Realise Your Dream | British Council Opportunity

Anna Barnes, playwright, VIC

At age 18, Anna’s first play was picked to have a reading in the Melbourne International Festival; from there her script was picked up and produced professionally. Anna’s second play was performed in Nottingham; and she was one of only six Australians invited to attend Interplay, the world’s largest conference for young playwrights.

Anna has just been accepted into Interplay 2008, the largest international festival for young playwrights (aged 18 to 26) in the world. The aim of the conference looks for new, high quality work, in which a talent for writing for the stage is clearly evident. Interplay aims to encourage and help writers whose goal is to write for the professional stage. Anna will also be involved at the Royal Court Theatre and other cutting edge contemporary drama collectives over the coming year.

Stephen Gilchrist, curator of indigenous art, VIC

Stephen is one of the youngest curators of indigenous art in Australia. He currently works at Nthe National Gallery of Victoria and has also worked at National Art Gallery in Canberra.

Thanks to Realise Your Dream, Stephen will be fulfilling a long held ambition to be mentored at one of the world’s great cultural institutions, the British Museum. He’ll be working in the Contemporary Indigenous Art Department of this major British public institution.

Omar Musa, rapper/journalist, NSW

Omar has performed across Australia as a rapper; featured on several CDs released in the USA and Australia; has been played on triple j; featured in hip hop magazines; and has worked with indigenous children in Cape York, creating workshops for creative expression.

Along with learning the ins and outs of the music business at independent record Label Big Dada recordings, Omar will be working on his debut album in the UK with grime star Akala. He then plans to finish his album with veteran rock producer Geoff Stanfield in Seattle, USA.

Rebecca Parker, writer/director, NSW

Rebecca’s first film appeared in over 20 festivals and won several awards. Her graduation film won an Asia-Pacific Kodak Film School Award.She has been commissioned by David Bradbury to write a screenplay; worked for Foreign Correspondent and made documentaries in East Timor; and is currently developing two feature films.

Rebecca’s dream is to write and direct feature films, and advance her understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to do this successfully in the UK.

Katrina Schwarz, editor, art writer and curator, NSW

As well as being Editor of Art & Australia magazine, Katrina is a freelance writer for Yen and Monument magazines. Katrina ; initiated with Noise the 25/25 project to showcase the best artists under 25 in Australia; has established a critical arts writing prize for high school students; and launched her co-creation The Salon Anthology at Sydney Writers’ Festival earlier last year.

Whilst in the UK, Katrina will be working closely with Artangel, a dynamic London based arts organisation that has pioneered an ambitious series of highly successful commissions since the early 1990s. While expanding her networks and knowledge of contemporary art, Katrina will be working with Artangel to overhaul and expand their online presence. She will commence studies in Art History at London's Courtauld Institute of Art later in 2008.

Jess Scully, editor and journalist, NSW

Jess has edited Yen, Hot Press and Empty magazines; edited and worked on custom titles for corporate clients; is a regular fashion contributor for Harper’s Bazaar; co-founded the bi-annual fashion magazine Summer Winter magazine which sells worldwide; covers fashion online for ninemsn and is editor of Noise.net youth media network.

Jess’s dream is to be the best magazine editor in the world. She has already made a mark with her magazines; the next step for her is to learn from the best editors in the UK, in arts and fashion publications.