Samuel Lucas Allen

Samuel Lucas Allen has been involved in theatre and film since before he was born, appearing in Sidetrack Theatre and SBS-TV productions while still in utero. A founding member and resident director of Tough Kids Productions, Sam was nominated for the Best Director at Sanford International Film Festival for his film 'Only The Beautiful' and nominated for a Robin Anderson Film Award for his film 'School Night'. He has directed over 25 productions for stage and screen, including 'The Teaching of Darkness' at Chester St Theatre, 'The Viagra Monologues' at the Blood Moon theatre, and 'Blood Wedding' at the LendLease Theatre. In 2018 he attended NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney) to complete a Masters in Directing, before that he undertook a double degree in Media Arts and Production/Creative Intelligence and Innovation at University of Technology, Sydney. At NIDA, Sam directed 'Fool for Love' by Sam Shepard with the Actors Centre Australia; devised 'SEX DEATH AND THE INTERNET' with the Queensland University of Technology; created and co-directed 'The Invisible Bird', a new opera for Sydney Chamber Opera'; directed and adapted 'Wake in Fright' for his NIDA graduation show; and wrote and directed 'Plastic', a music video for MICRA, which has just been accepted into music video festivals nationally and internationally as well as being nominated for Best Music Video and Best Experimental Film at the ATOM Awards, and Best Editing of a Music video at the ASE awards. In 2020, Sam was commissioned to return to NIDA to write and direct a new production of 'Dracula'. Sam is in distribution for his film 'After Saturn', a devised family drama, post-production on 'Now, Then, After', an anthology film about climate disaster, and pre-production for 'Cut', a coming of age drama about, Jewishness, Queerness and Violence. Sam aims to continue making work in theatre and film with a particular focus on devised film work and the development of new and established theatre work.