Andrea James is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

playwright and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, best known for her plays ''Yangali Yangali'' and ''Sunshine Super Girl'', the latter about tennis star

Evonne Goolagong Cawley Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Goolagong was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. At the age of 19, she won the French Open singl ...

Early life and education

Andrea James is a

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

Gunaikurnai The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( ) people, also referred to as the Gunnai or Kurnai, are an Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slop ...

woman, who also has

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

heritage. She is the great-granddaughter of

Thomas Shadrach James Thomas Shadrach James (1 September 1859 – 9 January 1946), born Thomas Shadrach Peersahib, was a Methodist lay preacher, linguist and herbalist. However, it was as a teacher, first at Maloga Aboriginal Mission and later at Cummeragunja Reserve, ...

and granddaughter of Shadrach Livingstone James She graduated from the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

Career

James has produced plays for

Carriageworks Carriageworks is a multi-arts urban cultural precinct located at the former Eveleigh Railway Workshops in Redfern, Sydney, Australia. Carriageworks showcases contemporary art and performing arts, as well as being used for filming, festivals, fa ...

, Blacktown Arts Centre,

Urban Theatre Projects Urban Theatre Projects (Utp), previously known as Death Defying Theatre (DDT), is a theatre company based in Bankstown Sydney, Australia. Urban Theatre Projects works with marginalised voices across multiple platforms to re-imagine what theatre ...

, La Mama Theatre and

Ilbijerri __NOTOC__ Ilbijerri Theatre Company, formerly Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Cooperative and also known simply as Ilbijerri, styled ILBIJERRI, is an Australian theatre company based in Melbourne that creates theatre creat ...

, among others. Her works have been staged throughout Australia as well as in the United Kingdom,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She worked as Aboriginal arts development officer at Blacktown Arts Centre, before being appointed as Artistic Director of

Melbourne Workers Theatre Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT) was an Australian theatre company based in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1987 by Patricia Cornelius, Steve Payne and Michael White. It specialised in producing work from a left-wing stance, se ...

in 2001, occupying this role until 2008. It was here that she wrote and produced ''Yangali Yangali''. James' play ''Sunshine Super Girl'', about

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , ...

champion tennis player

, has been produced by

Performing Lines Performing Lines is an Australian performing arts producer and presenter. It was established in 1990 as a successor to the Australian Content department of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, it was established by actress Wendy Blacklock ...

. It premiered in

Griffith, New South Wales Griffith is a major regional city in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area that is located in the north-western part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, known commonly as the food bowl of Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith ...

in October 2020 (its

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre compa ...

debut having been postponed owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria The COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in the state of Victoria, also the first in ...

), subsequently being performed at the

Sydney Festival Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney that runs for three weeks every January, since it was established in 1977. The festival program features in excess of 100 events from local and international artists an ...

in January 2021. The play is commencing a tour starting at the

Darwin Festival The Darwin Festival, founded as the Bougainvillea Festival in 1979 and named Festival of Darwin from 1996 to 2002, is an annual arts festival in Darwin, Northern Territory. It celebrates the multicultural aspects of the Northern Territory lifest ...

in August 2022. James is an associate artist at the

Griffin Theatre Company Griffin Theatre Company is an Australian theatre specialising in new works, based in Sydney. Founded in 1979, it is the resident theatre company at the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross. the artistic director is Declan Green. Artistic direct ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where she is producing Melissa Bubnic's ''Ghosting the Party'' which opened at the

Stables Theatre, Sydney The Stables Theatre is an 105-seat theatre in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The intimate theatre has a kite-shaped stage. The theatre was built in 1970, converting an old stables. It was originally called the Nimrod Street Theatre, giving its name to t ...

in May, until 18 June 2022.

Recognition and awards

* Recipient of an Arts NSW Aboriginal Arts Fellowship * 2013: Recipient

ACCELERATE In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...

, a program run jointly by the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

and

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

for Aboriginal Art Leaders *

Writer-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

* 2022: Mona Brand Award for Women Stage and Screen Writers, for her body of work

Works

*''Yangali Yangali'' *''Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country'' (2016) (co-writer, with

Giordano Nanni The Juice Media (TJM) is an Australian company that produces contemporary, human rights political and social satire. They are known for their Internet series Honest Government Ads and Juice Rap News. TJM has been at the centre of a number of so ...

* ''Blacktown Angels for Home Country'' * ''Bukal'' * ''Winyanboga Yurringa '' * ''Bright World'' * ''Home Country'' * ''The Torch'' * ''Winyanboga Yurringa'' * ''Dogged'' (co-writer, with Cath Ryan)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Andrea 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights Indigenous Australian writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)