| Elspeth Tilley | |
| Birth Name: | Elspeth Nina Tilley |
| Workplaces: | Massey University |
| Alma Mater: | University of Queensland |
Elspeth Nina Tilley is an Australian playwright, actor and academic and is a full professor at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Tilley earned a BA(Hons) in 1996 at the University of Queensland with a thesis called More than one and solo: subjectivity in contemporary Australian and Canadian monodrama, which she followed with a PhD in drama and literature in 2007.[1] Her doctoral thesis, also at Queensland, was titled White vanishing: a settler Australian hegemonic textual strategy, 1789-2006.[2] [3] After this Tilley moved to Massey University, where she was promoted to full professor in 2023.[4]
Tilley's research covers theatre, performance, literature, media and public communication, examining ethics and social justice.[5] She has published four books, including White Vanishing and Creative Activism: Research, Pedagogy and Practice.
Tilley's plays have been published in Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK, produced around the world. Her plays have featured in a variety of festivals including the British Theatre Challenge, Short + Sweet, Pint Sized Plays NZ, Climate Change Theatre Action, Stage-It 2 and have been translated into French, Italian, and Belizean Creole.
Tilley has won the British Theatre Challenge three times, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.[6] Tilley was an official playwright for Climate Change Theatre Action in 2015, 2017, and 2019. She has also been awarded the Playwrights’ Association of New Zealand Outstanding Achievement Award (2018),[7] three teaching excellence awards, a Peking University Research Fellowship and a Prime Minister’s Group Scholarship to Latin America.