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The Wheeler Centre Gala 2019: Crush

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Awkward. Sweaty. Flushed. Euphoric. Crushes are like mini-Great Loves. They compel us to daggy earnestness while inspiring unusual boldness, even grandiosity. How much of our best writing, art and music do we owe to crushes, and the intensity they lend to our days and nights? And, actually, how much of our worst?

For our 2019 Gala Night of Storytelling, we’ve invited some of our favourite writers and thinkers to dish about their fictional crush. It may be a character of page, stage, screen or stereo – or some life-changing, out-of-reach hero of the real world.

Join us for a testament to the rush of fandom, infatuation and unabashed adoration, as our speakers moon, swoon, spill and thrill. You never know: you might end the night, and the summer, with a crush of your own.

This event will be Auslan interpreted.

Featuring

Claire G. Coleman

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. Claire writes fiction, essays, poetry and art writing while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. During an extended circuit of the c... Read more

Lawrence Leung

Lawrence is an award winning stand-up comedian, screenwriter and documentary-maker. He created the ABC1 comedy shows Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable and the AFI Award-nominated Choose Your Own Adventure and co-wrote and starred in ABC2’s action/comedy series Maximum Choppage. Recently, he wr... Read more

Sinéad Stubbins

Sinéad Stubbins is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and cultural critic, and the author of In My Defence, I Have No Defence. She made her name writing TV recaps for Junkee on shows such as The Bachelor and Game of Thrones, and she’s also on the writing team for The Weekly with Charlie Pic... Read more

Faustina Agolley

Faustina Agolley is a TV host, actor, DJ, producer and writer. She’s hosted Video Hits, The Voice and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.  She made her stage debut with Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company’s co-production of the Molière award-winning play, The Father, alongs... Read more

Alison Evans

Alison Evans is the award-winning author of three young adult (YA) novels: Euphoria Kids (2020), Highway Bodies (2019) and Ida (2017). They are a contributor in the YA anthologies Kindred: 12 Queer #loveozya Stories (2019) and Hometown Haunts: A Horror #loveozya Anthology (2021). They run a fortnigh... Read more

Megan Washington

Modern pop’s patron saint Washington is a platinum-selling and ARIA award-winning musician who’s been known to reduce grown men to tears. The acute thinker and blistering performer has captivated music listeners with her ability to tell stories that inflate the spirit.

Claire Hooper

Claire Hooper started on the stage – crafting engaging, innovative live shows that blended stand-up, theatre and some hammer dancing. Her 2006 show, Oh, earned her both critical acclaim and a nomination for the Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Best Newcomer award. A born storyteller with a sharp wit,... Read more

Jon Faine

After seven years as a lawyer, Jon entered radio broadcasting in 1989 to produce and present Radio National’s Law Report. He then presented 3LO’s Morning and Afternoon programs, worked on ABC TV’s Investigators, First Edition and Wise UP and has been presenting the Morning program on 774 ABC M... Read more

George Megalogenis

George Megalogenis is an author and journalist with three decades’ experience in the media. The Australian Moment won the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2012 Walkley Award for Non-fiction, and formed the basis for his ABC documentary series Making Austral... Read more

Ella Hooper

Ella Hooper made her entrance onto the Aus music landscape as the technicolour teenage frontwoman of her high school band, Killing Heidi. She traversed the highs and lows of pop rock, wrote some hits, became an unlikely teen icon, spent a fair bit of time overseas and generally lived out her yout... Read more

Location

Athenaeum Theatre

188 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.