Mari Lourey is a playwright, dramaturg, and occasional actor who over 20 years has developed a practice of building work meticulously and collaboratively with innovative theatre makers.
Critically acclaimed plays include: Dirty Angels (La Mama and Regional Victorian tour); Bare Witness (fortyfivedownstairs/La Mama; Performing Lines national tour 2012 ) dir Nadja Kostich; and most recently, Dirt Cloud, winner of the Rodney Seaborn and Ross Trust Awards, soon to go into development. Since 2014 she has been based between Naarm (Melbourne) and Broome WA (Djugun/Yawuru Country) where she coordinates Goolarri Media’s Writers Program, an innovative reflexive training program, that develops the stage and film writing skills of Indigenous writers from the Kimberley.
Between 2002-’06 she was researcher, writer and performer with innovative community arts and theatre company The Torch Project collaboratively writing several plays with various Victorian communities including: the Green Room Award winning The Bridge, dir Rachael Maza, Victorian regional tour/Melb Trades Hall season; My Home is My Castle, co-written and directed by Kirk Robson, Moorabbin Housing Estate; Faith, dir Rachael Maza, with The Big Issue and Wesley Mission, 2006. Between 2007-09 she was Artistic Co-ordinator of the Big Issue arts project Homeless Not Artless, creating several shows with director Adriano Cortese. A popular freelance dramaturg, she has worked for numerous individuals and companies such as PWA/APT, Ilbijerri, Yirra Yaakin, Bathurst Performing Arts Centre and Goolarri Media. She was Writer in Residence with Union House Theatre, Melbourne University 2020 (Virtual) and 2018, and is a proud member of the AWG.
Review Quotes
Bare Witness – “…a relief to see a work that so directly, without naivety or cynicism or face-saving irony, addresses the complexities of real world calamity. …….ambitious, smart, beautifully realised theatre. A Croggon, theatrenotes
Dirty Angels “…a powerfully affecting work…a timeless quality much enhanced by its lyrical, poetic writing…a haunting work” The Age
The Bridge “The writing is a marvel of compression, raising issues with brevity and wit, that make their point, then rapidly move on…witty, funny, moving and exhilarating…grass roots reconciliation in action…” The Age
Projects on file
Awards
Specialities
- Drama
