
Winner of Queensland Theatre Company's Young Playwrights Award in 2001, Stuck, written by Mellor when she was fifteen, is a short play about Cecil, a washed up romance-novel writer who decides to revive his career by travelling to central Australia to bring an Aboriginal girl, Anna, to the city to write a story about her life.
Things don't go as planned when he and Anna arrive at his home. Anna feels pressured and suspicious of Cecil's motives and wants to leave, and his neglected, wheelchair-bound son has had enough too. Together, Anna and the son plan to become un-stuck.
The inspiration for Stuck came from the competition's picture stimulus - an Australian painting. As part of the competion win, the play was presented as a public reading with professional actors and director. Although Stuck is a very early work, the experience ignited a passion for playwriting in Mellor that has been impossible to deny ever since.