Andrew Harmsen

Andrew Harmsen is a playwright and academic from Melbourne, Australia. He completed his undergraduate degree at Curtin University in Western Australia, and his postgraduate studies at The University of Melbourne where he is currently researching.

He is a playwright, having recently received a Grace Marion Wilson Fellowship from Writer’s Victoria for 2012. He was also shortlisted for Red Stitch Theatre’s INK program for 2015 with his play, THE LONG SHADOW. He is also the co-artistic director of the Melbourne and Sydney-based independent theatre company, Sly Rat Theatre Co. The company has produced shows for Sydney’s National Institute of the Dramatic Arts, Perth’s The Blue Room Theatre and Melbourne’s Revolt Artspace.

Andrew’s areas of interest are Gothic theatre, literature and cinema with a particular focus on the unique way the genre has been expressed in Australia. As a result, he has an overlapping interest in postcolonial literary and performance theory, psychoanalysis and the concept of indigenous Reconciliation.