Applications for STC 2015 Patrick White Playwright's Award & Fellowship Now Being Accepted

Sydney Theatre Company is inviting applications from Australia's talented playwrights for the 2015 Patrick White Playwrights' Award and Patrick White Playwrights' Fellowship. The prizes are designed to benefit both emerging and established writers and have a total prize pool of $32,500.

The Patrick White Playwrights' Award offers a cash prize of $7,500 for a full-length unproduced play of any genre written by an Australian playwright over 18 years of age. The readers and judges assessing the scripts seek a work that is original and ambitious with great potential for staging.

The Patrick White Playwrights' Fellowship is a career advancement opportunity for an established Australian playwright whose work has been produced professionally in Australia within the last four years. The winning playwright receives a $12,500 prize in recognition of their body of work and previous artistic achievements, as well as a commission from Sydney Theatre Company.

In 2010 STC increased its contribution to the development of Australian playwriting with the introduction of the new Fellowship which recognises and supports established Australian playwrights. The Fellowship runs in addition to the Patrick White Playwrights' Award, which has been an annual initiative of the STC since 2000. The current Patrick White Playwrights' Fellow is Kate Mulvany and previous winners were Angela Betzien (2013) Hilary Bell (2012) Patricia Cornelius (2011) and Raimondo Cortese (2010). As well as completing a commission for STC, the Fellowship involves participation in a range of activities at STC including hosting playwriting groups and master classes.

Previous winners of the Patrick White Playwrights' Award include Debra Thomas (2014) Chris Summers (2013), Anna Barnes (2012), Phillip Kavanagh (2011), Melissa Bubnic (2010), Ian Wilding (2009), Nicki Bloom (2008) and Angus Cerini (2007).

The closing date for entries to both the Award and the Fellowship is Friday 6 November. Winners will be announced at a special event as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival 2016 along with a reading of the Patrick White Playwrights' Award winning play.

Further information about the Award and the Fellowship can be found at the STC website: www.sydneytheatre.com.au/patrickwhite=