Auckland Pride alongside Auckland Theatre Company and Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust are excited to announce "Praise the Lord", a new year-long playwriting residency in memory of pioneering gay playwright, Robert Lord. The inaugural recipient of this residency is the multitalented Keagan Carr Fransch.

Over 2024 Keagan will develop her newest play, Dimensions in Black. This work will have a supported workshop and public play-reading as part of the Pride Elevates program, a 2-week writing residency at the Robert Lord Cottage in Dunedin, and a full development workshop supported by Auckland Theatre Company.

Designed by Auckland Pride Creative Director Nathan Joe, who is passionate about the development of playwriting in Aotearoa, he says "This playwriting residency allows one artist each year to thoughtfully develop a work. This residency is modelled after processes that I have found invaluable for my own playwriting journey. I am so excited to contribute this kaupapa to the ecosystem of Queer writing and performance in Aotearoa and look forward to growing this program even bigger in the future.”

Every year Pride, Auckland Theatre Company and the Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust will support a Queer writer to develop a new large-scale play.

Keagan Carr Fransch is an actor, director, writer and dramaturg. She is a graduate of the University of Waikato, Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She recently directed seven methods of killing kylie jenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones, for Silo Theatre (2022), and her plays Dimensions in Black and Mitochondrial Eve were shortlisted for the Adam NZ Play award (2023).

Robert Lord was the first professional playwright in Aotearoa. He spent time in New York in the 1970s and 1980s and is best known for his final play Joyful and Triumphant which premiered at Circa Theatre in 1992.