Acclaimed playwright Sheridan Harbridge has been named Sydney Theatre Company’s next Patrick White Fellow, a year-long role that will see her develop a new work for STC and mentor participants in STC’s Watershed: Writers program.
The announcement follows Harbridge’s recent success at the Green Room Awards, where the musical My Brilliant Career, for which she co-wrote the book with Dean Bryant, garnered five awards.
Harbridge said that the Fellowship was like being invited to join a family: “When Mitchell Butel asked me to be STC’s new Patrick White Fellow, it felt like I was being invited home,” she said.
“As an actor, we throw ourselves into these intense, fleeting families when making a show and then it’s over. I’m so grateful join this family and this Company. Making work for STC feels like a beautiful challenge, and I’m so excited,” said Harbridge.
Sheridan Harbridge is a multi-award-winning playwright, director, and performer. Having starred in Griffin Theatre’s premiere season of Prima Facie, Harbridge has also written and directed a string of acclaimed productions, including the sell-out cabaret A Model Murder, the satirical hit 44 Sex Acts in One Week, and the nationally toured Songs for the Fallen, establishing herself as a respected voice in contemporary theatre.
Now in its 15th year, the $25,000 Fellowship is awarded annually to an accomplished playwright for their outstanding body of work and contribution to the field.
Alongside a new commission from STC, developed over the course of their year-long engagement, the Fellowship offers opportunities for the playwright to mentor emerging talent and share their expertise with artists, including participants in STC’s Watershed: Writers program.
Previous STC Patrick White Fellows include Joanna Murray-Smith, Wesley Enoch, Angus Cerini, Andrew Bovell, Anchuli Felicia King, Tommy Murphy, Kate Mulvany, Sue Smith, Angela Betzien, Hilary Bell, Patricia Cornelius and Raimondo Cortese.
Karolina Ristevski is the 25th Patrick White Playwrights Award winner for her play, River Was Here, which was showcased as a rehearsed reading last night at Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2 Theatre. In equal parts joyous, devastating, and confounding, River Was Here is an accomplished portrait of human trauma.
Threading together writer’s block, the death of River Phoenix, and a workplace incident with hallucinatory flashbacks, the play explores how the past can both be haunting and defining. Expertly embracing varied theatrical form including meta-theatrics, misdirect, and farce, this play is an archaeological dig into the life of an artist.
“This award is not just a recognition of one play, it’s fuel for my fire. River Was Here is the most vulnerable, ambitious, rawest and riskiest thing I’ve written, I had to crack myself open to write it,” said Karolina Ristevski.
“So, to have it acknowledged in this way is both humbling and empowering, not only for me, but for other playwrights taking risks and trusting that bold, intimate work has a place.”
“It tells me there is a space for writing that is formally daring. I feel compelled to push further, from stories that unsettle and remake us to stories that bring joy, absurdity, and tenderness.”
“This award has given me a renewed sense of purpose and now, I can open the treasure trove that is my bedside drawer and begin excavating the buried stories that have been waiting to be unearthed,” said Ristevski.
Raised in Lewisham, Karolina Ristevski honed her craft through the prestigious Merrigong Emerging Playwrights Program, before gaining international recognition in 2019 for her standout play, Cate Fucking Blanchett.
The Patrick White Playwrights Award has been an annual initiative of Sydney Theatre Company since 2000. It is held in honour of Patrick White’s contribution to Australian theatre and to foster the development of Australian playwrights. The Award exists to showcase an unproduced script.
The Patrick White Playwrights Award offers a cash prize of $7,500 for a full-length unproduced play of any genre written by an Australian playwright over the age of 18 years. The readers and judges assessing the scripts seek a work that is original and artistically ambitious, with great potential for a stage production.
Previous winners of the Patrick White Playwrights Award include Wendy Mocke (2023, awarded in 2024) Aran Thangaratnam (2022), Kamarra Bell-Wykes (2021) Ra Chapman (2020), Keziah Warner (2019), Mark Rogers (2018), Kim Ho (2017), Lewis Treston, (2016), Anna Barnes (2012), Melissa Bubnic (2010), and Angus Cerini (2007).
In 2025, the other shortlisted plays for the Patrick White Playwrights Award were Charlie Falkner for Sardine, Jamie Hornsby for Python, Maxine Mellor for O’Mighty Make-Believe, and Ziva von der Borch for Weft of the Living.
“Marking the 25th Patrick White Playwrights Award is both a celebration and a moment of reflection, an opportunity to honour the bold voices that have carved out new paths in Australian theatre over the past quarter-century,” said Sydney Theatre Company’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO, Mitchell Butel.
“It’s a great privilege to announce Sheridan Harbridge as Sydney Theatre Company’s new Fellow and Karolina Ristevski as the recipient of this year’s Award.”
“Their work continues Patrick White’s legacy of championing Australian storytelling, and I am eagerly awaiting to see how these extraordinary artists will continue shaping the theatrical landscape,” said Butel.
For more information about the Patrick White Playwrights Award and Fellowship, visit: www.sydneytheatre.com.au for details.
Image: Karolina Ristevski, Sheridan Harbridge and Mitchell Butel – photo by Ken Leanfore