Winners of Richard Burton Award for Playwriting Announced

Two recipients have been selected from the shortlist of six entries to receive the Richard Burton Award for Playwriting, created by Sally Burton in association with BLACK SWAN State Theatre Company. These two writers have been awarded commissions worth $15,000 each. With a prize pool of $30,000, the Richard Burton Award for Playwriting is one of the richest in Australia.

The recipients of the Richard Burton Award for Playwriting are:

Ingle Knight (Western Australia) – Best New Play Equity Guild Awards 2003 and 2008, ‘Best of the Best’ Toronto Fringe 2008.

Tommy Murphy (New South Wales) – WA Premier's Award for Best Play, NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Best Play 2007, AWGIE Award for Best Play 2007, Aussietheatre.com online award for Best New Play.

Writers were shortlisted based on the strength of their submitted plays, then the six shortlisted writers were asked to submit a treatment for a proposed new work. Ingle Knight and Tommy Murphy were selected to receive this Award based on the strength of their treatments.

BLACK SWAN will negotiate a commission agreement and a schedule for completion for the new plays with Knight and Murphy. They will each be awarded $15,000 for a successfully completed commission. BLACK SWAN will have the first exclusive right to produce the play.

The other shortlisted writers were: Mary Rachel Brown (New South Wales), Melissa Bubnic (Victoria), Tom Holloway (Victoria) and David Milroy (Western Australia).

The judging panel was chaired by Sally Burton and included BLACK SWAN’s Artistic Director Kate Cherry, Stephen Bevis (Arts Editor, The West Australian), Terri-ann White (Director, UWA Publishing) and Barbara Connell (Chair, Australian Writers Guild, WA).

Sally Burton said, “I am delighted by the calibre of submitted works to this year’s Richard Burton Award. The two chosen recipients provided exciting and inspiring works that caught our attention and our hearts.”

Kate Cherry, BLACK SWAN’s Artistic Director said, “A Western Australian currently living in Northern Territory, Ingle Knight’s work is quite ambitious and stimulating, something the panel feels will resonate with audiences. New South Wales’ Tommy Murphy submitted a thought provoking work that has very timely themes, written in a most assured hand. I am excited to see what comes of the commissions.”

Now in its third year, the Richard Burton Award for Playwriting was established to celebrate the career of Richard Burton, one of the great actors of stage and screen, and to encourage great storytellers from all over Australia to develop new work.

More information about the Richard Burton Award for Playwriting can be found at www.bsstc.com.au.

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