The Playwrights
The Selection Process
Playwrights were selected for The Parramatta Play Project following an open expression of interest that invited writers with a strong connection to Western Sydney, and Parramatta in particular, to take part in an ambitious, collaborative experiment in collective authorship.
After longlisted applicants were interviewed and asked for their availability, a shortlist of writers became apparent. The shortlisted writers had the task of collectively negotiating the project timetable.
This process prioritises generosity over ownership, conversation over competition, and complexity over singular narrative. The result will not be eight separate plays, but one collective text: a polyphonic, theatrical response to Parramatta.
The playwrights on this project live the values of the project: generous, collective and engaged.
LINDA ATKINS
Biography
Linda Atkins is a medical practitioner and writer living on Dharug land in NSW. A Ten Pound Pom immigrant, she was raised in Western Sydney, where she continues to live and work.
Linda’s work has been featured in The Calibre Essay Prize, The Olga Masters Prize, Grieve (2024, 2025), The ADAS Anthology, Stringybark Anthology, Persephone Literary Journal, Australian Book Review, Kill Your Darlings, Inside Story, Written Off Literary Journaland ZineWest, among others. She has been shortlisted or longlisted for numerous awards, including the Kill Your Darlings Flash Fiction Prize, Newcastle Short Story Prize, AAP Meniscus Emerging Writers Prize, Grieve Prize, Not Quite Write Prize, and the Born Writers Award.
In 2024, she was selected for the Parramatta Play Mates workshop, where her work was read by professional actors. She went on to co-write The Leftovers with Julian Colman, which received its debut reading at Riverside Theatre as part of Parramatta’s Lit! Festival and Sydney Fringe in 2025.
Her upcoming debut novel, What We Left Behind, will be published by Summit Books and was named by Caroline Overington in The Australian as one of the most anticipated books of 2026.
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SAURABH BHATTACHARYA
Biography
Saurabh Bhattacharya is a writer, educator, and emerging playwright whose work explores literature, identity, and social justice within diasporic communities. He holds a Masters degree in English Literature from India and began his career in print journalism, writing and editing on social, political, and environmental issues.
In 2003, Bhattacharya migrated to Australia, where he continued to write fiction and poetry alongside a diverse range of professional roles. He later completed a degree in Philosophy from the University of New England before retraining as an English teacher, graduating with a Bachelor of Teaching from Charles Sturt University in 2010. Since 2011, he has worked in public education in Western Sydney and is currently a Deputy Principal at Macarthur Girls High School.
Bhattacharya is currently commissioned to write his first work for the stage by the Nautanki Theatre Company, a Parramatta-based company recognised as a leading platform for South Asian talent.
His play Orko is an appropriation of Shakespeare’s Othello, reimagined within the South Asian diasporic community of Western Sydney. The work examines the often-silenced issue of domestic violence and its corrosive impact on families and community life. A first draft of Orko was presented to a full-house audience at the 2025 Parramatta Lit Festival, with the production scheduled for development in 2026.
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MICHARNE CLOUGHLEY
Biography
Micharne Cloughley is a writer and producer for theatre and television. She was a story editor and staff writer for seasons 21 - 23 of “Law & Order: SVU”, and currently has multiple TV projects in development.
As a playwright, Micharne was head writer for The Way They Live, and co-wrote The End and the Beginning, which were performed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC and produced by The Civilians, the first theatre company in residence in the Museum.
She was awarded the Creative Arts Fellowship at the National Library of Australia, where she wrote A Dream Panel of Real Women using the oral history archives of Hazel de Berg. Other plays include 43 Stages of Grieving: A Comedy, He’s Actually a Really Nice Guy, 99 Phone Calls You Shouldn’t Have Made, You and U.S., and One Flesh.
Her work has been developed or presented by Holden Street Theatres, Brisbane Sci-fi Theatre Festival, Spark Youth Theatre, Newtown Theatre, Baggage Productions and the Q Theatre, and in the US / Canada by the Tank NYC, Art House Productions, Judson Arts, Play Date at Pete’s Candy Store, Australian Theatre Festival, Bloomsbury House Productions, The 24 Hour Plays and Animus Theatre Company. 43 Stages of Grieving: A Comedy is available in print and digital form from Next Stage Press.
Micharne holds a Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Art in Playwriting from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and Bachelor of Arts (Television Production) from Charles Sturt University.
Visit Micharne's website for more
LANEIKKA DENNE
Biography
Laneikka (they/she) is a queer writer and actor from Western Sydney. At seventeen, Laneikka wrote their debut play DEADSKIN which has been performed in Sydney and LA, published by Australian plays. Their second play FEMINAzi premiered at Belvoir St Theatre for Sydney World Pride, published by Play Lab Australia. Laneikka’s screenwriting debut OI premiered at Melbourne international film festival and was nominated for best short film. OI was selected for Brisbane International Film Festival, Mardi Gra film Festival and Flickerfest International Film Festival where OI was awarded the 'REBEL8 Award for Outstanding Emerging Female Director in an Australian Short Film' O I was rated the ‘#1 film of the year’ by the curb.
Their documentary THE REAL MEANING OF PLEASURE was the recipient of Screen Australia x AIDC's Fresh Cuts Development Funding, selected for AIDC's The Factory program and the recipient of AIDC x The Post Lounge award in 2024.
