The Silver Gull Play Award 2022 Shortlist Announced

There was a wonderful response to The Silver Gull Play Award competition this year, with an extremely high standard of scripts submitted.

The judging panel read, assessed and discussed each submission multiple times. The identity of the writers was kept anonymous from the judges, so the shortlist truly reflects a determination made on merit, based solely on the quality of writing.

After a month of deliberation, a shortlist of four has been selected. The shortlisted plays have all responded with imagination, intelligence and insight to the brief for plays that speak to New Theatre's ethos of 'Plays With a Purpose', engaging with contemporary society and the challenges that we face, and demonstrating the strength and diversity of playwriting in this country.

The shortlist for The Silver Gull Play Award 2022 is:

Inside Out by Christopher Bryant
Fighting by Xavier Coy
God in Space by Jeanette Cronin
Miriam by James Elazzi

The judging panel for this year's award is:
Louise Fischer (Artistic Director, New Theatre), Helen Tonkin (Artistic Associate, New Theatre), Joy Minter (independent producer, and sponsor of the award), New Theatre's Play Assessors panel (John Keightley, Annie Bilton, Sahn Millington, Michael Briggs, Patrick Howard, Doug Cairns, Susan Jordan), Victor Kalka (freelance director and designer), and Tiffany Wong (freelance actor, director, producer).

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers, who will share in a total prize pool of $7000 courtesy of sponsor The Buzz From Sydney. There will be rehearsed readings of excerpts from the four plays at the awards night on Monday 10 October , when the winner will be announced.