Born in Melbourne in 1960, Sam Sejavka is a writer and actor, whose plays include Planetarium; Restoring the Picture of Dorian Grey; Advice from a Caterpillar; The Hive,[ winner of the Victorian Premier's Louis Esson Prize for Drama in 1990]; In Angel Gear, [winner of the Victorian Green Room's Best Production award]; and Mammothrept, produced while he was playwright-in-residence at La Mama Theatre, Melbourne. In the mid-nineties his play All Flesh is Glass, [produced 95] took him to New York as part of an exchange programme organised by New Dramatists and the Australian National Playwright's Centre. He has spent much of his working life singing and composing music, rising to some prominence during the mid-eighties in the band Beargarden..
For information on his acting efforts click here
During the 80's a film Dogs In Space controversially used episodes from his life as its basis. Sejavka has also published many short prose works. His screenplay for the hour-length film Earthbound was the first film script to be shortlisted for the Louis Esson Drama prize. From time to time, he works as a theatrical director
His play, Mysterium, commissioned by Kickhouse theatre, won the 1999 Wal Cherry Award. In mid 2000, he played Oscar Wilde in Barry Dickens' 'Believe me Oscar Wilde' at La Mama.
His most recent productions are The Lord of Misrule and Sruti Smriti.
Recently, he adapted Jacob Rosenberg's long form poem Shylock for the stage. This work centres around a production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice set in a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland. Currently, he is working on two new plays: Ambergris - set on an island off the coast of Queensland, dealing with beauty and greed, and As Above So Below - a play about the occult practices of the poet W B Yeats. He is also spending time fathering a a fresh human called Polly, and accumulating 19C horror and fantasy novels
