AWG VIC Online: Demystifying Development: Insider Tips on Developing Stories for Screen and Theatre

AWG VIC presents an exciting new online offering: 'Demystifying Development: Insider Tips on Developing Stories for Screen and Theatre'

Development is always challenging work, but it can be joyous (brainstorming with like-minded people - fab!) or hellish (being pulled in different directions by competing notes, and losing connection to your work).
This highly-experienced online panel will be dropping truth-bombs, and answering key questions, like: What is development anyway? How do you get the most out of the development process?  How can you avoid the potential pitfalls? How do you politely reject suggestions that don't fit your vision? What’s the difference between developing for screen vs theatre?

Registered attendees will also get access to a document outlining key Theatre development and funding opportunities and comps.

All registered attendees will receive a YouTube link one hour before the event begins. (Please note, this will be a single use link, so don’t share it or you won’t be able to use it yourself!)

EVENT DETAILS:

WHEN: Wednesday 30 September 2026, 7pm  AEST 
WHERE: Online premiere via YouTube
(Access to the video will also be available for 1 month after the premier for those registered)
NB: The event is free, but registration is required for access.

MORE INFO ON PANELLISTS:

Ra Chapman is a multidisciplinary screenwriter, playwright and actor. Informed by her Korean adoptee background, she creates cross-cultural work that challenges existing narratives around identity and explores underrepresented perspectives Recently selected for Screen Australia’s 2026 Talent USA: LA, Ra garnered a 2025 Australian Writers’ Guild (AWGIE) Award nomination and was shortlisted for the prestigious Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting for her ABC TV comedy series White Fever, which she created, wrote and starred in. Ra was Artist in Residence at Malthouse Theatre, her play K-Box debuted on the main stage in 2022 to critical acclaim and was awarded the Patrick White Playwright Award. Ra’s other notable work includes the SBS digital horror anthology Night Bloomers and the documentary series Adoptee Voices: Women of Melbourne. She recently secured a Director’s Attachment with Nina Buxton on the ABC Series Separated at Birth.

Keziah Warner is an award-winning playwright and dramaturg. Previously, she has won Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwrights Award, been nominated for an AWGIE, shortlisted for the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize, the Griffin Award, the Martin-Lysicrates Prize, and the Max Afford Award, highly commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and longlisted for Soho Theatre's Young Writers Award. Her plays, Luna and new work Nightcaps are featured on the Australian Writers’ Guild’s Pathways Showcase. Nosferatu, Control and What's Yours are published by Currency Press. Other writing credits include: What's Yours (Red Stitch Actors Theatre, 2025), Hour Of The Wolf (Malthouse, 2023), Nosferatu (Malthouse, 2023), Poona (Next Wave, 2021), Control (Red Stitch Actors Theatre, 2019), Help Yourself (MTC's Cybec Electric, 2019), Luna (VCA, 2019), and Her Father's Daughter (Hotel Now, 2018). Keziah is currently a New Work Associate at Malthouse Theatre and an Associate Artist at Geelong Arts Centre.

Leigh Lule is a Ugandan-Australian actress, writer, and theatre maker based in Naarm. After joining Western Edge Arts in 2018, she began writing and performing theatre works as a member of the Sub-30 Collective. On stage, Leigh originated the role of David in the award-winning production Trophy Boys. Leigh is also the co-creator, writer and performer of web-series ‘CEEBS’, supported by Screen Australia and VicScreen, which had over 1 million views. As a screenwriter, she has written for TikTok series Going Home (Nansumba); ABC ME’s Turn Up The Volume (Matchbox); and was the Script Attachment for Season 3 of Netflix’s Heartbreak High (Fremantle). In 2023, she was a producer-in-residence at Next Wave, where she curated community-focused events and founded the digital publication, Ubuntu Magazine.

Host:

Charlie Carman is a highly experienced script developer who first trained with Channel4 and FilmFour in the UK (Sexy Beast, Shaun of the Dead). Appointed Script Manager at Vic Screen she ran one of the most extensive development programs in Australia. Selected for a placement with US company Circle of Confusion (The Walking Dead) she assessed submissions and script edited selected projects. Writers she script edited/mentored have had a high success rate, with both FF and TV scripts long or short-listed for awards, such as: The prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship; Gateway LA, the AWGIES, and John Hinde Sci-Fi. Key Projects developed/funded include: Feature Films – The Dressmaker, Oddball, The Water Diviner; and in TV: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery, Mr Inbetween, and Please Like Me.