Donna Hughes is an award-winning playwright based in Fremantle, Western Australia. Her plays have been developed through Playwriting Australia National Script Workshops, WAAPA, Australian Plays Transform and La Boite Theatre Company’s development program. Trackers won an Australian Writers Guild (AWGIE) in 2021 and has been performed by schools around Australia. Disconnected was published by Australian Plays Transform in 2017. Hit Delete, was the recipient of the Martin Lysicrates Prize in 2022 and shortlisted for the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize (2024 - Theatre for Young Audiences Category). Donna’s play, Treading Water was shortlisted for the Stoddart Playwright Award and The Pact was shortlisted for the Lane Cove Literary Award in the theatre writing section. Donna’s short film Isolation In Lockdown was nominated for the New York Independent Cinema Awards and nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Writing by the WA Screen Culture Awards 2022. Her short plays, It Was Tuesday and  The Next Stop were shortlisted in Australia, the United Kingdom, Dubai, USA and Vietnam. The Next Stop won the Best Writer Award at the Short + Sweet Festival, Hollywood. Donna is an experienced high school educator and has worked as an educational consultant for the Perth Festival and Theatre 180. Donna is a member of Black Swan Theatre Company’s emerging writers’ program.

  • Disconnected:

    Selected for development by Playwriting Australia.

    Published by Australian Plays Transform (2019).

  • Treading Water:

    Longlisted for the Monte Miller Award (2020).

    Shortlisted for the Stoddart Playwriting Award (2022)

  • Ground Swell:

    Recipient of the People’s Choice Award and published by Edge Performance Writers Collective (2020).

  • Isolation in Lockdown:

    Selected by Voices of Women as part of a feature film entitled, Entanglement (2021).

    Nominated for the New York Independent Cinema Awards (2022)

    Nominated for the WA Screen and Culture Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Writing (2022)

  • Trackers:

    Commissioned by St Hilda’s Anglican School for girls

    Australian Writer’s Guild (AWGIE) Award Community and Youth Theatre (2021).

    Published by Australian Plays Transform. 

  • What Made Lesley Pratchett so Mad:

    Selected by Australian Plays Transform and La Boite Theatre Co. for development (2022).

    Selected for a public play reading at Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne (2022).

  • It Was Tuesday:

    Shortlisted for the Short and Sweet Festival Perth, Queensland, Sydney and Dubai (2021).

    Shortlisted Short + Sweet Festival Essex UK, Chennai and Hollywood (2022).

  • The Next Stop:

    Finalist for the Short + Sweet Festival Perth (2022)

    Shortlisted for the Short + Sweet Festival Essex UK and Hollywood (2022)

    Awarded best writer, Hollywood Short and Sweet Festival (2022)

  • Hit Delete:

    Martin Lysicrates Award (2022)

  • Shortlisted for the Shane and Cathryn Brennan Award (2024)