Biography: 'At Sea, Staring Up' Playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer 

Finegan (30) has had 51 commissioned plays performed on five continents, and was an inaugural recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship.

This year 20 works (including nine premieres) will play worldwide, with seasons in Argentina, Australia (ten works in six states, with two at the Sydney Opera House and three at the Melbourne Arts Centre), China, England (three national tours), Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland – and the United States, at invited programmes New Visions New Voices (JFK Center for the Arts, Washington), New Plays for Young Audiences (New York University), and the IPAY American Showcase (his fourth consecutive IPAY work).

Finegan and his work have received the inaugural 2011 Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, 2010 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, 2010 Best New Work Ruby Award, 2009 Australian Writers Guild Award (AWGIE) for Best Children’s Play in Australia, 2009 Mystate Young Tasmanian Artist Award, 2009 Ruby Award For Innovation, 2008 Best Children’s Theatre Playwright Oscart, 2007 Best Playwright Oscart, 2006 Jill Blewett Playwrights Award, and 2002 Colin Thiele Scholarship.

Finegan has spoken at conferences/festivals in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, the UK and the US, with his paper The Taboo of Sadness published. He was selected as one of 21 worldwide for the ASSITEJ Next Generation (international group of young leaders in children’s theatre), and sits on Arts Tasmania’s Assistance to Individuals Panel, and Write Local, Play Global’s (an international TYA network) Playwrights Advisory Committee.

Finegan was born in Ireland, and came to Adelaide at eight. In 2004, he moved with his wife Essie to Hobart, Tasmania, from which he now writes for national/international companies.