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Disabled characters are often written for screen before disabled actors are invited into the creative process. What changes if that invitation comes earlier?

This research event explores disability representation, screenwriting, and consultation through the development of Growing Pains, a comedy-drama feature screenplay written by Assemblage HDR member and Screen PhD candidate and filmmaker Lily Drummond. Developed across multiple drafts in consultation with AACTA Award-winning actor, writer, and advocate Hannah Diviney, Growing Pains follows two best friends in their final year of high school as they navigate friendship and differing ambitions.

Join us for a presentation from Lily about her PhD research and the development of Growing Pains, followed by a table read of selected scenes from the screenplay performed by Hannah Diviney and students and alumni of the Flinders University Drama Centre. Lily will then be joined by Hannah in conversation, to investigate how consultation shaped the work. They will analyse how story and character evolved through collaboration, and discuss aspects of access, agency and creative responsibility.

Lily Drummond is an Adelaide based screenwriter and director. Her films include ‘With Love, Lottie,’ ‘Hypothetically, the End,’ ‘The Bear Hunt,’ and ‘Illustrating Sam Newton,’ which have screened at festivals such as Sydney Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, SXSW Sydney, and St Kilda Film Festival. Lily’s film ‘With Love, Lottie’ won the 2025 Iris Prize Youth Jury Award, and two South Australian Screen Awards. Her work champions joyful, complex, authentic disabled and queer characters, and she pushes for deeper representation and inclusion in Australian film.

Hannah Diviney is a writer, disability advocate,  actress, screenwriter, speaker, author and media personality. Her disability advocacy has garnered global attention thanks to both a viral petition encouraging Disney to create a disabled Disney Princess and a successful campaign encouraging both Lizzo and Beyonce to change ableist lyrics. Her debut book, I’ll Let Myself In, a collection of personal essays chronicling what it means to come of age in a world not built for you, was released in 2023.