About

Roslyn Oades is a theatremaker and dramaturg based in Naarm/Melbourne known for her innovative headphone-verbatim and audio-driven performance projects, which have toured nationally and internationally. Her original works for stage include Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday (Malthouse/Melbourne Festival/National tour), I’m Your Man (Belvoir/Sydney Festival/National tour), Creation Creation (Windmill/National tour), Stories of Love & Hate (Utp/STC), Fast Cars & Tractor Engines (Utp/NSW tour), Cutaway–A Portrait (Vitalstatistix), At the Hip (HotHouse Theatre) and the immersive work for children, In A Deep Dark Forest (Arts Centre Melbourne/DreamBig/Riverside).

Roslyn’s site-responsive projects include: Cell 26, an audio experience for a prison cell (Ulumbarra, former Bendigo Gaol, VIC), Sea Stories, an audio experience for sunrise over Broadbeach (Festival 2018, Commonwealth Games Arts & Culture Program, Gold Coast) and The Nightline (co-created with Bob Scott) a theatrical audio experience about the city at night, inspired by the voices of the sleepless commissioned by Utp & RISING 2021, followed by seasons at Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Bleach* and the 2024 Carrefour international de théâtre in Quebec City, Canada.

Roslyn received the 2024 Creative Australia Fellowship for Theatre, and in 2019 was awarded a special Green Room for Technical Achievement in acknowledgement of her groundbreaking series of audio-theatre works. In 2014, Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday was nominated for 6 Green Room awards and won the award for Best Writing/Adaptation for the Australian Stage, as well as a Best Lighting Design for Paul Jackson. Her productions have been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, two Helpmann Awards, two Sydney Theatre Awards and an AWGIE Award. I'm Your Man was adapted by SBS into an online interactive documentary; a collection of Roslyn’s pioneering headphone verbatim plays, Acts of Courage, is published through Currency Press; and she is a contributing author on VERBATIM Staging Memory & Community edited by Paul Brown (Currency Press). Roslyn's signature works are predominantly audio-focused and she regularly collaborates with sound artist extraordinaire Bob Scott.

Roslyn is host and producer of Audiosketch, a Chamber Made podcast dedicated to innovative artists working across performance, sound & music. She is also a passionate dramaturge in the field of documentary and audio-driven performance projects, where her client list includes: Performing Lines’ Regional Artist Residencies, Darren O’Donnell (Mammalian Diving Reflex), Speakpercussion, VCA, Back to Back’s CAMP, Chamber Made Deep Dive, Playwriting Australia, SBS Online, Blame the Shadows Collective, James Mangohig, Tilman Robinson, Jackson Castiglione, Katie Yap (Music Avivia Futuremakers), Spacefloss, Johanna Bell, Alyson Evans, Ian Moorhead, Lisa Pellegrino, Rani P Collaborations, Eliza Hull, Lemony S Puppet Theatre, Darius Kedros, Brienna Macnish, Fleur Kilpatrick, Sweatshop, ShopFront, Utp, Griffin Theatre and Melbourne Festival’s inaugural Director’s Lab.

Roslyn is currently part of VicScreen’s Frame Doc Lab 2024 cohort, where she is developing a new-media audio installation concept, working title The Enormous Radio, in collaboration with writer/artist Sarah Walker. Roslyn Oades & Collaborators was an inaugural recipient of the Sidney Myer Fund, Arts & Humanity Capacity Building Stream (2015-16). Residencies include: Bundanon (2025), Chamber Made’s Hi-Viz Satellites Lab (2023 & 2024), RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW with Utp (2016-18), Malthouse Director-in-residence (2013) and Siteworks with Campbelltown Arts Centre (2011).

Alongside her theatre practice, Roslyn works as a voice artist in film, TV, radio & audiobook narration. Voice Bio >>