Associate Professor Stephen Carleton
Associate Professor
School of Communication and Arts
Centre Director of Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
Centre for Critical and Creative Writing
+61 7 334 68739
Researcher biography
Stephen is a Brisbane-based playwright and academic. His plays have been produced across Australia and won awards including the Griffin Theatre Award (2015) for The Turquoise Elephant, the Matilda Award for Best New Australian Play (2017) for Bastard Territory, and the Patrick White Playwrights' Award (2005) and New Dramatists' Award (2006) for Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset. Those plays and others including musical Joh for PM (2017, with Paul Hodge), and The Narcissist (2007), have been shortlisted for a range of awards including the Patrick White Playwrights' Award, the Queensland Premier's Drama Award, Queensland Literary Awards (Drama), and two AWGIEs.
His main areas of theatre research at present are in c21st Australian playwriting, and the intersections between Gothic drama and Eco-criticism, where he has written the first two of a propsed trilogy of 'cli fi' plays. He has published on the Australian Gothic, and extended this area of interest into Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. He has a background in Postcolonial drama, Australian Drama (from c19th melodramas to c21st playwriting), Spatial Inquiry (focussing on the Australian North), and Cultural Geography. He is also co-creator of the Cultural Atlas of Australia with his colleagues Prof. Jane Stadler and A/Prof. Peta Mitchell.
Publications
Books
Hay, Chris and Carleton, Stephen (2023). Contemporary Australian playwriting: re-visioning the nation on the mainstage. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003176138
Carleton, Stephen (2021). New Babylon. Brisbane, Australia: Playlab Theatre.
Carleton, Stephen (2016). The turquoise elephant. Strawberry Hills, NSW Australia: Currency Press.
Carleton, Stephen (2016). Bastard Territory. Brisbane, Queensland: Playlab Press.
Stadler, Jane, Mitchell, Peta and Carleton, Stephen (2016). Imagined landscapes: geovisualizing Australian spatial narratives. Bloomington, IN, United States: Indiana University Press.
Carleton, Stephen J. (2007). The narcissist. Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia: Playlab Press.
Carleton, Stephen (2006). Constance Drinkwater and the final days of Somerset. Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia: Playlab Press.
Book Chapters
Carleton, Stephen (2023). Observation. A to Z of creative writing methods. (pp. 120-122) edited by Deborah Wardle, Julienne van Loon, Stayci Taylor, Francesca Rendle-Short, Peta Murray and David Carlin. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic.
Hay, Chris and Carleton, Stephen (2022). Macabre children on the Australian stage: Angela Betzien’s cycle of crime plays. Theatre and the macabre. (pp. 95-112) edited by Meredith Conti and Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press.
Carleton, Stephen and Hay, Chris (2022). Australian biographical theater on the post-truth stage. Theater in a post-truth world: texts, politics, and performance. (pp. 135-154) edited by William C. Boles. London, United Kingdom: Methuen Drama / Bloomsbury Publishing. doi: 10.5040/9781350215887.ch-006
Carleton, Stephen (2013). Foreword. Bag O' Marbles by Kathryn Ash. (pp. 5-7) Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Playlab Press.
Carleton, Stephen (2013). Foreword. The Drovers by Louis Esson. (pp. 5-7) Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Playlab Press.
Carleton, Stephen (2013). Foreword. Men Without Wives by Henrietta Drake-Brockman. (pp. 5-8) Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Playlab Press.
Fotheringham, Richard and Carleton, Stephen (2013). "White Australia" in 1909: the background to the play and the two surviving scripts. White Australia or, the empty North. (pp. 6-16) edited by Richard Fotheringham. Brisbane, Australia: Playlab Press.
Carleton, Stephen (2013). Rethinking regional theatre. Catching Australian theatre in the 2000s. (pp. 151-170) edited by Richard Fotheringham and James Smith. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi.
Carleton, Stephen (2011). The gatecrasher. I Will Kiss You in Four Places. (pp. 11-32) Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Playlab Press.
Journal Articles
Carleton, Stephen (2024). Review of: Denise Varney, Patrick White's theatre: Australian modernism on stage, 1960-2018, (Sydney University Press, 2021). Australasian Drama Studies (84), 342-348.
Carleton, Stephen and Hay, Chris (2020). ‘Global Weirding’: Australian absurdist cli-fi plays. Performance Research, 25 (2), 79-86. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2020.1752580
Carleton, Stephen (2017). Contemporary Irish gothic drama: The return of the Hibernian repressed during the rise and fall of the Celtic tiger. Gothic Studies, 19 (1), 1-21. doi: 10.7227/GS.0016
Carleton, Stephen (2015). Australian Gothic Drama: Mapping a Nation’s Trauma from Convicts to the Stolen Generation.. Australasian Drama Studies, 66 (1), 11-39.
