Rita Kalnejais Rita Kalnejais i(A129596 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

'Rita Kalnejais is an actor, playwright and screenwriter. Since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001 she has appeared in numerous productions for Sydney Theatre Company, Company B Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre and Griffin Theatre Company and in a variety of short films.' Source: www.pwa.org.au/ (Sighted 07/08/2012).

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2013-2014 recipient Aurora Script Workshop for Babyteeth
2013 shortlisted Edward Albee Scholarship

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon First Love Is the Revolution 2019 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2019 14531814 2019 single work drama

'This is a play about hunger and desire. It’s Romeo and Juliet pushed to deranged extremes, where the unlikely sweethearts are a 14-year old boy and a young fox with brutal birthrights.

'Rdeca’s whole family have fleas. Her mum is pushing her into making her first kill, a snivelling mole, before she’s ready.

'Basti is being bullied at school by kids who call him a shrimp. His dad is too busy flirting with the neighbour to be of any real help.

'Beneath the light of a full moon, Basti captures Rdeca, and so begins a starcross’d romance between hunter and prey.'

Source: Griffin Theatre Company.

2019 nominated Sydney Theatre Awards Best New Australian Work
2019 nominated Sydney Theatre Awards Best Direction of a Mainstage Production
2019 nominated Sydney Theatre Awards Best Mainstage Production
form y separately published work icon Babyteeth ( dir. Shannon Murphy ) Australia : Whitefalk Films , 2019 13197206 2019 single work film/TV

'When seriously ill teenager Milla Finlay falls in love with smalltime drug dealer Moses, it’s her parents’ worst nightmare. But as Milla’s first brush with love brings her a new lust for life, things get messy and traditional morals go out the window. Milla shows everyone in her orbit—her parents, Moses, a sensitive music teacher, a budding child violinist, and a disarmingly honest pregnant neighbor—how to live like you have nothing to lose. What might have been a disaster for the Finlay family instead leads to letting go and finding grace in the glorious chaos of life. Babyteeth joyously explores how good it is not to be dead and how far we will go for love.'

Source: Venice International Film Festival.

2021 shortlisted AWGIE Awards Film Award Adaptation
2021 longlisted British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards Adapted Screenplay
2021 shortlisted British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards Director
2020 winner Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Screenplay
2020 winner Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Film
y separately published work icon Babyteeth 2012 Sydney : Currency Press , 2012 Z1841679 2012 single work drama

'Time for a comedy - a mad, gorgeous, bittersweet comedy about how good it is not to be dead yet.

'A group of more or less ordinary Sydneysiders go about their lives: Anna makes toast, Henry dresses for work, Milla catches the train to school, Moses deals drugs - that kind of thing. But hovering above this unholy parade of life is the sobering fact that Milla will die before her 15th birthday.

'Rita Kalnejais is a young playwright of uncommon genius. She looks at the humdrum world around us and sees something radically alive. Dogs, Paganini, figs, an eight-year-old Vietnamese violin prodigy, morphine, clear skies and a Latvian immigrant are amongst the magnificent conflagration of ingredients which make up this wonderful, funny play. Written specially for Belvoir, its theme is what Rita calls the violent sweetness of life.

'Eamon Flack (The End, As You Like It) directs a play of unexpected brilliance about that very old and almost forgotten quality of life: grace.' (Source: Belvoir St Theatre website)

2012 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Drama Script (Stage) Award
Last amended 7 Jun 2017 15:50:37
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