Sam Steiner Awarded Paines Plough Playwright Fellowship 2016

Today, Paines Plough announce that the second Paines Plough Playwright Fellowship is awarded to Sam Steiner and that the recipient of the new Paines Plough and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Trainee Director bursary is Anna Himali Howard.

Sam Steiner's debut play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons won three awards at the National Student Drama Festival prior to an acclaimed, sold out run at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015. Lemons will return to Edinburgh as part of Paines Plough's Roundabout programme 2016 and Sam will join the company on attachment until March 2017.

Anna Himali Howard will join Paines Plough for six months having graduated from Birmingham Rep's Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme Introduction to Directing programme as part of REP Foundry. Supported by an anonymous playwright, Paines Plough and Birmingham Rep have joined forces to support an outstanding director at the start of their career.

Paines Plough Artistic Directors James Grieve and George Perrin said: "From the hundreds of new plays we've seen and read in the past year, Lemons stood out for us as the work of a singular talent. We are thrilled to welcome Sam to Paines Plough as the recipient of our Playwright Fellowship 2016. With the generous support of Jon and NoraLee Sedmak and a Paines Plough alumnus playwright, we look forward to supporting Sam in the next stage of what promises to be a great career.

"Anna Himali Howard is a real talent with a brilliant and imaginative theatre brain. We are hugely excited to welcome her to our team. We were both fortunate to receive training opportunities that made our careers possible - not least from Birmingham Reportory Theatre's Artistic Director Roxana Silbert - and we are delighted to now be in a position to offer some support to the next generation of theatre directors and the artistic directors of the future.

That these traineeships are supported by Paines Plough alumni playwrights demonstrates just how important training directors working with new writing are to the playwright fraternity."

Sam Steiner said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be this year's recipient of Paines Plough's Playwright Fellowship. I am incredibly grateful to the fellowship donors and everyone at PP for this opportunity and am thoroughly looking forward to working alongside such a great group of talented and enthusiastic theatre-makers. I hope to use the opportunity to really push myself, my writing and my understanding of theatre in new directions."

Anna Himali Howard said: "I'm delighted to be joining Paines Plough as their Trainee Director. It's a company with a rich and reputable history, and I can't wait to get started working on this season of new plays at Roundabout. It's an exciting opportunity for me to learn through assisting, seeing lots of new work and being part of a great company as it develops and tours new plays around the country."

Programme 2016 from Paines Plough includes Sabrina Mahfouz's play-come gig With A Little Bit Of Luck¸Come To Where I'm From which will debut in London in July 2016, ROUNDABOUT, the return of Duncan Macmillan's Every Brilliant Thing and the premiere of Tom Wells' coming-of-age comedy Broken Biscuits.

ENDS

For further information about Paines Plough please contact

Sara Sherwood at The Corner Shop PR: sara@thecornershoppr.com / 0207 831 7657

For further information on Paines Plough's Roundabout Edinburgh season please contact
Susie Gray or Clare McCormack at The Corner Shop PR:
susie@thecornershoppr.com / clare@thecornershoppr.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

ABOUT PAINES PLOUGH

Paines Plough is the UK's national theatre of new plays. The company commissions and produces the best playwrights and tours their plays far and wide. Whether you're in Liverpool or Lyme Regis, Scarborough or Southampton, a Paines Plough show is coming to a theatre near you soon.

Paines Plough was formed in 1974 over a pint of Paines bitter in the Plough pub. Since then they've produced more than 130 new productions by world renowned playwrights like Stephen Jeffreys, Abi Morgan, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, Dennis Kelly and Mike Bartlett.

The Programme in 2015 saw 12 productions by the nation's finest writers touring to 84 places from Cornwall to the Orkney Islands; in village halls and Off-Broadway, at music festivals and student unions, online and on radio, and in their own pop-up theatre Roundabout.