Carleton, Stephen (2012). Australian Gothic: theatre and the Northern turn. Australian Literary Studies, 27 (2), 51-67.
Carleton, Stephen (2009). Nick Enright: An Actor's Playwright. Theatre Research International, 34 (2), 216-217. doi: 10.1017/S0307883309004672
Carleton, Stephen (2008). Darwin as the frontier capital: theatrical depictions of city space in the north. Australasian Drama Studies, 52, 52-68.
Conference Papers
Carleton, Stephen (2023). Re-centring Darwin: Restoring the Regional Capital to the Literary Map. Recentring the Regions - Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Melbourne, VIC Australia, 4-7 July 2023.
Carleton, Stephen and Hay, Chris (2022). Contemporary Australian Playwriting - the Postcards Project. Travelling Together: the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies Conference 2022, Auckland, New Zealand, 6-9 December 2022.
Hay, Chris and Carleton, Stephen (2021). Absurdism in the Anthropocene. Comparative Drama Conference, Orlando, FL United States, 14-16 October 2021.
Carleton, Stephen (2018). Pepper’s Ghost Effect: Reading ‘Professor’ John Pepper’s Australian lecture tours (1880-1882) as prototypical ‘celebrity scientist’ performances. Australasian Drama Studies, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 26-29 June 2018.
Carleton, Stephen (2015). Gothic melodramatic migrations from the London stage to Australia in the 1860s-1880s. International Gothic Association 2015: Gothic Migrations, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 28 July-1 August 2015.
Carleton, Stephen (2013). Mapping the Antipodes: Gothic theatre mutations in Australia. Gothic Congress: Dark Latitudes, San Pedro, Costa Rica, 10-11 December 2013.
Data Collection
Stadler, Jane, Mitchell, Peta and Carleton, Stephen (2014). A cultural atlas of Australia: mediated spaces in film, literature, and theatre. The University of Queensland. (Collection) doi: 10.14264/uql.2016.839
Creative Works
Stephen Carleton (2022). Brutal utopias. West End, QLD, Australia: Metro Arts Theatre Brisbane.
Carleton, Stephen (2022). Brutal utopias (A fugue for the twenty first century). Brisbane, Australia: Playlab Theatre.
Carleton, Stephen (2021). New Babylon. Darwin, Australia: Brown's Mart Theatre.
Trenscényi, Katalin, Cochrane, Bernadette, Carleton, Stephen and Kelly, Kathryn (2019). New dramaturgy: a roundtable. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland.
Cochrane, Bernadette, Trenscényi, Katalin, Campbell, Alyson, Carleton, Stephen, Dorney, Marcel and Kelly, Kathryn (2019). New Dramaturgies. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland.
Carleton, Stephen (2018). The Turquoise Elephant. Darwin, Northern Territory: Browns Mart Theatre and Knock-em-Down Theatre.
Carleton, Stephen and Hodge, Paul (2017). Joh for PM. Brisbane, Australia and Cairns, Qld, Australia: Brisbane Powerhouse and JUTE Theatre Company.
Carleton, Stephen (Playwright) (2016). The turquoise elephant. Griffin Theatre, Darlinghurst, Sydney: Griffin Theatre Company.
Carleton, Stephen (Playwright) (2016). Bastard Territory. South Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Queensland Theatre.
Carleton, Stephen (2014). Hotel Beche de Mer. Surfers Paradise, QLD, Australia: The Arts Centre Gold Coast.
Carleton, Stephen (Playwright) (2014). Bastard territory. Darwin, NT, Australia; Cairns, QLD, Australia: Browns Mart Theatre, JUTE Theatre Company and Knock-em-Down Theatre.
Stadler, Jane, Mitchell, Peta and Carleton, Stephen (2011). Cultural atlas of Australia. St Lucia, QLD, Australia: The University of Queensland.
Carleton, Stephen (2008). 7 deadly Australian sins: Shock jock (lust). Cairns, QLD, Australia: JUTE Theatre; Knock-Em- Down Theatre; Darwin Theatre Company.
Carleton, Stephen (2008). The Narcissist. Sydney, Australia: Sydney Theatre Company.
Carleton, Stephen (2007). Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset. Darwin, Northern Territory and Cairns, Queensland: Darwin Festival, Darwin Theatre Company and JUTE Theatre Company.
Carleton, Stephen (2007). The Narcissist. Brisbane, Queensland: La Boite Theatre Company.
Carleton, Stephen (2006). Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset. Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland Theatre Company.
Ash, Kathryn, Carleton, Stephen, Evans, Gail and Harris, Anne (2004). Surviving Jonah Salt. Fortitude Valley, Australia: Playlab Press.
Theses
Carleton, Stephen (2008). Staging the north : finding, imagining and performing an Australian 'Deep North'.. PhD Thesis, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2018.604
Carleton, Stephen (2002). Mr Hare's Seraglio. Master's Thesis, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2020.315