anita Barar
Stephen Najera
Hiroki Kobayashi
Noemi Huttner-Koros

* For details of the 2025 program, click here.

BEK SCHILLING

Bek Schilling (they/them) is a queer non-binary multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. With a background in live performance and devising, this year Bek is making their first foray into writing. They are passionate about the Independent Theatre sector, having worked closely as a performer with Home Grown Musicals Australia supporting up-and-coming and established writers alike in music theatre. Their credits in the independent scene include multiple sell out seasons of BEARDED (Theatre Works), award nominated The Roof Is Caving In (La Mama), and PIPER (Theatre Works). Bek is a 2025 Associate Artist at Theatre Works and is lending their hand to both the directorial and choreographic team for Love and Information by playwright Caryl Churchill.

MATTHEW CHAN

Matt is a Melbourne-based writer, editor, and lifelong theatre enthusiast. He has been involved in numerous productions with a variety of theatre companies, driven by a deep passion for storytelling both on the stage and the page. A graduate in English & Theatre and Creative Writing, Matt has also contributed his skills to several university publications as both a contributing writer and editor. He’s excited to be broadening his creative horizons with this foray into the wonderful world of playwriting – he wrote a musical once, but it doesn’t really count.

LIUBOV KORPUSOVA

Liubov is a Melbourne-based writer and filmmaker, originally from Russia. She works across various forms, including short stories, poetry, and screenplays for both live action and animation. Her short films have screened locally and internationally. Liubov enjoys the solitary nature of writing as well as the collaborative spirit of working with other creatives. Drawn to magical realism, she aspires to tell gentle stories about human connection. Theatre has been her lifelong love, and she’s eager to explore how some of her ideas might translate to the stage.

LOCHLAN GIBBONS-TIGHE

Lochlan Gibbons-Tighe (he/him) is a Naarm and Corhanwarrabul-based devisor, artist and musician with a practise centred around location-based making, the exploration of sensory experience and the theatrical nature of the real world. He centres his work around the audience perspective, working with interactive theatrical elements to provide audience members with unique experiences and personal connections with the works. He has a keen interest in works analysing and exploring public behaviour, social hierarchy and the subversion of expectations.

SOPHIE BENGOUGH

Sophie Bengough is a performance maker & storyteller based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is a creative writing student at University of Melbourne & has studied as an actor at 16th Street Actors Studio. Her work mines queer, taboo & high concept themes to interrogate quotidian social scripts of middle class Australia. As an artist she also uses theatre, play & movement modalities in therapeutic and educational settings with organisations such as The Starlight Foundation. Sophie has written sketch for MICF and performed as an actor & improviser throughout Naarm’s independent sector. She also works as a busker and sings on the street’s of Melbourne’s CBD with her ukulele & portable amp. Sophie identifies as neurodiverse and is a proud MEAA member.

MEGAN SCOLYER-GRAY

Megan Scolyer-Gray (she/her) is a Melbourne/Naarm based actor, singer, and writer. Teeth and Tonic was Megan’s debut play and had a sold out and extended season in the 2022 Melbourne Fringe Festival and a revival in the 2024 Primary Summer Season at The La Mama Courthouse. Megan loves to write about friendship, mental health and shit she finds funny. She also loves her cat Grink and Cacio e Pepe!

MICHEL PAUL TUOMY

Michel Paul Tuomy is an artist based in Naarm/Melbourne.  A graduate of RMIT with a Bachelor of Media Studies, Michel has developed a body of work consisting of drafts of novels, screenplays and theatre plays, including ‘Little Brother, Big Sister’ detailing his lived experience of schizophrenia that had a production at La Mama in 2023. Michel is the Vice Chair of the Committee and an active member of the Schizy Inc. team.  ‘Football Evangelism’ was part of La Mama Explorations in September 2024.

ANITA BARAR

Anita is a passionate writer, poet and filmmaker. Her written work has been published in various magazines and anthologies, while her feature documentary films, short films and plays have been officially selected for various National and International festivals. Her fiction often centres on women-led narratives, drawing deeply from her cultural roots. She enjoys exploring human emotion and relationships, and has a keen interest in employing flashbacks for storytelling. She has received national as well as International awards and recognitions for her diverse forms of creative work.

