Men on Men

Tommy Murphy is the screenwriter and associate producer for the feature film of Holding the Man. His stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s much-loved tragic romance memoir, has had productions every year since its premiere, including Melbourne (MTC), Sydney (Griffin, Belvoir, Sydney Opera House), Brisbane (Brisbane Powerhouse, La Boite), Adelaide (STCSA), Auckland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London’s West End.

Holding the Man has won the Australian Writers’ Guild Award AWGIE, Philip Parsons Award, AussieTheatre.com People’s Choice, NSW Premier’s Award, ACON Arts and Media Community Award.

Tommy’s adaptation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding formed part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Other plays include Troy’s House, Strangers in Between (NSW Premier’s Literary Award Winner) and Gwen in Purgatory (WA Premier’s Award for Best Play, The Richard Burton Prize).

His screen credits include the upcoming Matchbox/Foxtel mini-series Devil’s Playground, as well as several series television episodes.

Murphy is a graduate of NIDA (director’s course) and has been writer-in-residence at Griffin and Belvoir where he adapted Peter Pan, which transferred to Broadway last year. He is currently writing for a new Foxtel mini-series called Secret City, which will go into production in 2015, as well as plays for Black Swan Theatre Company and for Belvoir.

Tony Ayres is a principal and founding partner of Matchbox Pictures and an accomplished writer, director and producer for both film and television. His feature film, The Home Song Stories, premiered at Berlin and won 23 Australian and international awards including 8 AFI Awards.

His first feature, Walking on Water, won the Teddy Award at Berlin in 2002 and 5 AFI awards. He also directed the television movie, Saved, and in recent times, produced the television series Bogan Pride and the arts documentary series, Anatomy. Tony was the showrunner and one of the directors of the television series, The Slap.

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of six novels, including Loaded, which was made into the feature film Head-On, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, which won the 2006 Age Fiction Prize and the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing Award, as well as being made into a feature film. His fourth novel, the international bestseller The Slap, won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and won the Australian Literary Society Gold, as well as the 2009 Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Book Industry Awards Books of the Year. Christos's fifth novel Barracuda was shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal and the inaugural Voss Literary Prize. The Slap and Barracuda were both adapted into celebrated television series. Damascus won the 2020 Prize for Fiction at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and his latest novel 7 1/2 was published in November 2021. Christos's acclaimed collection of short stories, Merciless Gods, was published in 2014 and his critical literary study On Patrick White came out in 2018. He is also a playwright, essayist and screen writer. He lives in Melbourne.

Crusader Hillis is a writer, editor, curator and producer. He co-founded (with Rowland Thomson) the queer bookshop Hares & Hyenas in 1991.

In its 23-year history, Hares & Hyenas has presented over 700 literary and performance events, both here and interstate. Since becoming a licensed performance venue in 2012, the venue has presented over 300 events ranging from spoken word to circus, burlesque, dance and theatre.

Rowland and Crusader believe in community development from the ground up, and have helped to develop cultural work by many in our community who would not otherwise have the opportunity. In particular they have worked to develop arts and cultural expression by transgender, disabled, Deaf, Indigenous, HIV-positive and sex-positive people from all backgrounds and persuasions, to name just a few communities they have worked with. Hares & Hyenas has deservedly won the hearts of Melburnians and continues to push the boundaries in all directions.

Crusader’s fiction and non-fiction has been published in magazines and newspapers here and in the UK. He has had a parallel career in the arts, having worked as marketing manager at Melbourne Festival, director/CEO of Gasworks Arts Park and working as a freelance consultant and writer for a host of Australian arts organisations.