Writer and director.
Raised in an Irish-Catholic family, Therese Collie's early theatrical career was spent touring as an actor with the Brisbane-based Popular Theatre Troupe. She later spent two years at the Jacques Lecoq School of Theatre, Mime and Movement in Paris before returning to Brisbane in 1984 where she joined Street Arts Community Theatre Company. Her writing credits for the collective included Out of the Blue (1992) and I Yitha - The She Goat (a bilingual Greek/English epic).
In 1988 Collie began working as a writer with the Aboriginal community, producing four plays, one of which was later developed into a half hour television drama for the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) award-winning SBS series, Under The Skin. Collie's episode 'Long Way Round,' which she also directed, won a commendation in the 1994 Human Rights' Award.
The early to mid-1990s also saw Collie direct productions for the Murray River Performing Group (Albury-Wodonga), Icy Tea, and the Rock 'n' Roll Circus. In the late-1990s she worked on a theatrical collaboration between KITE Theatre and Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts. The production, Binni's Backyard, was commissioned for the 2000 Out of the Box Festival of Early Childhood (Brisbane). That same year she was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship and The Playlab Award.
Other career highlights include: Director/Co-creator of the AWGIE award-winning Torres Strait Islander children’s play Kese Solwata; Director of Svetlana in Slingbacks for La Boite Theatre; Actor/Co-creator of We’ve Been Had for Faceback Theatre, Edinburgh (it toured Scotland and the Western Isles), and Director/Dramaturg of X by Sunny Drake for Metro Arts’ The Independents (2012). Collie's writing credits include: the AWGIE nominated plays Murri Time and Goin’ to the Island.
In 2008 Collie established Playabout Productions with Tim Mullooly. Their first work, Brisbane Writers Show, was launched at the Brisbane Writers Festival. It has since been performed extensively in libraries, at conferences and major events. Playabout Productions have expanded this model to work with communities to produce Moreton Bay Writers Show, The One and Only FAWQ (Fellowship of Australian Writers Queensland) Show and Bundaberg Writers Show.
In 2012 Collie adapted Binni’s Backyard with Nadine McDonald-Dowd for a Queensland Arts Council tour of primary schools.