STEPHEN NAJERA

Stephen Najera is a writer, performer and designer in Naarm/Melbourne. American born, he trained in acting in New York City, and co-founded Alley Theatre Workshop in Toronto, performing THE CHINESE ART OF PLACEMENT there, reprising and producing it for Melbourne Fringe on his arrival in Australia. He has written for performance and short story, and has works in progress for stage, screen and webform. His first long form work TRANSFUSION was commended in Melbourne Writers’ Theatre’s Page to Stage 2024 and 2025, and The Amethyst Award 2025. He is excited to submit it to Gasworks Script Lab’s rigours.

NOEMIE HUTTNER-KOROS

Noemie Huttner-Koros is a performance-maker, writer, dramaturg & community organiser based on Wurundjeri country. Their work often engages with sites and histories where queer culture, ecological crisis and composting occur. Shows include: Mother of Compost (M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Melbourne Fringe nominee Best Theatre 2023), The Lion Never Sleeps (Australian Book Review’s Arts Highlights of 2019, Performing Arts WA awards 2021) & Democracy Repair Services (2023 Best Writing award, Blue Room Theatre). Photo credit: Kaede James Takamoto

HIROKI KOBAYASHI

Hiroki Kobayashi is a writer and community arts worker. Most recently he co-wrote The Story of Chi, which was produced by Terrapin Theatre Company/Contemporary Asian Australian Performance and premiered at OzAsia Festival 2024. His play Assisted Living was developed as part of CAAP’s Lotus Project and presented as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec Electric program.

CLARE MENDES

Facilitator

Emerging Stream

Clare is a playwright, producer and the Company Manager of Melbourne Writers’ Theatre. After starting out as a novelist (Drift Street, A Race Across Burning Soil, The Curtain Raiser) she was drawn towards theatre, excited by its rawness, its immediacy and the thrill of putting words into characters’ mouths. Her plays include The Agreement   (La Mama Courthouse, 2015), Trash Goes Down The River (Bluestone Arts Space, 2017). A Flower for Moses (Gasworks, 2021) and Skating in the Clouds (Theatre Works, 2024). In February 2025 Clare completed a new play, ‘Mundo Profundo’. She has produced MWT’s theatrical seasons since 2015, including Six Degrees in Melbourne and Stark. Dark. Albert Park (2018), Daring Dog Monologues (2019), The Best, The Fairest, The First (2021), Tales from the Jetty and Hostage (2022). The Critical Marriage and How to Save a Tree (2023), JENNIE! (2024) and the double-bill season Lyceum Highway & Metropolis Monologues (March 2025). Clare began her working life as an advertising copywriter before writing TV scripts and brainstorming ideas in the “Neighbours” story room. She holds an Honours degree in Literature, is completing a Master of Theatre & Performance and is an AWARD School graduate. She is the recipient of an Angus & Robertson Fiction Prize, Asialink Literature Fellowship, Ian Reed mentorship, Varuna residency, Malcolm Robertson Foundation grant and a Creative Australia grant.

LAURA LETHLEAN

Facilitator

Experienced Stream

Laura Lethlean is a published playwright and theatre maker. She trained at NIDA, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Performance in 2015.  A co-founder of The Anchor theatre company, many of Laura’s award-winning works have been produced for theatre and festival audiences in Australia and New Zealand. Laura has been commissioned by Canberra Youth Theatre, the Victorian Seniors Festival, The National Drama School, and Sydney Chamber Opera. Her play, The Space Between the Fuel and the Fire, was selected for production at NIDA in 2016 and subsequently published by NoPassport Press. Two Hearts was published by Australian Plays Transform after being produced in both Sydney (2018) and Melbourne (2019). Laura’s other plays include Fading (Canberra State Theatre, 2018), The Three Graces (Theatre Works 2019), Honey (The National Drama School, 2021) and Pillow Fight (2022). Pillow Fight was shortlisted for the Max Afford Playwrights Award and the Patrick White Award, and it won the Touring Award at the Melbourne International Fringe Festival 2022. This award took the production to Wellington, NZ and Castlemaine VIC. Most recently Laura wrote the libretto for Aphrodite, which was presented by Sydney Chamber Opera and Carriageworks in association with Omega Ensemble from 20 – 28 June 2025.