Photo Credit: Heidrun Lohr Courtesy Belvoir
Rita Kalnejais is a Victorian College of Arts graduate who has worked extensively as an actor at Belvoir, Griffin, Malthouse and Sydney Theatre Companies.
Her first play, B.C. was directed by Simon Stone and was nominated for Best New Australian Play in the 2009 Greenroom Awards. Her short plays, Whistling in Bed and How To Get Very Clean were performed at Sydney Theatre Company in 2011. Whistling was later presented by Caryl Churchill at Theatre 503, London. In 2012 Rita’s play Babyteeth premiered at Belvoir St Theatre and was subsequently produced by the State Theatre Company of South Australia in 2013. She was resident playwright at Sydney Theatre Company in 2011 and at Soho Theatre, London in 2014/2015 where First Love is the Revolution enjoyed a popular season. It has since been produced by Steep Theatre, Chicago; Apollinaire Theatre, Boston and had a critically acclaimed and award nominated season at Griffin Theatre in Sydney in December 2019. This Beautiful Future had two sellout seasons at the Yard Theatre in 2017. It was listed in the top ten critics’ choices for 2017 in The Guardian, UK.
In film, Rita wrote Surge for director Aneil Karia, produced in 2019 by Rooks Nest and BBC Film. Surge was at the top of the Britlist in 2018 and screened at Sundance, 2020. The film stars Ben Wishaw.
Rita wrote the screenplay adaptation of her play Babyteeth for producer Alex White (Whitefalk Films) with Jan Chapman as EP. The film stars Eliza Scanlen, Essie Davis, Toby Wallace and Ben Mendelsohn. In 2019 it screened at festivals in Venice (IFF), London (BFI), Zurich, Hamburg, Istanbul, China (Pingyao), France, Warsaw, Chicago, Mumbai and Sao Paulo. She is currently living in London with her gorgeous kid and dog writing films for Searchlight, Netflix, Ray, House, Anonymous and Blueprint.
