BIO

Dr Chris Summers is an award-winning Australian playwright and a NEXT STAGE Writer-in-Residence at Melbourne Theatre Company 2018-2020. In 2021, he was a RAV Creative Worker in Schools Resident, supported by the Victorian Government, and a recipient of the Sustaining Creative Workers 2022 fund. Since 2022, he has held a full-time position as Lecturer in Arts Education at the University of Melbourne.

 

Plays include Being Better (presented MTC @ MPavilion 2019, developed through NEXT STAGE), True Crime (commissioned MTC 2019 through NEXT STAGE), Pedagogy (winner Max Afford Playwrights’ Award 2016, shortlisted Patrick White Playwrights Award 2015, presented National Play Festival 2016 and selected for PWA Lost Plays development HotHouse Theatre 2019), King Artur (winner Patrick White Playwrights Award 2013), and Crossed (commissioned Platform Youth Theatre 2010, presented National Play Festival 2011, La Mama Theatre 2011).

 

Chris has received grants and development support from the Australia Council (ArtStart, JUMP Mentorship), Creative Victoria (Presentation Funding), Playwriting Australia, the City of Melbourne and Deakin University, and has completed residencies with Griffin Theatre Company, Red Stitch Theatre, Belvoir, Playmarket NZ and the 24:7 Festival in Manchester. He has sat on the Board of Peers for both Creative Victoria and the Australia Council.

 

Chris completed a PhD in Education using playwriting as a research methodology in 2022. He worked in low-socioeconomic high schools in regional / metro Victoria as a secondary teacher, initially as part of the Teach For Australia program. He is also a NIDA graduate in Playwriting, holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Hons) / Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, and is an admitted lawyer in NSW.