CLARE MENDES
Producer & Company Manager
Clare Mendes is an Australian writer. She was born in Melbourne in 1967, and lives and works in this beautiful city. Clare’s novels include Drift Street, The Curtain Raiser, A Race Across Burning Soil (HarperCollins) and The Unvoiced Consonant (Little Owl Press). Her radio plays have been produced by ABC Radio National. The Agreement, her first full-length stage play, was performed at La Mama Courthouse in October 2015 and her play Trash Goes Down The River was performed at Bluestone Church Arts Space in June 2017. Her latest play A Flower for Moses was presented at Gasworks in May 2021. She recently finished writing a new play, ‘Skating in the Clouds’.
As a producer, Clare has produced MWT’s annual Season of New Work since 2015. with recent theatrical seasons including The Melbourne Monologues, Six Degrees in Melbourne and Stark. Dark. Albert Park (2018), Beachside Stories and Daring Dog Monologues (2019), and the double-bill season The Metropolis Monologues & The City Park Plays, presented at The MC Showroom from 17 – 22 December 2020. She was also the creator and producer of The Best, The Fairest, The First, which was presented in association with Gasworks Arts Park from 3rd – 6th March 2021.
Clare began her career as an advertising copywriter before working as a storyliner and scriptwriter for the TV soap “Neighbours”. She was Executive Director of the Fellowship of Australian Writers for over a decade, during which time she also oversaw the administration of FAW’s National Literary Awards. Clare has travelled extensively and has lived and worked in the US, South-East Asia and Latin America. She graduated from The University of Melbourne with an Honours degree in Literature and is an Award School graduate. She is the recipient of an Angus & Robertson Fiction Prize, an Asialink Award, an Ian Reed mentorship, a Varuna residency, a Playworks Script Award and a Creative Victoria grant.