Andrew Sutherland
Andrew Sutherland (he/they) is a Queer Poz (PLHIV) writer and performance-maker between WA and Singapore. His work draws upon Queer and intercultural ways of being, filtering autobiographical practices through the lens of pop-cultural, ecological and viral dramaturgies. He holds a BA (First Class Hons.) Acting from LASALLE College of the Arts and works in the performance space as collaborative maker, playwright, director, performer, dramaturg, arts educator, and mentor. He is a founding party to Queer indie theatre group Squid Vicious, as a co-creator and performer of Salome delta, Poorly Drawn Shark and Cephalopod, as director of Vidya Rajan’s small & cute oh no and a collaboratively staged revisioning of Haresh Sharma’s godeatgod (all with The Blue Room Theatre). Other recent works: co-creator and director of Mother of Compost by Noemie Huttner-Koros (TBRT 2022, Esplanade Singapore 2023), as playwright of a line could be crossed and you would slowly cease to be (Intercultural Theatre Institute 2019, Esplanade Singapore 2021), Unveiling: Gay Sex for Endtimes (TBRT 2017/2018, Bondi Fest 2018), and as dramaturg for a slew of new works including Zendra Giraudo and Joe Paradise Lui’s Whitesnake3000 (TBRT), Jeramy Lim’s Jack of all Directions (TBRT), Louis Spencer’s Jabroni (TBRT), Liz Newell’s Takeaway (Hayman Theatre), and Renee Newman and Ella Hetherington’s Catastrophes (PICA) all in 2023. Andrew’s debut poetry collection Paradise (point of transmission) was published by Fremantle Press in 2022, and his poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction can be found in a range of journals and anthologies, including Westerly, Island, Overland, Portside Review, Australian Poetry Journal, Running Dog, EXHALE: an anthology of Queer voices from Singapore, We’ll Stand in That Place (Margaret River Press), Best of Australian Poems 2021, among others. In 2022 he was commissioned by Ian Sinclair of PONY EXPRESS to produce a longform poetic installation for the VIRAL BODIES exhibition at The Bearded Tit, Redfern, and in 2023 he was commissioned by Westerly to deliver the Randolph Stow Memorial Lecture for Perth Festival. Andrew has been an arts educator, sessional lecturer and mentor across a range of organisations including WAAPA, Black Swan State Theatre Co., WA Youth Theatre Co., Centre for Stories, Perth Festival, Strut Dance, Propel Youth Arts, M1 Singapore Festival, SingLit Station, the University of Western Australia, and The Blue Room Theatre. Andrew is grateful to reside on unceded Whadjuk Noongar land.