Michelle Law is the new Patrick White Playwrights Fellow. Disapol Savetsila wins Patrick White Playwrights Award for Ama and Nana
Multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed playwright Michelle Law has been named Sydney Theatre Company’s next Patrick White Fellow, and Disapol Savetsila is the 26th recipient of the Patrick White Playwrights Award for his play Ama and Nana.
The Patrick White Fellowship is a year-long appointment that will see Michelle develop a new work for Sydney Theatre Company while mentoring participants in the Company’s Watershed: Writers program: “It’s an enormous honour to be named a Patrick White Fellow alongside some of my industry heroes: playwrights whose words I’ve studied, been inspired by, and been moved by. Truly, it’s one of the biggest pinch-me moments of my career.”
Michelle continues: “As a young adult, my family used to make special trips from regional Queensland to see shows at Sydney Theatre Company. Afterwards, I’d pore over the show programs, carefully flicking through each page, hoping that I might be able to capture some of that theatre magic. I think younger Michelle would be in complete disbelief that I have the opportunity to work at the Wharf alongside the wonderful STC team and Watershed Writers. What an immense privilege and gift it is to now play a part in bringing that theatre magic to life for others.”
Disapol Savetsila’s play, Ama and Nana, was presented as a rehearsed reading at Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2 Theatre last night. “I’m so proud to accept the Patrick Playwrights Award. Still pretty shocked to tell the truth. But proud beyond words”, said Disapol. “Ama and Nana is proudly a regional story, and I am proudly a regional writer. I can only hope that winning this Award shows what is possible when regional artists are given the support they need.”
Ama and Nana is a compelling contemporary play that brings two vivid, complex women into sharp focus. With humour, emotional honesty and a strikingly filmic sensibility, Savetsila explores migration, motherhood and political inheritance.
Savetsila explains: “The story of these two women – sidelined from society by age, by race, and by economic status – finding common ground together and then being tested by political forces too large to comprehend, felt like a vital story to tell right now.”
“Recognising Disapol Savetsila with one of the nation’s most significant honours for new writing is a well-deserved celebration of Ama and Nana” said STC Artistic Director and co-CEO Mitchell Butel. “For more than 25 years, the Patrick White Playwrights Award has championed the future of Australian storytelling, honouring Patrick White’s extraordinary legacy by recognising artists who challenge, provoke and move audiences in equal measure. Michelle Law’s body of work has already had a profound impact across Australian theatre, television and literature, and I am beyond thrilled to recognise Michelle will be joining us here at the Wharf as our Patrick White Fellow.
They are remarkable artists whose work speaks powerfully to contemporary Australia, and I cannot wait to see how they continue shaping our theatrical landscape in the years ahead.”
THE PATRICK WHITE PLAYWRIGHTS FELLOWSHIP
Michelle Law is a multi-award-winning playwright, screenwriter and author. Her smash-hit play Single Asian Female earned sold-out seasons across Australia and New Zealand, followed by Top Coat for Sydney Theatre Company (2022) and Miss Peony for Belvoir (2023). Beyond the stage, Law co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in the SBS series Homecoming Queens, which received widespread industry recognition, winning an Australian Writers’ Guild Award, an Equity Ensemble Award and a Melbourne WebFest Award, alongside an AACTA Award nomination.
The year-long Fellowship, now in its 16th year, annually awards $25,000 to an established playwright in recognition of their outstanding body of work, while commissioning the creation of a new play. As part of the Fellowship, there are opportunities for recipients to mentor emerging artists and share their expertise with the next generation of theatre-makers, including participants in STC’s Watershed: Writers program.
Previous STC Patrick White Fellows include Sheridan Harbridge, 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.
THE PATRICK WHITE PLAYWRIGHTS AWARDS
After graduating from the University of Wollongong, theatre-maker and writer Disapol Savetsila had his first full-length play, Australian Graffiti, developed and staged by Sydney Theatre Company as part of its 2017 season. Since then, Savetsila has co-written several acclaimed works for Theatre versus Everything, including PressOne4Love (2015), The Late Act with Mason Phoumirath (2018), and A Campfire Story (2022 & 2025). Passionate about fostering regional arts practice, he is also a dedicated advocate for theatre in and around Bathurst, NSW. The Patrick White Playwrights Award has been an annual initiative of Sydney Theatre Company since 2000. It is awarded in honour of Patrick White’s contribution to Australian theatre and to foster the development of Australian playwrights.
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 18 years of age. The readers and judges assessing the scripts seek a work that is original, artistically ambitious and have an individual voice that could speak to an audience.
Over its 25-year history, past recipients of the Award include: Karolina Ristevski, Wendy Mocke, Aran Thangaratnam, Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Ra Chapman, Keziah Warner, Mark Rogers, Kim Ho, Lewis Treston, Anna Barnes, Melissa Bubnic and Angus Cerini.
In 2026, the other shortlisted plays for the Patrick White Playwrights Award were:
Gareth Davies, Don Quixote, or, the Ingenious Gentleman of Don Quixote of North Ryde
Jordyn Fulcher, Inspiration Piece
Kim Pham, I Lychee You
Olivia Satchell, The Joy Factory
