Vanessa Bates

Vanessa Bates is a Newcastle based award-winning playwright (including a NSW Premiers Literary Award and 2019 AWGIE Award for Theatre for Young Audiences) screenwriter and scriptwriting mentor and teacher. 

Produced plays include: A Ghost In My Suitcase (the play), Trailer, Light Begins To Fade, EverySecond, The Magic Hour, PORN.CAKE, Checklist For An Armed Robber, Darling Oscar, Small Hard Truths and most recently The River.

Currently writing a new play The One for Ensemble Theatre, about the Asian/Eurasian Australian identity. Vanessa has been produced at Malthouse Theatre, Barking Gecko, Sydney Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre, Black Swan Theatre, Griffin, Deckchair, Theatre@Risk, atyp, Tantrum and many others.

In 2021, Vanessa’s short plays are included in two anthologies published by Currency Press: The Curve and Sharp Darts.