Winner of 2016 Lysicrates Prize Announced

Today, Friday 29 January, Mary Rachel Brown was awarded the second annual Lysicrates Prize for new Australian Playwriting, receiving a full $12,500 Griffin Theatre Company commission, as voted by the audience, at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The Lysicrates Prize for playwriting is produced by Griffin Theatre Company and the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney and supported by the Lysicrates Foundation created by John and Patricia Azarias, with two aims: to provide encouragement to Australia's playwriting talent, and to help restore the beautiful Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in the Royal Botanical Garden, Sydney.

Mary Rachel Brown was amongst three finalists who were shortlisted to submit the first act of a new play. The two runners-up Campion Decent and Elise Hearst each received a $1,000 cash prize. This innovative new Australian playwriting competition was inspired by the imminent restoration of an historic monument in Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden: The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates.

The three shortlisted plays were:

Mary Rachel Brown's Approximate Balance, about the Lightfoot family who struggle to cope with their son's alcoholism. A young Filipino woman offers them a unique perspective on how to heal. Sometimes we find family where we least expect it.
Director: Mitchell Butel

Cast: Linda Cropper, John Gaden, Richard Sydenham, Lena Cruz

Campion Decent's Saint Theo, when struck by lightning, stonemason and amateur thespian Theodore embarks on a Gilbert and Sullivan inspired philosophical quest with a mysterious young revenant and a woman in a pirate hat.

Director: Helen Dallimore

Cast: Simon Burke, Rowan Witt, Paula Arundell, Tamlyn Henderson

And Elise Hearst's The Good Wolf, Naomi is a good Jewish girl trying not to be bad. The Good Wolf is her story about family, legacy, and finding love

Director: Ben Winspear

Cast: Michelle Lim, Deborah Kennedy, Natalie Gamsu, Hamish Michael

Mary Rachel Brown was a member of the 2014 Griffin Studio. Her play The Dapto Chaser was presented in Griffin's 2015 Independent season and is opening Hothouse Theatre's 2016 season. Mary recently had her new play Silent Night developed at PWA'S 2015 National Script Workshop.

She is the recipient of the 2006 Griffin Award, the 2007 Max Afford Award, and the 2008 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award. Her play Last Letters is currently on at The Australian War Memorial. Mary's work has been given showcased public readings by the National Playwriting Festival (Australia) and the English Speaking Theatre (Berlin). In 2009 Mary's play Permission To Spin was selected from an international field for the hotINK play festival in New York. She says: "Philanthropists in the arts are trailblazers in my books. With this in mind, I would like to thank the Lysicrates Foundation for their generosity, with particularly thanks to John and Patricia Azarias for their initiative in supporting new Australian plays. I commend them on their investment in one of our most valuable commodities, our stories. I would also like to thank Griffin for facilitating the creative process attached to this prize. Writing can be a lonely process, today I gained some journeymen and women who are supporting my work in the form of a commission. As a female recipient of this prize, I would like to give a nod to WITS - Women in theatre and screen, a movement dedicated to addressing the under-representation of diversity on our stages and screens."

Lee Lewis, Artistic Director, Griffin Theatre Company says: "At this stage in the competition, all three plays were of an exceptional standard. It was fantastic to see audiences captivated by such different examples of contemporary Australian writing. I felt that the prize could have gone to any of the finalists and I hope that all the plays have a future on an Australian stage.

Mary's work has appeared on the SBW Stables Stage recently as part of Griffin Independent with her play the The Dapto Chaser so it's a special pleasure to be able to award them a full commission to finish Approximate Balance. Like our audience this evening, I can't wait to see more of this beautiful play."

Founding Partners, Patricia and John Azarius say: "This challenging work is not only timely, but is also crafted with subtlety and compassion. We loved the way it delves into difficult family dynamics without losing its sense of humour. There are insight and artistry and forgiveness in this script. We are not surprised that it has emerged as the audience's favourite."

In 2015, the inaugural Lysicrates Prize winner was Steve Rodgers' Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. The audience response to The Literati, one of the other short-listed plays, was so enthusiastic that it has been programmed as a co-production between Bell Shakespeare and Griffin in 2016.

The play competition and the restoration are also an outstanding example of public institution and private sector collaboration. The initial funding was provided by a group of philanthropists and the NSW Government made a matching contribution.

The event was attended by Federal Minister for Communications and the Arts Mitch Fifield, Minister for the Environment Mark Speakman, Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy Anthony Roberts and the Governor of New South Wales David Hurley. Federal Minister for Communications and the Arts Mitch Fifield awarded the prize to Mary Rachel Brown in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney.