Brisbane writer Maxine Mellor is the winner of the 2023 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award for her play O’Mighty Make-Believe.

It was the unanimous choice of the judging panel after a blind reading of nearly 50 submissions.

Maxine Mellor. Photo supplied

Unable to be present in person at the Awards (she has a five-week-old baby), Mellor said she was “absolutely thrilled to bits,” by the news. “I wish I could be there in person to celebrate, but I welcomed a little baby boy into the world only weeks ago, so life is currently a blur dictated almost exclusively by his stomach and sleep.”

“I love that this award seeks to highlight positive values,” Mellor added. “It encourages us playwrights to look for the light when the world can seem very dark.”

Mellor described O’Mighty Make-Believe as a “return to joy”.

“The joy of writing, the joy of performance, the joy of make-believe. While this play may have its darkness, what I hope shines through is the joy of creation; that with nothing more than body, voice, and a little light, artist and audience can create a whole world together.”

Composer, director, actor and dramaturg Terence Clarke, a member...