The Tamar Valley Writers Festival committee is excited to announce the appointment of Georgie Todman as creative director. The Launceston-based teacher, playwright, and accomplished theatre director has come on board to drive the Festival’s program into a more interactive and performance-based cultural space. This is a big step for the Festival, which until now has been totally organised by volunteers.
"I look forward to bringing together my passion and experience in areas of writing, education, theatre and producing to develop exciting projects that are immersive, interactive and educational," Georgie said."To work closely with the dedicated TVWF team to develop creative projects telling the stories of our region is an opportunity I am thrilled to undertake." The appointment is part of a re-imagined program, including an 18-month rolling program of in-conversation podcasts with Tasmanian authors, special literary events, Back Bar Trivia nights and collaborative projects with other cultural organisations, instead of waiting until the Festival's next fully-fledged iteration in 2022. Festival president Mary Machen said Georgie would help maintain branding momentum during a difficult time for the arts scene.
“Now more than ever, it is important to give a voice to creative talent in this state, it’s important to offer intellectual engagement as well as entertainment through conversation and exchange of ideas,” Ms Machen said. “From a strategy workshop we held in August it became abundantly clear during robust discussion that to put the Festival in mothballs until 2022 would risk sustainability of the Festival.“It’s amazing how a couple of month’s forced hibernation can channel collective thought,” Ms Machen said, in reference to the Covid-19 self-isolation regulations and closure of Tasmania’s borders.
More about TVWF Creative Director Georgie Todman:
Georgie completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts with a major in theatre and creative writing at UTAS and has had a long-standing relationship with creative arts. Highlights include co-writing the musical ‘Happy Me’ with funding to tour 13 locations in Tasmania, and co-writing the play ‘One, Two Three, Home’ which was subsequently published through Australians Plays. While in Victoria, Georgie worked with StoryShare in script development consultancy and presented workshops and papers with Drama Victoria/Australia. Other theatrical high points include directing ‘Something Natural but very Childish’ (Centrstage), ‘Dusty - the Original Pop Diva’ (LMS), assistant directing ‘We Will Rock You’ (Encore) and many one day projects as an actor or director with Mudlark. Her production of ‘Killer Joe’ for Three River received the Best Production Award (Community) at the Tasmanian Theatre Awards in 2018. Georgie is a Drama teacher at Brooks High, is on the Three River Theatre and Friends of Theatre North committees, recently started a lively bookclub and initiated a writing retreat for fellow writers, and loves to read and write poetry in her spare time.
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