Andrea James (playwright)

Andrea James is an Aboriginal Australian playwright and theatre director, best known for her plays Yangali Yangali and Sunshine Super Girl, the latter about tennis star Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

Early life and education

Andrea James is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai woman, who also has Polish[1] and Tamil heritage. She is the great-granddaughter of Thomas Shadrach James and granddaughter of Shadrach Livingstone James[2]

She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts.[3]

Career

James has produced plays for Carriageworks, Blacktown Arts Centre, Urban Theatre Projects, La Mama Theatre and Ilbijerri, among others. Her works have been staged throughout Australia as well as in the United Kingdom, Paris and New York City.[3]

She worked as Aboriginal arts development officer at Blacktown Arts Centre,[4] before being appointed as Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre in 2001, occupying this role until 2008. It was here that she wrote and produced Yangali Yangali.[3]

James' play Sunshine Super Girl, about Wiradjuri champion tennis player Evonne Goolagong Cawley, has been produced by Performing Lines. It premiered in Griffith, New South Wales in October 2020[3] (its Melbourne Theatre Company debut having been postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria[4]), subsequently being performed at the Sydney Festival in January 2021.[5] The play is commencing a tour starting at the Darwin Festival in August 2022.[4]

As of June 2022 James is an associate artist at the Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney, where she is producing Melissa Bubnic's Ghosting the Party which opened at the Stables Theatre, Sydney in May, until 18 June 2022.[4]

Recognition and awards

Works

References
  1. "Andrea James". AusStage. 20 May 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  2. James, Andrea (19 March 2018). "A Tamil amongst First Australians" (Audio (11 mins)). SBS Tamil (Interview). Interviewed by Sanchayan, Kulasegaram. SBS. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  3. "Andrea James". AustralianPlays.org. 2021. Archived from the original on 13 March 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  4. Daniel, Smriti (7 June 2022). "Aboriginal theatre maker Andrea James continues to tell vital First Nations stories in her tribute to tennis legend Evonne Goolagong". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  5. "Sunshine Super Girl". AusStage. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  6. "Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country". AusStage. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
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