Caleb Lewis


Caleb Lewis is an Australian playwright. His plays include The River at the End of the Road'; Destroyer of Worlds; The Honey Bees; Maggie Stone'; Nailed; Dogfall, Death in Bowengabbie, Rust and Bone, Aleksander and the Robot Maid, In a Dark Dark Wood and Clinchfield.

Works

Lewis studied drama and playwriting at the Flinders University Drama Centre under playwright Verity Laughton. In 2002 he began a year-long mentorship with Nick Enright and began work on Nailed. In 2003 he won the Independent Arts Foundation Literature Scholarship to research the play Krissy Pho in Vietnam and also the Naked Theatre Company's Write Now competition for his play RocketBaby.
In 2004 his collection of short plays Songs for the Deaf was produced by FreshTrack Productions for the Adelaide Fringe Festival and he began a two-year residency with the Griffin Theatre Company, culminating in the world premiere of Nailed. Lewis has completed commissions for Jigsaw Theatre Company in the Australian Capital Territory and Riverland Youth Theatre Company in South Australia. His short film The Half Windsor opened in Sydney in May 2007.
After receiving funding from the Australia Council's theatre and literature boards, his play The Sea Bride won the Theatrelab Emerging Playwright Award, earning a two-week workshop with playwright Edward Albee.
His play Dogfall opened in Adelaide at the Bakehouse Theatre in November 2007 and was shortlisted for the 2008 Phillip Parsons Award. In January 2008, Songs for the Deaf toured to Hong Kong. His play Men, Love and the Monkeyboy was short-listed for the 2007 Griffin Award and is the winner of the 2008 Mitch Matthews award. Men, Love and the Monkeyboy enjoyed successful seasons at the Darlinghurst Theatre and the Riverside Theatre Parramatta in 2008. Lewis' most recent play, Rust and Bone, based on Craig Davidson's short story collection of the same name, premiered in Sydney in 2013 earning rave reviews

Awards

Lewis was the inaugural winner of the Australian Writers Guild's 2008 Interactive Media Awgie for his work on, Otzi - The Story of the Iceman, the inaugural winner of Sally Burton's 2010 Richard Burton Award for New Plays for his play Clinchfield. His play Death in Bowengabbie was nominated for best stage production at the 2009 Adelaide Fringe Festival winning a commendation for best writing. In 2010, Lewis turned down the prestigious Philip Parsons Award, in protest.