About

Otherwise known as the “Abomination About Town”, Seán Dowling is a transgender Playwright, Actor and Editorialist based in Meanjin (Brisbane). Interweaving the traditions of the Seanchaí (pronounced "shan-a-kee"), the ancient Irish clan storyteller, with modern “Obnoxious Online Opinion-Haver”, her work exists at the crossroads of sex, gender, politics, and pop-culture. 

Seán is the recipient of the 2025 Varuna Trans and Gender Diverse Fellowship for her upcoming Novel, Unexploded Ordinance, and Playwright-in-Residence at Playlab Theatre since 2021. 

At Playlab Seán’s first theatrical work was Quarehawk, a reinvention of the Irish fable of the Selkie seal-wives as a queer coming of age tale. After debuting in Playlab’s 2023 production Unconditional (co-written with Cameron Hurry) as both writer and actor, she was again commissioned to co-write another theatrical work for the company. Slated for a 2026 performance, will be paired with theatrical luminary Merlynn Tong in Wild Abandon, a play exploring queer-discovery, sex, and non-standard relationships.

Trained as a theatre maker and graphic designer Seán has been attached to almost all of the major arts organisations in Brisbane assisting with the marketing of their work. Her clients range from large scale organisations such as Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, Museum of Brisbane, and Queensland Symphony Orchestra to supporting the medium and emerging theatre companies such as Playlab, La Boite, Dead Puppet Society, The Good Room, Counterpilot and The Danger Ensemble. 

Merging her background as a Theatre Maker, Graphic Designer and Illustrator who specialises arts organisations, Sean was a key creative in the development of Counterpilot’s transmedia projects Spectate, Crunch Time and Truthmachine. She served as Assistant Director, Graphical User Interface Designer and Polygraph Guinea Pig, respectively.