Siobhán Doran-Chaston trained as an actor, being awarded a scholarship to London’s Academy Drama School. Upon graduating, she played Jodie in Ben Elton’s BBC sitcom Blessed and appeared in various UK tours.

After returning to Australia and starting a family, Siobhán worked as a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald and founded their online theatre review platform, The Green Room. Siobhán later worked in state government as a media advisor – before founding Thread Publishing, a brand storytelling agency for ASX 100 clients. Upon moving to the Illawarra, Siobhán co-founded The Playhouse Drama School with her husband, running sold-out classes that championed children’s creativity through the power of play.

Two Weeks was first drafted over twenty years ago, loosely based on her and her now husband, and inspired by her work as an usher at Riverside Studios in London. It was here that she became hooked on Theatre Complicite’s approach to storytelling, which she continues to be inspired by. Most recently, Two Weeks was developed through the 2023 SCWC & Merrigong Playwrights Program and MERRIGONGX 2024–2025.

Siobhán lives in Wollongong with her family — and with a collection of chronic health issues that also insist on living with her — all of which quietly shape her work. She is proudly neurodiverse, fast-talking, and chronically late (but working on it).

“I’m drawn to the most ordinary moments in life, and my work playfully pokes at these mundane places – where universal truths, connection, and belonging lie. That’s the sweet spot for me: gentle and irreverent comedy, mixed with compassion.

Death and grief consistently surface in my work. In some way, exploring these themes brings me closer to trying to understand the impossible. Time becomes a natural thematic companion, and spirituality also surfaces, not as a certainty but as a curiosity.

Ultimately, I want my work to say: I see you, and I see me in you. Life can be weird and wondrous — but also pretty boring sometimes. It is inside this contrast – between the profound and the mundane — that my stories live.”