#5 - Thomas De Angelis on Theatre, Playwriting and the Creative Process

The Jonny Boyle Show

Thomas De Angelis is a playwright, whose recent work for the stage includes “Carry Me”, “Unfinished Works”, “The Worst Kept Secrets”, and “Jack killed Jack”. Thomas is the artistic director of Bontom, a theatre company that produces original Australian work for the stage. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Law, he attended NIDA in 2015 to study a Master Of Fine Arts (Writing For Performance). In 2017, Thomas was awarded the ATYP Rebel Wilson Scholarship, and developed “Come On! The Lleyton Hewitt Musical” as part of his residency. He is the co-creator and dramaturg for an original site-specific opera, “Chamber Pot Opera”, which toured to the Adelaide Fringe Festival (2017), and then internationally to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2017). In 2018, Chamber Pot Opera toured to St Petersburg, Russia as part of The International Summer Festival Of The Arts. In 2019, Chamber Pot Opera completed its last ever production in the Playhouse Ladies Bathroom at The Sydney Opera House. Since 2018, Thomas has lectured in Australian Film and Theatre at The University of Sydney. Tom has written and independently produced his own plays, including Jack Killed Jack, which was performed as part of the 2012 Sydney Fringe Festival, and The Worst Kept Secrets, which played at the Seymour Centre’s Reginald Theatre in 2014.

In our conversation, Tom and I discuss the value of theatre in today’s society, how he embraced this creative art form from a young age, and how he continues to grow as a writer notwithstanding the ever-increasing challenges facing the industry. We talk about the threat to live productions presented by on-screen competitors such as Netflix, not to the mention the impact of the COVID pandemic. Importantly, we also discuss potential solutions to keeping theatre alive in today’s society. Tom then unpacks his creative writing process and the strategies that he adopts to generate creative ideas and sustain a flow state throughout his writing.