2026 Festival

Speaker Profile

Jane Montgomery Griffiths

Jane Montgomery Griffiths has combined a career as an actor, playwright and academic. She has performed with companies including Bell Shakespeare, MTC, Malthouse and Belvoir, and had her writing produced by Malthouse, ABC Radio, Belvoir, and Victorian Opera. She was also the Judith E Wilson and Leventis Fellow in Greek Drama at Cambridge and Professor of Theatre Practice at Monash University. Awards include Best Actor (White Rose; Manchester Evening News; Greenroom Awards); Best New Opera (libretto) (Greenroom Awards); Best new work (RE Ross Award); as well as nominations and shortlisting for the Sydney Theatre and NSW and Victorian Premiers' Literary Awards.
Free Event

School Event: Shakespeare Unpacked: Act One

Thursday April 23
Ellen Grant Hall
10.00am / 60 mins

with Jane Montgomery Griffiths and Richard Piper

This session is for our Dromana and Rosebud Secondary School students

Learn More Buy Tickets
Free Event

School Event: Shakespeare Unpacked: Act Two

Thursday April 23
Ellen Grant Hall
11.30am / 60 mins

with Jane Montgomery Griffiths and Richard Piper

This session is for our Dromana and Rosebud Secondary School students.

Learn More Buy Tickets

Be Still My Heart: The engine of human expression, unpacked

Thursday April 23
Sorrento Bowls Club
3.00pm / 60 mins

Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Norman Swan, Clara Tuite and Steph Vizard with Fiona Gruber  

Going back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the heart has always inspired artists, writers, poets, musicians and thinkers. Our panel reflects of the curious allure  of this remarkable human organ.


Learn More Buy Tickets

Humanities Need A Hug: Critical thinking in an AI-dominated world

Friday April 24
Portsea Village
9.00am / 60 mins

Elizabeth Finkel, Jane Montgomery Griffiths and Sean Scalmer with Inala Cooper

Learn More Buy Tickets
Special Event

On Hope: Our artists discuss, reveal, recite and read

Saturday April 25
Halcyon Hall, The Continental
5.30pm / 90 mins

Evelyn Araluen, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Erik Jensen, Richard King, Thomas Mayo and Richard Piper with Jane Montgomery Griffiths

This session is supported by I-Nex

This is a Special Event

Learn More Buy Tickets

Me, Stripped Bare (ii): Why writers need to tell their story

Sunday April 26
Hotel Sorrento (Cooper Room)
1.30pm / 60 mins

Sarah Arachchi, Kate Halfpenny and Tara Moss with Jane Montgomery-Griffiths  

Three writers reflect upon the challenges, process and joys of writing about your own life and then sharing it via a book.


Learn More Buy Tickets

Return to Speakers and Moderators