Australian Theatre Festival NYC Announces 2021 New Play Award Winner

Co-Artistic Directors Mark Barford, Connor Delves & Jillian Geurts announce Lewis Treston as the winner of the 2021 New Play Award for "Hubris & Humiliation". Yvette Walker is announced as runner-up for "Seven Deadly Gins".

The winning playwright receives $5,000 USD and two additional finalists receive $2,500 USD each. The winning play will be developed with ATF Co-Artistic Director Mark Barford and presented in New York City as part of The Australian Theatre Festival NYC in 2021.

Now in its second year, the Australian Theatre Festival NYC 2021 New Play Award celebrates three new plays with distinct Australian voices that speak to the here and now.

The New Play Award Winner, Runner-Up and Finalist were unanimously selected by a panel of industry experts, including Co-Artistic Directors Mark Barford, Connor Delves and Jillian Geurts.

HUBRIS & HUMILIATION by Lewis Treston

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that when a single mother loses her home to a predatory cat fish, she must send her only gay son to Sydney to marry rich. In this campy Jane Austen inspired odyssey, mediocre homosexual Elliott Delaney discovers that falling in love demands equal parts hubris and humiliation.

"Love is the cause and solution to all our problems."

Lewis Treston is an award-winning playwright and researcher from Brisbane. Plays include: IRL, Hubris & Humiliation, Meat Eaters, Hot Tub, Follow Me Home and Reagan Kelly. He is a graduate from QUT, NIDA, UQ and recently completed a thesis concerning camp humour in new Australian playwriting.

SEVEN DEADLY GINS by Yvette Walker

A trip back home to Cloncurry summons all of Magenta's childhood demons to congregate in one place where she is forced to confront what has been buried for so long. It's time for her to move forward. But her past has different ideas... Is she strong enough to handle the truth?

"We walked through the belly of the storm, you clutching your basket to your side, one step in front of another step in front of another step. Through the intestines, step, step, step and out through its bowls."

Yvette Walker, a descendent of the Waanyi people of the Gulf of Carpentaria, with Scottish, Indonesian and Chinese heritage, was born in Cloncurry. Yvette's career spans eighteen years in roles such as producer, programmer, advocate and artist manager as well as being an artist in acting, writing and poetry.

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