Thompson, Chris (Australia)

Chris Thompson is a Melbourne-based writer, director, artistic director and teacher. A former Artistic Director of St Martins Youth Arts Centre and Union House Theatre in Melbourne and founding artistic directorate member of Albury's HotHouse Theatre, he is currently a member of the Artistic Directorate of Jigsaw Theatre in Canberra. He has been Director of the Monash Schools Theatre Festival (winner of the 2007 Drama Victoria Award), MUDfest at Melbourne Uni, and the Biting Dog Theatre Festival in Albury.

His plays for young people have been nominated for five AWGIE awards, winning three times for SHADY CHARACTERS (1996), THE BRIDGE (2003) and THE SADNESS OF MISTER SAISSON (2012). His screenplay for the feature film THE TUMBLER was nominated for the QLD Premier’s Literary Awards and won the 2007 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award.

For the Victorian Arts Centre, Chris wrote LILY LASSETER & THE FLOATING ZOO for the Chookas Children’s Festival and wrote and directed an adaptation of Sonya Hartnett’s WILFUL BLUE, as well as the workshop-performance projects SPIN and SPINOUT. This year the Arts Centre is presenting his new work, POSTi, a non-linear play for primary schools delivered via the internet.

Recently he co-wrote the music-theatre piece, HAPPY for the Fringe Festival, wrote DEBS a youth and community play commissioned by Outback Theatre for Young People and THE GRIMMUSS for students at St Michael’s Grammar in Melbourne. His play STOP MEANS GO toured Canberra schools in 2012 and his new play, MICHAEL FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY IN ELOHGULP will premiere at the Canberra Theatre Centre in 2013.

Chris reviews teenage fiction for Viewpoint Magazine and lectures at ACU in theatre and playwriting.


His plays are available at australianplay.org.  THE BRIDGE is published by Currency in the collection, Refuge.