Laneikka created THE MONOLOGUE COLLECTIVE where teenagers write monologues for teenagers to in their drama studies to sold-out seasons, published in 100 schools across NSW. THE MONOLOGUE COLLECTIVE was nominated for Best Production for Young People at the Sydney Theatre Awards. Laneikka was shortlisted for the Canberra Youth Theatre award and shortlisted for Griffin Studio and the Griffin Award.
They have spoken at Sydney Writer’s festival, Blue Mountains Writer’s Festival, Enqueer Writer’s Festival and the currency press festival of playwrights. Laneikka has written queer activism articles for SBS voices and Refinery29 and has worked as a notetaker and writer for various television shows for Easy Tiger TV and silentworks.
Young queer people are at the heart of all of Laneikka’s work.
Visit Laneikka's website for more
CHRIS FLEMING
Biography
Chris Fleming is a writer, academic and translator. He teaches writing, philosophy, theatre and social analysis at Western Sydney University, where his work engages with contemporary culture, politics and ethics.
Chris’s academic research spans philosophy and cultural theory, with a particular interest in desire, violence, politics, and culture. Alongside his scholarly work, he is widely recognised for writing for general audiences, contributing essays, short fiction, criticism, and commentary to publications including The Guardian, The Los Angeles Review of Books, HEAT, The Saturday Paper, The Chronicle Review, Sydney Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Conversation, SPIN, Island, Westerly, Paragraph, Kill Your Darlings, Written Off Literary Journal and Artlink, among others.
Chris has been a guest reader for Bravewords Live and was on the writing team for Play Parramatta in 2024.
His memoir On Drugs published by Giramondo Publishing was named in the Australian Book Review as one of the best books of 2019. Professor at Stanford University, René Girard, called his book Violence and Mimesis “original, powerful, and uniquely profound." Robert Lukins, author of Loveland and The Everlasting Sunday, named him “one of the best writers and minds in Australia.”
Chris has won numerous awards, including the UNSW NUTS Playwriting Award - and in the last few years have been shortlisted for the Island Nonfiction Prize, the Peter Cowan Short story Prize, and the Calibre Essay Prize.
Visit Chris's website for more
MARCUS KHOUDAIR
Biography
Marcus is a screenwriter in Sydney who facilitates creative writing workshops in public schools with Story Factory and has tutored and taught English in high schools for over ten years. A graduate of the Master of Screenwriting program at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and a mentee of Gabrielle Kelly, Marcus is in development on several feature films.
His co written short AGOGE premiered internationally at Palm Springs ShortFest 2025, and, with its AACTA award-winning director Veniamin Gialouris, he is co-writing the feature film ADONIA. Marcus is also collaborating with ADG award-winning director Chloe de Brito on his feature screenplay HE’S NOT HERE نْوَه وّنَم(“Manno Hon”), which is currently one of six finalists in PlayLab’s 2025 Bridge Lab co-production initiative and has its proof-of concept short shooting in January 2026, as produced by Collider.
Most recently, Marcus' short DEPENDENT won the Diversity and Inclusion Award at CinefestOZ 2025, won Lebanese Film Festival Australia's inaugural Panavision Film of the Year, will screen at Flickerfest 2026; and is the basis for Marcus' feature screenplay of the same name, in development with Julian Maroun and Easy Tiger's Lena Albin. DEPENDENT has additionally been nominated for Best Short Film at the 2026 AACTA Awards.
In 2025, Magni Studio published Marcus' comic book YOUNG MAN and exhibited it at Kinokuniya's Wedge Gallery in May; in July, Marcus won the Red Bull stage at the YourShot 2025 DJ competition; and in November, Marcus co-judged the WLCU Dr Charles Malik Literary Awards.
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PARIS ROSEMONT
Biography
Paris Rosemont is a multi-disciplinary, multi-award-winning Thai Australian writer, poet, performer, educator, and author of Banana Girl (2023) and Barefoot Poetess (2025).
Her books have received awards and accolades in Australia, Greece, UK and USA.
Paris’s poetry has been published in a plethora of literary journals and anthologies including Australian Poetry Journal, Rabbit, Splinter, and Verge. She was the winner of the Matthew Rocca Poetry Prize 2025 (Verandah Literary Journal; an initiative of Deakin University), won First Prize in the Hammond House Publishing Origins Poetry Prize 2023 (UK), received a Best of the Net 2025 nomination from Sky Island Journal, Pushcart Prize 2026 nomination from Lost Blonde Literary, was shortlisted for the International Proverse Poetry Prize 2023-2025 (Hong Kong), and was awarded Honourable Mention in the Fish Poetry Prize 2025 (Ireland [Top 10 internationally, as selected by judge Billy Collins]).
Paris has performed in festivals and events nationally and internationally, garnering her a dedicated and engaged fan base.
Judging panels have included the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2025 and Sydney Fringe Festival 2024. Paris is an appointed member of the Randwick City Council Arts & Cultural Advisory Committee, book reviewer for Mascara Literary Journal, Guest Editor for Written Off Literary Journal, and sits on the Hunter Writers’ Centre Board.