Belvoir has announced Birripi, Worimi, Waddi Waddi and Walbunga actor and director Guy Simon as the 2023 Balnaves Foundation Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellow. He will receive $45,000 over an 18-month period to create a new work as a resident artist at Belvoir in 2024/25.

Guy Simon. Image suuplied

Simon’s is a well-known face to Australian theatregoers. His theatre credits include productions of My Brilliant Career and Jasper Jones (Belvoir); Playing Beatie Bow, The Harp in the South and The Battle of Waterloo (Sydney Theatre Company); Cloudstreet and Blaque Showgirls (Malthouse Theatre); First Love is the Revolution and Whitefella Yella Tree (Griffin) and Wesley Enoch’s Black Diggers (Queensland Theatre, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival).

In 2017 Guy was awarded the Helpmann Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play for Jasper Jones (MTC). He is due to appear in Belvoir’s new production of Tommy Murphy’s Holding the Man in April.

The Balnaves Fellowship is open to playwrights to write a new play and to directors that can lead the creation of an Indigenous-led new stage work, whether that be a new play, an adaptation...