Finborough Wins Pearson Award Bursary & Announces New Playwrights-in-Residence

NEW LITERARY TEAM
Following the appointment of our former Literary Associate Titas Halder as Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse, the Finborough Theatre has appointed a new team to manage its acclaimed Literary Department, working closely with Artistic Director Neil McPherson. The new team are Literary Manager Van Badham, Literary Assistant Daniel Burgess and Senior Reader Laura Jessop. The first fruits of their work will appear in Vibrant 2010 - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights , celebrating the 30th year of the Finborough Theatre with 30 new plays by 30 UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre including world premieres of brand new work from some of the hundreds of playwrights who began their careers with us.

Despite remaining completely unfunded, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record of discovering new playwrights who go on to become leading voices in British theatre. Under Artistic Director Neil McPherson, it has discovered some of the UK's most exciting new playwrights including Laura Wade, James Graham, Mike Bartlett, Sarah Grochala, Jack Thorne, Joy Wilkinson, Simon Vinnicombe, Geoff Thompson, Alexandra Wood, Al Smith, Nicholas de Jongh and Anders Lustgarten. It is the only theatre without public funding to be awarded the prestigious Pearson Playwriting Award bursary (2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) as well as twice winning Pearson's Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play written by a bursary holder.

The Finborough Theatre Literary Department was founded in 2005 and was originally run by Alexandra Wood who went on to write The Eleventh Capital at The Royal Court Theatre which won her the 2007 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.

Neil McPherson, Artistic Director, says:
"We are very sorry to lose our former Literary Associate Titas Halder, but are also very happy indeed that other theatres and organisations such as the Donmar Warehouse and the Bush (with the huge success of James Graham's The Whisky Taster) are recognising the talent that we have discovered and nurtured. We are sure that he will be a valuable addition to their team, and will be returning to the Finborough in the future.

And we are very happy indeed to welcome such a vibrant new team to work in our Literary Department, and to take the opportunity to remind everyone of the work that they do - as so much of their work happens behind the scenes. The Finborough Theatre's mission remains to devote its time and energy to developing full-length plays from writers with exciting and original talent. We concentrate on giving new writers (of any age) what they need: experience and encouragement - without gimmicks."

Literary Manager Van Badham is the award-winning writer of more than forty internationally-produced plays for stage, musical theatre and radio, and has just signed a three-book deal as a first-time novelist with Pan Macmillan Australia. Her play The Gabriels received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre in January 2006, and subsequently became the first play by an Australian writer to be selected for New York City's annual Summer Play Festival. She has had plays and musical theatre staged at seven Edinburgh Festivals, two Adelaide Festivals, in London at venues including The Royal Court Theatre, the Bush Theatre (for Paines Plough) and LAMDA (where she was Writer-in-Residence), on UK tour, and across her native Australia at venues including the Sydney Opera House and Victorian Arts Centre, and in the US, Iceland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. Her radio commissions have been for the BBC World Service, Radio 4 and Radio 3. Her first screenplay, We Come Home , received a 2007 development grant from the Australian Writers' Guild. Her many awards include the Queensland Premier's Award for Drama, Best Playwright Award from Fringe Report, the Australian Theatre for Young People's 'Write Now!' Award, the Jameson Award for Screenwriting and the first Short+Sweet International Festival of Short Plays Awards for both Best Comedy and Best Play. She is currently under commission to the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, after recently completing commissions for Merrigong in Australia and Bern Stadttheater, Switzerland.

Literary Assistant Daniel Burgess has just completed his post as Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre where he has assisted on Molière, Too True to be Good and Vibrant! A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2009), and A Day at the Racists (2010). Daniel trained at Middlesex University. His other Directing includes Christie in Love (Edinburgh Festival), Coming and Going (Poole Lighthouse), Two, Marat/Sade and The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? (Middlesex University).

Senior Reader Laura Jessop recently graduated from an MA in Theatre and Playwriting at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has spent the past two years working at the National Theatre Literary Department.

TWO NEW PLAYWRIGHTS-IN-RESIDENCE
THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE WINS THE PEARSON AWARD BURSARY FOR THE SIXTH TIME
The Finborough Theatre also has two new Playwrights-in-Residence, appointed by Artistic Director Neil McPherson - multi-award-winning American playwright, Bekah Brunstetter who made her UK debut at the Finborough Theatre last year, and Simon Vinnicombe who has also just won the Pearson Award Bursary for the Finborough Theatre.

Bekah Brunstetter is a Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre where she received her UK debut in March 2009 with Oohrah! (2009) which went on to receive its US premiere at the Atlantic Theater, New York City. Her work was also represented in Vibrant! - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights with Green (2009) and her most recent play You May Go Now - A Marriage Play is playing at the Finborough Theatre throughout March. Bekah is Resident Playwright of Ars Nova, New York, and a member of the Women's Project Writers Lab. She is the winner of the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Original Full-Length Play and twice winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival. Her work has received acclaim across the United States and has been produced at Boston Theatre Works, the Ohio Theatre, The ALLIANCE THEATRE and many others. She is a member of At Play Productions of the Old Vic / New Voices. Her other plays include To Nineveh (New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best New Full Length Play 2006), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Lark Playwright's week, 2009; Aurora Stage / GAP Project), f-ing Art (Winner, Samuel French Short Play Festival 2008) and Avocado (King's Head Theatre). She is currently working on commissions for Ars Nova, The Roundabout Underground, and Naked Angels.

Simon Vinnicombe is Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. His first two plays - Year 10 (2005) and Cradle Me (2008) - both received their world premieres at the Finborough Theatre. Year 10 was named Time Out Critics' Choice and subsequently transferred to the BAC and the Festival Premières second edition - a festival organised by the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and Le Maillon, and as part of the Brittany InterNational Theatre Festival in 2006. Wisdom was part of a reading series at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City last year and received its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre as part of Vibrant! A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (2009). His other work has been produced at the Bush Theatre, Union Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Old Vic Theatre and on BBC Radio 4. He is currently on the BBC Continuing Drama Writers Academy.

This is the sixth time that the Finborough Theatre has won this prestigious new writing award and - as on the previous five occasions - the Finborough Theatre is again the only unfunded organisation to win a Pearson bursary, alongside such companies as the Lyric, Hammersmith, Bush Theatre, the National Theatre, Paines Plough and The Royal Court Theatre.

The Pearson Playwrights' Scheme awards five bursaries a year to writers of outstanding promise. Each award allows the playwright a twelve-month attachment to a theatre and commissions the writers for a new play. Judges of the Pearson Award include Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Catherine Johnson (previous bursary winner and writer of Mamma Mia), Sue Summers, Thelma Holt CBE, Michael Billington, John Tydeman OBE and Jack Andrews MBE. Previous recipients of the Pearson bursary over the last thirty years include Mike Bartlett, Richard Bean, Alan Bleasdale, Gregory Burke, David Edgar, David Eldridge, Lee Hall, Jacqueline Holborough, Catherine Johnson, Charlotte Jones, Fin Kennedy, Hanif Kureshi, Nick Leather, Martin McDonagh, Gary Mitchell, Chloe Moss, Gary Owen, Joe Penhall, Winsome Pinnock, Billy Roche, Simon Stephens, Sue Townsend and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Previous winners for the Finborough Theatre include Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005 (who also won the award for the Best Play written that year by a bursary winner), James Graham in 2006 (who also won the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play written that year by a bursary winner), Al Smith in 2007 and Anders Lustgarten in 2009 (whose A Day at the Racists will be presented at the Finborough Theatre in March 2010).

 

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