Donna Hughes is an award-winning playwright based on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar, Walyalup (Fremantle, Western Australia). She unpacks the world by writing stories that resonate; big little stories with heart. Her punchy, potent writing has been recognised around Australia and internationally. Donna’s play for young people, Trackers, won an Australian Writers Guild award (AWGIE) in 2021 and her current project, Hit Delete, was the recipient of the Martin Lysicrates Prize 2022. Donna’s short film Isolation In Lockdown was nominated by the New York Independent Cinema Awards and nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Writing by the WA Screen Culture Awards 2022. Her play 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. Her plays include:

  • 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)